In my perfect world, having the kids over for a meal and a visit is just the way I want to spend father's day. Heck, I will even cook a good part of the meal and laugh at my own jokes and stories. When the kids arrived yesterday, they gave me two packages. One package was three bags full of assorted Del Taco Sauces. The other gift was a Del Taco hat. I guess I have shared with them many stories about my love of Del Taco's when I was stationed in California. One of my favorite stories that my Father-in-law likes to tell is about the time we went to Del taco on Taco Tuesday and bought a big bag of tacos. He laughs that I said, "Lets go home and get sick." I could (and did) eat my weight in tacos. I am pretty sure that my Brother-in-law's love of Del Taco helped them develop the Macho Burrito. There was one woman in the Kitchen at the Barstow store that would make him a Macho Burrito that was huge.
In addition to some great steaks we also had some chicken. As usual, there are leftovers and the kids will come back for dinner on Wednesday and we'll have fajitas. If you think they are good with meat cooked on the stove, you should have them made of the hickory smoked meats I cook on the grill. Did I mention that the Vidalia onions are in season and available right now. They are so sweet and when cooked with butter make a condiment for the fajitas that is just the best. In the past I would home make guacamole but I am the person that likes it the best so I will probably buy the prepared stuff. Wal*Mart has a pretty good type that comes in individual serving packets and they are good for a long time where the home made stuff lasts only a day or two. My mother loved sour cream on her Mexican food but I have never developed a taste for it.
Barb got me a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans. I told her that I had 9 or 10 pairs of them but she wants me to have one pair that doesn't look like I have been working on the cars in them. I guess I should be glad that she cares enough to want me to look good. The only way I don't want to look is naked. The best cure for nudity in people over the age of 40 in a full length mirror. Barb also got me a book written by Stephen King. I haven't really read much of his works after reading Pet Cemetery when Dave was young. It was just too close to home for me and I stopped reading him. Guess it is time to give it a try again.
In the family, we have worked on gift guides for years. We had it fairly down pat when Mom was alive. She would say, "If I can't wear it, eat it or read it I don't need it." I am pretty much at that stage in life. The only exception is the White Elephant gifts at our Holiday celebrations. Pretty much anything goes there. I am pretty sure that I could probably go into the storage room and find a gift that needs re-gifting. The only gift that I really miss is the coffee cup that was in the shape of a woman's breast. I am sure that one of the women in the family destroyed it because it showed up several years in a row.
Oh well, today is the day I go to the dentist for the semi-annual teeth cleaning. Not my favorite thing but it does keep me in contact with the dentist and perhaps with my real teeth for a few more years. I would like to be like my parents and keep my choppers till they bury me or whatever Barb had in her plans. I have looked into the cremation route and putting the ashes in the Military Cemetery by the VA in Leavenworth. That sure looks like the place to be. And, it is cheap.
MUD
6/16/2014
6/15/2014
What's Really Important?
If I were to be in charge, here are my priorities for the problems I would want fixed:
EDUCATION - I think our Colleges aren't helping our teachers enough to make them the best they can be. I would select the brightest and the best and pay for their education. I would then pay off those loans at about a rate of 20% per year. If a teacher then stayed in the class room for 5 years they could have a college education on us. I would also pay them extra to go to school for 6 weeks in the summer. Every other year the work would be workshops done at the grade levels where they worked on lessons and lesson plans to help the other teachers to see what can be done. The odd years would be working on a Masters Degree and helping them remain certified. There would be extra credit given for practical experience based on the performance of the students. After 10 years, teachers would be given the same deal to get a Masters Degree. I would double the size of the student loans and have them work 4 years to pay off the loans for two years.
BUDGET Clearly the congress doesn't get it that outgo must be equal to or less than income. Only in an emergency should this be broken. Heck, if it is important enough sell war bonds but the days of deficits equal to 1/3 of the total would be over. This would truly stretch the capacity of our government to have to think where the money can best be applied. I'll bet that would end a lot of the special projects like studying the sex lives of frogs.
MILITARY In my perfect world there would be a whole lot less overlap. There would be Naval Forces, Ground Forces and Air forces. Yep, I would put the Marines into the Ground Forces and the Naval (and Marine ) aviation in the Air Forces. The only Reserves for the Ground Forces would be the National Guard and the Air Force reserves would not be in the guard. I would force the Active Ground forces to have at least 40% of their forces in the Guard. I am not sure what the ratio in the Air Forces would be best but it darned sure would not be 100% active.
SOCIAL I just can't understand how people can think that unemployed people and under employed people can't be the result of having our borders crossed at anytime by anybody. I hear people say we need to raise the minimum wage and yet we let people come her that are willing to work for less. Go Figure what would happen if everyone here was paid $15.00 an hour.
DRUGS The drug problem isn't in Mexico. It is the large number of drug users here that keep the border full of holes. Once people see that the Government really cares about them and we can really put all the people to work I think the drug use will fall. Our Skinner Box experiments need to end and focus on jobs, training and giving our people back the view that there is room for everyone to live a good life. I would focus on Training or Education and Jobs.
DEGREE OF GIVE A SHIT Somewhere along the way we have made it easy to not care about what happens in Washington. I would make it mandatory for people to vote and people in Government would not be paid like they are special. The Congress would be limited to the Average National Wage for their pay. I would open the Barracks that are Fort Mead for their housing. They would only live there when they are in session and be forced to go home at least 6 months of the year. If they want to fly space A in the cargo aircraft so be it. Everyone in congress would be subject to the same rules as the people and pay social security like everyone else. No special retirements and no special benefits.
That's all folks.
MUD
EDUCATION - I think our Colleges aren't helping our teachers enough to make them the best they can be. I would select the brightest and the best and pay for their education. I would then pay off those loans at about a rate of 20% per year. If a teacher then stayed in the class room for 5 years they could have a college education on us. I would also pay them extra to go to school for 6 weeks in the summer. Every other year the work would be workshops done at the grade levels where they worked on lessons and lesson plans to help the other teachers to see what can be done. The odd years would be working on a Masters Degree and helping them remain certified. There would be extra credit given for practical experience based on the performance of the students. After 10 years, teachers would be given the same deal to get a Masters Degree. I would double the size of the student loans and have them work 4 years to pay off the loans for two years.
BUDGET Clearly the congress doesn't get it that outgo must be equal to or less than income. Only in an emergency should this be broken. Heck, if it is important enough sell war bonds but the days of deficits equal to 1/3 of the total would be over. This would truly stretch the capacity of our government to have to think where the money can best be applied. I'll bet that would end a lot of the special projects like studying the sex lives of frogs.
MILITARY In my perfect world there would be a whole lot less overlap. There would be Naval Forces, Ground Forces and Air forces. Yep, I would put the Marines into the Ground Forces and the Naval (and Marine ) aviation in the Air Forces. The only Reserves for the Ground Forces would be the National Guard and the Air Force reserves would not be in the guard. I would force the Active Ground forces to have at least 40% of their forces in the Guard. I am not sure what the ratio in the Air Forces would be best but it darned sure would not be 100% active.
SOCIAL I just can't understand how people can think that unemployed people and under employed people can't be the result of having our borders crossed at anytime by anybody. I hear people say we need to raise the minimum wage and yet we let people come her that are willing to work for less. Go Figure what would happen if everyone here was paid $15.00 an hour.
DRUGS The drug problem isn't in Mexico. It is the large number of drug users here that keep the border full of holes. Once people see that the Government really cares about them and we can really put all the people to work I think the drug use will fall. Our Skinner Box experiments need to end and focus on jobs, training and giving our people back the view that there is room for everyone to live a good life. I would focus on Training or Education and Jobs.
DEGREE OF GIVE A SHIT Somewhere along the way we have made it easy to not care about what happens in Washington. I would make it mandatory for people to vote and people in Government would not be paid like they are special. The Congress would be limited to the Average National Wage for their pay. I would open the Barracks that are Fort Mead for their housing. They would only live there when they are in session and be forced to go home at least 6 months of the year. If they want to fly space A in the cargo aircraft so be it. Everyone in congress would be subject to the same rules as the people and pay social security like everyone else. No special retirements and no special benefits.
That's all folks.
MUD
Lies, Half truths and Wisdoms
The cartoon page today had a quote from Winston Churchill. He was quoted as saying that a lie is half way around the world before the truth can even get its pants on. The wife in the cartoon pointed out that it is very ironic that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) really said that and used a pseudonym when he did. Can you think of someone else that said a lot of "Truisms" and used another name to do it? How about Poor Richard's Almanac? I contend that Ben Franklin used the name Poor Richard so he didn't have to give credit to all the people he quoted (or misquoted).
With this being Father's Day, I feel compelled to report some of the things my father said and did to/for/at us as we were growing up. My Grandfathers both died when WWII was in full bloom. Both had served in WWI and I missed hearing all their tall tales of their time in the service. My Dad was drafted and served as an Airplane Mechanic at Barber's Point in Hawaii. He said when asked where he wanted to serve, he sais any place so long as it was on dry land. As Dad would tell stories about his time there, he would often get a tear in the corner of his eye. When I was on R&R during Vietnam, I visited his base. Hell, I too had a tear when I left there. His worse day had to be a hell of a lot better than my best day. When it was time to wake up in the morning he would shout "Hit the Deck" I think that means get down but what the heck do I know.
On Friday afternoons, it was always a challenge to see what was going to happen when Dad came home from work. He often would go to the kitchen sink and grab paper grocery sacks. He would give us all one and tell us that we needed to pack and in 15 minutes he was leaving for Arkansas. If we didn't pack everything, tough. For most boys, it wasn't any big deal to forget our toothbrush or clean underwear. My sisters were mostly too old to go with us so it would be a rush to me and Rick to fill our sacks and get out butts in the car.
I will never understand why my dad wanted Mom to fix that chipped beef gravy and then call it "Shit on a Shingle." Mom finally came up with a variant using hamburger and it too became known as SOS. Most of the time it was served on toast but on special occasions there would be biscuits. Dad would always coat it with Catsup and sometimes hot sauce. One meal that Dad loved was Navy Bean Soup with a little ham and almost always cornbread. That is one of my favorites today but I use pinto beans not white Navy Beans. That was one meal that dad didn't put crackers in but it would have a liberal dose of catsup. He would add corn bread until he was really eating corn meal mush with beans (and Catsup)
I know that a lot of the kids today think my mother was a bad cook but I remember that she managed to fix some great meals even if dad seemed to doctor or adulterate a lot of the stuff with Catsup, crackers and a few sprinkles of Tobasco. One thing he did was never spilled over into my diet. Dad loved fried eggs over easy and then he would put catsup on them. Somehow that runny yellow and red mess then wiped off the plate with toast was just more than I could abide. I love eggs and over easy or medium is my choice but never with catsup. I have even tried to cook them in the Spanish Huevos Rancheros style and just can't seem to find a taste for that. That style is basically eggs poached in salsa.
Mother said that Dad grew up without having a lot of fun as a child. Having met his mother, I can understand how that may have been true. I never met a person that seemed to have less fun that Bessie. She could make a birthday party sound like a murder with all her complaints. I always say that it makes me wonder what she says about us to others when she says so many bad things about them when they aren't there.
One time when Dad went to the Doctor he was in the middle of one of his lows (Manic Depression) and the Doctor wrote a prescription. Dad said he didn't need it as he could self medicate with beer. The Doctor pointed out to him that that was another problem not the solution. It wasn't until dad was in his 60's that the Doctors started giving him Lithium to help control his highs and lows. He turned into a really boring old man at that point and wasn't near as much fun. Dad was like the weather in Kansas. If you didn't like it today, just wait a day and it would change.
One thing about Dad that always amazed me was how handy he was in his younger years. There was very little he could not fix. In the early days of Television, Tubes went out fairly regularly. He would make a diagram and pull the tubes out. I would take them up to the local store (Womack's Grocery) and test them until I found the bad bulb. It was simple for me to count the pins on the tubes and plug them in the right socket. When I would press the test button it would tell me if the tube was OK or not. For three or four dollars we almost always got the TV fixed. If the tubes were OK, it was almost always the Picture tube and that meant a trip to Sears for their chance to repair it. I know Dad paid about $50.00 a year for the warranty package and the main tube (about $90) would go bad once a year. I think the TV ran from the time someone got up to the time it would sign off at night.
Oh well, I guess I had better go get cleaned up and find out what time the kids will be over for dinner. I will put the steaks in the marinade and figure out what the schedule for everything else is. I don't need a cooks worksheet to fix steak and potatoes. I think Barb bought some chicken and Brats also. They are so good as leftovers.
MUD
With this being Father's Day, I feel compelled to report some of the things my father said and did to/for/at us as we were growing up. My Grandfathers both died when WWII was in full bloom. Both had served in WWI and I missed hearing all their tall tales of their time in the service. My Dad was drafted and served as an Airplane Mechanic at Barber's Point in Hawaii. He said when asked where he wanted to serve, he sais any place so long as it was on dry land. As Dad would tell stories about his time there, he would often get a tear in the corner of his eye. When I was on R&R during Vietnam, I visited his base. Hell, I too had a tear when I left there. His worse day had to be a hell of a lot better than my best day. When it was time to wake up in the morning he would shout "Hit the Deck" I think that means get down but what the heck do I know.
On Friday afternoons, it was always a challenge to see what was going to happen when Dad came home from work. He often would go to the kitchen sink and grab paper grocery sacks. He would give us all one and tell us that we needed to pack and in 15 minutes he was leaving for Arkansas. If we didn't pack everything, tough. For most boys, it wasn't any big deal to forget our toothbrush or clean underwear. My sisters were mostly too old to go with us so it would be a rush to me and Rick to fill our sacks and get out butts in the car.
I will never understand why my dad wanted Mom to fix that chipped beef gravy and then call it "Shit on a Shingle." Mom finally came up with a variant using hamburger and it too became known as SOS. Most of the time it was served on toast but on special occasions there would be biscuits. Dad would always coat it with Catsup and sometimes hot sauce. One meal that Dad loved was Navy Bean Soup with a little ham and almost always cornbread. That is one of my favorites today but I use pinto beans not white Navy Beans. That was one meal that dad didn't put crackers in but it would have a liberal dose of catsup. He would add corn bread until he was really eating corn meal mush with beans (and Catsup)
I know that a lot of the kids today think my mother was a bad cook but I remember that she managed to fix some great meals even if dad seemed to doctor or adulterate a lot of the stuff with Catsup, crackers and a few sprinkles of Tobasco. One thing he did was never spilled over into my diet. Dad loved fried eggs over easy and then he would put catsup on them. Somehow that runny yellow and red mess then wiped off the plate with toast was just more than I could abide. I love eggs and over easy or medium is my choice but never with catsup. I have even tried to cook them in the Spanish Huevos Rancheros style and just can't seem to find a taste for that. That style is basically eggs poached in salsa.
Mother said that Dad grew up without having a lot of fun as a child. Having met his mother, I can understand how that may have been true. I never met a person that seemed to have less fun that Bessie. She could make a birthday party sound like a murder with all her complaints. I always say that it makes me wonder what she says about us to others when she says so many bad things about them when they aren't there.
One time when Dad went to the Doctor he was in the middle of one of his lows (Manic Depression) and the Doctor wrote a prescription. Dad said he didn't need it as he could self medicate with beer. The Doctor pointed out to him that that was another problem not the solution. It wasn't until dad was in his 60's that the Doctors started giving him Lithium to help control his highs and lows. He turned into a really boring old man at that point and wasn't near as much fun. Dad was like the weather in Kansas. If you didn't like it today, just wait a day and it would change.
One thing about Dad that always amazed me was how handy he was in his younger years. There was very little he could not fix. In the early days of Television, Tubes went out fairly regularly. He would make a diagram and pull the tubes out. I would take them up to the local store (Womack's Grocery) and test them until I found the bad bulb. It was simple for me to count the pins on the tubes and plug them in the right socket. When I would press the test button it would tell me if the tube was OK or not. For three or four dollars we almost always got the TV fixed. If the tubes were OK, it was almost always the Picture tube and that meant a trip to Sears for their chance to repair it. I know Dad paid about $50.00 a year for the warranty package and the main tube (about $90) would go bad once a year. I think the TV ran from the time someone got up to the time it would sign off at night.
Oh well, I guess I had better go get cleaned up and find out what time the kids will be over for dinner. I will put the steaks in the marinade and figure out what the schedule for everything else is. I don't need a cooks worksheet to fix steak and potatoes. I think Barb bought some chicken and Brats also. They are so good as leftovers.
MUD
6/14/2014
Substance over Style
I am afraid that our next election will boil down to Style and not Substance. I want our next President to be a leader and set the tone for Change we can believe in. I want to see the President to challenge us to find out what the heck or real priorities are and see if there isn't room under the Congressional tent to start working on the problems. Unless and/or until our Leaders start to discuss the real problems we will never get to the answers.
A few years back, I was driving a bunch of people to the Airport from Topeka to KC. One of the ladies said she really admired Hillary Clinton and the job she was doing as Senator from new York. I asked her to tell me what she has done for the country as a Senator? The lady said she did a good job for the people from New York. I said that was fine if she was a State Senator in Albany but
she is a US Senator and works for us all. More than one person in the vehicle agreed that I did have a valid point.
One problem I see that is eating us up from the inside is that we have lost faith that the system can change for the good. I think people are so apathetic that things have been so bad for so long that they have just given up hope that there is someone in charge. Ask the new college graduates that can't find a job if they are worried about the student debt loans they have? When the problem get big enough, the Government will step in ad make the loans go away. What does it matter to people that we have to borrow about 1/3rd of the money our government spends when everyone yells "Not in My Backyard" about cuts in the budget? How can Government add C02 costs to electric rate payers when they know they won't do anything with that money to fix the problem? How can they look at themselves in the mirror without busting out laughing?
How can our Leaders talk about amnesty for illegals when we have so many people under/unemployed? Why do you think wages are so low? Because the illegals will do the jobs for less. The news is covering the influx of children from Central America right now and talking about how harsh the treatment they are being given. Why do we need to spend tons of money supporting people that come her with nothing? Send them home with what they came with and don't make it fun to be here. Incarceration should be punishment not a good thing.
OK, I'll step back from my soap box and admit that I don't have all the answers and will in the light of day realize that there are things that will happen that are caused by the rules of unintended consequences. When one State really cracked down on the illegals, they found their crops rotting the field because they couldn't get workers to pick the crops. If we really cracked down on the illegals, who would put new roofs on after the hail storms. What kind of shape would the roads be in if we couldn't find people to pour the concrete as we try to improve our infrastructure? Beats the heck out of me, but I'm not in charge.
The one thing I think the Master Gardener and I agree on is the importance of education for our children. We may not agree on the way to best way to fix the problem but it does need to be a priority. I for one would focus all our technology on finding the best ways to teach that reflects the culture they will live in. If our workers are going to be focused on doing their work on computers, why do we still rely on paper so much in the schools. Grammar and spelling are best taught by writing and what a grand way to teach kids to write than by using a computer to write?
OH well, Have a great Father's Day out there.
MUD
A few years back, I was driving a bunch of people to the Airport from Topeka to KC. One of the ladies said she really admired Hillary Clinton and the job she was doing as Senator from new York. I asked her to tell me what she has done for the country as a Senator? The lady said she did a good job for the people from New York. I said that was fine if she was a State Senator in Albany but
she is a US Senator and works for us all. More than one person in the vehicle agreed that I did have a valid point.
One problem I see that is eating us up from the inside is that we have lost faith that the system can change for the good. I think people are so apathetic that things have been so bad for so long that they have just given up hope that there is someone in charge. Ask the new college graduates that can't find a job if they are worried about the student debt loans they have? When the problem get big enough, the Government will step in ad make the loans go away. What does it matter to people that we have to borrow about 1/3rd of the money our government spends when everyone yells "Not in My Backyard" about cuts in the budget? How can Government add C02 costs to electric rate payers when they know they won't do anything with that money to fix the problem? How can they look at themselves in the mirror without busting out laughing?
How can our Leaders talk about amnesty for illegals when we have so many people under/unemployed? Why do you think wages are so low? Because the illegals will do the jobs for less. The news is covering the influx of children from Central America right now and talking about how harsh the treatment they are being given. Why do we need to spend tons of money supporting people that come her with nothing? Send them home with what they came with and don't make it fun to be here. Incarceration should be punishment not a good thing.
OK, I'll step back from my soap box and admit that I don't have all the answers and will in the light of day realize that there are things that will happen that are caused by the rules of unintended consequences. When one State really cracked down on the illegals, they found their crops rotting the field because they couldn't get workers to pick the crops. If we really cracked down on the illegals, who would put new roofs on after the hail storms. What kind of shape would the roads be in if we couldn't find people to pour the concrete as we try to improve our infrastructure? Beats the heck out of me, but I'm not in charge.
The one thing I think the Master Gardener and I agree on is the importance of education for our children. We may not agree on the way to best way to fix the problem but it does need to be a priority. I for one would focus all our technology on finding the best ways to teach that reflects the culture they will live in. If our workers are going to be focused on doing their work on computers, why do we still rely on paper so much in the schools. Grammar and spelling are best taught by writing and what a grand way to teach kids to write than by using a computer to write?
OH well, Have a great Father's Day out there.
MUD
6/13/2014
Short Travel Story From the years past
What does this fine pair of people have in Common? They were both born in what was the Oklahoma Territory around the turn of the century. The soldier is Geary Schmoe, Barb's Grandfather and the fellow in the hat is Will Rogers.
Both were born near what is now Oologah, Oklahoma
We looked but there weren't any statues to Geary but right in the middle of the street is Will and his horse in Bronze.
I had the experience to only see Will in the Movies and I was impressed with his down to earth view of the people he met. Geary was a special kind of man that smiled easy and made me feel welcome from the first time we met. They are the kind of fellows I want to be when I grow up.
Out on the Lake is the Will Rogers Birthplace.
This was his grandparents house
Standing on the porch overlooking Lake Oologah. They moved the house to this overlook from about 3/4 miles to the south in the middle of the lake.
This is a barn just east of the house
This must have been Oklahoma, They have a White Democrat
Barb and I have started documenting our travels and taking a few side trips. With the family interest in Oologah we made the trip. I tell you that from Tulsa this is a nice trip and I could spend hours sitting under the trees and looking at the lake. We went over from Bartlesville through Nowata. The unfortunate part of the trip was that it was Saturday and the Museum was closed. We hoped that they would have a map of the area and might find where Geary was born.
Both were born near what is now Oologah, Oklahoma
We looked but there weren't any statues to Geary but right in the middle of the street is Will and his horse in Bronze.
I had the experience to only see Will in the Movies and I was impressed with his down to earth view of the people he met. Geary was a special kind of man that smiled easy and made me feel welcome from the first time we met. They are the kind of fellows I want to be when I grow up.
Out on the Lake is the Will Rogers Birthplace.
This was his grandparents house
Standing on the porch overlooking Lake Oologah. They moved the house to this overlook from about 3/4 miles to the south in the middle of the lake.
This is a barn just east of the house
This must have been Oklahoma, They have a White Democrat
Barb and I have started documenting our travels and taking a few side trips. With the family interest in Oologah we made the trip. I tell you that from Tulsa this is a nice trip and I could spend hours sitting under the trees and looking at the lake. We went over from Bartlesville through Nowata. The unfortunate part of the trip was that it was Saturday and the Museum was closed. We hoped that they would have a map of the area and might find where Geary was born.
Great Travels for you.
MUD
Just Sayn' Hello
In my little world, I am fairly isolated here at Rabbit Run so when I am out and about I try to say hello to as many people as I can. I do my best to interject a little civility and a smile into a world that doesn't smile much. I would say my average for a return response is well over 50%. I probably get away with this because I'm so large and appear confident while not threatening. My average return smile with kids in nearer 80%. I always try to look the parents in the eye and say hi to them too. If the child turns away I don't ever push them for a positive response.
The other day I saw a post on Facebook that said it is OK to not be OK. I tell people that I am Popeye and I Yam what I yam. Don't come over to me and tell me it is OK to not be OK. I am responsible for my attitude and I don't want you to pee on my campfire and then tell me it is foggy. You do your thing and I'll do mine. After all, my perception is my reality not yours.
Yesterday was my day for chemical warfare. I sprayed the fruit trees in the orchard and then took my sprayer up to Dave's to spray his trees for bag worms. Barb had me use the same spray in both places but the orchard spray had a fungicide added it to help with the Cedar Apple Rust on the apple tree. Seems to be working so far. It was a Malathion mix. Yesterday was a fairly light breeze day and it was fairly easy to spray down wind. I have a power sprayer from Tractor Supply Company and it will easily spray to the top of the trees at between 35-50 feet. Probably one of the best things I have purchased if I can now find a new cap for the drain plug on the tank. I slid it in place one time on the rough cement and it just made it leak. To add insult to injury, yesterday when I was cleaning out the tank it fell off and I didn't notice it was gone until I got home. I'll go back and look for it today but even if I find it, I need a replacement.
Barb is off to the dentist and having her teeth cleaned this morning. I was looking at the calendar and saw that I have an appointment next Monday for the same thing. We feel that a little preventative care is worth it in the long race of time. Both of my parents had their teeth throughout their life. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Yes, I know the amount of gold in my mouth is a lot of money but beats chewing on/with plastic.
Better run and see what I can get in trouble with today.
MUD
The other day I saw a post on Facebook that said it is OK to not be OK. I tell people that I am Popeye and I Yam what I yam. Don't come over to me and tell me it is OK to not be OK. I am responsible for my attitude and I don't want you to pee on my campfire and then tell me it is foggy. You do your thing and I'll do mine. After all, my perception is my reality not yours.
Yesterday was my day for chemical warfare. I sprayed the fruit trees in the orchard and then took my sprayer up to Dave's to spray his trees for bag worms. Barb had me use the same spray in both places but the orchard spray had a fungicide added it to help with the Cedar Apple Rust on the apple tree. Seems to be working so far. It was a Malathion mix. Yesterday was a fairly light breeze day and it was fairly easy to spray down wind. I have a power sprayer from Tractor Supply Company and it will easily spray to the top of the trees at between 35-50 feet. Probably one of the best things I have purchased if I can now find a new cap for the drain plug on the tank. I slid it in place one time on the rough cement and it just made it leak. To add insult to injury, yesterday when I was cleaning out the tank it fell off and I didn't notice it was gone until I got home. I'll go back and look for it today but even if I find it, I need a replacement.
Barb is off to the dentist and having her teeth cleaned this morning. I was looking at the calendar and saw that I have an appointment next Monday for the same thing. We feel that a little preventative care is worth it in the long race of time. Both of my parents had their teeth throughout their life. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. Yes, I know the amount of gold in my mouth is a lot of money but beats chewing on/with plastic.
Better run and see what I can get in trouble with today.
MUD
6/12/2014
Past Due Post
Do You?
Ever listen to talk radio for a good laugh?
Read some of the obscure stories on MSN to help you understand that a little alone time and down time is normal?
Go outside in short sleeves just so the warmth of the house and hot coffee are better?
Do something that is not normal for you?
Wonder how some people can think so poorly of one candidate and overlook the incumbent's failing record?
Wonder why people can't find Romney's jokes funny when they truly are?
Try to cook a meal outside of your normal range just to have something different?
Wonder what they say about you when they are so critical of others when they talk to you?
Love the fall colors and hate the leaves once they start falling all over the place?
Have a car in the garage that you don't use?
Know that there are a lot of good things to do and yet you spend your time right here by the computer because you just can't get started?
Me Too!
MUD
Read some of the obscure stories on MSN to help you understand that a little alone time and down time is normal?
Go outside in short sleeves just so the warmth of the house and hot coffee are better?
Do something that is not normal for you?
Wonder how some people can think so poorly of one candidate and overlook the incumbent's failing record?
Wonder why people can't find Romney's jokes funny when they truly are?
Try to cook a meal outside of your normal range just to have something different?
Wonder what they say about you when they are so critical of others when they talk to you?
Love the fall colors and hate the leaves once they start falling all over the place?
Have a car in the garage that you don't use?
Know that there are a lot of good things to do and yet you spend your time right here by the computer because you just can't get started?
Me Too!
MUD
Another Blast from the past
I think this was about 1500 of the 2600 posts I have written. Here it is:
Every year as one sports season ends, there are winners and losers. Coaches that have done a good job in seasons past are fired for not winning all the games at the end of the current season. All I can say is "Get Over Yourself". At least at the college level, most of the kids are students and athletes and they perform to help pay for their education. Think back a couple of years and try to remember if your favorite team winning or loosing really made a difference in your life. For every Bill Self who's table is full of talented players, there is a coach who will win a bunch of games on the play of his team. Hell, there are probably some teams whose talent pool is full and have a losing season.
Yesterday I found myself thinking that I would have coached the border showdown different had I been in charge. Such hubris to even think that I might have gotten the team to where they are. Kind of like the War in Iraq, I wouldn't have ended it the way it was done, but would I have really taken it to the same place had I been in charge? Oh Boo Hoo Dennis, pull up your panties and move on. My daughter-in-law says pull up your big girl panties and deal with it. You get the message either way, Right?
I ventured out into the shopping world yesterday and found that it looked a lot like a regular Saturday here in the Heartland. If there is a recession, a lot of people are not participating. Or, there is a lot of people shopping on credit. You should see the looks I get when I pull out good old cash to pay for my purchases. In fact, I had a couple of clerks looking at the cash register to see how to give me my change. How dare I actually give them the right change or give them 22 dollars for a 12 dollar purchase so I can get back a 10 instead of a bunch of one's. I swear that one clerk wanted to give me 10 one's because she was out of 5's. No, give me that 10 there in the drawer like the register says. No, I won't cheat you any more than I would let you cheat me.
Barb went to Lawrence yesterday and said that at 2:30 the place was empty. I asked her why and she said the game was on. Duh Dennis! I was home watching the game and I guess there were a lot of others doing the same thing. Oh well, this is where I started this whole post. I had better quit before I find myself doing it all over again.
MUD
Every year as one sports season ends, there are winners and losers. Coaches that have done a good job in seasons past are fired for not winning all the games at the end of the current season. All I can say is "Get Over Yourself". At least at the college level, most of the kids are students and athletes and they perform to help pay for their education. Think back a couple of years and try to remember if your favorite team winning or loosing really made a difference in your life. For every Bill Self who's table is full of talented players, there is a coach who will win a bunch of games on the play of his team. Hell, there are probably some teams whose talent pool is full and have a losing season.
Yesterday I found myself thinking that I would have coached the border showdown different had I been in charge. Such hubris to even think that I might have gotten the team to where they are. Kind of like the War in Iraq, I wouldn't have ended it the way it was done, but would I have really taken it to the same place had I been in charge? Oh Boo Hoo Dennis, pull up your panties and move on. My daughter-in-law says pull up your big girl panties and deal with it. You get the message either way, Right?
I ventured out into the shopping world yesterday and found that it looked a lot like a regular Saturday here in the Heartland. If there is a recession, a lot of people are not participating. Or, there is a lot of people shopping on credit. You should see the looks I get when I pull out good old cash to pay for my purchases. In fact, I had a couple of clerks looking at the cash register to see how to give me my change. How dare I actually give them the right change or give them 22 dollars for a 12 dollar purchase so I can get back a 10 instead of a bunch of one's. I swear that one clerk wanted to give me 10 one's because she was out of 5's. No, give me that 10 there in the drawer like the register says. No, I won't cheat you any more than I would let you cheat me.
Barb went to Lawrence yesterday and said that at 2:30 the place was empty. I asked her why and she said the game was on. Duh Dennis! I was home watching the game and I guess there were a lot of others doing the same thing. Oh well, this is where I started this whole post. I had better quit before I find myself doing it all over again.
MUD
Where am I going from Here?
With the lack of comments, I am unsure if people are at the point where they look in just to see where my ADD is going to take me next or if they enjoy the trip. I am fairly sure that the number of hits on the blog are way up and that says something, it is just what it says that I am unsure of.
I hope it is fair to say that my day starts out much the same every day. A couple of cups of coffee, some form of breakfast and then reading the paper. I come down and read Facebook and check my E-Mail. When all that has settled, I generally start writing on this blog. Today I went out to put the charger on my small garden tractor as we will do some spraying later on and the tractor pulls the sprayer. In about a half hour or so, I will go out to the shed and move the charger to the battery on the sprayer. If we are going to do the fruit trees and then spray Dave's trees for bag worms I'll need a full charge there too.
If the news of the day and Facebook sparks something, I tend to follow that lead on my blog. Often it is a comment that Barb makes and off to the races. Today nothing just struck me as all that controversial.
My Son's in-laws are in the process of moving back to Topeka after a 10 year stay in Las Vegas. They were not a winner in the Lottery called real estate there so they are starting out their retirement with a smaller nest egg in the housing market. Real Estate here in Topeka never had the large bubble behind it and didn't take the large hit like it did in Vegas. So far they have found a nice duplex that is pretty typical of 30 year old houses. The siding is in serious need of repair/replacement and a lot of the fixtures in the house need to be replaced. For me that's no big deal but I don't know just how handy Dave's Father-in-law is. I guess if they buy it we'll find out. One thing I did see yesterday when we went there was that the people that painted it had no clue how to do a good job. I won't complain about the color because at one time I had a green wall in my living room that was considered art as it wasn't a color I would have picked. I am sure that nice neutral color (and lighter colors) will help brighten the place up. After a few years with the dachshunds the carpet is pretty well gone and they have a replacement allowance. I would hope they can get the joint painted and then replace the carpet.
Oh well, miles to go so I'd better put on my walking shoes.
MUD
I hope it is fair to say that my day starts out much the same every day. A couple of cups of coffee, some form of breakfast and then reading the paper. I come down and read Facebook and check my E-Mail. When all that has settled, I generally start writing on this blog. Today I went out to put the charger on my small garden tractor as we will do some spraying later on and the tractor pulls the sprayer. In about a half hour or so, I will go out to the shed and move the charger to the battery on the sprayer. If we are going to do the fruit trees and then spray Dave's trees for bag worms I'll need a full charge there too.
If the news of the day and Facebook sparks something, I tend to follow that lead on my blog. Often it is a comment that Barb makes and off to the races. Today nothing just struck me as all that controversial.
My Son's in-laws are in the process of moving back to Topeka after a 10 year stay in Las Vegas. They were not a winner in the Lottery called real estate there so they are starting out their retirement with a smaller nest egg in the housing market. Real Estate here in Topeka never had the large bubble behind it and didn't take the large hit like it did in Vegas. So far they have found a nice duplex that is pretty typical of 30 year old houses. The siding is in serious need of repair/replacement and a lot of the fixtures in the house need to be replaced. For me that's no big deal but I don't know just how handy Dave's Father-in-law is. I guess if they buy it we'll find out. One thing I did see yesterday when we went there was that the people that painted it had no clue how to do a good job. I won't complain about the color because at one time I had a green wall in my living room that was considered art as it wasn't a color I would have picked. I am sure that nice neutral color (and lighter colors) will help brighten the place up. After a few years with the dachshunds the carpet is pretty well gone and they have a replacement allowance. I would hope they can get the joint painted and then replace the carpet.
Oh well, miles to go so I'd better put on my walking shoes.
MUD
6/11/2014
Blast from the Past
This is blog 1,000 on the list of 2600+ that I have written. It was called "Food Porn."
I think the Bierocks or Beer rocks or Beer oaks, are based on German Cabbage rolls (Kraut Strudel). They are one of my families favorite meals on cold days. It may be tough as heck to get the dough to rise or raise properly in cold weather, but the warm kitchen from the baking always manages to warm you up. Yesterday I went to the store and bought some meat for the cabbage rolls and decided that half bratwurst sausage and half hamburger would be a good mixture for the filling. Good choice. I cooked a large yellow onion and some garlic with the meat and then cooked cabbage in the juices. I took the meat out so I didn't over cook it. Barb made the rolls out of frozen bread dough and man were those beeroaks tasty. It didn't hurt that Barb also had enough dough left over to make cinnamon rolls. I guess if you have to be shut in on a cold winter day, you might as well have the best food you and your wife can make. If there is anything I like better than eating four or five for dinner is having one or two for breakfast. Kinda like cold pizza is another cold treat for my morning repast.
We managed to dodge the bullet again and got only 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday and last night. It is cold as it can be out there and the creatures are only stirring up near the feeder and heated water bowl. It is almost 9 AM and it has only reached 5 degrees above zero. I don't think there will be much melting today.
At what point in time do women stop worrying about their children? Men for the most part watch their children as they go out the door and are proud that they can leave. Mothers will watch the empty nest for signs that the fledglings need to return. Dave worked late last night and Barb asked his wife to have him call when he arrived home safely. I guess that I came from a family that had the motto, "No news is good news." I guess her kindness and concern is one of the things I love Barb for, but I don't always understand. Just a note to all those young people out there - 43 years of marriage doesn't always result in understanding, only acceptance. (This is now 46 years) You know, like that saying, "Lord Grant me the ability to change the things I may, The strength to accept the things I may not change and the wisdom to know the difference."
When I was a young man, looking for a wife, I decided that I may not have had the best role model for a father. I thought that a strong woman might be just what I needed. yep, I got one and so far it works.
Now get out there and do what you have to do and quit being a sissy you Jack-Wagon. (no, I don't have a clue what a jack wagon is)
MUD
I think the Bierocks or Beer rocks or Beer oaks, are based on German Cabbage rolls (Kraut Strudel). They are one of my families favorite meals on cold days. It may be tough as heck to get the dough to rise or raise properly in cold weather, but the warm kitchen from the baking always manages to warm you up. Yesterday I went to the store and bought some meat for the cabbage rolls and decided that half bratwurst sausage and half hamburger would be a good mixture for the filling. Good choice. I cooked a large yellow onion and some garlic with the meat and then cooked cabbage in the juices. I took the meat out so I didn't over cook it. Barb made the rolls out of frozen bread dough and man were those beeroaks tasty. It didn't hurt that Barb also had enough dough left over to make cinnamon rolls. I guess if you have to be shut in on a cold winter day, you might as well have the best food you and your wife can make. If there is anything I like better than eating four or five for dinner is having one or two for breakfast. Kinda like cold pizza is another cold treat for my morning repast.
We managed to dodge the bullet again and got only 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday and last night. It is cold as it can be out there and the creatures are only stirring up near the feeder and heated water bowl. It is almost 9 AM and it has only reached 5 degrees above zero. I don't think there will be much melting today.
At what point in time do women stop worrying about their children? Men for the most part watch their children as they go out the door and are proud that they can leave. Mothers will watch the empty nest for signs that the fledglings need to return. Dave worked late last night and Barb asked his wife to have him call when he arrived home safely. I guess that I came from a family that had the motto, "No news is good news." I guess her kindness and concern is one of the things I love Barb for, but I don't always understand. Just a note to all those young people out there - 43 years of marriage doesn't always result in understanding, only acceptance. (This is now 46 years) You know, like that saying, "Lord Grant me the ability to change the things I may, The strength to accept the things I may not change and the wisdom to know the difference."
When I was a young man, looking for a wife, I decided that I may not have had the best role model for a father. I thought that a strong woman might be just what I needed. yep, I got one and so far it works.
Now get out there and do what you have to do and quit being a sissy you Jack-Wagon. (no, I don't have a clue what a jack wagon is)
MUD
Strange Times
I guess there will continue to be a lot of things I don't understand, and increasingly less I understand as I get older. One of the Headlines in the local paper talked about the 310 million dollar shortfall in the Kansas revenue and why everyone is guessing why? Duh, they cut the taxes and revenue fell. Yes, dear one's the Republicans will tell you that cutting taxes will increase revenue but only in an expanding economy. The corollary is that it will not in a stagnant one like we have today. Guess what? Guess wrong and you will have a shortfall. Oh by the way, that is illegal in Kansas unlike the Feds who can just print more money.
I completely understand the people that think that they can demonstrate and have people hear their side of any cause. Occupy Wall Street had the headlines for weeks a while back. What I don't understand is how people think that killing a couple of policemen and then committing suicide in Denver will have anywhere near that same impact? Life is binary. Either you are alive or you are dead. The impact of death is the end of the book on you not some gigantic finale that stamps you as having an impact on the world. I don't get it. A friend of mine said one time that he doesn't believe in suicide. He does believe in taking a gun and shooting the person that made him feel that way. I can understand that position but not as it applies to a total stranger just to make a point. I guess the term Dead Right after living through a year in a war zone is not how I roll.
The other day I met a friend I had worked with and we had a nice visit. He is now working with a local Training school that calls itself a College. I don't know how that works, but if people are willing to give them money to get training who am I to judge?
We have the ticket request from KU and the Williams Find. It appears that this year the KU Men's team should be pretty good. They replaced two guys who left for the NBA with 4 top rank recruits. The older players were not bad players and there are two that have a lot of pro potential that remained for at least one more year. My hope is that Perry Ellis from Wichita stays all four years and finishes his degree. He is a bright young man that can be a leader no matter what he does post Basketball. The family has a lot of members that will want to see the Hawks play at Allen Field House so we will probably order four tickets. If our order gets us in the top tier, it is possible that it could be $6400 dollars for that privilege. Oh well, it is only money and we aren't going to starve.
If I were in the NRA leadership, I would do my best to make sure that even in the places where the laws are so strict (NY City, Chicago, California) deaths by guns is happening. I think the people in those places need to pass laws that make them warm and fuzzy. What I would ask is that they don't apply their feelings on those of us that live out here in the Heartland. I agree that the skinner box idea of living in Government Housing is a failing city might even make me want to join a gang and "pop caps." Just don't make the death of one or two stupid people out of control a rule that you apply to me.
Better run and see what the day has in store for me. After three inches of rain it is too muddy to tromp out through the field but if you listen hard, you can hear the grass grow.
MUD
I completely understand the people that think that they can demonstrate and have people hear their side of any cause. Occupy Wall Street had the headlines for weeks a while back. What I don't understand is how people think that killing a couple of policemen and then committing suicide in Denver will have anywhere near that same impact? Life is binary. Either you are alive or you are dead. The impact of death is the end of the book on you not some gigantic finale that stamps you as having an impact on the world. I don't get it. A friend of mine said one time that he doesn't believe in suicide. He does believe in taking a gun and shooting the person that made him feel that way. I can understand that position but not as it applies to a total stranger just to make a point. I guess the term Dead Right after living through a year in a war zone is not how I roll.
The other day I met a friend I had worked with and we had a nice visit. He is now working with a local Training school that calls itself a College. I don't know how that works, but if people are willing to give them money to get training who am I to judge?
We have the ticket request from KU and the Williams Find. It appears that this year the KU Men's team should be pretty good. They replaced two guys who left for the NBA with 4 top rank recruits. The older players were not bad players and there are two that have a lot of pro potential that remained for at least one more year. My hope is that Perry Ellis from Wichita stays all four years and finishes his degree. He is a bright young man that can be a leader no matter what he does post Basketball. The family has a lot of members that will want to see the Hawks play at Allen Field House so we will probably order four tickets. If our order gets us in the top tier, it is possible that it could be $6400 dollars for that privilege. Oh well, it is only money and we aren't going to starve.
If I were in the NRA leadership, I would do my best to make sure that even in the places where the laws are so strict (NY City, Chicago, California) deaths by guns is happening. I think the people in those places need to pass laws that make them warm and fuzzy. What I would ask is that they don't apply their feelings on those of us that live out here in the Heartland. I agree that the skinner box idea of living in Government Housing is a failing city might even make me want to join a gang and "pop caps." Just don't make the death of one or two stupid people out of control a rule that you apply to me.
Better run and see what the day has in store for me. After three inches of rain it is too muddy to tromp out through the field but if you listen hard, you can hear the grass grow.
MUD
6/10/2014
Do What You Did, Get what you got!
Many people want the stability of the same old thing over and over. It is fine if things are going well for you and you like the way you are headed. Stability isn't a bad thing if you don't have a vision of better things. Perhaps I should say different things because better is a judgment call and perhaps not the best measure.
I think the best relationships and marriages are where the couple are somewhat opposite in their view and one wants to change and the other person wants to have a good plan if there is going to be a change. Barb and I are a lot like that. She loves to shop and will spend time looking for bargains. I shop to buy what I need and move on. I would have a shed full of stuff and she has a bank account full of money. Wait, that sounds too much like my reality.
I think that one shortcoming in our educational program is that we don't have a good way to do Field Training Programs for the kids. The Military has for years conducted training exercises where they exercise their Standard Operating Procedures and train like thy are going to fight. Perhaps short venues that ask our kids to have a rough idea about running a business would help. Heck, I hear some kids say they had no idea about budgets and how to best live on what you get paid. This is food for thought not an action plan.
Speaking of visioning, the City of Topeka had several meetings to help develop a vision of what we want to be when we grow up. The tough part is not the vision, but the reality of paying for the change. How can people expect new and shinny things when we have old infrastructure that needs replaced? One answer is the Federal Government. That is the last place we should look. I will promise you that any time you try to dip your payroll in the federal pot, you will be given a list of rules that will just boggle your mind. Better to avoid that action.
I am a firm believer in the Dave Ramsey money management program and will tell you that he and I neither would have you go out and generate a lot of loans to buy things. Perhaps a house must be financed but only after it is fully priced out and understood. The rest is best done with cash and out of pocket. A clear understanding that outgo must in the long run be less than or equal to income. That is like a golden rule to me and one that should be lesson one in life, school and churches.
Better go see what needs done here and let the world sort out its own problems.
MUD
I think the best relationships and marriages are where the couple are somewhat opposite in their view and one wants to change and the other person wants to have a good plan if there is going to be a change. Barb and I are a lot like that. She loves to shop and will spend time looking for bargains. I shop to buy what I need and move on. I would have a shed full of stuff and she has a bank account full of money. Wait, that sounds too much like my reality.
I think that one shortcoming in our educational program is that we don't have a good way to do Field Training Programs for the kids. The Military has for years conducted training exercises where they exercise their Standard Operating Procedures and train like thy are going to fight. Perhaps short venues that ask our kids to have a rough idea about running a business would help. Heck, I hear some kids say they had no idea about budgets and how to best live on what you get paid. This is food for thought not an action plan.
Speaking of visioning, the City of Topeka had several meetings to help develop a vision of what we want to be when we grow up. The tough part is not the vision, but the reality of paying for the change. How can people expect new and shinny things when we have old infrastructure that needs replaced? One answer is the Federal Government. That is the last place we should look. I will promise you that any time you try to dip your payroll in the federal pot, you will be given a list of rules that will just boggle your mind. Better to avoid that action.
I am a firm believer in the Dave Ramsey money management program and will tell you that he and I neither would have you go out and generate a lot of loans to buy things. Perhaps a house must be financed but only after it is fully priced out and understood. The rest is best done with cash and out of pocket. A clear understanding that outgo must in the long run be less than or equal to income. That is like a golden rule to me and one that should be lesson one in life, school and churches.
Better go see what needs done here and let the world sort out its own problems.
MUD
6/09/2014
Why Write a Blog?
Today on Facebook, Dave Ramsey interviewed Seth Godin who has written 5,000 blogs. By my accounting (and the help of the Stats here in Blogger) I have written over 2650. Seth's blogs are designed to help people as they conduct the day to day activities in their business and life. I guess I haven't really decided why I write or what it is supposed or designed to do. Perhaps by the time I have written 5,000 I will have it all worked out. Stand by for news. Your input is welcome. Obviously 260,000 hits are from people that have a reason.
MUD
MUD
Repeat Appearance
This is a second view of an earlier post that has moved up on the list of most visited posts. I agree even more today than when I wrote it.
11/10/2012
Different View of the Small Stuff
Over the past few years, there has been a change of attitude about the security of Government installations in other countries. I won't go back to the times Teddy Roosevelt sent the Marines in strange places but I will go back to Iran where our Embassy was invaded and hostages taken. If a country does not provide security for our installation there, why do we send people there? Tell those countries that they will not have our presence in their country. (and our foreign aide) If they do not provide security and protection why do we spend one moment trying to provide them with a place in New York that is safe. Overrun one of my embassies, and I will throw you out of my country is not a too strong position for me. Unless the UN and the USA start taking a hard line on this, things will continue to get worse.
I do not believe in complete isolationism but I do believe that places that do not perform their duty to other embassies should not benefit from our help. Other countries should also join in when one is attacked. Now that we have been brought face to face with the inevitable downfall of our economy without a lot of hard work, why so we continue to send dollars to other places, especially those that don't treat us as friends.
There are people in the world that hate me. I do not spend one minute trying to curry favor with them or spend one $ trying to influence their opinion. Why does the USA work so hard to do just that?
I think the old saying that says - "Work for peace but prepare for war." Is that such a bad saying?
For the next year, we will be forced to focus on the hard problems here at home. Iran, Afghanistan, and any other country that causes us to lift our focus from here at home is just out of luck in my book.
MUD
I do not believe in complete isolationism but I do believe that places that do not perform their duty to other embassies should not benefit from our help. Other countries should also join in when one is attacked. Now that we have been brought face to face with the inevitable downfall of our economy without a lot of hard work, why so we continue to send dollars to other places, especially those that don't treat us as friends.
There are people in the world that hate me. I do not spend one minute trying to curry favor with them or spend one $ trying to influence their opinion. Why does the USA work so hard to do just that?
I think the old saying that says - "Work for peace but prepare for war." Is that such a bad saying?
For the next year, we will be forced to focus on the hard problems here at home. Iran, Afghanistan, and any other country that causes us to lift our focus from here at home is just out of luck in my book.
MUD
First Time for Everything
Barb and I have two places we buy meat. One is the HiVee Store in Lawrence and the other is Sam's Club. We have eaten some wonderful meats from both of the stores and it is unusual to have anything less than spectacular. When Barb looked at the steaks at Sam's club and saw the price, she bought eye of the round steaks instead of the usual Rib Eye. Not a good choice. Perhaps if I had marinated them longer, they would have been less tough but they did make a pretty good beef and noodles dinner. I think that it is fair to say tasty but tough. The only other way they would have been really top notch was as a Swiss steak. That's the way my mother would cover less than spectacular cuts of meat when we were kids.
The other day I posted on Facebook a short list of my favorite movies. I think Shaw Shank Redemption, Dances with Wolves, and Forrest Gump are right up there at the top of my list. I will watch them again and again. There were a lot of other movies listed by others but without any little children here at Rabbit Run chances are I won't see Frozen or any of the newer children's movies. In the past, I watched western and about anything that had combat in it. I am about over that when I saw a remake of the Dirty Dozen that was phony as hell. Not a big fan of musicals even though I am a real fan of music. Go Figure...
I am afraid that I am getting spoiled on the taste of coffee. I like a rich dark cup of coffee that doesn't taste burnt or scorched. I don't want it to taste acidic or sweet, just a good cuppa coffee like I get in most restaurants. For a while I have been drinking Folgers's but this last can just doesn't have the right stuff. I did buy it a Sam's club so it might be a little stale. Not to mention I bought a can that is about twice as big as I normally do but as the only coffee drinker here it is bound to go stale long before I finish it. I will launch myself on a new taste test and see if the local roaster (PT's) has a bean that taste's better. I will even go so far as to buy a coffee grinder and keep the beans in the freezer and fresher. We'll see.
On our last trip to the Grocery store, I tried to buy a big old tub of the vanilla ice cream with a fudge ripple. They were out and I bought chocolate. I am ashamed to say that I am also turning into an ice cream snob. I think I need to get some chocolate syrup or hot fudge topping to make it through the rest of the container. I am enough of a poor kid to not throw it out but I do want it to be better. I guess I'll go to the store sometime today and pick up something.
This morning, Barb and I had our almost daily "What's on your Agenda" meetings. It is sad that there is little on my list except a good book. Oh, there are a lot of things I need to do but the rain almost every other day for a week has made it a soggy doggy out there and the Master gardener loves it. Her list looks a lot like mine except my hair cut only costs $12.00 and I am not due.
I guess I have probably spent enough time on here to bore even me. The other day I started reading a good book and it got my creative juices going. I wrote a short story about the night we were almost over run with monkeys in Vietnam. I didn't get a lot of feedback. Read that story and add a comment if the story was something you liked, or not.
MUD
The other day I posted on Facebook a short list of my favorite movies. I think Shaw Shank Redemption, Dances with Wolves, and Forrest Gump are right up there at the top of my list. I will watch them again and again. There were a lot of other movies listed by others but without any little children here at Rabbit Run chances are I won't see Frozen or any of the newer children's movies. In the past, I watched western and about anything that had combat in it. I am about over that when I saw a remake of the Dirty Dozen that was phony as hell. Not a big fan of musicals even though I am a real fan of music. Go Figure...
I am afraid that I am getting spoiled on the taste of coffee. I like a rich dark cup of coffee that doesn't taste burnt or scorched. I don't want it to taste acidic or sweet, just a good cuppa coffee like I get in most restaurants. For a while I have been drinking Folgers's but this last can just doesn't have the right stuff. I did buy it a Sam's club so it might be a little stale. Not to mention I bought a can that is about twice as big as I normally do but as the only coffee drinker here it is bound to go stale long before I finish it. I will launch myself on a new taste test and see if the local roaster (PT's) has a bean that taste's better. I will even go so far as to buy a coffee grinder and keep the beans in the freezer and fresher. We'll see.
On our last trip to the Grocery store, I tried to buy a big old tub of the vanilla ice cream with a fudge ripple. They were out and I bought chocolate. I am ashamed to say that I am also turning into an ice cream snob. I think I need to get some chocolate syrup or hot fudge topping to make it through the rest of the container. I am enough of a poor kid to not throw it out but I do want it to be better. I guess I'll go to the store sometime today and pick up something.
This morning, Barb and I had our almost daily "What's on your Agenda" meetings. It is sad that there is little on my list except a good book. Oh, there are a lot of things I need to do but the rain almost every other day for a week has made it a soggy doggy out there and the Master gardener loves it. Her list looks a lot like mine except my hair cut only costs $12.00 and I am not due.
I guess I have probably spent enough time on here to bore even me. The other day I started reading a good book and it got my creative juices going. I wrote a short story about the night we were almost over run with monkeys in Vietnam. I didn't get a lot of feedback. Read that story and add a comment if the story was something you liked, or not.
MUD
6/08/2014
Chirp!
This morning when we work up, there was a strange chirp coming from an unknown source. Having a slight hearing loss from my years of guns, Artillery, Chain Saws and Mowers, it was difficult to locate where the sound was coming from. I started by standing by all the CO2 and smoke detectors in the house. It sounded a lot like the low battery warning chirp and most of the detectors are plugged directly in to an electrical outlet. The chirp was very fast and about two minutes between chirps. I probably spent 20 minutes walking around trying to locate the culprit. Zip, nada, zilch was the result. I finally narrowed the search down to the kitchen where there is almost nothing that has a battery. Heck, the cell phone was plugged in and charging and wasn't fully charged. As I was looking by the cabinet where the trash can lives, I heard it chirp right in front of me. There is a small container that is a catch all and in that pile was an old CO2 detector that had a low battery. When we replaced the battery operated detectors with plug in models, I simply removed the old one and put it in the pile by the keys holder. Stupid to not remove the battery and even more stupid when I could not locate the Beeping Bastard.
Yesterday the Barbershop Chorus in Kansas City invited the surrounding chapters to go to a KC T-Bones Baseball game and sing the National Anthem. The also put on a darned good feed for everyone and it was pretty fun to meet the other Chapter members. If they do it again next year I will not go as early and take a lawn chair. The group sounded great and the stadium really cheered when we sang. Then we sat back and got to see a lot of entertainment. I swear that every inning had some kind of event as the players warmed up to play. There were races, ball tosses, Air Guitars and laughter by most of the audience. It was a great evening and the stadium was beautiful. The T-bones won against the Laredo Lemurs.
As usual, there was a young couple with kids right behind me. The little boy was between 2 and three and his sister was probably 5. We talked and sang and played and I'm sure the rest of the guys wondered what I was up to. As a grandfather want-a-be, I enjoy little kids. After several innings of this, the mother said she was sorry they were such an intrusion. I told her that I love little kids and enjoyed the time spent laughing and sharing peanuts. I think the little boy and I ate 10 or 11 peanuts with me opening half and him opening half. we would share and each eat one nut. That went fairly well until one peanut shell had only one peanut. I broke it in half and he was satisfied with that solution. I asked him his name an he was Bronson. Cute name for a cute kid. He asked me my name and I told him I was Dennis but he could call me MUD. I told him that it was short for Mean Uncle Denny and then did my best giggle impression. From then on, he called me MUD and we laughed.
Somewhere about the 7th inning it was clear that the kids needed to go home and to bed. When the parents each took one child, they both were shouting, "I don't wanna go." "MUD, save me." Nope, you are on your own kid.
I wouldn't want to have season tickets to a baseball season but it was kind of fun to crowd watch. If you were bored by the slowness of the game, it was fun to watch the young people getting drunk and fetching more beer. I saw that beers were $7.50 for a 12 ounce beer. It must have taken close to $50.00 to get a real buzz on. There was one young lady that was hitting it pretty hard at first and then every inning she had to go pee when she finally ran out of beer money. All in all, I didn't see any cross words exchanged and the fact that no one smoked in the stands was a bonus. If you wanted to smoke you had to go down on the end of the stadium.
It might be fun to see what Barb has cooked up for today. There is an Art Fair at Washburn University and a German Food fest in Oakland. Better get my walking shoes on and get ready to meet the day. Have a great one out there.
Mean Uncle Denny, aka MUD -Giggle, giggle, giggle -Beep
Yesterday the Barbershop Chorus in Kansas City invited the surrounding chapters to go to a KC T-Bones Baseball game and sing the National Anthem. The also put on a darned good feed for everyone and it was pretty fun to meet the other Chapter members. If they do it again next year I will not go as early and take a lawn chair. The group sounded great and the stadium really cheered when we sang. Then we sat back and got to see a lot of entertainment. I swear that every inning had some kind of event as the players warmed up to play. There were races, ball tosses, Air Guitars and laughter by most of the audience. It was a great evening and the stadium was beautiful. The T-bones won against the Laredo Lemurs.
As usual, there was a young couple with kids right behind me. The little boy was between 2 and three and his sister was probably 5. We talked and sang and played and I'm sure the rest of the guys wondered what I was up to. As a grandfather want-a-be, I enjoy little kids. After several innings of this, the mother said she was sorry they were such an intrusion. I told her that I love little kids and enjoyed the time spent laughing and sharing peanuts. I think the little boy and I ate 10 or 11 peanuts with me opening half and him opening half. we would share and each eat one nut. That went fairly well until one peanut shell had only one peanut. I broke it in half and he was satisfied with that solution. I asked him his name an he was Bronson. Cute name for a cute kid. He asked me my name and I told him I was Dennis but he could call me MUD. I told him that it was short for Mean Uncle Denny and then did my best giggle impression. From then on, he called me MUD and we laughed.
Somewhere about the 7th inning it was clear that the kids needed to go home and to bed. When the parents each took one child, they both were shouting, "I don't wanna go." "MUD, save me." Nope, you are on your own kid.
I wouldn't want to have season tickets to a baseball season but it was kind of fun to crowd watch. If you were bored by the slowness of the game, it was fun to watch the young people getting drunk and fetching more beer. I saw that beers were $7.50 for a 12 ounce beer. It must have taken close to $50.00 to get a real buzz on. There was one young lady that was hitting it pretty hard at first and then every inning she had to go pee when she finally ran out of beer money. All in all, I didn't see any cross words exchanged and the fact that no one smoked in the stands was a bonus. If you wanted to smoke you had to go down on the end of the stadium.
It might be fun to see what Barb has cooked up for today. There is an Art Fair at Washburn University and a German Food fest in Oakland. Better get my walking shoes on and get ready to meet the day. Have a great one out there.
Mean Uncle Denny, aka MUD -Giggle, giggle, giggle -Beep
6/07/2014
Just another Night in Vietnam
In spite of what I had been told, I was as bored as I had
ever been in my life. The initial fear I
felt when I entered the world of the jungle was long gone and now things felt
as empty and as dark as the night under triple canopy jungle. I tried to focus on the face of my wife but
after only a few months felt that without the pictures inside my pack, I had a
tough time remembering her face. I had
a pretty good feeling for her touch but here in the dark it was hard to remember
her face. The dampness of the jungle at
night was like a sweat that never went away.
It accumulated not evaporated until everything but me smelled like a
moldy cellar. I smelled so bad that I think I finally stopped smelling
anything.
It had been only a few short days prior that we stopped by a
mountain stream and dug out the soap bars to bathe. At first the guys just got in with their
jungle fatigues on and did their best to get them clean, if you can remember
what that word meant. When they had
scrubbed off the surface mud and some of the smell, they threw their fatigues
over bushes to dry. I then scrubbed the layers of dead skin and
stink off. Almost everyone had some form
of fungus on them and in a kind of funny way the sting of the soap and water
felt kind of good. If you leave the
fungus alone it just spread and really didn't hurt. Do your best to clean it and it hurt like
hell. The medics has long ago ran out of
that smelly white grease that helped clear it up. When we were as clean as we
could get, the next batch of guys were waiting for their turn. It was strange that putting on those warm
jungle fatigues felt like a million dollars.
Now if I had anything to eat but those damned C Rations. Seems
like I had eaten a million cans of Beefsteak and potatoes. If you put enough hot sauce on it was
filling. Tabasco was sent to GI's by the
case load from home. I wonder what Avery
Island there in Louisiana was like.
Probably hot as hell and a lot like Vietnam.
Night time in the jungle was so dark that you had to touch
your nose now and then to help keep yourself together. There was the constant buzz of mosquitoes and
we all hoped that Malaria didn't hurt too much.
We did take those damned little white pills daily and that big orange
sucker on Mondays but we were all afraid all they did was keep us healthy until
we got home. A bead of sweat ran down my
back and I almost laughed as it tickled my butt crack. Then I had that fleeting thought that I sure hoped it was sweat and not one of those
thousand of insects that crawled around on the jungle floor on their nocturnal
feeding hunts.
As a member of the Headquarters team and the assigned
Forward Observer, I, Lt MUD was pulling a radio watch. Once a night for an hour I sat neat the
command fox hole and listened to the radio.
Once every 15 minutes I would do a radio check with each position. I would say "OP 1, radio check." The OP would press the button on his mike and
it would make a hissing sound over the radio.
They called it breaking squelch and it was confirmation that someone was
awake there. I would check each OP and
listen for the acknowledgement. There
had been some banter back in the Headquarters but out in the jungle it was all
business and no bull shit.
Just as the last radio check finished, I realized that in
about 15 minutes I could go back to my little area and try to get some
sleep. Boom!, M-16's firing and then a pop flare went off
on the perimeter. Everyone was awake and
we locked and loaded our M-16's ready to fire at anything. I contacted the firing battery and had a 105 howitzer round on the way in about
15 seconds. The Company Commander slid
into the command fox hole and grabbed the radio. He was checking with the OP's to see what
the hell was going on. The Command net
was filled by the Platoons checking in and just then on the perimeter there was
a shout of don't shoot, patrol coming in.
The OP that the fire started from came into the area still lit up by the
flare.
OK GI what the hell
happened? The three guys were almost too
frightened to talk. One of the three woke
the other two up and said they heard noise in the brush coming their way. They got ready to shoot whomever it was one
of them threw a hand grenade without
telling the others. When the grenade
went off, one of the guys got hit in the hand by shrapnel and that's about the
time they beat feet it back to our perimeter.
Where's the machine gun?
The radio? your stuff? They had
just left everything and came into the safety of our perimeter. By that time, I had the artillery firing out
in the vicinity of the noise and pretty soon everyone wanted into the action. I think I had two full batteries of 105
howitzers and one battery of 155mm howitzers firing all around us. It was pretty damned evident that we had superior
firepower and whatever it was had just left the area. If you think you have ever seen a white man
mad, you should have been there to witness the wrath of that Captain at the
Platoon leader and his three idiots who had been out on the perimeter. They were ordered to immediately go out there
and get the radio and machine gun in their possession and stay the hell out
there the rest of the night. Even the Platoon
leader stayed with them to avoid the Captain.
The next morning, the Company at first light moved in that
direction. The carnage was
terrible. Blood, guts and body parts
were everywhere. It seemed that a troop
of monkeys had been spooked into moving at night and that started the whole
mess. My body count was high but for
some reason out Field Artillery Liaison Officer didn't think that he wanted to
pass on monkey dead in his report. I'll
bet that one incident cost many thousands of dollars and it was only reported
here. DANG, I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.
MUD
What Kind of a Fan Are You?
If Major League Baseball went away tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. I will watch Mixed Marshal Arts fights on TV but wouldn't drive across town to pay to watch. I am ever so glad that the Professional basketball has reached the finals. I am afraid that the season will someday stretch into the training season for the next season. I'll bet they could cut the season down about a month and make almost the same amount of money.
Every year I get to see a little college wrestling and the Softball finals but never seem to get to a game in person. I could watch the entire woman's basketball season for less than the price of one ticket to watch the men. The KU athletic program generates over 90 million and are crying wolf that the students want to cut the $25 Athletic fee off their enrollment fee. That program generates a goodly part of the 13 million dollar excess and I don't think that the loss of $350,000 should unhinge their bubble. I do want one of those extra seats but it is simply "Follow the Money."
I guess I should be glad that there are pockets of good news out there and perhaps sports is one way to take our attention off the problems. Tonight I am going to go to Kansas City to watch the Semi-Pro baseball team play. People tell me that it is the best value for the money. We are going to sing the National Anthem watch a game and eat a BBQ dinner for $12.00 each. Sounds like a bargain to me.
So, I guess I will say that I am a fan of fun, cheap and not too often.
MUD , Take me out to the Ball Game!
Every year I get to see a little college wrestling and the Softball finals but never seem to get to a game in person. I could watch the entire woman's basketball season for less than the price of one ticket to watch the men. The KU athletic program generates over 90 million and are crying wolf that the students want to cut the $25 Athletic fee off their enrollment fee. That program generates a goodly part of the 13 million dollar excess and I don't think that the loss of $350,000 should unhinge their bubble. I do want one of those extra seats but it is simply "Follow the Money."
I guess I should be glad that there are pockets of good news out there and perhaps sports is one way to take our attention off the problems. Tonight I am going to go to Kansas City to watch the Semi-Pro baseball team play. People tell me that it is the best value for the money. We are going to sing the National Anthem watch a game and eat a BBQ dinner for $12.00 each. Sounds like a bargain to me.
So, I guess I will say that I am a fan of fun, cheap and not too often.
MUD , Take me out to the Ball Game!
Is Rush Limbaugh the Cause or the Symptom?
The other day while listening to the radio I heard a part of the Rush Limbaugh show and he had a guest host while he takes some time off. The Guest host was defending Rush from the other side of the house that was calling Rush the cause of our problems. It is my contention that we have so over reacted to other people that we believe that Rush is the cause. The pretty plain truth is that we have become so divided as a society that we have people that listen to one side or the other to hear their side of the argument.
Let me cite a case that is blatantly obvious. Senator John McCain is a war hero, ex-POW and a person that has worked hard to find ways to have legislation that fits the needs of both sides of the house. He and Kennedy worked on legislation together. The Conservatives call him a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. I think the fact that he doesn't write everything from just his side of the aisle is what we need more of.
In my humble opinion, we don't need a lot of new laws every year to enforce or to change the way we are doing things. What we need is a way to try to help the Legislative and Judicial systems make sense of what we have. I may not like President Obama on a personal level, but I do realize he needs some latitude to do his job. The office of the President has to be the toughest job on record. If he goes to Europe to represent us on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, there are veterans that don't want to meet with him. Others say it is a boon doggle and a waste of money. I think it speaks volumes that the President is reaching out to the Veterans of that important day and after all, he is the President.
I hear people talking about the resignation of General Senseki from the VA. There has even been people talking about the need for the President's resignation. I do agree that there is a need to clean up the VA but inside not from the top down. I would offer the Ex-General a chance to clean up the mess and give him a set time limit. No easy way out. I'll bet that General Senseki will soon be playing golf in some sunny place without a worry in the world. What a horrible way to live the rest of his life. Did I tell you I was fired from my last job? Oh poor me, I have to live on my retirement pay here at Rabbit Run.
The other day I called for everyone to let the Military settle the case of the soldier that "Walked Away" from his post and became a five year guest of the Taliban. Considering that they let him live when they are known to cut off the heads of their victims is a hell of a testament of the ability of the young man to be a survivor. Send him home and forget the whole thing. Even if he is convicted of some crime, can Fort Leavenworth be any thing like captivity. Call it time served and move on. I was chastised for just letting him off the hook. Until you have walked in his shoes, can you even have a remote idea what he did or what he went through? The symptom is that in this day of such rapid communication, people think they can fully assess the circumstances and because of the Freedom of speech have the right to convict everyone on the spot. I thought we stopped lynching many decades ago.
The other day, I saw Facebook images of an Angel in the Sky and Jesus on the butt of a dog. How can we believe anything when we all saw Darth Vader cut off the hand of Luke Skywalker? Photoshop has turned us into a land of home made truth tellers with a bag full of tricks. Have you read that a large percentage of eye witnesses are just wrong? Our mind makes up things about as fast as Facebook writers (and a few Bloggers) and can turn perception into truths.
Lighten up people. As long as we take positions diametrically opposed, we will never get this teeter totter anywhere near balanced. We will noisily bang from one side to the other and in spite of what we think, the "Whole World is Watching."
MUD
Let me cite a case that is blatantly obvious. Senator John McCain is a war hero, ex-POW and a person that has worked hard to find ways to have legislation that fits the needs of both sides of the house. He and Kennedy worked on legislation together. The Conservatives call him a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. I think the fact that he doesn't write everything from just his side of the aisle is what we need more of.
In my humble opinion, we don't need a lot of new laws every year to enforce or to change the way we are doing things. What we need is a way to try to help the Legislative and Judicial systems make sense of what we have. I may not like President Obama on a personal level, but I do realize he needs some latitude to do his job. The office of the President has to be the toughest job on record. If he goes to Europe to represent us on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, there are veterans that don't want to meet with him. Others say it is a boon doggle and a waste of money. I think it speaks volumes that the President is reaching out to the Veterans of that important day and after all, he is the President.
I hear people talking about the resignation of General Senseki from the VA. There has even been people talking about the need for the President's resignation. I do agree that there is a need to clean up the VA but inside not from the top down. I would offer the Ex-General a chance to clean up the mess and give him a set time limit. No easy way out. I'll bet that General Senseki will soon be playing golf in some sunny place without a worry in the world. What a horrible way to live the rest of his life. Did I tell you I was fired from my last job? Oh poor me, I have to live on my retirement pay here at Rabbit Run.
The other day I called for everyone to let the Military settle the case of the soldier that "Walked Away" from his post and became a five year guest of the Taliban. Considering that they let him live when they are known to cut off the heads of their victims is a hell of a testament of the ability of the young man to be a survivor. Send him home and forget the whole thing. Even if he is convicted of some crime, can Fort Leavenworth be any thing like captivity. Call it time served and move on. I was chastised for just letting him off the hook. Until you have walked in his shoes, can you even have a remote idea what he did or what he went through? The symptom is that in this day of such rapid communication, people think they can fully assess the circumstances and because of the Freedom of speech have the right to convict everyone on the spot. I thought we stopped lynching many decades ago.
The other day, I saw Facebook images of an Angel in the Sky and Jesus on the butt of a dog. How can we believe anything when we all saw Darth Vader cut off the hand of Luke Skywalker? Photoshop has turned us into a land of home made truth tellers with a bag full of tricks. Have you read that a large percentage of eye witnesses are just wrong? Our mind makes up things about as fast as Facebook writers (and a few Bloggers) and can turn perception into truths.
Lighten up people. As long as we take positions diametrically opposed, we will never get this teeter totter anywhere near balanced. We will noisily bang from one side to the other and in spite of what we think, the "Whole World is Watching."
MUD
6/06/2014
Leadership and Management
Oh no, here he goes again. When something goes bad for the guys in charge, I tend to blame their leadership styles on the failure. I do comprehend that every boss has both a leadership and management component in their job. I just try to distinguish the difference between things and people and focus there.
One of the greatest failures in our current Business schools is they tend to focus on the things that I call management and fail to share the leadership successes. You can measure everything in a business. The question is do you want to or need to? If I were to try to define what is a successful school, I would have some end point to measure. Clearly if half of the sixth graders can't read above the 3rd grade level, that's a failure. If half of the high school students don't graduate, that's a failure. But with that said, most teachers whose very job it is to get to the outcomes don't have input into the ways to achieve these good outcomes. Someone said it is more important to have a Masters Degree in Management than 20 years of practical experience in the class room.
We have a National Standard out there that is professed to tell us what school is failing and what school is not. I don't need a standard to look at the inner city schools and say they aren't as successful as the schools in the better funded districts. What is needed is someone that will look at the differences and see if there is a way we can influence changes that will result in better performance.
The truth of the matter is I don't have all the answers, I am only looking at the symptoms of the disease and saying that to me it is plain that the old axiom is valid. "If you do what you did, you will get what you got." I just want to once see a person that has a Masters Degree in Leadership and Management.
Oh well, I started my day with some poor leadership with Barb and perhaps she will start talking to me by noon. Or not!
MUD
One of the greatest failures in our current Business schools is they tend to focus on the things that I call management and fail to share the leadership successes. You can measure everything in a business. The question is do you want to or need to? If I were to try to define what is a successful school, I would have some end point to measure. Clearly if half of the sixth graders can't read above the 3rd grade level, that's a failure. If half of the high school students don't graduate, that's a failure. But with that said, most teachers whose very job it is to get to the outcomes don't have input into the ways to achieve these good outcomes. Someone said it is more important to have a Masters Degree in Management than 20 years of practical experience in the class room.
We have a National Standard out there that is professed to tell us what school is failing and what school is not. I don't need a standard to look at the inner city schools and say they aren't as successful as the schools in the better funded districts. What is needed is someone that will look at the differences and see if there is a way we can influence changes that will result in better performance.
The truth of the matter is I don't have all the answers, I am only looking at the symptoms of the disease and saying that to me it is plain that the old axiom is valid. "If you do what you did, you will get what you got." I just want to once see a person that has a Masters Degree in Leadership and Management.
Oh well, I started my day with some poor leadership with Barb and perhaps she will start talking to me by noon. Or not!
MUD
6/05/2014
KU Tickets
We just got the annual Williams Fund request for money and with the offer to sell us tickets. The tier 1 Men's tickets are just $ 1,600 each for season tickets. That is about $100 a game. Just to be an equal opportunity fan, the Women's season tickets are less for all the games than one of the Men's games. I'll bet I can get better seating there too.
I am very excited about the Big XII this year. It should be a great race to see who can end the KU streak of 10 Championship Seasons. I think there have been a couple of teams that were real close and one that tied but in the end the Hawks are pretty hard to beat. They have loaded and re-loaded year after year and this year is no exception. In addition to the players they carried over from last year they have a new crop of shooters and players that should be great. Just in time for a new crop of ball handlers to take over, the point guard that everyone loved to hate left and it should be fun to watch. In case you don't know, Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden are a pretty darned good core to build on and I wanted to use their names as the kind of people that came back for a another year.
The only thing I hate about Men's Basketball here in Kansas is that every time an NBA Coach leaves, the pundits always bring up Bill Self's name as a prospect to replace them. If anyone was alive a couple of years back, if all the money in Oklahoma couldn't entice him to leave, he is pretty much going to stay where he is. T-Boone Pickens threw enough money at OK State to build a new stadium and hire God if he wanted to coach there. I have it on good authority that when he found out that Bill Self was the first choice, God turned the offer down.
Oh well, back to the coal mine.
MUD
I am very excited about the Big XII this year. It should be a great race to see who can end the KU streak of 10 Championship Seasons. I think there have been a couple of teams that were real close and one that tied but in the end the Hawks are pretty hard to beat. They have loaded and re-loaded year after year and this year is no exception. In addition to the players they carried over from last year they have a new crop of shooters and players that should be great. Just in time for a new crop of ball handlers to take over, the point guard that everyone loved to hate left and it should be fun to watch. In case you don't know, Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden are a pretty darned good core to build on and I wanted to use their names as the kind of people that came back for a another year.
The only thing I hate about Men's Basketball here in Kansas is that every time an NBA Coach leaves, the pundits always bring up Bill Self's name as a prospect to replace them. If anyone was alive a couple of years back, if all the money in Oklahoma couldn't entice him to leave, he is pretty much going to stay where he is. T-Boone Pickens threw enough money at OK State to build a new stadium and hire God if he wanted to coach there. I have it on good authority that when he found out that Bill Self was the first choice, God turned the offer down.
Oh well, back to the coal mine.
MUD
Rain and Great Weather
For a little over a week we had pretty darned hot weather and fairly high humidity. Today is the start of about a week of 70's and a light breeze. The only problem with this weather is that when a warm front comes up from the south and it meets a cold front from the north, the air tends to sit and spin here in the heartland. Having been in a tornado, I fully know what it is like to have your house blown down. Not the best day of our lives.
This morning it is raining and I can see where the gutters need some work. I put gutter guards on and mostly it has just made the junk inside hard to see and even harder to clean out. If I could figure out a way to remove them and use the power washer to clean, things would be better. Perhaps. I put in a new window at Dave's house the other day and it was pretty easy to see that climbing up and down a ladder is just not the way old retired farts should pass the time.
For the second time with a ladder, I have found that I stepped off the second step not the bottom rung. I would blame it on the bifocals but I'm pretty sure that with my stiff neck, I probably didn't really look behind me. One real problem of the lack of young kids that need the money and are really willing to work. One of the kids I had hoped to put to work is with his grandparents in Las Vegas. I sure hope he comes back to Kansas too tired to volunteer to do that again.
The D-Day landing was 70 years ago tomorrow. Even the youngest survivors of that War has to be close or past 90. I never made any large "landings" in the service but going into a hot LZ in Vietnam could increase your pucker factor significantly. Just a quick quote, "War is Hell." I would add the Petty Corollary, "War is Binary, either you get it or you don't." I would love to say that the well trained soldiers stand a better chance but ask anyone that has been there and they will tell you that training doesn't surpass luck. I hope you all have a thought or two over this weekend about the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen that helped end WWII. Just for kicks and giggles, try to remember the families of those service members as they stayed home and worried - a lot.
Our Chorus Director is going to France tomorrow. I sure hope he has a good time and the French people try to act nice to a fine young man and his family. I sent him off this last Tuesday with a couple of dollars and told him to buy the first bottle of wine on me. I had to give up drinking but that doesn't mean that I want anyone else to stop. I laugh and tell people that I come from a family of Large Livers not long livers. Dad's liver pretty much gave out on him back in the 70's after a bout of Rocky Mountain Tick fever that became hepatitis. His liver was criss crossed with scar tissue and even a ride in a car hurt. I remember driving him in Wichita one spring when the pot holes were in bloom and listening to him let slip a small moan every time we hit a pot hole. Not the way I would want to live.
Oh well, perhaps and perchance there are things that need to be done inside this morning.
MUD
This morning it is raining and I can see where the gutters need some work. I put gutter guards on and mostly it has just made the junk inside hard to see and even harder to clean out. If I could figure out a way to remove them and use the power washer to clean, things would be better. Perhaps. I put in a new window at Dave's house the other day and it was pretty easy to see that climbing up and down a ladder is just not the way old retired farts should pass the time.
For the second time with a ladder, I have found that I stepped off the second step not the bottom rung. I would blame it on the bifocals but I'm pretty sure that with my stiff neck, I probably didn't really look behind me. One real problem of the lack of young kids that need the money and are really willing to work. One of the kids I had hoped to put to work is with his grandparents in Las Vegas. I sure hope he comes back to Kansas too tired to volunteer to do that again.
The D-Day landing was 70 years ago tomorrow. Even the youngest survivors of that War has to be close or past 90. I never made any large "landings" in the service but going into a hot LZ in Vietnam could increase your pucker factor significantly. Just a quick quote, "War is Hell." I would add the Petty Corollary, "War is Binary, either you get it or you don't." I would love to say that the well trained soldiers stand a better chance but ask anyone that has been there and they will tell you that training doesn't surpass luck. I hope you all have a thought or two over this weekend about the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen that helped end WWII. Just for kicks and giggles, try to remember the families of those service members as they stayed home and worried - a lot.
Our Chorus Director is going to France tomorrow. I sure hope he has a good time and the French people try to act nice to a fine young man and his family. I sent him off this last Tuesday with a couple of dollars and told him to buy the first bottle of wine on me. I had to give up drinking but that doesn't mean that I want anyone else to stop. I laugh and tell people that I come from a family of Large Livers not long livers. Dad's liver pretty much gave out on him back in the 70's after a bout of Rocky Mountain Tick fever that became hepatitis. His liver was criss crossed with scar tissue and even a ride in a car hurt. I remember driving him in Wichita one spring when the pot holes were in bloom and listening to him let slip a small moan every time we hit a pot hole. Not the way I would want to live.
Oh well, perhaps and perchance there are things that need to be done inside this morning.
MUD
6/04/2014
Topeka Cares
Yesterday at the Fairlawn Mall, the City of Topeka had a celebration of all the organizations that provide services to the city of Topeka. To add to the celebration, the Barbershop Chorus did a fifteen minute set and it went well. The Chorus was in the entrance to a vacant store and we crowded in a space that was just about the right size to let us all hear each other. It was kind of hot but a very good place to sing. Then I got a chance to tour the booths and got to meet a lot of nice people from Topeka.
The Topeka High Alumni Association had a booth and I looked at their displays. I mentioned that My Uncle, Mr. Lee had been a math teacher there and the person behind the booth said she loved Hazen. He was one of the best teachers she had in school. She had gone from a person that hated math to a really good student. That about says it all for a teacher. Convert the unwashed masses to your cause and you have done your job.
Speaking of doing their job. I listened to an NPR discussion about the National Standards for schools and have really mixed feelings. I have said for years there needed to be a way to have some expectations of the outcome of school and a way to measure what is taught with what is expected at the end. I guess that the National Standards is trying to do this but it is being done in a short period where I expected it to be over a several year period. What is really happening is that there is a move for text book alignment at every level and I'm not sure if the steps are as strict as some people are making it. For example, does understanding decimals in the fifth grade really where it should happen? I remember seeing a set of drill bits in the 9th grade that were expressed in fractions and in decimals and that was really the first time it all made sense. Prior to that, I kinds knew fractions and I kind of knew decimals but never had tied them together. In the end, I understood but where does it say that all children need to understand at each grade level?
Another area I have trouble with is the method of teaching. A lot of my school years was spent in a lecture conference type environment. They talked, we asked questions and did homework. I managed to graduate from that system but I was more of a group learner and really shined when a group of us would study a subject together and then make presentations. You really have to know a subject if you are going to teach it. I think I was lost in the system where they taught Spanish. Instead of really using it and trying to live it, it was taught like the English classes where we had to know verbs and their tenses without really knowing where to use it as a practical experience. I hated it and learned more Spanish by accident after that class than I ever did in the class.
It was kind of funny that one of the Country Western singers here for a concert took a selfies with the Westboro Baptist Group. He and the news media thought it was a neat thing. Had they only known that almost every group that ever performed in Topeka did the same thing. In my humble opinion, they should just ignore those people as they grow in the light and they are really cockroaches that should live in the dark and scurry away in the light. The sure as hell don't represent the loving and caring city I live in. They represent religion in the manner of the refuse flushed down a urinal in a bar. They may have started in the same place but they have gone places, I don't care to go. They sure as heck say things that I find offensive. At least the city of Topeka has made them take their sign posts off the signs as they do look a lot like weapons. Peaceful assembly is without clubs people.
Oh well, better get rolling, miles to go and things to do. Kiss the kids for us and keep a smile on your face. Even if it is just to make them wonder what you have been up to.
MUD
The Topeka High Alumni Association had a booth and I looked at their displays. I mentioned that My Uncle, Mr. Lee had been a math teacher there and the person behind the booth said she loved Hazen. He was one of the best teachers she had in school. She had gone from a person that hated math to a really good student. That about says it all for a teacher. Convert the unwashed masses to your cause and you have done your job.
Speaking of doing their job. I listened to an NPR discussion about the National Standards for schools and have really mixed feelings. I have said for years there needed to be a way to have some expectations of the outcome of school and a way to measure what is taught with what is expected at the end. I guess that the National Standards is trying to do this but it is being done in a short period where I expected it to be over a several year period. What is really happening is that there is a move for text book alignment at every level and I'm not sure if the steps are as strict as some people are making it. For example, does understanding decimals in the fifth grade really where it should happen? I remember seeing a set of drill bits in the 9th grade that were expressed in fractions and in decimals and that was really the first time it all made sense. Prior to that, I kinds knew fractions and I kind of knew decimals but never had tied them together. In the end, I understood but where does it say that all children need to understand at each grade level?
Another area I have trouble with is the method of teaching. A lot of my school years was spent in a lecture conference type environment. They talked, we asked questions and did homework. I managed to graduate from that system but I was more of a group learner and really shined when a group of us would study a subject together and then make presentations. You really have to know a subject if you are going to teach it. I think I was lost in the system where they taught Spanish. Instead of really using it and trying to live it, it was taught like the English classes where we had to know verbs and their tenses without really knowing where to use it as a practical experience. I hated it and learned more Spanish by accident after that class than I ever did in the class.
It was kind of funny that one of the Country Western singers here for a concert took a selfies with the Westboro Baptist Group. He and the news media thought it was a neat thing. Had they only known that almost every group that ever performed in Topeka did the same thing. In my humble opinion, they should just ignore those people as they grow in the light and they are really cockroaches that should live in the dark and scurry away in the light. The sure as hell don't represent the loving and caring city I live in. They represent religion in the manner of the refuse flushed down a urinal in a bar. They may have started in the same place but they have gone places, I don't care to go. They sure as heck say things that I find offensive. At least the city of Topeka has made them take their sign posts off the signs as they do look a lot like weapons. Peaceful assembly is without clubs people.
Oh well, better get rolling, miles to go and things to do. Kiss the kids for us and keep a smile on your face. Even if it is just to make them wonder what you have been up to.
MUD
6/01/2014
Can You Imagine?
What is the duration or time of the effect of your work?
When I worked in a gas station, I would have a customer arrive, take their order for gas and send them on their way. At the Phillips 66 station, we focused on customer service and would even vacuum the front floor if the customer desired. It was still a short time from arrival to departure. When I moved out to Rock Road and Kellogg, on Friday and Saturday nights people would stop in to get a dollar's worth of gas just to have me clean their window as they were going to the drive-in theater across the street. If they were smokers (in the 60's most were) I would even offer to clean the inside of the windshield. Lots of times the kids would just fog up the windshield with steam but at least they could see to get there.
In College I worked as a clerk at a Safeway store and the time it took to service a customer was dependent on the day of the week and the time of the day. Saturday was always hectic as most families would do their shopping for the week then. I would have to ring up full shopping carts and it would take about 15 minutes. During the week people would stop by and the later they shopped, the more it would turn into a junk food run. The absolute worst day was the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. You would think they had never been in a store before. Carts and carts of food would go through the check stand.
In the Army, early in my career there was a focus on doing things right and right now. A few soldiers could beat back an ambush if done early. We were a lot more react rather than think the problem through.
As an Artillery Observer, there was never any time off for good behavior. I had to know where we were and where the Artillery was and be able to put steel on target at all times. That went on for a year and I didn't start to really make plans and perform jobs that I planned until I was a Captain. The one thing I learned was that if I have been someplace 99% of the time I can get there again. I have an excellent sense of direction, even if I do get lost because I try to go places in a different route a lot.
After finishing my degree at KU, I went to work for the national Guard full time and most of my jobs included the word "Plans". That is hours and hours of trying to describe what and where to do things in detail. I had a good imagination and could always find something that was a little different than the last plan. The only part that I really hated was that I knew that most plans would change as soon as the first bullet flies. (or the operation began) The ineptness of the person performing the duties had a lot more impact on the operation than my plans did.
When I first moved to a job at the State level, I had just completed a plan for the Guard response to the Political Party Convention in Kansas City. The detail was agonizing and because I had to plan to suit the Law enforcement officials it was re-written several times. To our good luck, it was a cake walk and all went well. Didn't hurt that my name was all over that plan. OPLAN Stone Arena in case a copy ever shows up again.
Right after I got to the State Level, I was given the job of writing the Guard Response to the Nuclear Power Plant near Burlington. I got to travel there and was one of the last people from outside the Plant to get to go into the reactor chamber before they loaded the uranium rods. I just loved how the plant was double and triple redundant until you got where the plant actually generated electricity. After hours of walking through complex places, there sat a generator all by its lonesome and that's where all the time and effort made money. Simple and efficient. For the most part, the Guard only put up road blocks out about 50 miles and told people to stay out of that perimeter. The most complex part was the fact there was a lake in one area and there were about a hundred little lake roads. The rest of Kansas is roads going north and south about a mile apart.
After I retired from the Guard, I went to work at a Call Center teaching Customer Service. Every 6 weeks, I would get a new 25 students and that went on for about 3 years. I think I got better each time I taught the classes and I am pretty sure that my students were prepared to go out and do the job when they left my care. The funny part is that in spite of all the good work I did there, it was the only job I was ever fired from. Can you imagine that?
Now at the end of my time, the impact I have on the world is getting more and more local and less and less important. Shoot, I don't even have a dog or a cat to help become civilized. I guess the grass mowing and window replacing I do will never make the newspapers but I'm out here having fun.
MUD
When I worked in a gas station, I would have a customer arrive, take their order for gas and send them on their way. At the Phillips 66 station, we focused on customer service and would even vacuum the front floor if the customer desired. It was still a short time from arrival to departure. When I moved out to Rock Road and Kellogg, on Friday and Saturday nights people would stop in to get a dollar's worth of gas just to have me clean their window as they were going to the drive-in theater across the street. If they were smokers (in the 60's most were) I would even offer to clean the inside of the windshield. Lots of times the kids would just fog up the windshield with steam but at least they could see to get there.
In College I worked as a clerk at a Safeway store and the time it took to service a customer was dependent on the day of the week and the time of the day. Saturday was always hectic as most families would do their shopping for the week then. I would have to ring up full shopping carts and it would take about 15 minutes. During the week people would stop by and the later they shopped, the more it would turn into a junk food run. The absolute worst day was the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. You would think they had never been in a store before. Carts and carts of food would go through the check stand.
In the Army, early in my career there was a focus on doing things right and right now. A few soldiers could beat back an ambush if done early. We were a lot more react rather than think the problem through.
As an Artillery Observer, there was never any time off for good behavior. I had to know where we were and where the Artillery was and be able to put steel on target at all times. That went on for a year and I didn't start to really make plans and perform jobs that I planned until I was a Captain. The one thing I learned was that if I have been someplace 99% of the time I can get there again. I have an excellent sense of direction, even if I do get lost because I try to go places in a different route a lot.
After finishing my degree at KU, I went to work for the national Guard full time and most of my jobs included the word "Plans". That is hours and hours of trying to describe what and where to do things in detail. I had a good imagination and could always find something that was a little different than the last plan. The only part that I really hated was that I knew that most plans would change as soon as the first bullet flies. (or the operation began) The ineptness of the person performing the duties had a lot more impact on the operation than my plans did.
When I first moved to a job at the State level, I had just completed a plan for the Guard response to the Political Party Convention in Kansas City. The detail was agonizing and because I had to plan to suit the Law enforcement officials it was re-written several times. To our good luck, it was a cake walk and all went well. Didn't hurt that my name was all over that plan. OPLAN Stone Arena in case a copy ever shows up again.
Right after I got to the State Level, I was given the job of writing the Guard Response to the Nuclear Power Plant near Burlington. I got to travel there and was one of the last people from outside the Plant to get to go into the reactor chamber before they loaded the uranium rods. I just loved how the plant was double and triple redundant until you got where the plant actually generated electricity. After hours of walking through complex places, there sat a generator all by its lonesome and that's where all the time and effort made money. Simple and efficient. For the most part, the Guard only put up road blocks out about 50 miles and told people to stay out of that perimeter. The most complex part was the fact there was a lake in one area and there were about a hundred little lake roads. The rest of Kansas is roads going north and south about a mile apart.
After I retired from the Guard, I went to work at a Call Center teaching Customer Service. Every 6 weeks, I would get a new 25 students and that went on for about 3 years. I think I got better each time I taught the classes and I am pretty sure that my students were prepared to go out and do the job when they left my care. The funny part is that in spite of all the good work I did there, it was the only job I was ever fired from. Can you imagine that?
Now at the end of my time, the impact I have on the world is getting more and more local and less and less important. Shoot, I don't even have a dog or a cat to help become civilized. I guess the grass mowing and window replacing I do will never make the newspapers but I'm out here having fun.
MUD
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