Pictures

If you come to our front door here at rabbit Run, be careful to not step on the front porch cat. I think he has delusions about becoming a house cat but "I don't think so!, Tiger". Perhaps we should consider changing the name to cat sleep from rabbit run.

All I know is white flowers. No, I don't care to even bend over and read the tag.

Our Lake Shawnee park gardens are about the best in the world. They have one garden area that is just about the best. Yes, I know it costs a lot to keep our park pretty but what the heck do I care.

Yep, you got it, red flowers!

Another pretty park picture. See why I love to go there and ride? Yes, Barb stops about half way and takes pictures and I can ride like the wind and get in as many as 12 miles while she enjoys the flowers.

This picture is to show you why one part of the ride is dangerous. People love to bring a loaf of bread and feed the ducks and geese. It isn't the birds on the bike path that is dangerous, it is goose poop that is slippery as all get out and without fenders has a tendency to fly up. If you holler at the geese you are likely to get a mouthful. Hate it when that happens!

MUD

Great Day for a Ride

Barb took this picture of me doing what I love to do. The Bent bike is so much fun to ride that I'll bet I have a smile on my face a mile wide. I have Kenny to thank for helping me stay young.

We put the bikes in the back of the truck because the roads to the lake are so narrow and hilly that people going fast can get right on top of you before they even know you are there. Rather safe than sorry. Yes, it does increase my carbon footprint but I don't care.

This is how I feel before I ride. Barb made this cute little panda bear cake for her demonstration yesterday. Does he look a little like me with that smile? I think Barb is unduly influenced by me.

Bucket List

As I mentioned earlier, here are some of the things on my Bucket List:

• Family. Somewhere out there is a child that needs a grandfather and when and if that happens, I will be complete. Qualifications, giggles and the ability to give and get hugs. Color, black white pink purple or indifferent. (Well, I'm not sure about the purple now that I write it)
• Money. We are pretty set for now and only when we have to start making mandatory withdrawals at 70 will it be a tax problem. (I also base this on the fact that the Government isn't taking too much yet) At some time maintaining rental houses will be a problem and there will be a conversion from real estate to some other form of investment. I still buy lottery tickets but would probably just get myself into more trouble than it would be worth. I think I buy them more for the fantasy of what I would do than the reality that I will probably never win.
  
• Travel. I have seen most of the world but I guess there are a few places I want to take my camera to shoot. Perhaps if I rent a travel trailer once I might get that idea out of my mind. Seems like a good idea on the surface. I know Barb hates the idea of hauling our home with us. I hear Yellowstone is a good visit. Perhaps Zion and Yosemite.
  
• Education. If you have never taken an Elder Hostel trip you have missed the fact that you are never too old to learn a few new tricks. I doubt that I will take and formal Graduate level classes but I do intend to continue some form of learning. I really don't want to take any more digital Photography classes but they always hold those where it is great to take pictures.
  
• Things. We have almost filled 3,000 sq feet with things and if I add more things I will need more space not things. I know that Barb would love to have a barn and I want a metal storage bldg/shop. Somewhere in there is a solution. Haven't found it yet.
  
• Transportation. I have had my one new car for this lifetime so now we will need to be looking for used transportation. Good mileage, not high test gas, big enough for me and if possible heated leather seats for Barb. Something about warm buns on cold days just works for her. It would be nice if I could improve the mileage on the older beasts I love to drive.
  
• Health. I am at the age where I am looking at all the aches and pains and wondering what caused that. I do get an annual physical and regular teeth cleaning. My Doctor and i do share the goal of having medications for the problem areas and not being able to tell I am taking anything. A little high blood pressure and a cholesterol reading a little high are the only problems but well under control.
  
• Das Booke. There is a book full of things I would like to write but for now I am using this blog as my outlet. I write a chapter for the book now and then but so far have it only in the memory of me and the computer. Perhaps if and when I get it organized I might try to do something with it all.
  
• Life and Death. We have discussed what we want and what the end will look like. We neither one want some permanent marker in some remote graveyard. Cremation with some scattering of ashes is our solution. Barb wants to be in some garden somewhere and personally I don't care. The appropriate solution is to be scattered in some Artillery Impact Zone somewhere but not sure how that could/would be done.
  

Enough of this crap, I might even begin to think it is important what the heck my list looks like. These are just ideas and the reality is things will happen and I darned sure better like what happens not pine for some list of things to do. Mom had a poster on the back of her bathroom door that said, "It is better to like the things you have than wish for what you want".

MUD

Minor Comment Correction

How was I to know that one of the 11,000 people reading this crap was my better half? How was I to know she might modify her behavior if I commented about the daily agenda interrogation? As I look back on it, she was very silent last night and I might have even been given the silent treatment if I had noticed. She is off to Michael's again today for one of her busy days doing demonstrations. This morning she has one for the kids and this afternoon she has a Wilton Cake Decorating demonstration. I guess in July there is a 50% off coupon for the class and a $10 off coupon and both can be used making the enrollment about $7.00. There is some kind of class kit but hey if you want to do cute things, you need the right tools.

In the past two weeks, there has been rain about every day. Things are soggy out there. On the days where the rain is not predicted, it has been windy as a new front is due the next day. I may have to break down on a windy day and just paint the Valley Brook house with a roller. I have this really great spray gun but I don't want to have to re-paint the neighbor's car just to save a little time.

I also have some summer projects here at Rabbit run that will be on the schedule right after the painting is done. (and the roofing at the rental houses - may have to have that hired) There is a wisteria support (pergola?) and some work on the deck needed. I probably should put up that short section of the fence Barb has asked for each year for four or five years. It might cause the delivery people to put packages on the front porch instead of the patio. I have even found them on the front seat of the truck. Yes, I do have a three car garage and can only park two cars inside.

I noticed that each time I open this blog to edit something I misspelled or to check the comments the counter goes up by one. I guess the guests I have is probably nearer to 10,500 if I subtract out my own visits. Nope, I will take full credit for the entire 11,000 just as I take full credit for making 100% of this stuff up. So There!

Better get moving on, as I'm burning daylight. (The strange saying post is in the offering)

MUD

Happy Birthday!

This my Uncle Warren, My sister Myrna Sue and her husband Ray. Today is Sue's Birthday.
Happy Birthday Sis!

I Can Has Cheezeburgers Tribute to K-State

more cat pictures

I have a Dream

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

Martin L King would tell you that I am not a racist for judging Barry Obama for his Character. I would be a racist if I voted for or against him because of his skin color. I don't believe Barry and or Hillary or a ticket with both represents the kind of character I want in the white house.

MUD

11,000 Visitors

In April of this year I crossed the 10,000 mark for visitors to my blog site. Here it is early in June and I have crossed the 11,000 mark. I would like to thank all of you that stop by to read a little and learn probably less. Remember that I promised that you would have to have you built-in Crap Detector on if you really expect to have pearls of wisdom when you leave.

What I write was to be filtered by memories and time but probably are more the result of what crossed the front of my mind fall out through my fingers on this page. I am working on a couple of things for future posts. One is my Bucket List and the other is the compendium of curious sayings that I have run into.

To all of you out there in the words of "He Haw" Salute!

MUD

Not This Time!

Yesterday the weather was all lined up to give us a series of nasty Tornadoes. About 4 PM the weather radar showed a big wide red line from Altus, OK (Where my blog buddy 2 dogs was) to Omaha. As the evening progressed, that line rushed storms to the north and east. We had the first blow start here about 8:15 and by 9:30 it was over. Lots of wind, a little lightening but no tornado clouds as the front passed here. There was some cyclonic action north and west of here but mostly it was just gusty winds and rains here. Just what we needed, more rain. The weatherman is predicting 20% to 40% chance of rain all this next week.

In the old days (perhaps younger days would be more appropriate) there was never any questions like w'atch y'a goin' to do today. Duh! Go to work. Now it is like the daily inquisition. Agenda hell, I might take the day off. It always happens when Barb runs out of books that she will get busy and expect me to do the same. Oh well,...

Do you have a home safe? Where do you keep your important stuff? I have a fireproof safe but it mostly is full of slides and CD's with pictures on it. I have a gun safe for my handguns. It is hidden so well that I often forget it is in there. I have the combination written down somewhere so I can get it open if I need to. I just hope I don't forget where the heck that is. A couple of my guns are in the Military Museum out at Forbes Field. I have a .38 Police special that has most of the bluing still on it and it looks almost new. It came from the State Militia as one of the weapons they bought when the Guard was Mobilized in 1940. Those guns stayed in the State safe until the early 90's when we needed the room to expand. They sold off all the pistols and some really prime machine guns. There were several Thompson .45 cal Machine Guns and a slew of "Rising Automatic Rifles" Those guns went back to the days of Bonnie and Clyde driving all across the Heartland robbing banks. Without a proper license for Automatic Weapons I wasn't even in the hunt for one of those.

One of these days I am going to work on my bucket list again. You know, that list of the things you would like to accomplish before you die. I admit that I have a lot of the things on my list done but there are probably a few things I want to do. One minor thing I want to do is get some kind of a motor home or camper and visit a few of the National parks. No, I don't want one to have forever, just borrow one or rent one for some trips. I have traveled millions of miles in America but mostly to go to or from visits with relatives. Just once I want to start out to "Go" and end "there". Yes, Barb will probably want to know what's on my agenda today.... Wait, isn't that how this discussion started. Oh Well.
MUD

Tornado Threat

If you lived in the Heartland and didn't live under a rock, you could walk outside and just know the threat for serious weather is high. The convergance of warm moist air from the south and an active cold front from the north is upon us and is almost a match for the 1974 period that brought us almost 30 tornado outbreaks. The picture above is what you will see if there has been a lot of rain and the tornado is over anything but a plowed field. In fact one small one like the one that destroyed our house in 1983 is hard to see in the city. It is those dramatic F-4s that suck up plowed ground and are black like licorice that get all the press. In fact I saw our tornado from about three blocks away and it looked like a flock of drunk birds. It took me a while to realize that those birds were shingles and when I saw a roof explode and the couch cushions in the funnel were a good warning to get my ass inside and hide.

The part of the weather that really makes me leery is wind blowing from several directions and changing quickly. We are having 30 MPH gusts and the trees are doing a modern dance ballet to the nutcracker called Myrah. Don't ask me what that means, I just made it up.

I hope we escape bad weather but if there is, just remember that you read about it here.

MUD

Tribute to Ray's Buddie, Ernie

Ernie fought his last battle with one of those damn copperheads. I'm sure that Ray and sis, Sue, miss him.

Question?

What does 2 1/2 tons of gravel, a shovel and a 95 degree day have in common? Yep, you guessed it the biggest dummy in Tecumseh! ME.
MUD

New Visitor

This is the first year I have seen an indigo bunting. You need to see one when the sun is brightly shining. need to wear sunglasses when you do.
MUD

Good Stuff in our Life!

We have "adopted" the daughters of our good friends Julie & Gerald as our Granddaughters. They have just finished the book series "Little House on the Prairie" and to help their play, Barb made some dresses for them. After looking at the bonnet pattern Barb decided to buy rather than make but as you can see, our little prairie girls look great. We are looking forward to seeing them in July as they return for a visit after two years abroad.
MUD

What Does It All Mean?

One big question that sits on the front porch waiting for a sucker punch is not Uncle Remus's Tar Baby but the looming election. One one side we have a black candidate that the far right has painted as the most liberal Senator in Congress and who is very inexperienced. On the other side we have an old white dude that is as near and dear to a clone to Bush as can be had. Thank god we almost have the question of a Clinton in the White House almost settled.

So, what does this change mean? I listened as a bunch of you said we were going into Iraq because of Oil. Well shit oh dear, that stuff is at least three times as expensive as before the war started so that wasn't the answer. We argue about WMD's but we all know here was time to move them to anywhere else. If you think they aren't capable of doing that, how about the Iraq airplanes parked in Iran during the first war in the early 90's. If my history serves me, Iran was the "mortal" enemy of Iraq and they had fought a long protracted war. They shared when it came to opposition to us.

The economy is in shambles because of the neglect of our government that started way before Bush. We have let our corporations move their Headquarters and manufacturing jobs go overseas without any thought to the effect on the economy. We allow China to import goods at a cost we know is below wholesale. That just destroys any chance we have of maintaining our jobs.

If you want to really see what it is that is killing us, try 12,000,000 barrels of oil coming into the US each day. That is a net import of oil for dollars that just leaks out of our country without anyone in charge saying thats a bad deal for us. I think the Jeremiah Wright, the Lapel Pin and the Health Care issues are made up to keep us from looking square in the face and saying what the hell are we going to do.

Every time the world has needed us to step up and bail France out of a war we have have responded. Now it is our turn to turn our economy around and help ourselves. It won't be from SUV's that at their best get 18 MPG. It will be a concerted effort to make cars that get at least 40 MPG and darn fewer of them. It will be to open our drilling into the Alaskan wilderness and along our coasts. In fact, drill anywhere we can find oil. We need to declare war on sources of power and bring them on line. If our 104 nuclear plants needs to be 208 to get there , get started. Wind turbines, Solar cell banks with some form of storage and whatever the hell it takes, but someone needs to stand up and lead.

I don't see anyone in the current leadership race that will stand up and make these happen. In fact, I don't see anyone that will stand up and tell the people we need to change our ways. Victory Gardens, conservation and savings is the change we need to start heading the right way.

Rant over,
MUD

Rain, Rain and Mo' Rain

About 11 AM most of the local TV stations went into full time storm watch mode. It looked like a couple of big cells were converging over Fort Riley and headed this way. Manhattan which is almost between, had softball sized hail and it looked like we were in for it. With a part of the storm south of us the first sign it was bad was the loss of the satellite TV. About noon the rain started and our power went out. For a stormy 20 minutes it rained,blew and got almost as dark as nightfall. The trees shook in different directions at the same time. For some reason the hail stayed away but there was a good two inches of rain fell in that short 20 minutes.

All is wet now and nothing blew away. Thank heavens. Won't have to water the plants for a couple of days.

MUD

Races This Weekend

Unless you live under a rock in Topeka, you couldn't miss the coverage of the O'Reilly Auto drag races this weekend. This is another weekend when semi trailers are everywhere and almost all of the hotel rooms are full all the way to Kansas City. As I looked through the paper this morning, from the front page to the last of the sports pages it hogged the news. The front page had coverage of the accident in the parking lot where a couple were run down by a pick-up speeding out of the parking lot. An elderly woman was killed and the husband had to be extricated our from under the truck after the accident. Facts were mentioned that may or may not have been associated with the accident. The truck had a handicapped tag hanging from the rear view mirror.There was a nearby pile of beer cans. The editor of that article should be hit with a typewriter ribbon even if half of today's readers don't know what the hell that is.

What brings this up to me is the fact that the new managing editor of the local paper was on the local talk radio channel about six months ago and I asked him about the over-coverage of the drag races and the under-coverage of the spring regatta at Lake Shawnee. He assured me that he would work on the balance and do his best to make sure that Topeka had fair and equal coverage. I guess the newspaper reporters can't ge free beer and food at the lake. The days after the regatta not one line of print about how the local or the KC boat club performed. I am sure that the rowing cub and college team members far outnumbered the fans at the race. I'll bet they brought a lot of money to Topeka judging from the long lines at the Wanamaker restaurants on that Saturday night. I'm not sure what the hotel situation was like. It seems like a lot of the rowers camped out at the lake. (poor college students can eat but beds at a hotel are perhaps beyond the support of the college) Could be that some of the kids were there to guard the boats. Those little lightweight boats sell pretty high by the pound. If my memory serves me correctly Jenn could have bought a bass boat for what her little single cost. Perhaps not the motor and trailer but sure could have bought the boat.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Kids had their 6th anniversary yesterday. We had them and our other "adopted" daughter Mel over for dinner. I marinated and grilled chicken breasts and burgers. I did a spring vegetable medley of new potatoes, asparagus, broccoli and zucchini squash. Barb did a cake and made some carrot cake cup-cakes for dessert. I would brag about the sliced strawberries and fresh pineapple but somehow the sweetness of one just made the other taste bitter. Needed some sweetener and I hate to do that to fresh fruit. All in all it was a mighty tasty fare and no one complained about not enough or bad food. I guess if you try to make each part taste good, the whole generally comes together.

Barb put some of her Master Gardner skills together at the kids house and really made their front garden look nice. We put in some edgers along the walk and covered the bare dirt with some cedar mulch. Barb dug up some of her Kansas Native plants and added a couple of new plants from the local nursery.

Better run and see if I can get a few things done today.

MUD

Has it Been a Year?

About a year ago, our son Dave and the other Barbara Petty renewed their vows on the Command Deck of the Starship Enterprise in the Hilton, Las Vegas, NV. We had a good time but my Barb was having a little trouble with her back. It wasn't as much fun because of that but all in all it was a good time.

I am a Kansas JayHawk fan and I love to watch the former JayHawks as they move on to the NBA. While I was not a Boston Celtic fan, I do love to watch Paul Pierce play. With their two new players they added this year they have managed to put together a team worth watching. The season has finally (and I do mean finally) reached a climax, it will be the LA Lakers vs the Boston Celtics in the finals for all the marbles. It won't start until Thursday but hey, I'll watch the last few games. With our KC Royals just breaking a 12 game losing streak, what else is there to watch? Tennis? Nah!


MUD

Automotive Obfuscation

Tom & Ray Magliozzi

The local NPR station carries the automotive program "Click and Clack, the tappet brothers". They laugh with each other and make up solutions to car problems when unsuspecting callers relate their woes. As I sit here writing I am trying to pay attention to their witty banter as well as write whatever crosses the front of my mind and falls out on this page. They related the latest puzzler and said they have obfuscatory rights from the person that sent in the puzzler. For a couple of guys with higher degrees they sound like they have eighth grade education. No matter what they say it is always worth a laugh. I have always thought that My brother-in-law and I could do the same kind of program with him giving good advice and me making stuff up and laughing. I doubt that we could last long as he would just have to sucker punch me with a socket wrench and walk away disgusted.
I looked Tom & Ray up on line and they have a lot of experience and education. In fact they run a shop where people can bring their car in and do the work themselves. It started as a local Boston talk radio program and grew from there. According to one of the fund raisers it is one of the highest cost and most listened to program. I guess a lot of guys like me listen avoiding doing what they should be out doing.
I am not sure what will be on the agenda today but I suspect that mowing will be high on the list. Whatever I do I will try to wear a long sleeve shirt to keep me from repeating the sunburn from earlier this week. I may even give window washing a turn as it is kind of fun and not all that much work. Lots of dust bunnies need killed but they aren't high on our list of to do's .
Whatever you choose to do today try to have a little fun.
MUD

Another Flash from the Past

Last night as I sat watching TV, the phone rang and the caller ID told me it was a long lost buddy Mike D. He was calling from Best Buy and had just been talking to my son when they both realized the fact that they both knew me. A quick phone call on the cell phone and I hope Mike will be reading this blog again. Im not sure if he will gain any insight into the real world but at least he will have a view of the warped perspective I call mine. HOWDY Mike!

It is amazing that he and I spent as many years together in the Guard and both managed to reach retirement. He has almost the same perspective on the whole thing as I do. We neither one will spend a lot of time or effort to stay in touch with that system. What we wanted out of there was us and a retirement check. Mile will come eligible early next year for the Military check and he has plans to retire. He did mention moving to somewhere in Colorado. I came home to Fort Carson in February from Vietnam. I was immediately sent downrange and spent most of my time there in the field. After 90 degree days, those minus degree nights were so cold that I nearly froze to death. On top of that I had a low grade fever the entire time from Malaria and I'll bet I ate a bottle of aspirin a week. The Malaria didn't break out until I got out of the service and returned to Wichita to go to school. Needless to say I don't have good feelings about Colorado. In fact they couldn't give me the entire State if I had to live there.

Yesterday Barb and I went over to our rental house and hauled away two trailer piles of tree branches. We made a dent in the pile but it still has five or six more loads to take to the burn pile. We can and do burn legally at our county property. The City has some goofy rules about burning so we can't burn there. I also went to the lake for a ride on the bent and then worked on the trailer tie downs for about a half an hour. Not until I tried to clean up did I realize how sunburned I was. I know that I am prone to skin cancers so I should be a whole lot more careful. Oh well, gotta die of something.

Better call a halt here and go do something worthwhile. Too windy to burn trash piles and too wet to paint.
MUD