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Almost Inspiring

We spent two days canoeing the Buffalo National River last weekend.  We camped overnight in a semi-wilderness hemmed-in_hollow_tweaked_webbetween the two days.  This river is absolutely beautiful place, if you ever get a chance to float it, you should jump at the opportunity.

While we were canoeing the first day we were lapped by two men.  The fellow in the back of the canoe had a prosthetic left arm that went almost to his shoulder.  I said lapped, what I really meant was that they blew by us.

We stopped later in the day to visit Hemmed-in Hollow waterfall.  It is advertised as the highest waterfalls between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.   It was not flowing dramatically the day we were there, but seasonally probably it is quite impressive.

As Robin and I were sitting there admiring the fall and watching folks, our gentleman with the prosthetic arm came up.  He was with 3 companions, all in their thirties.  Many folks float rivers as a beer drinking exercise.  Such was the case with these four.  It was the one-arm gentleman’s 40th birthday, and the float trip was in honor of that.

The fellow with the mechanical arm recognized us from the river and came up and introduced himself as Tim S.  One of his companions was standing there also.  Tim wanted to know what we thought about a one- armed man canoeing.  I mentioned how I use to know a fellow with two prosthetic legs who was a pretty decent golfer.  His friend mentioned that Tim golfed also.

At that point Tim launched into the story of how he had lost his arm.  His friend wandered off, probably having heard the story multiple times.  Most of the rest of our group came up at this point just in time to hear Tim’s story. Tim works for a pyrotechnic company that travels around the country putting on firework shows.   There was an accident Continue reading “Almost Inspiring”

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Love Comes in Many Forms

Love comes in many forms.buritto

Anymore I generally just eat because my body needs food.  When I was single I would eat the same thing for breakfast for months on end.  Lunch was much the same way.  In Memphis I would come home for lunch which usually consisted of ramen noodles with vegetables.  I was fine with that.  I was fine with my bowl of Shredded Wheat each and every morning.

Robin is retired and I still work.  She is still getting up and fixing my breakfast each weekday morning.  I just want something light to knock the edge off my hunger.  I like a little protein also.  What we have settled is a breakfast sandwich with cheese and egg.  Frequently the bread takes the form of a tortilla.  If I was preparing the meal it would vary only slightly from day to day.  Robin likes to change it up.  She likes to try to surprise me a little with the combinations she puts together.  This morning it was a tortilla, cream cheese with chives, soy sausage and egg.  It was quite tasty and opened my eyes with pleasure when I first bit into it.

Sometimes love comes wrapped in a tortilla.

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Li’ Blue in a Time Warp

Spring has finally sprung in St. Louis.  I took the tea cozy off Li’ Blue, my Mazda MX-5 (say Miata).  The vanity plate on my car reads Li’ Blue because it is, well… little and blue.  Also I was dating a Hispanic lady at time I bought the car and she called it my Viagra car for the same reasons and others.  Rather than put Viagra on the plate I went with Li’ Blue.

Friday is frequently a half day of work for me and I try to play golf in the afternoon.  The traffic is lighter on Fridays.  I find it a good time to drive my convertible.  I did so this morning, with the top down of course.   It was a little cool so I wore a light jacket and turned the heater on my feet. Traffic was flowing nicely and I never had to shift gears until I left the Interstate.

KDHX is a local non-commercial radio station with all volunteers as DJs.  The radio stations play list has to be termed eclectic, but each DJ usually has a theme, Blue Grass, Soul, R&B, Brazilian, etc.  The show on Friday early morning drive time is Sound Salvation. His whole play list is eclectic.  This morning it was gospel, jazz vocals, Lucinda Williams, indie rock and more. It is almost always enjoyable. This morning it was especially so.

It was one of those drives that if you could put it in a time warp and continue it would more than alright.  It made me so happy.  I walked into the office with a big smile on my face.

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Is Oklahoma Green? Nope!

coalIt is this sort of attitude that made me glad to leave Oklahoma, and precludes me from ever returning.

“Oklahoma residents who produce their own energy through solar panels or small wind turbines on their property will now be charged an additional fee, the result of a new bill passed by the state legislature and expected to be signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin (R).”1

We should be doing everything we can to promote green energy.  I suppose someone convinced the folks who pass for legislators in Oklahoma that it was “bad for business” to have folks doing this.  That perhaps it was cutting into the electric suppliers’ business.

In making the above statement I wondered how Oklahoma generated most of its electricity.  Turns out most of it comes from six coal-fired power plants (27% of states capacity3 ). Continue reading “Is Oklahoma Green? Nope!”

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Bad for business… Good for business…

Bad for business… Good for business… Two terms that one hears quite often. We apparently need business to some extent to meet our daily needs.  The unfortunate aspect of business is that to a large extent it is based on the profit motive which often translates into unbridled greed.  The way businesses and corporations are structured in this country it tends to shield individuals from most responsibility for less than desirable actions.  A familiar buzz phrase is “corporate citizen” which in my mind is the paradigm for explaining what an oxymoron is.

When I hear something is bad for business it generally grates on my nerves.  It frequently is a case of the tail wagging the dog.  In this country, businesses and corporations have garnered more than their fair share of wealth.  This wealth has bought politicians and who knows whom else.  This wealth has managed to change the laws to shield and benefit these legal fictions. It has reached the point that if Lincoln was giving the Gettysburg Address today, his closing would read “and that government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, shall not perish from the Congress.”

What started me down this well trodden path again was a news story this morning on NPR. It was reported that “Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at the rate of about a football field an hour. Since the 1930s, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed up an area the size of Delaware.”

Many folks allege that this erosion of the wetlands that provide a buffer between hurricanes and New Orleans is the responsibility of the various oil companies operating in the area.  For mysterious reason some of these folks feel that the entities that caused the erosion due to their business activities should pay to restore the land.  It is costing  Continue reading “Bad for business… Good for business…”

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Something everyone should know on Tax Day

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Overheard

I was walking out of a restaurant tonight when I overheard a boy of about 7 or 8 years say to his mother, “Do old grandpa men know anything?”

God bless his mother who said, “Yes they know a lot, they have a lot of experience.”

It does not seem that in this youth oriented culture the elderly are valued much.  The mother went against the grain a bit.  As I said, God bless her.

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The French Disease

benvenutocellini_vol2_1210benvenuto-cellini-5-sizedI am currently listening to The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian man of many talents. If you doubted this you would just need to ask him to have it clarified for you.  He worked as a goldsmith, sculpture, a soldier and a musician.  He did much work for Pope Clement VII and the succeeding Pope.  He lived from 1500 to 1571.

Besides his many talents and egotism, he was very much the bon vivant and more than a little licentious.  By his own reports and court records he enjoyed the company of both men and women.  Throughout his book “The French Disease” was mentioned frequently.  From the context I assumed it was a sexual transmitted disease. However, wanting to know for sure I did a Google search and came across the following very interesting article.

In the early 1500s, the French Disease aka syphilis, came to Europe, probably from the New World. It was the AIDS of its day.  Not only does this article discuss the etiology of the disease, Continue reading “The French Disease”

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Change Needed in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District

arthur-blue

I wrote this blog post a while ago.  Since then I have attempted to contact Mr. Lieber via his website some 2 or 3 weeks ago. So far there has been no response.

If I was trying to run a grass roots campaign by not accepting money, I would be responding to every possible citizen interest that came my way.

What I concluded by this is the Democratic machine does not feel that they have a breathe of a chance to win against Ann “Climate Change Denier” Wagner.  Therefore they are not putting any resources into the race and Mr. Lieber is, for lack of a better phrase, the sacrificial lamb.

There is a reason that I do not claim to be a Democrat, but an anti-Republican.  How sad it is that our politics and our future in the hands of these two corporate owned parties.  If the Democrats were truly a party of the people they would be putting up a fight against the horrendous legislator that is Ann Wagner.

Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District is in the part of St. Louis County known as West County.  It is 90% white and 60% Republican. The average household income ($71,141) is approximately 35% higher than the national average of $52,762.  Home ownership is 78% with a median home value of $209,200 versus the Missouri wide median value of $138,900.

To call this district conservative is an understatement.  They sent Todd   “Legitimate Rape” Akins to Congress 6 times.  They followed that up with Ann “Climate Change Denier” Wagner.  Continue reading “Change Needed in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District”

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I’m hoping Robin buys me this for some special occasion

squirel feeder
This is a squirrel feeder!

And just to prove that I am not totally nuts, here is the catalog link: Horse Head Squirrel Feeder