America the great

Two triggers are part of this new posting. While my circle is small, maybe over time I can entice more followers.
1) the Boston tragedy seems to have truly bought most people together, not just in Boston but acrross the country. That is a good thing.
2) another trigger is that I have decided to be more active on Facebook. This has lead to more views and posting, some great, others depressing. Some postings  are brilliant and kind hearted, others are mean spirited and from people who should not be allowed to post. But, freedom of speech is still protected, and it should be.

Tragedy should bring us together and bring out the best in all of us. We need to support our friends, neighbors, and even strangers. In Boston that mostly worked, for them and across the USA. Yet, we now find postings on facebook, unfortunately from people I know and perceived to be  kindly, that want to label all Muslims as bad, because those perpetrators seem to have been driven by radical beliefs. They forget that the Oklahoma bombing, the Tucson tragic shooting, the Colorado massacre, and Newtown had nothing to do with Muslims. I can find more examples, but those of you who are alert and open minded have already gotten the point. Fear of what we don't have a closeness to seems to cause muddled thinking. Should we fear and prosecute Jihadists, absolutely, put all Muslims in that class, come on, get real.

Labels do little to bring us together or bring out the best in us. If a murderer is gay, does that mean all gays murder? Of course not. If a mentally ill person committed a crime and should not have a gun, we certainly should work to keep guns away from him/her, but let us not condemn your friend, neighbor, or family member who suffers from mental illness. Religion, is not the issue, nor is gun ownership, it is criminals who need to be stopped, with whatever measures it takes to control the criminality. And of course even that will always be limited by resources and other practical restraints.

One e-mail I recently received (unsolicited) attacked adding new background checks and of course used the 2nd amendment and an attack on Obama was part of the message. When I answered with what I thought was a reasonable objection and argument, another friend of the first e-mailer chimed in saying that criminals don't obey the law, this as an argument against more control. I responded and asked since that was a correct statement, did he propose to eliminate all laws. He did not answer. Our country need to look at individuals and move away from lumping people together and labeling. What in the hell does anyones sex life have to do with anything important? All Muslims are not bad, in my growing up days being Catholic was bad in the minds of some of my Protestant friends, my God, how naive and WRONG.

The politicians  are among the worst of the abusers. Already the FBI and CIA, but even more than them, the President, are being criticised. They apparently mostly followed the laws already in place and did not spy on the Boston suspect after investigating, yet I am sure there will eventually be a congressional review of some sort to blame someone. They forget that some Congress members are now opposed to drones spying on American citizens, HMM, does that include all person here legally?

We need to come together. We need to be inclusive. We need to growl at politicians when they focus on blame, rather than solutions and when they perform on the re-election stage instead of doing their jobs.
Strong opinions are fine as long as the view is 1) rational 2) defended with facts, not emotion, and 3) with respect for others while expressing the freedom of speech we all enjoy. Listening is a good thing, an open mind is even better. No law will prevent every tragedy, nor will lack of one necessarily cause a disaster. Every event should not trigger new legislation, but if it makes sense in the long term we should pass one. We need to ask for accountability and criticize failure, not to have someone accept guilt, but to create a new path to avoid the mistake of last year. We did not properly protect the Embassy, lets figure out how to see if we can improve, but we do not have the resources to put armed guards all over the world at every Embassy. And money spent to blame Hillary is wasted.

Enough for now. Please influence everyone you know to speak kindly and have an open mind.

Holiday season 2011

Wow, what a memorable Christmas. Sandy and I were totally excited about our kids and grandkids coming for the Holiday. They all arrived safely and up until Christmas day all went well. The blow up bouncy house, barbecue play set, and portable house in the back yard were great hits with Parker and Ollie. Sandy does put on a party and seems to have a great sense about what kids love. We were on the way to a grand Christmas.

Then a glitch occurred. At 2am on Christmas day I started to feel this fire in my stomach, followed at 6:45 with a wave of volcanic eruptions, recurring 4 times. I struggled later to get up only to find that I was not alone. In the course of that morning and day, 10 out of 12 adults had some version of the same disorder. Not to be proven completely, we think the culprit was the fondue meal or its accompaning side dishes. What a way to entertain your guests. Needless to say, the gifting process worked for the kids, but it took until the evening of the 27th before Sandy and I and some of the guests felt well enough to open gifts.

To add insult to injury, the newly installed spa caused a rash for 3-5 other visitors. Brenna learned, on the visit to urgent care that a parasite snuck in to cause the terribly uncomfortable condition. I learned the Spa was fun, relaxing, and many featured, but also comes with it's own set of water management issues.

Last but not least, our cranky friend Solomon the dog, decided Parker was too close and bit him, causing still another urgent care trip. Fortunately no permanent damage and healing was quick.

SOOO! We invite people to come, make grand preparations and then make the visit a trying time. Thank goodness everyone was more forgiving than I expected and they went home relatively healthy.

I am proud of my family. They are fun to hang out with, are bright people to converse with and enjoy, they are growing their families with excitement and joy. We look forward to seeing more of them in 2012, the birth of our new granddaughter in March ( Todd and Kates second child), the Walleye Shootout, and hopefully much more.

Now it is time to look at 2012 and what it brings. I will make the car show rounds while I am here. We are working on final arrangements to get our rental house set for opening to seasonal visitors. Sandy has activities planned at the Heard, and I will help with some of the events as well. My roses need attention, we have a fence to fix, and perhaps the golf course will beckon soon.

Happy New Year to all.

Politics in the USA

I know politics can be disgusting and am certain by November 2012 we all will be ready for it to end for at least a year. That is about as long as there is any gap. I would contend that it never ends for some politicians, every appearance is for re-election purposes. But there is a part of me that likes the drama, so I remain engaged in following the trials and troubles of each candidate.

First and foremost, the decision for  this year is very easy for me. I am proud of Barack, I believe he is smart and committed and the least political of any recent president. So, I know how I will vote. He has accomplished much of his agenda, in spite of strong opposition. He has the courage to tackle opposition, even within his own party, and knows when to negotiate, to get part of his goal vs nothing.

One of the tragedies of our world is that we will never have a president who is poor or even middle class. So having great ideas and selling them simply can't work for ordinary citizens. What is it that makes this field of candidates put forward their ideas? Why do you want to spent millions to get a job that gives you grey hair, is very stressful, , creates daily criticism of your work, and pays less than most middle managers in major corporations, especially when you have no financial reason to do so.

For some I truly believe it is love of country. For others it is about power. For some it is ego. And perhaps all of the above. Hard to understand. I guess I should be thankful that they are willing, but I still can dream of a poor person who has no ties to power being in charge.

Poor Herman. He must have done something, how could he think that whatever happened would not be an issue? Maybe he thought he would get it out of the way before he made it to the Oval office. If he is elected it certainly will be hard to impeach him if he errs again, we will have elected him knowing his past. And why is this relevant to how he can run our country? So far, I like him and am willing to forgive his indiscretions. As noted, I still will not vote for him.

I wonder how many presidents have had affairs. We know about Bill and the famous Kennedy legacy. Franklin Roosevelt died at his retreat in Georgia where he was staying with his mistress. Did honest Abe ever cheat on Mary? Was George only forth coming about the cherry tree? I am almost certain Jimmy never cheated, he seemed too dull to think about it. And George W probably sewed all his oats when he was drinking, so that allowed him to escape focus. Or is the smile on Laura's face a smirk, cause she knows and is not telling?

Poor Rick Perry. Everyone can have a brain freeze (don't we plain folks call those farts?). But, the real question is just how serious is he about elimination of Energy if he does not have it on the tip of his tongue at all times. AND, do we want a President who can't remember 3 things? AND, isn't Energy generation his only jobs program -Hmm, wonder if any lobbists gave him that agenda. He needs notes or a teleprompter. I am glad Letterman put him on, he will need work.

Michelle is my favorite at messing up. Thinks of all the Iowa jokes she can generate from us Minnesotans. Or then again, maybe she makes all those jokes gain credence.  I know she is promoting her book, Thank God it is not a history book, we might still be a British colony in her rewrite. Or we could have two countries, North and South USA. I think we need a woman President now that we have broken the Black barrier, it should not be Michelle or Sarah.

The final recommedation in the book I just read and referenced in the last post is that we need a strong 3rd party candidate to change the scene. I don't agree with that simple solution and was disappointed with the ending. How ever, we do need some alterative to the Dem/Rep gridlock. Keep telling your favorite candidate to get serious about negotiation. And we do have a need for fresh ideas. The rich/poor gap is great in our country and growing every day. The tax breaks for the rich will create jobs, they will be at Burger King and in 3rd world countries. And the Tea Party does not have the answers.

Does anyone know what the Occupy Wall Street agenda is? What will they use to determine success? Will they have a voice in this year's campaign? Looks like their major contribution so far is to sell a lot of tents. And how do they get the time off to be present? Are they all unemployed?

What about a different politics issue - Penn State. Just heard Franco Harris say the Board did the typical 101 action, fire everyone. I agreed. It was the right thing to do only for the perception of the world. Paterno was not even charged and he lost his job. Of course the rest of the crew, president, athletic director and VP deserved to go. And how can you fire the guy who reported it - that will be the next axe to fall. Suspension is a step to leaving. Trust me, I know how Boards work and logic and fairness may not be important at all.

Enough for today. Thanks for listening, if anyone is. Brenna, thanks for your comments. This is a nice way to get things off my chect.

Politics and Me-part 1

Since no one has paid attention when I was innane, maybe it is time to get controversial. After all, as a senior citizen,  I can claim it is dementia that made me say those things you don't agree with. Or, as any good candidate for office I can 1) claim I did not say it, 2) allege I was totally misquoted, 3) Say I got bad advice from a friend, 4) use the Michelle Bachman approach that says it is true, the rest of you don't have the facts ( Paul Revere's ride really was a warning to the British that they(the British) were coming-right) 5) issue an apology that is not an apology ( if I offended someone I did not intend to say that 6) or-heaven forbid, say I made a mistake and take it all back.

The prelude is how I view politics today, like an affront to our intelligence. We want to learn about our candidate to determine who to vote for, but genuine information about who they are, what they believe in, what they will vote for, what they will try to do if elected, who they owe as they get elected, are all masked and covered in glitter. No one is willing to take a real stand on an issue and risk losing two votes. They sugar coat denials and try to be as unclear as possible, leaving us to guess at what they believe in. George Wallace was a bigot for those who remember him, but at least an honest bigot. And when he became more tolerant I seem to recall him saying he had changed. (or is that my memory not being correct)

I pretend to be an independent but should be best described aa a semi-conservative Democrat. The only times when I have caucused it has been with the Democratic Party and those visits have been long ago and not consistent. I was bored then with the posturing and am even less accepting today. Rhetoric in place of substance just seems like a waste of time.I have never been opposed to trade offs and exchange of votes, as long as it is above board and serves a purpose I can at least moderately support. I admired Hubert Humphrey. He was more liberal than I was,  even when young,  but he was clear about his position, was passionate, articulated his position eloquently, and more than anything else, KNEW HOW TO COMPROMISE, without apology. He recognised that sometimes you had to accept half a loaf when it was that or go hungry and wanting. Giving in today did not mean he gave up his vision, he would come back for the other half next year. And he was gracious and respectful of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. And why do they insist on sitting on separate sides anyway?? Are they afraid their thoughts will be contaminated or someone will copy their paper?

I am reading a book entitled "That used to be us" by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum. I have not read a book for a long time. This one was chosen because 1) I am in Germany and wanted something to read 2) my brief review of the topic on the back cover  told me the topic was of concern to me 3)Thomas Friedman is the nephew of Hy and Bev Rosenbaum of Willmar. The Rosenbaum's were important people in starting West Central Industries, were dear people, and were so proud of Thomas that he came up in many conversations through the years I knew them. If they loved him he was special and smart; they would have been polite if he were a dunderhead, not effusive. That personal connection made me pick the book off the shelf. I have read Thomas as a columnist, knew of his three Pulitzers, and found his views to be well documented and supported, even when I disagreed with his conclusions.

The book does not seem particularly partisan or slanted, slamming and supporting members of both major political parties. They did not quote Humbert so far, even though Tom mentions him in the preface, but they are clear in saying the extreme ideological positions of our two major  parties are killing our country as it slips from excellence.  Leaders of both are pushing our fingers off the ledge we are holding on to with their lack of progress on addressing the challenges of America. I could not agree more. Read the book and decide for yourself. It is timely and clearly written. I have said often that if most employees (and remember - they are employees we pay) did their work at the last minute, in secret without telling their bosses what they are doing, and argued at length with co-workers, I would likely fire them. We should. If only there were qualified workers, with different dispositions, at our door.

Let me be clear. I voted for Barack Obama and still support him. Every time he speaks I am proud that he is bright and understands the topic(s)  and any subsequent questions, when the latter are allowed. The passion of his opponents in opposition confound me. Disagree yes, but some of the inflamed comments I hear just disturb me as an American. Libya kills leaders, in our country only very ill people try to do so. I hope the economy recovers for our sake, each and every one of us, but if it does not the opportunity for re-election weakens. I do believe he has the wisdom and courage to do the right thing, even if it means he will not will re-election.

Now, do I agree with everything he stands for - nope. I was slow to accept his ideas during his first campaign. I disagree with him about extending unemployment. I thought the car company bailout was not needed, even though I concede it was largely successful and far less costly than projected. Health care reform may work or not, the effects will not be fully realised on his watch, even if he is re-elected. I do believe that the hew and cry about the socialistic nature of the plan is too emotional.

Many countries have successfully put together other health systems that work, afford basic care to all, and have controlled the delivery costs. Doctors need to be paid well, we need hospitals, but we do have a system that is out of control and Specialists are paid far too much under our system. I was thouroughly impressed with the care received in Germany with the birth of my grandson. The midwife ( who has a role much like our nurses)  and the doctors truly engaged in meaningful conversations to decide if inducing was needed, treating each other as equals. That same respect and teaming was evident after delivery and as preparations were made for discharge.

Back to politics. The Republicans seem desparate to find the right candidate and so far seem too worried about defeating Obama, rather than finding solutions. Perry's jobs program may be to drill oil wells, since that is why he had success in Texas. We had a scammer in the 70's in Willmar ( I think the timeline is right) who said there was oil in Brooten, but it is not true. The Iron Range has given up all its big deposits, the oil plan will not help MN. So far Rick seems better at being opposed to something than he is in finding specific answers. Just cutting taxes is too simple as a plan. Pawlenty knew how to say no and did so often, he also refused to raise taxes. Job growth did not occur on his watch of two terms. (Read the book - Tom and Mike have more ideas than Rick) And be sure to check their documentation on global warming, they must know different scientists than Rick.

I believe this is sufficiently long to have bored most readers. I will have more to say in future additions.

I hope I stirred the pot enough to at least get one feedback comment.

Reawakening

Summer is busy, life moves fast and no one was paying attention to my blog. Those are my reasons -excuses for no posts since April. Time to dribble a bit.

Since the last post much has happened. Back home in MN for much of the summer months. Some time at the cabin-never enough. The great MN walleye shootout was rainy and some what crimped in style because of weather, but still a success. JC claimed victory and was allowed to get his rights to the name on the trophy, with an asterick behind the recorded title.This guys only adventure has been a totally enjoyable and memorable part of my life.

As this is written I am back in Germany, visiting for the third time. Enjoying Brenna, Parker, who is now 1 year old, and enjoying time with JC as we co-parent ( ok, I am just coasting-he is doing the real work) as his mother and Sandy visit our French daughter Manue'.

We all did Paris for 3 days. What a place. Beautiful architecture, delightful scenery along the river, and food choices that are almost without comparison. Ashley will really have to see the Eiffel Tower in person someday. 50 tons of paint alone on the surface(s)?

I am looking forward to a relatively short time home in MN and then escape to Phoenix for the winter. I do plan to work hard on getting the 49 Ford PU finished before I leave. A lot left, so I don't know if it will happen. 2 more coats of varnish need, then mount the box and finish the headliner/cab interior. Rear fenders and tailgate also not on. It does take more time than most of us plan for or imagine.

 This year is our chance to have our children with us at Christmas time. At this time we are hopeful that all will be able to attend. JC and Ashley need to see if they can repeat the Phoenix version of the MN Polar Plunge. The Green Lake guys would say 62 degree water really does not count, but it ain't for me. I like laying on the floater in 88 degree water with 100 degree real temp and sunshine. I did that in September.

This is it for the moment. Next post may get political.

The bunny arrived

Easter at our house was a return to tradition. It has been several years since I had to assist the easter guy, showing him where to hide eggs. I offered him some spots that were easy and some that were not so simple. The 32 year old blonde visiting our house needed help with a couple of finds. AND, if the original count was correct, AND the dogs only ate one, we have two yet to find. We may find those when the wind  blows, they will surely rot soon in the AZ sun and heat. For Luis and Parker, it was the first time following jelly bean trails and picking up eaggs. Not sure who enjoyed it more of the three and I have to say Sandy and I loved our roles in the hunt.

We found a church by trial and error and enjoyed the experience as well. The newly appointed pastor was friendly, told jokes about the pearly gate admission process, and seemed to be genuine. Parker seemed to enjoy the back of the church more than the front, but made it through with minimal whimpering.

Then it was off to lunch at Pappadeaux's. Cajun seafood is hardly traditional Easter fare, but it was great, with a super nice wait person named Kayla. Parker found the resident Easter Bunny to be very nice and enjoyed being transformed to a cat by the face painters on duty.

We enjoyed the afternoon sun, watched a little golf, found the pool inviting for Parker and his mom (they have enjoyed it a couple of time before) and chased those elusive eggs.

I trust that all reading this enjoyed the holiday.

P.S. Two little girls made me follow an ice cream truck last week. Their pictures are included. They were amazed that dream bars are still served.

Today sees some work in store for me, but I am still a spending time with Parker and Brenna, since they have only about a week until they end the AZ adventure. Still plan some more travel, Brenna and I hope Parker will allow time for a quick golf game, and then we will see what else we have time to do.

AZ picture time

Not sure how to make this program love me. Got the pictures, now having trouble with the text.
Arizona does not often display rainbows. This one was a beauty, double at times, very vivid and close, so close I could not get it all. Darn, missed the pot of gold location. Sandy was estatic, I said, oh it's a rainbow, then reallized how special it was.

As you can see, Parker enjoys the outdoor climate and his toys. I think he is prepping to join the boys fishing adventure in a few years. I am sure he can master peeing in the woods, farting, and burping, he has been practicing. Mom so far has kept me from testing his beer drinking skills. what a spoil sport.