Fy Faen

So, Jeff and I just returned from a really wonderful “almost” week long vacation in Las Vegas for my birthday. I had a really wonderful time. We stayed at the Golden Nugget, where we stayed last year when the high school gang got together. I’m not a huge gambler and Jeff is, so if we went strictly for the gambling, I’d be pretty bored pretty quickly. I’ve found the downtown area of Las Vegas to offer me more to do as a non-gambler than “The Strip” does.

As an added bonus, Dane and Jan joined us from Friday to Sunday, and we also got to meet their friends, Kip and Nicole, who were also in Vegas. Kip is originally from Grygla :-) and Nicole is originally from Wisconsin.

As with most excursions out of my woods-studded element, I learned quite a bit, and I’d really like to impart this knowledge to you all. Here are the top 12.

First, never underestimate the power of the ‘blue drink’. (Carolyn will know what I mean by that – now Jan and Nicole do, too.) It can sneak up on a person more quickly than you can realize, causing a person to spontaneously start speaking Scandinavian;

Second, be careful when you eat omelets and watch out for possible bones. I never realized this until this weekend. Whether you have bones in your omelet is directly dependent upon the technique utilized in filleting the omelet. Done incorrectly, the results could be disastrous;

Third, duck farts taste really good;

Fourth, it is really great to be the group in the restaurant that is having the most fun;

Fifth, laughing a lot is just as good for my abs as thousands of sit-ups, and it is a lot more fun, too;

Sixth, electronic bingo allows a person to be somewhat tipsy and yet never miss a daub. It is even hard to miss a bingo, because the unit beeps at you when you are one away. How sweet is that!;

Seventh, I need to work on my self-esteem in a swimsuit. I saw plenty of women in small, two piece swimsuits who didn’t appear have any problems with self-esteem in a swimsuit;

Eighth, slot machines are getting pretty cool. The ‘Wizard of Oz’ slot machine has a built-in Bose speaker system in the machine and seat for ‘surround sound’. I lost a lot of money just listening to it. Marna would love it!;

Ninth, no matter who I meet and with whom I become friends, there are no friends like long time, dear, trusted friends. This is affirmed to me time and time again, and, for me, these friends become more important the older and more intolerant I get;

Tenth, there is always room for new friends – especially those who want to ice fish!;

Eleventh, I’m REALLY looking forward to the party at Carolyn’s house in June;

Twelfth, and most importantly, the love and generosity of the genuine human spirit should never go unnoticed or unappreciated. There are few in this world that have it, and many more, including myself, who really need to work on it. Thank you for everything, especially for your unconditional friendship and the lessons learned!

Well, now I’m back to reality, and there is snow in my yard. We are going to have below average temps again for the next week. The warmth of the Las Vegas sun is now only in my memory and fading fast.

Fy faen!

Better Dead Than Green

Alright, enough is enough:

Pig Urine

Animals have been around shitting on the ground for hundreds of millions of years. Are pigs really the cause of global warming? Do we really want to use pig urine as a "flavor enhancer"? Or is this "Green" thing just becoming a huge incredible joke?

Re-do

I think we need a mulligan. You know, that unofficial rule in golf that allows you to do a re-do on a really bad shot as if it had never happened.

I didn't watch the last Democratic debate. This thing has just dragged out too long, and even though I have an interest in the whole political process, I am growing bored with it. Even more so, I am bored with the candidates.

A friend recently told me that Hillary's voice grates on her like finger nails on a chalk board. I have to agree. And for Barack, he seems like a nice guy, but that doesn't qualify him for the White House. After all, we supposedly picked the last President based on the fact that he seemed like a good guy to have a beer with.

And speaking of Bush, I used to really like McCain, but I lost most of my respect for him when he was unable to beat Bush out last time, then turned around and kissed his ass.

Am I the only one that wants to throw them all back? I think we need a mulligan.

Books

Just received an email from Budsy this morning, a foot of snow in Central Minnesota today. Sometimes, living here in Arizona, I forget snow even exists...

Just started reading 1421: The Year China Discovered America. A friend loaned it to me awhile back and I'm just getting into it. According to the author, the Chinese discovered America seventy years before Columbus. There is, of course, much speculation, but an interesting read none-the-less.

Has anyone read The Road? Not counting the questionable accuracy of the previously mentioned book, I don't read much fiction, but I have heard a lot of talk about this one.

I was in the dumb reading group with Ron, so it takes me awhile to get through a book, but I sure like the ideas they generate. But I am pretty back-logged on reading material right now, so I may have to cheat and pick up the audio version of The Road...

The times, they are achangin'

Like most people nowadays, the subject of money for Slim and I can tend to be a problem. Especially in the sense that it creates a great deal of stress we could live without. It seems there is never enough and plans are constantly being readjusted and revised due to its availability.
The problem is compounded by the fact that I really have no interest in money other than to take care of immediate needs. I mean, I have no real desire or drive to become wealthy or even financially comfortable. Unless I am struck by lightening, take a serious bump on the head, or am injected with some sort of amnesia drug, I don’t think things are going to change any time soon.
I grew up in an era where people didn’t focus on money. They were content to make a living, take care of their family’s needs and maybe make just a little extra so they could take the kids to the drive-in for burgers and fries on Friday night.
It was a simpler time.
Everything today has a price tag. Services once provided by businesses as a gesture of good will and community service no longer exist. A simple example would be the purchase of a bicycle at the local hardware store. There was a time when the bike would have been assembled cheerfully by the store’s manager. Today it’s anywhere from ten to twenty dollars added to the cost. Service and goodwill no longer exist except at a price.
My boss called the other day a bit distraught over the fact that she is very likely going to have to charge people for placing obituaries in the newspaper. It is the current trend, and her papers (she owns four of them) are the only ones around that are not already exacting a small fee for the service. She didn’t like the idea and I agreed with her. Newspapers are a great source of information regarding current happenings. But more importantly, those current events ultimately become history. I believe newspapers have a responsibility to continue to provide a rich historical resource. This is especially true for obituaries because they are a few lines of copy that record the whole life of the person concerned. Throwing a fee into the works seems to prostitute a noble community service.
Maybe I am a dinosaur; things like this seem to confuse and bother me now much more than in the past. Maybe they just didn’t exist in my past. Whatever the case, I think it is about time for me to pack up my rod and tackle box and head to the lake. Or at least some place where none of this really matters.

The Conspiracy Theory

Oh, how I love a good conspiracy. When I went back and read Dan's entry about politics and all of the comments, I came across Dane's link to Sleeping With the Devil. I will have to follow up on that one.

I can only imagine how corrupt our government really is. You think of what the average Joe does for power or love and then realize how that must magnify when you're at the top of the food chain - running a billion-dollar company or god forbid, a whole country.

Since I've never been in such a position, I really have a hard time understanding how you can throw your morals to the wind (all the while pretending you have such high standards) and lie and cheat millions (maybe billions) of people to put money in your pocket or power in your fist.

My favorite conspiracy theory of the moment is Loose Change. All about how our war monger president orchestrated 911 to make himself look good. I haven't been to the web site in awhile and now I see you can download the film for free. You'll be amazed at the facts and figures. For instance, how could the plane have been "vaporized" upon impact? Not to mention that they'd just completed a renovation of the Pentagon in that same area to reinforce all the walls, etc. People who saw that plane before it hit the Pentagon say it was white with no markings and looked like a corporate jet, not a commercial one. The big question I had is did they truly sacrifice all of the people in the crashes or were they made up stories? I haven't seen the latest version, so I'm not sure what new information has been added, but you will not forget what you see.

Conspiracy is good for us -- to put doubt in our minds so that we are never so star-struck that we think someone is faultless.