A Comment on Global Warming

Global Warming, My Ass!!

I took the dogs for their walk about 4:00 pm. It was maybe 12 or 13 degrees (F).

It can really make you feel alive though....especially when your skin thaws a half hour later and it gets that burning / ice needles thing going as feeling returns to your ears, fingers and toes. Really lovely.

OK....nice positive thoughts about bitter cold weather:

• Reduced chance of heat stroke...duh.
• The weeds in the yard are dead. (Maybe only dormant.)
• You barely feel it when you hit your thumb with a hammer.
• Blood coagulates faster on wounds.
• Fewer overweight people wearing spandex.
• No one expects you to be painting your house.
• No mosquitoes, deer flies or horse flies.
• Brennie makes GREAT soups and chili !!!!!!!
• Save a bundle on air conditioning bills.
• Better to stand outside naked than listen to Bing Crosby sing "White Christmas". That's right up there with watching the "Wizard of Oz".
• Snuggling under a down comforter...oh yeah.
• Everyone else has a cold too.
• Hot chocolate with marshmallows.
• No heat rash or poison ivy. In fact far fewer body rashes.

I Read That It Was 81 Degrees In Cuenca The Other Day

These Pics Were NOT Taken In Cuenca.

They were taken from our front porch in Topeka.

Just for fun, I used different camera settings.

Quite Jolly.

A LITTLE MORE BRAGGING HERE

We went to Maryland last weekend to see our son Alex graduate from his ten month stint of public service with Americorps. Here is the short version:

In many ways our son was one of those lost kids. He did very poorly in high school (by choice) and made a lot of bonehead decisions by the time he was 18. He was lost, had no direction or knowledge of his potential. His values were confused, etc., etc., etc. We knew there was a great young man buried deep inside him because we knew him from an earlier time. But in many ways he had lost touch with who he was. We also knew that it was necessary for him to get away from us and into some meaningful environment in order to re-discover himself.

Americorps = Public Service

Holy Sh*t! What a change. We could not have hoped for more. His emergence did not go unnoticed in Americorp either. He came home literally covered in awards...and not just participation awards. There are leadership awards and commitment awards and contribution awards. Of the four big awards they give out at the end of the ten months, he got one of them and almost got a second. (This is out of 160 team members.) Only one of the 160 young people got more recognition during their ten months. Nobody wants to read a bunch of details...so I will spare you. I will simply finish with another profound....Holy Sh*t!!!! And "thank god".

.

"Twenty Years From Now.......

......you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do".

I didn't make that up, I ran across it somewhere. But still.....

Short Fairy Tale

My sister sent me a little Fairy Tale. I have changed it a little bit. Here it is.

Once upon a time, a guy asked a beautiful girl 'Will you marry me?' The girl said, 'NO!' And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted AND SMOKED CIGARS IN THE HOUSE
The end

Oh My God!

The weather has been glorious. 70 -74 for days now. Just wonderful.

For the 3rd weekend in a row, I will be bagging leaves. That guarantees that I will get outside to enjoy the weather. (Gotta love these old neighborhoods.)

Yeah, I am reduced to blogging about the weather.

H1N1, etc.

I had a student out sick for 2 weeks. When he came back to school, I mentioned that he must have been really sick.

He said he had:
> H1N1 (swine flu)
> Strep Throat
> Pink Eye, and
> Tonsillitis

Is that even possible?

I am used to the kids all suffering from "hormone poisoning", but this whole germ thing is disturbing.

Halloween

"Trick or Treat"

Isn't that extortion?

(Admittedly, not an original thought. But there it is anyway.)

Quotes are Cool

Some interesting quotes about democracy. I am not trying to make a point here. Just amusing myself and hopefully you too. Maybe I am trying to appear more intelligent or deeper than I actually am.

“Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.” Dr. Lawrence Peters, author of the Peter Principle

“Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.” Robert Byrne, Chess Grandmaster

“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.” Oscar Wilde

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it” Alexis de Tocqueville, 19th Century French political thinker and historian

“Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who'll get the blame.” Bertrand Russel. This is almost the exact quote as the Lawrence Peter quote above. Peter lived from 1919-1990. Russel from 1782-1970. Who knows

And Finally:

“It's not how you pick your nose, it's where you put that booger that counts.” Tre Cool, drummer for the Punk Rock band "Green Day".

And THAT should settle the question of whether I am deep or intelligent.

FYI: These came from quotesdaddy.com.

Fall in Kansas

BEAUTIFUL.

From the Softer Side...

This is my first posting since leaving Cuenca. Quite frankly, we have been less than chipper about being back in the Land of Oz.

Speaking of the land of oz, several years ago the folks over at the Kansas Department of Tourism decided Kansas needed a new image (how would you like to have THEIR jobs?). Unfortunately, they chose to further overuse the gagging cliche from the Wizard of Oz and came up with the slogan "Kansas, The Land of Ahhhhs." We suffered through that one until the new governor came on board and fired all those munchins and hired a new marketing team. They came up with a new branding for us which nobody seemed to get. It was "Kansas...As Big As It Seems". A couple months later Kansas voters adopted a constitutional amendment (by 71%) banning gay marriage and/or same-sex unions. One guy cashed in on this and printed bumper stickers that read "KANSAS...AS BIGoted AS IT SEEMS". Made him a mint but pissed the governor off big time. She must have gotten tired of trying to 'sell' Kansas so she retired to Washington, DC as Obama's Secretary of Health. Now she has an easy job - selling health care reform to Republicans. Bet she wishes she was back in Kansas. (Clarke likes to point out that the Wizard of Oz story is about someone that left Kansas in order to have an adventure.)

OK, I have promised my spouse I would try to see the glass as half full rather than half empty (I've always hated that analogy). So, to assist me in my attitude adjustment, I have started watching funny movies, scanning humor websites, and trying to 'reframe' my impressions of situations to see the silver lining. Did I mention Zoloft?

Movie recommendation: Saving Grace. A British movie about a middle-aged woman who finds herself in financial ruin when her husband dies and leaves her in debt. She decides to make money using her gardening skills...and growing pot in her greenhouse. Yeah, it's pretty dopey (but hilarious) and has some great scenes - especially when her prim and proper ladies tea club brew up some tea using marijuana leaves.

Life is good!

Promenade of the Llamas, or Parade of the Pekingese?

Brenda and I saw that today there is a Promenade of the Llamas in Cuenca, which we hate to miss. Rather than be heartbroken and feel left out......we decided to have our own little promenade right here in Topeka.

We call it "Parade of the Pekingese".

Click here or on the pic above to see the slideshow of pics

Corky is the little boy peke (devil)....which is pretty accurate.
Fluffy is the little girl (princess)....also accurate. We often call her "Fluffy the Pretty Princess".
We caught Corky later prancing around in the princess outfit, which only confirms something we have long suspected. Unfortunately we were unable to get a pic of that.

Yes, we have become the crazy old people and their little dogs.

Note that Brennie is dressed up in an apron. She is dressed up as a woman that actually cooks. My saying that is not quite fair to her. She did spend 2 or 3 hours cooking yesterday. Cooking dog food. Yes she cooks dog food on the weekend. Right now she is baking cookies (to send to the kids....our human kids in Portland and New Orleans). I will be lucky if I get dog food for dinner or any burned cookies. Oopsie, gotta go (wash dishes).

Something that I just LOVE TO SAY....

"We are selling our home in The States and moving to our home in South America"

Gawd, it just sounds so pissy! I love it. I am shallow.

The Kids

Thought I would throw in a little video of the kids.

Why?

Because I can.

....AND ANOTHER.

Things I Am Going To Miss (or Not)......

....After The final Move to Cuenca (June 1, 2010).

Things I WILL Miss:
- My Harley
- Fast Reliable Broadband Internet
- Speaking English
- Our children ... will have to fly further to visit.


Things I WILL NOT Miss:
- Being on the job at 7:30 every morning for 25 years.
- The US health care system (this alone could be a 1000 item list.)
- A 30 minute lunch break....again for 25 years.
- Mowing the yard. July - September can get 90 or 100 degrees + humidity.
- Mowing other peoples yards. I had a mowing business for 4 summers...... that's what bought the Cuenca apartment.
- Raking leaves
- Pulling weeds
- Automobile ownership (purchase, repairs, registration, gas, insurance,etc)
- The school lunch. Just putting that in for fun seeing as how I never actually eat it.
- Delusional enabling parents that refuse to let their children take responsibility when they screw up. (another possible 1000 item list.)
- $1.50 avocados that are rolled to Kansas from California.
- Mosquito's and chiggers.
- Gangbangers and wannabes.
- Shoveling snow.
- Property taxes of $200+ a month
- Overpriced hookers. (Just putting that in to see if anyone actualy reads this dribble.)
- Gas, water and electricity averaging $420+ a month.
- The Bible belt and people that wear their religion on their sleeve.

Things Brennie WILL NOT Miss:
- Listening to me bitch about the above

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