The big day

The political ads should end soon for us in Iowa. It can't happen too soon. I'm betting on Santorum. I think everybody in the race was first at one time or another so maybe he's going to be in the right spot at the right time. Every one of them is scary for one reason or another and the main one is religion. When Cain dropped out, the reason probably didn't surprise anyone very much. I am not crazy about Obama, but don't want any of this bunch either.

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is.

You can observe a lot by just watching.
- Yogi Berra

D**D

When one sees the word f**k spelled in this way, one instantly seems to know it's THE WORD. It could, however be any of several words, such as fork, fink, funk, and many more. D**D though is different, in that it is hard to come up with anything other than DEAD.

Language and words can be quite interesting. When I email a relative in Germany, I compose the letter in English, then run it through Google translate, hit send, and then sometimes run the German back through Google again to see what he receives. When you hear "it loses something in the translation" believe it.

We are being buried in political ads here in Iowa, that should end tomorrow. For now, one has to flip around the channels to find an ad for prescription medicine or cars. What a dilemma.

No snow on January second and none predicted for the next five days or so. The winter will seem a tad shorter. We had an overnight low of 21 below zero on this day in 2010, and snow on the ground.

Rose Parade today. Does anyone watch it anymore? It was a big deal in the early days of color TV.

Did you hear about the Texan who was so big that when he died, they couldn't find a coffin big enough to bury him? So they gave him an enema and buried him in a shoebox.

Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Back from the d**d ?

Testing-testing

Happy New Year to all.

March came in

like a lamb and left the same way. It hit 78 degrees with sunshine on March 31st, and 88 degrees on April 1st with filtered sunshine. Today, a little rain and cooler, more like normal. Some farmers are, or have been in the field. Good old Iowa, where the weather changes at the drop of a hat. I wonder where that expression originated, and when. It's really hard to believe that another growing season is upon us. Running a snow blower a few times in the winter seems easier than mowing every week in the summer.

Obama is sounding a little more dictatorial every day it seems, saying I ordered this or I ordered that. Congress and the people split on nearly every issue. More troops to Afghanistan rather than getting them out. Instead of the country being unified, we are not much better off than when we had Bush. It will be interesting about November 8 this year.

Treat with respect the power you have to form an opinion.

Housework is something you do that nobody notices unless you don't do it.

Numbers

can be interesting. A recent news report said that the cost to rebuild Haiti after the earth quake would be 11 and 1/2 billion dollars. There are about 6 individuals in the world who could each, by themselves, pay the whole shot, and still have at least 11 and 1/2 billion left. About 25 could foot the bill if they could be satisfied with just a couple big ones to tide them over. Since these numbers are from 2009, there is a possibility that most of them are even richer today because the stock market has gone up like a rocket in recent months.

At another extreme, some prices from 1935
Average yearly income $1115.00
Ford V-8 coupe $495.00
Ground beef 2 lbs 25 cents
Campbells tomato soup 4 cans 25 cents
Pork and beans can 5 cents
Loaf of bread 8 cents
Living on bean sandwiches and soup would have been pretty cheap.

Des Moines got nearly 7 inches of snow yesterday and over night and now only needs about three more to go into the record book as the snowiest season on record. We escaped with only about 3 inches. I'm afraid there is still time for DesMns to break the record. This has been a crazy year for weather and soon the tornado season starts.

You can cover it with sugar and bake it in the oven, but a cowpie is still manure.

It's not true that life is one darn thing after another. It's the same darn thing over and over.

2010 Census

forms were delivered to us on Saturday. A message from the director, dated March 1st, said in bold print to "Please complete and mail back the enclosed census form today". The first question asks how many people were living or staying at this address on April 1st, 2010. It's always hard to look ahead 21 days, and especially now with earth quakes, snow storms, floods and who knows what next. Now I'll bet that if I wait until April 1st to fill it out, I'll get a reminder that I haven't yet returned the form.

With the earth quakes in Haiti, Chile and now Turkey, I believe if I lived in California I would be a little worried. The old planet seems to have the hiccups. Crazy things are going on around the world.

It looks as though 3D movies are catching on again, and there is talk of 3D television coming soon. I, for one, can hardly wait to see "The Biggest Loser" on a 50 inch HD 3D TV.

One who hesitates is sometimes saved.

Promises are like snowballs....easy to make but hard to keep.

It looks as if

half of the basketball jinx is over with no problems. The boys tournament starts next week so there is still time. It's 40 degrees today and sunny today with more warm weather forecast for tomorrow. Some snow is melting but at fairly slow rate. It was near 68 degrees one year ago.
I just read an article about the real estate boom and possible bubble in China. Prices going up nearly daily, speculators buying properties hoping for more price raises. I also read that China has now surpassed Japan as the second largest consumer of oil next to the US. Walmart must be to blame for this, as it's hard to find anything in their stores that doesn't come from China.

If you can't find your favorite coffee mug, try looking in the microwave.

Something is wrong when kids run wild and dogs go to obedience school.

There are still

many of us who would rather sit down in a comfortable chair to read a newspaper, magazine, or book, than sit in front of a computer screen. We are losing out though, newspapers are cutting pages and features, magazines are getting thinner. Many older people do not have computers, and are being left out of the loop in countless ways. We are being told more and more to go to this or that web site and often there is no telephone number for those who don't have a computer. If there were a phone number, navigating through the maze, only to almost never talk to a real person, makes many people give up in frustration. It really is "no country for old men" (or women).

If you take good care of your body it will last a lifetime.

Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb at.

March

has come in like a lamb, sunny, 32 degrees. The girls basketball tournament starts today, so the end of the week could change it all.
We have had a good amount of snow and are running out of places to put it. Des Moines is looking to break a record of about six feet. The parking lots in Fort Dodge have snow mountains in the corners and around the perimeter. If this all melts fast, big floods are possible again. All this and it sounds as though the east is worse off than us. The weather and other disasters around the globe has been for the birds.

Sometimes the money you save by doing it yourself will come in handy for getting it done over.

Nothing can be sliced so thin that it doesn' t have two sides.

Is this overkill or what???

85,000 Iphone Apps
Spending one minute on each one deciding if it would fit your needs would take 177 eight hour days. After that many days there would more than likely be more Apps.

50,000 Radio stations for your Blackberry
One minute on each to make sure you don't get any of your parents music and there goes another 104 eight hour days.

Google
Look for riding lawn mowers on Google and get 1,980,000 results. Looking at those will take something over 11 years at the usual one minute per.

Google
Google comes up with two billion results for Google. No one could live long enough for this one.

Say what ?

I'm not a really big Obama fan, but I have trouble understanding all the fuss over him speaking to School kids.

I wonder how getting rid of car dealers as GM and Chrysler have done, will increase sales at the manufacturing level. If it is such a good idea, why haven't Ford, Honda and Toyota done the same.

Some years back (65 or so) saying that someone was living a dog's life, meant that he or she was living a life of misery. Today, judging from what I see and hear on TV, and in real life, it appears that it means just the opposite.


There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

The person who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.

Sometimes I Wonder

I wonder just when the last person in the US, who has never who has never used a personal computer, will die.

I wonder if the young voters, who had so much influence in putting Obama in the oval office, are noticing how few of his campaign promises are being kept.


Golf is one of the few things in life you don't have to be good at to enjoy.

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less.

More idle thoughts

So much fuss and todo over Michael Jackson's death and memorial service. I don't remember anything like this when Lawrence Welk died.

Ask your doctor ads. So many commercials on TV for medicine that can't be bought without getting a doctor to prescribe something because you want it, whether he or she thinks you need it or not.

But "wait" ads. So many ads on TV for stuff that most of the time looks useless or nearly so. Then, near the end of the pitch comes the "But wait", order now and we will double the offer, you just pay shipping and handling for the second item. Sometimes that can be fifteen or sixteen dollars for something that they are selling for $9.95, and can more than likely be shipped for a lot less than they are charging.

Bubble gum contains rubber.

The ancient Egyptians had bowling alleys similar to ours.

Mosquitoes flap their wings 10.000 times every second.

Things I thought I'd never see

GAMBLING: The state of Iowa, pretty much a Bible Belt state, with so many gambling casinos, and talking about more. The government is so dependent on the revenue, that they will more than likely never go away.
COMPUTERS: Computers everywhere, controlling every thing it seems.
NEWSPAPERS: Rather the end of same. Papers going out of business, and those that are left, eliminating staff to stay above water.
GM. Talk of General Motors going bankrupt. Chrysler in the same or worse shape.
CHINA; China seems to be getting more and more powerful every day. We, the USA, owes them so much money, they will own us one of these days.
Something new and unbelievable seems to pop up every day.

The Dead Sea is really a lake.

You can feed 24 people with one ostrich egg.

Idle thoughts

I ran across an advert for an Apple iPod recently. This particular one would hold 30,000 songs. 30,000 songs at an average of three minutes each, would be 90,000 minutes. divided by 60 would make that 1500 hours. If someone spent 16 hours a day listening, leaving 8 hours for sleep, it would take nearly 94 days to listen to them all. Downloading the songs from Apple at 99 cents each, plus the cost of the iPod, would mean an investment of about $30,000.00. The price of a pretty nice car tied up in a gad-get hooked to a small earphone. This thing also has the ability to hold 25,000 pictures. At just 15 seconds per picture, more than 6 days gone using the same 16 hours a day. A very small picture as well. It would also hold 150 hours of video. Nearly 10 days to look at that! Are we living in a techie world, or what?

When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called "HappyRabbit."

The first gold record ever awarded went to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo-choo."

The really

big catch phrase these days seems to be "create jobs". The government can, and does do that a good share of the time it seems. Businesses need a reason however, like sales of their product. I've seen somewhere how the big bailout could have given every household in the country ten thousand dollars. Maybe that 10 grand should have been sent, in the form of a gift certificate, to those households. No loan pay down, or saving the money. Good only for new cars, TVs, appliances, things that would put people back to work. It may have started things moving again, rather than going to pork projects, politicians pet programs, bonuses to bankers etc.

We are having great run of weather at the moment. Only a little snow left in ditches, and the north side of buildings. Sixty seven degrees here in Dayton today. It's Iowa though, so things are bound to change. This is happening during the girl's state basketball tournament.

All the Zodiac symbols are animals, except one--Libra

Most accidents are caused by people, and most people are caused by accidents.

A segment

on 60 Minutes last night had to do with the drug cartels in Mexico, and what a problem they are becoming. Murders, kidnapping, wars with police, bribery, all because there is so much money involved. The same Mexican cartels are also gaining a foothold in this country. Our government spends billions trying to stop illegal drugs from getting to the streets, and more than likely, other countries are spending a lot as well. So far it seems that it isn't working. Maybe the world should legalize these drugs. No big money involved so crime would more than likely come down, the Taliban would lose their main resource for weapons, and billions wasted trying to stop what seems to be the unstoppable could be saved. Prohibition only begets more and more crime, and has not worked. A few more people may start using, a few more may OD, but that may well be a small price to pay in the long run. The government would surely find a way to add a tax in this somewhere, which could help the economy. Perhaps this could also qualify as a change to believe in. Don't hold your breath.

Before 1863,mail service in the U.S. was free.

The first chain store was the A&P. It was founded in 1842.

A segment

The new

president isn't having much luck charming the Republicans the way he charmed the young, and the ladies here in Iowa. I hope the stimulus package works, but it's about like tossing a Cheerio on a thread to someone who is about to drown in the lake. The solution to the problem is to do more of what caused the mess in the first place. People have to go out and buy things they can't afford, and borrow the money. One of these days Obama will be pleading with the public to do just that. Detroit has to sell cars, and Whirlpool has to sell appliances, and so on down the line. You can give employers a tax credit, but they won't hire one person they don't need if their business is bad. Again, I hope the nearly 800 billion works. The money will be borrowed, and that means lots of interest to pay, plus the debt has to be repaid some day down the line. Usually the people that will have to do this are called our kids and grandkids. Too much debt can lead to bankruptcy, and it seems to me that's what Bin Laden hoped for with the twin towers attacks.

A little good news, at least for us in Dayton. The predicted snow for yesterday left more than seven inches in Des Moines, but we had none at all.

The number 1 TV show of 1961 was a Western called "Wagon Train."

You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.