Oklahoma

I have mentioned before  that my wife is from Oklahoma.

Born and raised in the western part of the state, she learned all about watching the weather.  As we have seen it can be brutal.

Our hearts are with those who lost loved ones.  Those who lost their homes. It is so hard to imagine facing that kind of devastation.

Look around your room right now.   What if all of that was gone in just a few terrifying seconds?  What would you do?  How would you start over?

Now, these people are trying to put their lives back together with the media spotlight on them.

“How do you feel?”

“Is there anyway to put it into words?”

I am writing this because one of my followers was amazed at how polite these survivors were to the reporters who, in his words “parachuted” in. Not the first day ones.  The news people who came in for an interesting backdrop.

“Oh, look at how much we care.  We moved our crappy morning show to Moore, Oklahoma. Hooray for us.”

Simple fact of the matter is the voices you hear talking about starting over are what make Oklahoma great.  A lot of them have family roots that stretch back decades.  They live on a beautiful yet unforgiving land.  Ice storms, draught, tornadoes, even thanks to fracking, earthquakes.

They don’t sweat the small stuff.

They will rebuild,with one eye on the western sky, hoping the storms will be less severe next time around.

We wish them well.

Peace.

 

 

 

RIP POSSUM

George Jones died today.  If your notion of country music only goes back 10 years or so, this post might not be for you.

As people started to react to the news, I noticed there was some surprise at how old George was.  He was 81 but he lived the hell out of those 81 years.

Here is George from 1962:

How cool was that?  Straight forward.  Just a man and his guitar and that incredible voice.  I am an old school country music fan.  That video is such a wonderful example of how country music was delivered on tv back then.

Between that video and this next one, George Jones had a fairly eventful life. All of it was affected by his  drinking. He was called “No Show” because of the gigs he missed due to his dedication to the bottle.

There is a funny/sad story of the day his second wife hid all the keys to their vehicles so George could not drive to the liquor store.  Undeterred, he drove his riding mower into town.

All that living like a country song was hard on him and the people around him, both personally and professionally. As he did battle with his demons and his popularity began to suffer, a song was brought to his attention. He hated the song.  It was too morbid. It took forever to get a decent take of it.

Trust me though on this.  There was not a jukebox worth  its salt that didn’t have this song on it.

This was released just before  the Urban Cowboy craze took hold.  Bars made room for mechanical bulls. Guys who had no business wearing cowboy hats were wearing them everywhere. There was a surge in the popularity of country music thanks to the movie.

Maybe it takes a lifetime of hard living to deliver a performance like this one:

That song cemented George Jones as a legend in country music.

He was in the middle of a tour when his health failed him.

I didn’t mention his marriage to Tammy Wynette.  She was a country music superstar and her song “Stand By Your Man” is known by all. Three notes in, you know what is coming. George and Tammy had a daughter, Georgette.  She is a singer and made a video with her Dad from a song she wrote.

I think this is a nice way to end this post.

RIP Possum

 

Peace

 

 

Friday Potpourri Vol. 20

Roger Ebert died Thursday.

He made movie reviewing interesting along with his friend and colleague, Gene Siskel.  They had a long running tv show until Gene’s death several years ago.

They had a real passion for movies. As is evidenced by this clip:

My only complaint about Roger and his reviews was that you couldn’t really read one before you saw the movie.  He almost always gave away too much.

His last piece for the Chicago Sun-Times was two days ago.  It was filled with future plans.  I won’t quote from it here.  If you see it linked to on the internet, you should take a moment and read it.

In other news, I watched Lawrence O’Donnell’s show on MSNBC Thursday night.  He was touting the fact that Martin Short was going to be on.  I love Martin Short.  He is wildly funny. Quick and clever.  I thought this would be great.

Turned out there was a slight problem, Lawrence didn’t know how to get out of the way and let Martin do his stuff.

The last segment was supposed to be Martin Short talking about the late night talk show shuffle.

Instead, Lawrence spent most of it showing clips of Leno and Fallon.

I was outraged and took my complaint to Twitter where I said the following, “I like how Lawrence showed Martin Short  clips of other people attempting humor. He would show Rembrandt Bob Ross videos.”

Followed by this tweet,”Watch Rembrandt! See, he puts a tree wherever he wants.  Oops, we ran out of time to watch you paint.”

I shouldn’t be surprised  that an NBC station wouldn’t recognize the potential for comedy.

One last thing. I was looking at the obituaries as we old folks do, when a name popped up from my childhood.

My first babysitter passed away this week.  Sue lived next door to us with her family. I guess she was in high school when she babysat for us. The obit listed her age as 66 so she was ten years older than me.

She was always good with us. Always smiling.

I don’t remember seeing her after we moved away from there. So it was interesting to see that she had raised six kids of her own.  She had ten grandchildren. Worked at General Electric for 32 years. 66 is just too young to go.  You invest all that time in raising a family, there should be time to sit back and enjoy it.

She probably wouldn’t be amused that the people who wrote her obit spelled her maiden name three different ways. Or maybe, she would.

Anyway, you kids keep breathing. I can’t afford to lose any of you.

Peace.

Hey!

First of all, as all homeowners know, the weekend is the favorite time to have something go wrong in the house.  For us, it was the refrigerator.  Not our main one. We have one that came with the house  which holds all the pop, milk,  and juice.

The freezer compartment was working, but the fridge part war getting warmer by the minute.

What to do?  Get on the internet and Google for help.

The fascinating part of searches for repair help is how technical the help offered is.

For example, several YouTube videos explained my options.  All couched in terms suggesting maybe calling professionals might be the best course of action.

Honestly, they were making things more complicated than necessary.  I took some advice my Dad gave me years ago.  I waited a little to think it over and then decided on a course of action. (Actually, he would sit and have a beer.  I don’t drink anymore, so I just sit and think.)(And watch tv, play with my grandson)

I told my wife I was going to unplug it and let it thaw out completely.  She gently suggested that it wasn’t like rebooting a computer.

Armed with that boost in my confidence, I proceeded with the plan.

First, I had to clean off the coils under the fridge. (Always unplug the fridge first.) I was surprised to find a thick layer of dirt had encased the coils.  They need to be relatively clean for them to do their jobs.  It took a little knuckle-scraping to reach far enough back to clear the coils.

A few hours after letting the fridge thaw completely, it was time to test the theory.

When I plugged it back in the first thing I noticed was how quiet it ran.  The fan was turning but it wasn’t struggling like it had been.  I let it go overnight and when I checked it in the morning both compartments were running just like they should.

Total cost of repair:  $2.08 for a bottle scrubber to reach and clean the coils.

The other thing we did recently was fill out the brackets for March Madness.

As of right now, Thursday night, I am crushing both of my opponents. Sorry wife and son. (not sorry)

One other thing, Amy of Lucys Football fame, has written a very moving post on her blog.  It is an open letter to Jane Doe, the victim of  a brutal rape by a couple of young men in Steubenville, OH.  I have toyed with writing something about that.  After reading Amy’s post all I can do is point to the blogroll at the right and ask you to take a few minutes to read her words. It was a brave thing for her to write considering all the vicious people who have verbally attacked anyone who defends the victim.  Very brave.

Until next time,

Peace

Friday Potpourri Vol. 19

 

Doesn’t a cruise sound like fun?  Lido decks. Gopher and Issac.

It’s all fun and games and Charo until the power goes out.  Then you have 4000 people stranded at sea without adequate plumbing alternatives.  Low on food and patience.

Five days floating in the Gulf Of Mexico, I can’t begin to imagine the stench.

But, the final indignity was yet to come.  As they were tugged into port, who was waiting for them?  Erin Burnett and the CNN cameras.

How did you feel?

What was it like?

CNN went all in on their coverage of the disembarking.   Understandable, since Jeff Zucker is in charge at CNN now.  He used to run the Today Show which means fluff and filler is his specialty.

It took three hours to clear the ship of passengers.  They were allowed to keep the bathrobes the cruise provides in the cabins.

I just read that they got full refunds, paid transportation back to the point where the trip started and $500.00 in cash.

That won’t stop the flurry of lawsuits which always follow something like this.

That was an interesting way to spend Valentine’s Day.

If you survived the cruise ship, the next thing in the news might have given you pause.

A giant thing from space was hurtling toward the Earth.

Something landed in Russia and it was caught on dashcams.

Former baseball player Jose Canseco said on Twitter that it was not a meteor but something fired from North Korea.  Since Mr. Canseco is not a former scientist, I believe we can dismiss his claim.  At least, for now.

I tried to not get very invested in that.  You know, what can you do?  If it hits it hits.

Finally, since it was Valentines Day, here is one of my favorite songs.

(Two embedded videos?  Yeah, I am embracing this new ability.)

Enjoy

Until next time,

Peace

 

 

USPS

 

I may have written about the USPS before but I feel the need to make another run at it.

As you may know, the Postal Service is proposing to do away with Saturday delivery for regular mail.  Packages will still be delivered.  The change is supposed to take place in August.

First, a little family history.  My Dad started working for the Post Office (as it was called then) Thanksgiving week 1956.  I was 5 months old.  From then to now, the USPS has been a major influence in my life.

He worked there for 29 years.  I was employed by them for 27 years  before taking an early retirement.  My wife works there.  Even my son works for them to earn enough money to put himself through college.

Over the first 14 years of Dad’s career, he had to work extra jobs because the pay was so low. He worked part-time at convenience stores.  During December, he would work for Sears putting together toys.  We didn’t see a lot of him back then.

Mom worked part-time as well, just for us to get by.

Then, in 1970, Moe Biller led a strike in New York which was followed by strikes in other major cities.  After a short time, there was legislation that allowed for unions, collective bargaining and all the rest.

Finally, Dad could just work one job.  We weren’t rolling in money.  It took a long time to dig out from all the debt they had incurred trying to raise a family.

Dad was a mail carrier.  Most of his time there he had a walking route.  It is hard to properly explain the toll that takes on a person.  When the weather is good, it can be tolerable.  But in the rain, snow and all the rest of the credo, it is drudgery. Carriers feel it in their backs, shoulders, knees and especially their fingers.  If you look at the hands of a retired carrier, you will see all kinds of twisted fingers and swollen knuckles.

If you work inside a plant where the mail is sorted through high speed machinery, you avoid the weather but not the sore feet, hands, back and the added inhaling of paper dust.  The air is full of it and it settles in your throat and lungs.  The ventilation that used to handle that problem was shut off after the anthrax attacks in 2001.

I know there are tougher jobs. I am just giving perspective for people who aren’t aware of the toll working for the USPS can take.

Now, back to the lack of Saturday delivery.  I think it is being suggested to try to move Congress into changing some things.  Notably, the pension requirement.

Let’s be clear.  If UPS or FedEx or someone else wanted to do the everyday deliveries the Postal Service does, they would have tried it by now.  Fact is, they can’t.  A large percentage of the packages they move wind up being delivered by the USPS.  It is called the “Last Mile” mail.  They pay the postal rate because it is cheaper for them to do that than deliver the packages themselves.

The USPS also hires small trucking  businesses to move their mail over long and short hauls.  Since they don’t have their own fleet of planes, they have to purchase space on commercial carriers.  There is a whole lot to moving the volume of mail the USPS does every day.

As far as benefits go, people have said the benefit package is too rich and they (postal workers) should get less.

I find it odd that people who had fits over anyone suggesting that the rich pay more in taxes are in favor of taking away bargained for benefits.  I would like for workers in other industries to fight to get better pay and benefits.  Workers should be striving for more and better not settling for less and less.  If that means joining a union, then by all means, join one.  The pendulum has swung so far over in favor of the CEO’s, it is time for it to come back.

A strong middle-class drives the economy with their purchasing power. Not everyone can own their own business, so you need workers who are fairly compensated.

I don’t know how this situation is going to resolve itself.  It will probably be some sort of cobbled together mess that leaves no one happy.  That seems to be the way things get done these days.

Peace

Friday Potpourri Vol. 18

Welcome back!

I was invited into a Twitter session Wednesday night.  It was a Dads Roundtable .  They meet once a week and tackle different topics.

My friend from Founding A Father tipped me off to it.  They were discussing keeping the connection between the husband and wife while juggling raising kids and work.

I think sometimes people put a bit too much pressure on themselves.   My suggestion was to do the simple things.  Offer to get the other a drink, maybe an extra pillow.   And you can’t look at the kids as an obstacle to your happiness.  Resentment follows and it just becomes a downward spiral.

The hour flew by.

Shortly after they were done, I saw a tweet that led to a woman’s blog where they were talking about the same thing just from a different perspective.  The writer of the piece has a blog of her own called My Cheap Version Of Therapy. I left a comment there that reflected what I had said to the guys a little earlier.

It was an interesting experience, visiting with both sides.  They really want the same things.  The challenge is how to get there.  And there is no easy answer.  But you HAVE to keep plugging away.  YOU HAVE TO.  Marriage.  Raising kids.  None of it is easy.

It is odd how Twitter can give you the opportunity to meet such a wide variety of smart, sharp writers.  Like the folks over in the Blogroll, for instance.

In other news…

Who thought opening the new Die Hard movie on Valentines Day was a good idea?

While we are talking about movies here are some predictions for Oscar night:

Sally Field wins for her portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Argo should win for Best Picture. The only other nominee we have seen is Lincoln.

I liked both.  They were similar in that we knew how they were going to end.  The trick becomes keeping the suspense going throughout the film.  Argo did that much better, I thought.

Let’s face it: Whom were you more surprised by?  Ben Affleck as a director or Steven Speilberg? Right!  So, since Affleck got passed over for director, he deserves the Best Picture award.

Lastly, the following is my favorite tweet of the week.

A person I follow had just finished reading a book about Charles Dickens kids.  She said they adored them for reasons that escape her.

My tweet went like this, “If the book on Dickens kids didn’t start with “He was the best of fathers, he was the worst of fathers”.T’would be a shame.”

That’s it for me, kids.  Play nice. Check out the blogs I mentioned today and any of the others to my right.

And as always,

Peace

 

Friday Potpourri Vol. 17

Let’s talk about an assortment of things today.

Waitress Gets Fired After Outing Cheap Pastor

A female pastor went to Applebee’s with a large group.  They automatically triggered the 18% tip charge.  The pastor wrote on the bill, after trying to get around the charge by saying they were using separate checks, “Why should you get 18% when the Lord only gets 10%?”

The waitress showed it to a co-worker who took a pic of it and posted it on the internet.  Somehow, this got back to the pastor who then wanted everybody on that shift fired.  Applebee’s fired the person who posted the pic.

Understand this, the customer is not always right.  That is a load of crap.  Especially in this case.  The person the pastor should be mad at is Ronald Reagan.

That’s right, Reagan.  When Uncle Ronnie was President, his people figured out that tip income was not taxed.  So, while lining the pockets of millionaires with tax cuts, tip income became taxable.  Which meant you have to have a method of keeping track of it.  Which meant using the software for the cash registers as a way to keep track of tips by using a separate line on the receipt.

So the cheap pastor had the writing room necessary to show what a classless individual she is.

What else is there to talk about?

My Spaghetti Is Better Than Yours

I found myself in a discussion about spaghetti on Twitter a few days ago. Seems innocent enough, right? I should have known better.

Spaghetti is one of those things that everyone has a very distinct opinion about.

At our house, we have finally settled on a sauce (Classico Traditional Sweet Basil), store brand thin spaghetti, and store brand garlic breadsticks. Just add some ground beef for the sauce, sprinkle in Italian seasoning, voila! We keep it stocked in the pantry as an easy go-to meal.

My mistake was to mention that in front of a do everything from scratch person.

I have been known to make things that take a lot of preparation.

I can make a German Chocolate cake from scratch.  No cake mix box.  From scratch, baby. Cake flour. Double boiler for melting the chocolate.  Homemade icing.

I just don’t see the need for all that fuss to make a simple pasta dish.

New Shiny App

In other news, there is an app called Vine.

It is a way to make a six second video.

Yep, that is all it is.

Even a technologically challenged guy like me knows you could do that already.  Do a video and stop at six seconds.

Finally

The video I was a part of (see my last post)   has around 300 views on YouTube.

I am particularly happy with the support from you wonderful folks.

Thanks again

Peace

 

I Am In A Video

I mentioned that it was a plan this year to try to make a little more effort to publicize this blog.  As an attempt to do so, I sent my last post about guns to ThePoliticalCarnival.net .

They are a very good site if you look at things from the perspective that we do here at the Bellbottom Blog.

Almost immediately after sending the post, they contacted me and asked if I would make a 30 second video for a series they have called BLUNT.  They compile the contributions and create a video.

You and I know we don’t do technology here, so I was a little reticent to try anything for them. But as they explained how simple it was, I found myself running out of excuses.

(Point your phone at your face, talk for 30 sec. send it to us.)

Of course, it isn’t all that simple.  I haven’t attempted anything like that since Communications class during my senior year of high school.  39 years ago. We studied newspapers, radio, and television.  No internet back then.

I remembered enough to scribble a script out on paper torn from the shopping list, went over it a few times, and started to make the video.  And the 30 second part is hard as well.  Thanks to Twitter, I have learned to be concise.

It took three attempts.  When you film yourself with a phone it is not easy to make sure you are centered in the frame.

Finally, it was done.  I sent it in on Friday and waited for the finished product to be completed.

Monday afternoon, it was.

I was a nervous wreck as I started the video.  It is a shade over 10 minutes long.  If I did this right you can view it below this post.

I am extremely proud to be a part of this.  The editing is outstanding. And the visual that was placed over the last few words that I contributed took my breath away.

I think it is an important message whether or not I was in the video.

My thanks go to @GottaLaff who is one of the two women who run ThePoliticalCarnival.net. and is the person who talked me into contributing.  I can’t thank her enough for the opportunity.

You should check out their site.  Bookmark it.  Go to it often.

And as we always say here

Peace

 

We Are Still Talking About Guns

The President came out today with 23 executive orders aimed at trying to move the needle on this debate about guns.

I have written about it a few times.

On Fox News, they had a package ready to go showing how these orders wouldn’t make any difference.

They started with a gun shop owner. His task was to show that there was no difference between a 30 shot clip and three 10 shot clips. He put an empty clip in the gun, pressed the trigger to let off ten imaginary shots and then pulled the empty clip out, fumbled around a bit putting in the new one, fired off ten more, pulled the clip, tried to put the clip in backwards, turned it in the right direction, put it in and fired off ten more shots.

He then said, “See. It’s the same.”

Except, of course, it wasn’t.

So, let’s say for the sake of argument, he was a real shooter in a small room. In the scenario where the victims can rush the shooter, obviously there was a bit of time to move while he was fumbling around between clips.  A hail of thirty consecutive bullets would probably not leave anyone able to attempt to tackle him.

Let’s take the other scenario where people in the room are also armed.  While he is fumbling around, there would be a possibility for the good guys to shoot at him, maybe rendering him unable to reload his next 10 round clip.

We are assuming in the last example that the good guys can shoot straight.  That is, I contend, a very big leap of faith.

The rest of the segment turned into the usual “How dare Obama (They can not call him the President. It must be in their style book) try to run the government through executive order”.

I am not sure where they were when the last President would use signing statements to get around provisions in bills that he would sign.

This debate just wears me out.  I think that is the NRA’s strategy.  Keep changing the argument while continuing to grease the palms of Congress.

I will bring this up here from time to time.  The kids in Newtown, Chicago and anywhere else in this country deserve better from us.

Just as an example, in 1982 7 people died from poisoning due to someone tampering with Tylenol bottles.

SEVEN people

For the last 30 years, the packaging has been changed by the drug companies to try to prevent that from happening again.

SEVEN people and an entire industry reacted with a solution.

An average weekend in Chicago can see that many shootings yet the gun folks and Congress sit on their hands.

We have got to do better.

Peace