Point Made

Buckets of Rain. High Winds out of the Northeast. A Perfect Storm on Lake Maria. Surfs Up. Bring your boogie boards and bikinis. Check that! Maybe a wetsuit would be a better choice. I checked my weather site of choice. I'm looking for days where the noon temperature is over 35 degrees. Bad news. All days that fit that parameter also have rain and high wind in the forecast. More bad news. Oddly, the forecasts for those days were correct. My bicycle is still parked. We switched our internet/cable TV/phone provider to At&T. We are saving a significant amount of money for the same service. We are twenty-four hours into the switch, and I must say I'm not sorry yet. My reception is great, and their controller is pretty simple to operate. If anyone sees the deal and wants to switch to AT&T call me. We can both make a $100. Because of the switch, we now have, what my son Brad calls, the Montana State Flower in our yard. Because of the trees in our yard, they located ...

My birthday. Maria's birthday. March madness ends in April. The Masters Golf Tournament rolls onto the scene. National Outdoor Copulation Day is but a month off. (Hooray, hoorah, It's the first of May. Outdoor Loving starts today.)   All of these things are on the calendar, but all of them are tempered with that Upper Midwestern reality check, 'If the weather's good.' The good news is that road construction is starting early this year, so we know traffic jams will be bigger, better and earlier than ever. Maria and I went to Milwaukee this last weekend so she could get a haircut, we could visit friends then there were tickets to the Rep, and frankly, we needed a break from the dog. And I suspect, she needed a break from us. As is our habit, we cruised down Highways 41 & 45 until we got to the I-94 intersection to downtown Milwaukee. For those of you that haven't been through that area for a while, let me say it has become somewhat of a California style...

I am trying to stay away from politics on my blog. I know that some of my intended readers do not share my feelings. As well, I don't entice dialogue. Occasionally my readers will address something I've written about. For the most part, they are merely saying something like, "Oh yeah, I felt that way too," regarding some experience, that I related. However, I have to share these particular feelings about the new Ryan Healthcare proposal that is sailing through the House of Representatives. Market-driven healthcare provision: This concept proposes that if put on the free market health care insurance will become more affordable. The theory is there will be competition among insurers to gain market share and lowering the prices will be a possible outcome. None of the insurers want customers who are old people or people with a pre-existing health problem ( heart disease, cancer, etc...) Older people, who are not on medicare, have more health care ne...

I'm not sure how much of a fad it continues to be, but I am dabbling in adult coloring books. I think I first saw some reference to the past time about two years ago. I know I was living in Louisana. I got a small set of colored pencils and my first book of the Impressionist Masters. The challenge is to make your coloring of a cartoon version of an old master, your own. I learned from my painter friends that you really want to limit your color choices (your Pallet). Selecting some basic colors that you can vary in intensity by your application. I have a device that I can use to rub the colors to press them into the paper and get more coverage. I can use it to shade edges to give the piece dimension. I found the rubbing the colors on with the side of the pencil point works better than holding it as you would if you were writing or printing. I discovered that you have to exercise a modicum of patience and that you can learn things as you go. I don't color...