Point Made

Maria and I had finished our traditional Saturday morning trip to Mary's Restaurant for breakfast and were on our way to look a gas fireplace insert for Maria's new house. It was on this journey we met the nicest lady. I'm glad to say we didn't run into her but sad to say she did run into us. As we approached the intersection of County Road CE and Railroad St in Darboy, the light turned yellow. Maria remarked afterward that she checked the rearview to make sure no one following her was counting on her running the caution. Seeing no one, she stopped. Seconds later, we were hit in the rear. According to the police report, the woman was distracted by devices (phone, GPS). She wasn't aware she was approaching an intersection at an estimated speed of 40 MPH. Upon seeing us, she attempted to avoid the collision by pulling to the left. To little to late, but she did prevent full front on rear contact. Interesting fact, rear-end collisions don't trig...

It started in 2004 when we moved to our condo off Downer in Milwaukee. Then we mover to the Westside of Milwaukee when we rented from Ken Karr, the former landlord, now a current friend on Highland and 29th St. Then we moved to Mandeville Louisiana for a little less than a year. Returning to The Fox River Valley, we rented a home in Fox Crossing, formerly The Town of Menasha. When the tree fell on the roof, and the landlord felt no urgency to fix it, we moved to W. Commercial in Appleton. Here is a shocker. Are you sitting down? We are moving. No, I don't mean off the couch and out to the patio. There are too many damn mosquitoes for that to happen. No, we are packing our stuff, or at least the stuff we unpacked from the last move and moving to a home Maria purchased on Mason and Glendale in Appleton. Let me unpack that last sentence (pun planned for). We are moving at approximately the end of September to a house. The house has been in t...

Picture me as hair-faced Chuck Todd moderator of "Meet the Press". He usually starts his program with the line, "If it's Sunday, It's Meet the Press". In my case? "If it's Wednesday, my blog is a day late." No excuses. And my apologies to new blogger and old friend Julie Rowley, who I was advising on her attempt to Blog. Not a good example here Julie. First of all, let me get this off my mind. I was at "The Game" Sunday night in Green Bay. My old friend, John B. and traditionally go to the opening game in Green Bay every year. I have been going to Packer Games since the mid-sixties. That means I've saw Gerry Kramer lead Paul Horning around the end on the famous Packer Sweep and I saw him Sunday night hobble out to receive an ovation with the rest of the veterans that returned for recognition, which by the way included Paul Horning. So it goes without saying, I've seen a lot of great games and players on that field. Many of...

I'm not going to go on and on about my playing the worst round of golf I've played in 2018. The best round is laughable enough. And then no one remembers when I was a good golfer because, sadly, that's a day that never was. As always, the company, the weather, and the course were excellent. (Lenny Nagler, warm and sunny, and Ried GC). No, it was the golfer that let me down. Aretha Yes, we lost two important and admirable people this week. When I was a child one memory of my father my father was his unabashed love for black music. An interesting note, I believe that on my fathers side of the family that we had kin on both sides of the civil war.  Let me remind my peers that when we were young there were black radio stations and white radio stations. When my dad heard Nate King Cole, Little Richard, Ray Charles or Aretha on the radio or from one the records in his collection, the volume went up and everything else went on hold. R...

Sorry about last week. Sorry about what? Ah, I'm sorry I didn't publish my weekly post. Oh, you didn't notice. Okay. Moving on. The week before this, I attended the Annual Bud Wittwer / Mark de Young Memorial Golf Tournament. It has been a tradition of many years and is always held at Pine Hills Golf course in Gresham and hosted by Sue and Dave Lee. The gathering memorializes those members of the Royal Order of Toads who have received the Croak Award. They are awarded this distinction because they have passed on. The day begins at Sue and Dave Lee's cabin on Pine Lake for breakfast, then eighteen holes of golf at Pine Hills, followed by a cookout and awards ceremony back at the cabin. The day was hot and humid. I played, or at least hit shots, on all eighteen holes for the first time this year. I knew something was wrong when I found that I had to lay down and rest after we got back to the cabin. I took about a forty-five-minute nap, fo...

Time heals many wounds. Forgiveness seems to come slower. Forgetting may be impossible until a number of people die. I think of the way our society is today with its multifaceted divisive issues. Some say the problem is the internet and social media. I disagree to an extent. I believe the divisions in our society over many issues has been in place for a long time. However, I will grant you not having to face our neighbors face to face, by inventing an online identity name with the randomly drawn letters from a Scrabble game and being able to imitate the many talking heads on television Social media provides a place to exercise our frustrations. We all look outside of our silo for a world we wish would exist. When we don't find it, we are disappointed which can fester into anger. When we find people that don't agree with us, we question their intelligence and motivation. Even in the face of good evidence, facts become disputed We use and invent derisive na...

If there ever was a time to review my lifestyle it was when I found out I gained five pounds. Yup there it was. My jeans didn't feel tight because they always need stretching when they come out of the wash. The need to wear my belt over one hole wasn't because I was tucking in my shirt. No, I had put on weight. I checked my food log.  (A habit I developed while on Weightwatchers. If you bite it, write it) Was I truly using only two teaspoons of peanut butter on my morning toast? Is that Skinny Cow treat really only 150 calories? Did I count my gummy bears or guess? All the important questions. The thing that disappointed me is I know I'm exercising more besides going to the gym, I'm mowing the lawn, bike riding and walking more. Oh, Wait! I've only been to the gym once in two weeks. But that was because I was on vacation in Seattle. So then, there was all of that walking in the airline terminals. Well, Twice anyway. How about...? Nothing ...