Chasing Rainbows

I'm always chasing rainbows. Then, when I catch one, I spot the next rainbow on the horizon. How beautiful! Off I go running again, cursing every step that remains between me and my next rainbow. Having arrived at this rainbow I instantly spot the next one. Oh how I wish I were already at that next rainbow!

What is my favorite season? Winter I suppose. I love the white wash of freshly fallen snow. I love the bite of cold on my nose. I love to zip down the trails on a snowmobile. But soon enough I long for spring. I wish for the coming of warmth. Flowers. Rain.

Spring arrives like clockwork every year. Gorgeous, renewing, reviving spring. The world awakens from its slumber. Color permeates the landscape and I breath the bouquet of fresh smells. Ahhh, this is living. Yet, it is not quite warm enough. Not dry enough. I am sick of mud. I want summer! Bring on the beach!

As it always does, summer arrives. Heat. Sunshine. Fresh cut grass. Outdoor living. We camp, we go to the lake, we grill food. Have I arrived in my favorite season? I miss football. I miss the cold. I miss Fall. Where oh where are my stunning tapestry of golds, reds, oranges, and yellows in the trees? Why can't I have a bit of cool breeze? Where is Fall?

Yes, Fall arrives on time as well. Now, maybe now, I am in my favorite season. Yes, now I can relax and enjoy life! Football has returned. We rake leaves, we eat donughts and drink apple cider! Pumpkins! Halloween! Glorious fall is here. Then again...Man, sure would be nice to ride a snowmobile. Where is winter? I am never satisfied.

My favorite season is whatever season is next...

Bring on Fall!

What do you do when you arrive at a rainbow? Do you sit back and bask in its glory, or do you dash off in search of the next one?

Did you bring the beer?

Sunburns and hangovers. I don't like them, but I seem to end up with them all the time. We had a great weekend up north, and I managed to avoid the latter, but not the former.

We went to our family cabin outside of Kalkaska for a fun weekend of fresh air, sunshine, good food and family bonding. We got all that and then some. The "kids", that being my family and my brothers family (pets included) came up Thursday night. We made a trip to the farmers market and got lots of great fresh Michigan fruits and veggies. Had a delish cookout and munched on fruit salad.

Saturday we took mom and dad to a place my brother and his wife knew of up the Manistee river. For $10 per person they drive you up river, give you a tube and send you floating down river back to the dock.

We packed our cooler with lunch and drinks and began our journey early in the afternoon. It was a fantastic relaxing ride through some beautiful scenery. Cool, but not too cold water that was over my head deep in some places, and only a few inches in others.

We drank, laughed, relaxed and had a blast. Half way back we stopped and pulled off to the side to eat our lunch. Shared some jokes with a group that was behind us, and shoved off again. The weather was gorgeous and I was soaking up the sun (more on that later).

I was feeling pretty good when we were about ten minutes from the dock, but we were now out of beer. Just then I heard what sounded like a walkie talkie radio off in the distance. We were now floating past a camp ground and I assumed it was some campers messing around on shore.

I shouted to our group that we should be careful as the cops were after us. This was met with much amusement and prompted another member of our group to yell something profane about law enforcement. The camper shouted back at us, furthering my suspicion that it was not actually a cop. I guess he was insulted. Then he yelled, "I will meet you at the dock with a ticket!".

Again, still feeling I was conversing with some random tourist, whom I had yet to physically lay eyes on, I shouted back, "Oh yeah? Well, bring some beer, cause we're out!". Thats when I noticed my mothers face go white and the rest of the group got all quiet. They all had just saw what I was not able to spot. A Kalkaska County Sheriff standing just off the bank of the river, red faced and mad as ever.

Sure enough, when we pulled up he was waiting for us. He motioned to my brother to step to the vehicle, and we all prepared to go bail him out of jail. The cop was hot, and he was right in his face, pointing his finger. We stood by and listened as he gave lectures on the virtues of respect and orderly conduct, especially when addressing an officer of the law.

Now I admit, what we said was stupid in retrospect, but we meant no harm. We were just excited and having a good time. We got a little cocky sure, but nothing I felt to really get us in trouble. Nothing to warrant the way this guy handled us.

The finger in the face was an intimidation move, I don't like it, but I get it. He was clearly trying to provoke my brother. When that didn't work, he started to insult him. "Weren't you raised better than that? Your momma should smack you!" Now he was baiting my mother, and I stepped in between her and the officer. Then the coup de gra, "Your mother should be ashamed of you!" To which my bother replied without missing a beat, "Im sure she is sir". This made the cop even more frustrated, and after running my brothers info (we could hear over the speaker, "No wants, No Warrants, No Record") he reluctantly released us all while muttering some more of his high and mighty moral advice.

I was shocked! Never would I have thought we would escape all that without so much as a verbal "warning" or written citation for something. It was as though my brother had used some Jedi mind trick on the guy. *waves his hand* "These are not the drunks you are looking for", "They can go about their business", "Move along".

We jumped in the truck and howled with laughter all the way home. What a day. I had a glass or two of my Oberon keg that my parents brought me, but other than that we just grilled food and enjoyed our family's company for the rest of the night. My wife rolled her eyes and was not impressed with the story of our almost arrest, but I think in the end she saw the humor in it. Maybe.

As for the sunburn, well, it could have been worse. Those who know me already are aware that an hour of sun for me is the same as crossing the Sahara, brutal and painful. My thoughtful wife snagged me before I left and helped put SPF 50 (from the same tube we use for my two year old mind you) on my back. I added some to my legs and front, but for unexplained reasons missed my arms. They were burned so crispy by the time we got back you would swear I had stood on the surface of the sun! Ouch!

Good times. We learned a lesson. Pack more beer and or assume you are talking to a cop at all times! Can't wait to do it again!

Good news! It's not contagious!

There was an article posted on Mlive.com today that sort of sent me on a tangent. Maybe I come on a little strong, but I am so sick of "Facebook is evil" rants. They miss the point.
Here is the original article:

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2010/06/influence_blog_keep_health_inf.html

Here is what I wrote:

The central message of this article is that Facebook is wide open, not password protected, and not secure. It also states that those sites such as Carebridge specialize in safe, secure, private networks that allow you to share private health info with only those it is intended for.

First, Facebook has its flaws granted, but it is as wide open or secure as the end user makes it. There are several ways to privately disseminate sensitive data. One way is to only make your profile viewable by people you have friended. Now when your status reads "Good news! It's not contagious!", only people you trust will see that (provided you don't friend any random person you get a request from).

Second, you don't have to post status updates or anything on the publicly viewable site. You can use a private message. Create groups within your friends that contain only close friends and relatives. Then send an e-mail message that only they can read, "Friends and family, Grandma is not well. Please pray for her". Now only those who need this info can see it and respond to it.
The article also suggests that only naive people would turn to Facebook to get support from their friends instead of sites like Carebridge. Really? How many people do you know that have a Carebridge account? How many have Facebook? People go where the people are. Have you ever tried to get your non technical family members to set up an account on an obscure little used site that you like? Aint gonna happen. Even if they do it, they won't log in everyday and see what you have posted. With Facebook, even my Grandmother who is 80 years old (did I just share too much there?) has an account. She logs in and can see updated pictures of her great grandaughter. Getting her to set up and check another account? Impossible.

Facebook is strong because it is ubiquitous. It is only weak when uneducated users don't tighten their defenses. Besides, should you really share your most intimate secrets on-line anyway? Even if you think it is secure, anything that hits the web is no longer in your control, and exists in the etherworld forever. Be careful, no matter what media you use.

As for the "employers look at all resources to make hiring decisions" point, well that is true. Sort of. I am in charge of hiring in my department, and I did once find a candidate on Facebook. Didn't like what I was seeing and went another direction. But in general, the vast majority of company's don't have the time or resources to scour the Internet before hiring you. Especially to make minimum wage, which unfortunately seems to be the majority of the hiring done these days. If you are applying for a CIO position somewhere, you better bet your on-line presence is important. But then, if you are at that level I would hope you are intelligent enough not to post pics of yourself in a compromising position to begin with. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Facebook doesn't hurt your chances to land a job, you hurt your chances. Use the technology, just use it wisely.

Just sayin....

Should Obama grab a sponge then?

Ok, quick rant. Like him or hate him, the oil spill is NOT Obama's fault. I get the anger, I get the comparisons to Katrina and Bush, but this is not something that can be fixed easily.

Some people say Obama is not doing enough to get the leak stopped. What would you have him do? Take over for BP? Do you really think the US government is going to be more effective at stopping the oil leak than say a privately held company who employs specialists and sees money flowing at thousands of gallons per day? Having anyone but the oil company stop this is ludicrous.

Some people say Obama needs to step in and clean the spill. Far as I can tell, every available resource is already deployed. Can we do anything else with it? How do you clean a spill that has yet to stop spilling?

Some people say this is Obama's Katrina. Night and day here people. There were colossal failures at many levels of the Katrina relief, most of which centered around the failure of our government to release enough aid, and what aid that was released being stuffed fraudulently in the wrong pockets.

Once BP has stopped the leak, and lets all hope that is soon, then we shall see what Obama does. Clearly we need a regulatory overhaul of the drilling industry. Many investigations as to how this happened in the first place are in order. Gut the departments that let this weak system go live in the first place, and replace them with stronger bodies that have the authority needed to shut down companies that endanger our environment.

Shame on you BP for not having a backup plan. Shame on you for pointing fingers, and shame on you for creating the worst man made environmental disaster in history! Now, Obama, the clock is ticking. Shame on you if you don't take action to prevent this from happening again.

¡Qué lío!

I love learning about grammatical errors and common misuse of language. Our University sends out weekly news e-mails and they add a quick blurb at the end related to writing and proper usage of things, usually tying it in to things related to University business.
This weeks tip I found amusing so I figured I would pass it on:

* * *

Writing tip--Choose "who" or "whom" to correctly complete the following sentence.

(Who or Whom) do you love?

There's a popular song, "Who do you love?" performed by Bo Diddley, the Doors and others too numerous to mention, so "who" must be correct. Well, yes and no. Advertising slogans and song lyrics are two of our nation's leading grammatical disasters, which is unfortunate, because you can't get either out of your head.

"Who" is a subject. "Whom" is an object, as in, the object of your love is whom? "Whom do you love?" is grammatically correct, but "Who do you love?" is accepted common usage. Both are "correct," but no one would say or write, "With whom are you in love?" or "Whom do you love?" Use: "Who do you love?"

More writing tips
http://www.wmich.edu/writing/

* * *

So, whom do you love?
By the way, the title to this post is Spanish for "What a mess!"

You want how much for a tub of popped corn?

At work we have a group of people who use vacation time to take Friday afternoons off and go to the movies. Yes I know, you hate me. I get that. I make no apologies for my awesome job!

One of the side affects of seeing so many movies is that I see things well in advance of my wife. She is not a fan of the movie going experience. Maybe its the price, maybe its the kid kicking the back of her seat, maybe she would rather spend two hours of her life somewhere she can have a drink and a smoke. Regardless, due to her aversion to the theater, when she adds a movie to the Netflix Que it's likely that I have already seen it.

This is not such a bad thing, I can usually guide our rental experience and avoid seeing something awful (take Vin Diesels Babylon AD for example). Not to mention if I have already seen it and enjoyed it in the theater, I would like to see it again. Therein lies the problem.

My most recent example is Avatar. I saw that in 3D, an experience I came out of with mixed emotion. The glasses hurt my face after a while, and the constant in you face action gave me a headache. Still, I enjoyed the movie. It was good. Not great. Not a gazillion dollars in record setting ticket sales good, but good. I don't really get what the fuss was about. It's not as groundbreaking as they made it out to be, and the plot was very transparent/predictable.

Now the problem comes in when I was getting groceries the other day and noticed the DVD display with a big yellow sale sign on it. Not one to pass up a good deal (it was only $16.99) I put Avatar in the cart. When we watched it at home on the tv, which is fairly large and of good quality, it just fell flat. I immediately realized that this movie was designed for the theater. Everything about it was carefully crafted to dazzle and amaze, but only on a 30 foot tall screen with 3D and surround sound.

The movie is still watchable, but it is not the same. Some great action scenes still came across entertainingly enough, but the forest world, blue people, and flying scenes just seemed cheesy. I noticed the same thing with Transformers 2, and I think they even cut short a gratuitous running scene with Meghan Fox (maybe it just seemed to last longer on the big screen?). At any rate, I am acutely aware now of the difference between my decent home theater setup and seeing it the way Hollywood intended, in all its mind numbing glory.

Recent Movies I recommend:

Kick Ass - Very bloody and graphic, do NOT let young ones see this. Nick Cage plays a super hero he models after Adam West's Bat Man, this alone is enough to see the movie.

Alice in Wonderland - Burton and Depp are at it again. Not as good as I had hoped, but worth seeing.

Avatar - If only to see what the fuss is about.

Hurt Locker - Based largely on the life of a soldier from MI as he defuses bombs in Iraq.

Inglorious Bastards - Again, very bloody. If you don't like Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) than you won't like this. If you are hip to the bizarre and bloody nature of his films, this is a must see.

So enjoy but caveat emptor, I make no warranty implied or expressed. If you see one of these films and think it's horrible, I can not give you a refund. I do however recommend you only see something Bruckheimer produces in the theater. It makes a difference.

What's new?

Well, a lot of things...My head is swimming right now! We sign papers on our new house this Friday afternoon, I just set up a lease with a tenant who is going to rent our old house, and my wife is pregnant! Sheesh. I'm thinking of taking up some new hobbies just to fill the down time...

The house buying experience was a drain. We looked at endless homes on-line, walked through a dozen or so, then found one we absolutely loved only to have it stolen out from under us (it was HUD owned and they do a silent auction. We were outbid by $20k, so I don't feel too bad). When we rounded the corner to see the house we eventually bought, my wife actually went "Ooooooo". We took two tours, then found out someone put in an offer the morning of our second walk through. We put together our best deal, just shy of what several comps in the neighborhood sold for, and sat nervously by the phone.

When our agent called she asked me to put it on speaker, so I suspected good news. Then she said they basically accepted as written, and are paying closing! Whoo hoo! Then set in the overwhelming dread of realizing that we now will have two mortgages, and we have to pack six years worth of accumulation to move. Not to mention we are going to become landlords thanks to the fact that there are dozens of foreclosed homes on the market for sale with twice the space and half the price of ours. Thanks banking/housing sectors, thanks a bunch.

So, to recap the whirlwind last couple months for us; found out we are expanding our family, went through a brutal home buying process (not done yet, worst paperwork/writers cramp session of our life coming this Friday!), listed our home for rent and screened a dozen applicants to find a tenant. Wow. How did we survive? Oh, and did I mention that our daughter turned two through all this? Yeah, terrible twos! She is the light of my life, and so cute it is beyond words. Most of the time she is a joy, but her new favorite response to any request from mommy and daddy is, "not yet..." Love it...

Well that's it in a nut shell as they say. What's new with you? I hope this message finds you and yours happy and well. I know I sure am!

So then you just eat it in your car? That's dumb...

The other day we were out house hunting and drove by the new Sonic Drive-In. I mentioned that I had always wanted to try it. I like the old fashioned style drive-in. Thats when the wife said something to the effect of "then you have to eat in your car? Who wants to do that?"

So I did...Today on lunch I decided to take advantage of the last bit of warmth and sunshine before the snow they are calling for in this weekends forecast (seriously, I know this is West MI, but 60 and sunny all week then high of 36 deg with snow showers tomorrow? Really?).

I pulled up in the 'Stang, and every one gawked at me because I have yet to get around to replacing the squawking/creaking/groaning shocks in the front of my car **embarrassing**. There is a menu board with a big red button to push to initiate your order. I asked for a double cheeseburger meal. They offered a choice between tater tots and fries. Seriously, tater tots! I would have gone with the tots but I am all totted out from endless meals with my daughter at home. Besides, the ones we have at home are dinosaur shaped and you can't top the feeling of biting the head off of a T-Rex...but I digress.

The order board has a debit card slot so I could pay with a quick slide of the card. Then less than two minutes later someone on skates rolls my meal to me! They are called Car-Hops. My Car-Hop handed me my food and the drink with a mint on top and asked if I needed anything else. I told him I was good and settled in to my meal.

The burger was huge, the bun lightly toasted. It was two generous patties dripping with cheese, topped w/ tomato, lettuce, onion, ketchup, and mustard. It was delish. The fries were thick and tasty, and most importantly not drenched in salt like some other fast food places. You hear that McDonald's? I don't enjoy scrapping a pound of salt off each fry before consuming!

They played a wide variety of music over the loud speaker as Car-Hops buzzed in and out with smiling friendly service. Oh, and when I ordered the happy person taking my order proudly informed me that my total came to "only $5.99"!

It was a great experience and I will be back. Now I just have to buy a house that is closer to it so it won't be as long of a drive!

Random thoughts

So, I realize I have not posted to this blog in quite some time. Some of you may have suspected that I have become seriously ill, or worse. However, the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Having said that, I have no particular subject to rant about today, so here goes more of my infamous stream of consciousness rambling (read the title of this blog, not surprising, right?).

I am misunderstood...

I suspect all of us feel this way from time to time. You say something, and you get a totally surprising reaction. You think, what went wrong? How could I have been so misunderstood? This has happened to me more often than I care to admit lately, and it is a disturbing trend.

I have recently been called conceited, self righteous, cocky, and verbose (this last complaint usually lodged as "you use big words too much"). Some of these sting. Some are pretty accurate. Some are right on. I wonder though, how I can be so misunderstood?

I don't feel conceited. I can't imagine anyone would openly admit to being so. It's not a good thing, and if I ever felt conceited I would quickly change things around. So what is it that I am doing that causes this perception? Some have tried to explain that I am confident, and that sometimes can come off as conceited.

So, I have lately fretted endlessly about what I say and how I act. I am constantly in my own head trying to filter myself to prevent people from taking things the wrong way. This leads me to a maddening second guessing of myself with every move, and I have decided to say screw it! I am me, take it or leave it, as my wife always says. I hope that those who truly know me would understand that I am not cocky, I don't feel superior to those around me (ironically, it is usually the exact opposite) and I am not intentionally trying to sound smarter than my audience.

That leads us to the verbose problem. I have a fascination with words (see my reference to a Haberdashery early in this blogs infancy). Yes, maybe I am guilty of having a word of the day application on my home page, maybe I do read complicated books, maybe I do use words in my daily language that don't appear in the everyday mans' common vernacular (oooops, did it again). So what. It's not on purpose. I'm not trying to insult you by purposely using words that are over your head. I just enjoy communicating (your honor, the defense submits as exhibit A, this blog).

I use words that tickle my fancy. Words that I have heard, or read, or been fond of for some reason or another. Words that help me, at least in my mind, make my message clearer and more concise. For example, some say things like the apple don't fall far from the tree. I might say that the rosy fruit with seeded womb has succumb to the effects of newtons law, coming to rest not far from whence it came. Ok, maybe not, but I think you get my point. I just like to have fun with it.

There, how's that for a rant? Did I persuade you that I am indeed humble and not conceited, or did I make it worse? Oh well. As Theodor Seuss Geisel (A.K.A. Dr. Seuss) once said, ''those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

I hope the new year finds you happy and healthy!

http://semicoherentramblingsofamadman.blogspot.com/