The Rock

There’s a guy down in central Iowa who, for the last ten years, has painted the local “graffiti rock” with some pretty neat murals. Sunday a bunch of us trekked the 180 miles down there to see the 10-year anniversary of Bubba painting the Freedom Rock. Pretty neat, actually. The Iowa Army National Guard was there with the Orange County Chopper that had been made for the Guard. Then they started talking about “large hail and tornadoes,” so we flew back up the Interstate ’bout as fast as you safely can on cruisers in a hard sidewind.

Pictures follow:

The Ceremony

Monday was Memorial Day itself. I went to help the American Legion Riders in my hometown. We were in a parade, and some of our Vietnam vets helped with the ceremony at the courthouse. Plymouth County puts up a flag for ever veteran from the county who’s passed on. Every flag has a dogtag with that veteran’s name. You ain’t seen nuttin’ until you’ve seen nearly 1,100 flags waving gently in the breeze, hearing the faint tinkling of the dogtags as they blow… And they STILL read each and every name during the ceremony. It takes longer and longer every year to read all the names, but no one has complained.

You can see the pictures here:

08-05-26 ALR at Memorial Day

Trust and Discipline

A Walk in the Woods

Dagmar and I went for a walk yesterday in Stone Park here in SUX. (You gotta love it when you live in a city with the airline designation SUX.) Anyway, Sioux City sits on a boundary of sorts. To the east there’s the entire state of Iowa laid out in neat squares of farmland, hundreds of miles of gently rolling hills checkered with roads that go entirely across the state with nary a curve. To the west is what I consider the true Great Plains — from the Missouri River all the way to the Rockies are the sweeping, windblown, seemingly-empty prairielands of Nebraska and South Dakota.

But in the middle is the Missouri River, and there’s Sioux City, right on the river, a break between the farmlands to the east and the plains to the west. The wind sweeping along the plains has, over the millenia, dropped it’s fine dust along the river, creating the Loess Bluffs. For a mile or so on each side of the river there’s an alluvial plain, but bordering the plain are the bluffs…

Stone State Park is just on the northwest corner of Sioux City, right on the Big Sioux River which serves as the border between Iowa and South Dakota, just a few miles from the Missouri. Here are photos. If you click on ’em they get bigger. (I really wish Blogger wouldn’t try to color-correct and sharpen my photos. I had ’em the way I wanted ’em. Oh well.)

Worried

My beloved Austrian Snowflake Dagmar is scheduled to have her surgery in a month. I hope we have enough money piled up… All our scribbling on the backs of envelopes and midnight insomniac mental math tells us we should be okay. Things will be a little tight, but we’ll cover our bills and will have grocery money. I’m very grateful that I’ve had enough freelance work in the past few months to be able to save up for this!

Dagmar wants me to take a few days off and go fishing in Minnesota with my parents in a couple weeks. I have to say it sounds really good… A good 350 mile solo bike trip up to the lake region, a few days in a tent behind the little hotel in the woods, a day spent fishing, a day spent riding, plenty of opportunities to take photos, a nice 350 mile ride back home… My only problem is that I feel guilty spending money to go fishing just a few weeks before Dagmar’s surgery, even though I’m sure we have enough to cover it. It seems insensitive to me somehow. I’m not sure what to do.

I do know I’m really looking forward to next summer when Dagmar’s healthy again and has some vacation time! We’ll go to the zoo, we’ll go to the park, we’ll go camping, we’ll ride our bicycles, we’ll go EVERYWHERE together ’cause she’s my best friend!

Just a thought…
Hey, next time we have one of these election thingies, why not do all the states at once? Maybe over a long weekend or something. Say, the polls open at noon on Friday and close nationwide Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern time. That would give everyone time to get to the polls… I can handle a long weekend, but GEEZE we gotta do something about this 19-month-long election cycle! I know, I know — Iowa makes a lot of money by having the candidates and all their entourage spending a year campaigning across the state. But realistically I went to four or five candidate rallies and I didn’t learn one single thing I didn’t already know, except that Joe Biden looks bigger on TV than he does in person.

From the Party of Family Values
Found this on the Innernet…

Actually, Senator John McCain started having affairs with other women in the late 1970’s, even though his first wife, who was crippled in a car accident, had waited faithfully for him for years to come home from Vietnam (McCain was a POW in Hanoi for five years). Speculation abounds that McCain started cheating on his beauty model wife shortly after his return to the states (and recovery from the torture he endured in prison) due to the fact that she didn’t look the same after her accident. Some people contend McCain broke the UCMJ during that time frame by having affairs with subordinates while in the military, and might have been court-marshaled, or at least disciplined, had he not had the right connections. Eventually the 42-year-old McCain met 24-year-old Cindy, who happened to be heiress to millions of dollars. They were married just a month after his divorce from his first wife. McCain and his present wife do not live together due to their schedules, though they do vacation together every year.

Senator McCain has done a lot for the United States, but if he starts preaching family values this is gonna come back to haunt him — especially after what the Republican party did to President Bill Clinton. Personally, I think his family life of nearly 30 years ago is his own business, and his familial problems may be a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to his service in Vietnam… But if the Republican party tries to fly the Family Values banner over Senator McCain this could be a problem for him. People may forgive McCain’s indiscretions, but they hate hypocrisy.

Four Bucks!

How long do you think it’ll be before the riots start? I’m just happy that two of our three vehicles get 40+ miles per gallon (I don’t drive the third car more than six blocks to work, and then only when it’s snowing or raining).

Think about it. Nearly all our economic problems stem from oil going from $18 a barrel when George W. Bush was appointed president in 2000 to $130 a barrel today. (I guess that’s what happens when you put two men deeply invested in the oil industry in charge of the government.) Food costs more because it costs more to transport it to the market. Same with all consumer goods. Prices are going up at a startling rate, all due to the increased price of oil.

Now, it doesn’t really matter WHY oil prices are going up, what matters is what we’re doing about it, and what we’re allowed to do about it.

Drill for oil in Alaska? Not gonna help. It’d take between 17 and 20 years before the first drop would get to us, and the percentage of oil that would come through the pipeline would be minuscule compared to our daily usage. Too little too late. ANWR really is more valuable as a
wildlife refuge than a source of oil. It’s just not gonna get us out of this crunch.

What we need is to find the Model T of alternate fuel vehicles. Don’t give me a Prius that costs nearly as much as my house. I don’t have that kind of money — I gave it all to the oil executives so they can hire lawyers to get them out of paying taxes. Rather, give me a little plug-in hybrid for $7,000, and let me build a wind turbine on my garage to make the electricity for the car. Make a bunch of these. Sell ’em to the Chinese and Indian folk. Don’t tell me we can put a man on the moon and build atomic bombs but we can’t find a way to put a battery in a car… We can do it.

Shoot, I’m about out of time.

My next item up for bid, real quick and without any more forethought than the preceding ravings, is ethanol. I live in Iowa, so I could probably be shot for saying this, but we really shouldn’t be making fuel out of corn! Two reasons. The first is that corn-based ethanol yields 1.4 units of energy for every 1 unit it takes to manufacture. In other words, it takes just about as much energy to make corn-based ethanol as we get out of it. Switchgrass, on the other hand, yields a ratio somewhere between 7 and 9 to 1 — MUCH higher than 1.4 to 1. Second reason — corn is not native. Corn really doesn’t grow well without a lot of help from the farmers. Switchgrass, on the other hand, is what grew here before we plowed it all under to plant corn… It grows all on its own.

‘kay now, I’m done.

Would they…?

I stole this from Skyler’s Dad over at Chewing Through the Straps.

Surprisingly Busy for the Bush Economy

Golly, I’ve had more business in the past few weeks than ever before! I’m designing Web sites like a maniac, and I’ve had two people call me already today about doing wedding photos! I hope I get a photo shoot or two to look forward to over the summer — I like doing Web design, but I really need to get away from the computer and go outside every now and then…

Things keep up like this and I may be able to get away from the print shop and actually work for myself! It’s getting harder and harder to keep up the freelancing and the day job both, as well as the charities. (By the way, if anyone needs a Web site or a pretty photo or anything, see www.hippieboydesign.com — I’ll be glad to help!)

I may also be getting back into music again in a limited capacity. I certainly don’t have time to be in a “real” band again, but maybe a jam session or two mightn’t hurt…

Darwinism at Work

You know, over the past few years I think I’ve accidentally bred a species of dandelions that know how to duck when they see a lawn mower.

In an odd twist…

…a homeless guy bought me an ice cream cone yesterday. I guess I looked hungry. (Well, he’s not really homeless any more, but he was for a long time.) The ice cream truck in our neighborhood is, I kid you not, a 1980s conversion van with the words “ice cream” spray-painted on a piece of cardboard in the window and a pair of 20-year-old fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror. The two 20-something kids who drive it (I think of them as Cheech and Chong) must have found a tape of the traditional “ice cream truck jingle” or something ’cause I don’t think they have a loudspeaker or anything — they just play the song on their tape player really loud and leave the windows open.

Hoochiemama!

Never, under any circumstances, no matter how desperate you are, ever mix a piece of Orbit Raspberry Mint and Orbit Maui Melon Mint together. Ever.

Man, that’ll twist your face up…

Sorry…

I just now realized I haven’t written in days and days. Sorry ’bout that.

An Open Letter

Dear Senator Clinton,

I’ve learned a lot about you in the past fifteen months as you’ve campaigned for the Democratic nomination for President, Senator Clinton, and you have some very admirable qualities. Your knowledge of world events is extensive, and you’ve shown that you’ve cultivated a wide-ranging group of supporters within the Democratic network in Washington D.C. You’ve shown how admirable it can be to “stick with a fight,” and how important it is to keep plugging along…

However, I strongly urge you to quit now. You’ve shown us the qualities of determination and tenacity, but what you’re teaching us now is that determination and tenacity are but a short step away from stubbornness and willful ignorance. Senator Barack Obama has all but won the nomination, yet he cannot concentrate on the general election while you’re still in the race. Your continuation of this prolonged nomination process is, at this point, doing nothing but helping the opposition, wasting money, and hurting the environment. While Republican nominee John McCain is free to concentrate on his run for the White House, you’re stalling the Democratic party, miring Senator Obama in a mudslinging contest in which he doesn’t wish to engage or continue.

Please, Senator Clinton, do the right thing and step aside for the good of the country. Please.

Thank you for your kind attention,
Christopher L. Radloff

…from laughing.

My sister sent me a link to the top 50 comedy sketches of all time. I haven’t watched all of ’em, but I did notice one sketch missing.

Way back in the days of yore, people used to work in front of live audiences. Here’s a sketch where Carol Burnette is supposed to be telling her Mama something. Tim Conway ad libs some goofy story. They do the sketch again. Conway ad libs a completely different story…

Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Number One was an angry rant. When I re-read it, it sounded childish and petty, so I deleted it. Feel free to continue on to Number Two.

2. I wish I had enough money to quit my job. I’m burned out, angry, grumpy, and generally unhappy. I don’t know if it’s anyone’s fault, particularly, though I tend to be upset at my bosses. It’s just the way I feel.

3. Dumb quote of the day: Republican Representative John Duncan — “… it seems rather elitist that people with academic degrees in health think they know better than parents…”

When did being “elite” turn into a bad thing? When did it become a sin to be educated and trained? Personally, I WANT my doctor to be one of the elite! I want the people governing me to be elite. I want the people teaching today’s children to be elite.

Rep. Duncan was talking about sex education. His view is that the parents should be in charge of educating their children about sex, and he’s right — parents should teach their children about such things. But they’re not, so the schools have to instead. And if the schools are doing it, what’s wrong with having an educated professional in charge of the program?

It seems miserably backwards to me that we should choose those who are to educate our children based not on their education and qualifications, but rather their lack of such education or qualification.

4. I’m tired of getting political “jokes” e-mailed to me. I’m getting probably 15 or 20 anti-Hillary e-mails a day. I’m hoping Obama gets the nod in the primary, but I don’t wanna see anti-ANYONE e-mails. They’re rarely funny, and all they do is prove, once again, that our nation can’t decide politics on issues — we depend instead on slurs, slander, and cheap humor. Don’t get me wrong, a good political cartoon can make a definite statement, and so can a well-turned phrase. But the vast, vast majority of what I see is merely ignorant name-calling. I don’t want to see it in my e-mail any more.

That’s what blogs are for.

5. United States President G. Walker Bush has disappointed me. He has once again stood in front of the nation and failed to take responsibility for his actions. Instead of acknowledging that his policies may be flawed, he’s telling everyone that the current political and economic mess is Congress’ fault and that there’s nothing he could do about it.

Whatever happened to Democratic President Harry S. Truman’s famous “The Buck Stops Here” philosophy? Whatever happened to the notion that we must hold our public officials accountable, including the President, for their actions? Yes, Congress plays an important part in public policy, but I don’t want to hear excuses. Get the job done, dammit.

Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain is already showing signs of continuing the Bush/Cheney/Rove policy of blame-shifting. He has publicly denounced an attack ad being run by the North Carolina Republicans as being false, but claims he’s powerless to stop them from running the attack ad. Isn’t he kind of the guy in charge these days? Doesn’t he have control over his own party? Why won’t he step up to the plate, do the right thing, and declare attack/smear ads be stopped? Because then he’d be held accountable…

6. I get an e-mail roughly three times a day, the same message, listing the various ways Christianity has played a part in American history. At the end it says, “It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or ‘In God We Trust’ on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don’t we just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!”

Well, I have problems with that.

My first question is quite simple — who’s trying to change our money? Is someone seriously trying to change the Pledge of Allegiance? No. Oh, sure, some whacko comes up every now and then who wants to make waves, but no one takes them seriously. This is NOT an issue, as far as I can tell. Liberals do believe in the separation of church and state, but I don’t see anyone getting freaky about it… Most liberals are, after all, Christian — just like Jesus, the most famous progressive of all.

My second problem is a bit more touchy. It’s my opinion that if your faith in God is so weak that you need to be reminded of Him every time you spend a dollar to buy yourself some Ho-Ho’s, you have more problems than you know. If you truly had faith in God, you mightn’t feel so threatened.

My third problem with the e-mail revolves around the base logic of the last sentence, quoted above. Iowa passed a law recently banning cigarette smoking in bars and restaurants. This has caused quite the upheaval — the level of chest-thumping and moaning by smokers is incredible; they feel their rights are being violated, and that the government has no right to tell them what to do. One survey I saw said that some 82% of Iowans are non-smokers. So why can’t we tell the other 18% to sit down and shut up? That’s what the e-mail said about religion… So, if the smoking minority are upset about their rights being trampled by the majority, don’t you think they’d also be vocal about the religious majority trampling the rights of the minority religions? Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working that way.

Personally, I fail to see where another person’s beliefs threatens my belief in God. We are a Christian society, by and large, and part of Christianity is accepting other people. Acceptance. Compassion. You know, those values. They pertain to other people, too, you know.

7. A meme… SkylersDad memed me a while back. I haven’t forgotten, I’ve just been busy. Until now. It’s a simple one — list five relatively clean web sites you like. Feel free to play…

Torso pants — Odd t-shirts. Fun site.

I Can Has Cheezburger — lolcats

HippieBoy Design — My site. Go there. Buy a website or something. Please.

Weather — I live on this site waiting and hoping for good riding weather…

Drew — My buddy’s site. He’s trying to work his way out of the print shop too.

8. I’m tired. Shoot. I just caught myself sleeping. I think I was snoring. Not good when you work ten feet from the boss’ door.

9. I’d best get something done. Have a good weekend, ever’buddy!