bobsterism

It’s a Tuesday night here in rural Douglas County.

Kind of funny, I listen to that in my own head and I hear Garrison Keillor’s voice.

Look it up. He had a pretty good radio show that held a large audience for radio for years in an era that was dominated by television.

“…and all of the kids are above average”.

Well, maybe that is something that our little place here out in the Inner Boonies might have in common with Lake Wobegon.

It’s been a busy day, lots of errands to run and things to do. Pool guy came by the house today to talk about the things that have to be done to get the pool ready for the summer. Ran into town to get a few things for the pool as well as the grill.

The highlight of the day might’ve been watching the new episode of Forged in Fire where the goofy underdog beat the pro.

Dane and I watch that and think maybe it would be a fun hobby. I could get into swinging a hammer, but I think woodworking is a little more my thing.

Several of us have to get up early tomorrow. I’m taking Lisa and Bonnie to the airport, they’re going to a conference in Atlanta. After that, I take off for Clay Center to pick up a new lawn mower. No complaints here on that front.

In the meantime…

Peace y’all.

Monday night here in rural Douglas County, and Lisa and I are here upstairs with the dogs. Gracie went into the campus to get a little work done, and Dane went to bed after having spent the day home with another bug bout.

Seems like the bugs have been winning.

I went and had my crown reset at the dentist office today. Couldn’t take care of it last Friday when I first tried to get the issue resolved, but we got it managed today.

Sort of.

I’ll be needing a bridge or an implant where that molar is sitting someday. I’m not looking forward to it, but then, I never look forward to anything having to do with my mouth and the dentist. Nothing against my current dentist or any number of dentists that serve the public interest every day.

My teeth aren’t great, and that has been a primary factor in the volume of work I’ve had done, and the pain associated with that amount of work.

I’ve been described as an anxious patient.

I won’t deny it.

I procrastinate, too.

Those two traits don’t work very well together.

That’s about all I’ve got tonight, truth be known. Might be time to hit the internet and look at nicely figured wood.

Peace y’all.

Hey kids, Grampa Bob here with an update on what I got done on this day, April 8, 2018.

The answer is, “not much”.

Seriously, though, we went to late Mass this morning and got home shortly after noon. I started rooting around the television guide for info about the Masters’ golf tournament, then, after a very nice lunch headed downstairs and got a little bit lost in watching golf being played in Augusta, Georgia, while the snow fell outside.

Yes, I wrote that.

3 weeks into spring, and we had snow falling today.

Pretty weird stuff.

Patrick Reed won the Masters, his first major. For all I know, when you guys read this, he may have become a golfer of legendary status, a role-model for the golfing ages.

I bet Jordan Spieth earns that little bit of recognition first.

A lot to do around here this next week. Have to get the taxes done, have to go get the new lawn mower in Clay Center, have to take Lisa and Bonnie to the airport early Tuesday morning.

At least I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow, right?

Anyway, I’m going to let it go at that. I’m tired, and I just woofed down a bunch of cookies and milk, and my tummy is telling me to go lie down and enjoy this sensation of fullness.

Peace y’all.

Hey, future grandkids of mine, and anybody else interested enough to read my words (thanks!).

It’s been a fun day. Dane and I went over to see the Spielberg-produced “Ready Player One”, based on the Ernest Cline book. I had read the book, Dane had not. Although I recognized multiple departures from the book, I compounded suspension-of-disbelief a couple of times over and enjoyed the movie. Yeah, I prefer the book and wish the movie had more closely followed the storyline, but I also understand why it could not.

I might have to go back and listen to the audiobook again, now.

This evening, my old high school classmates Tim and Kelly had their old college band playing in Shawnee, so I contacted another old high school classmate of ours to join us. Man, we had a great time. Tim and Kelly were rockin’ it up on stage, and Robbie and I were singing along with every song, much to the chagrin of anyone else within earshot.

Robbie and I had a great time. Caught up a little bit, took a few selfies – one disturbing photo of me that makes me look like I had two of my front teeth knocked out — and made that promise to stay in touch more and get together for a barbecue or two this summer.

I hope that plan goes as planned.

Peace y’all.

Hey gang, old fat grampa Bob here again.

I have always had an interest in the topic of fantasy worlds, from when I was very young and captivated by the silliness of the worlds created by Dr. Seuss, or later, in my teenage years when I discovered the Lord of the Rings, the Hyperborean Age of Conan the Barbarian, or the land of Nehwon, home to Fafhyrd and the Grey Mouser.

I want to create my own, and invite folks to play in that landscape.

Trouble is my fear of getting it wrong.

Ridiculous, on a level.

Of course, some things are going to be wrong and will require editing.

Some of the relationships I create between various kingdoms, houses, and guilds will appear to be forced, but it will happen anyway just because I want it to happen that way.

It all seems a bit contrived when I approach it that way.

I need to let it flow, and just let the creative process happen. I know I’ll get frustrated at some point and think that it’s best to start over.

Maybe, this time I won’t.

Maybe this time I’ll put my nose down and just muscle through it and create a homebrew gaming environment that others will enjoy.

Time will tell.

Pece y’all.

Schadenfreude.

I’ve always kind of liked that word.

It’s a German word as if you couldn’t tell.

I recall (and I paraphrase) a quote from John Fugelsang, ” I derive pleasure from the discomfort of people that don’t know the definition of the word ‘Schadenfreude'”.

In reality, the word means “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.”.

And here we are.

I’m not a fan of the current administration. I think Trump is an incompetent idiot that isn’t qualified to throw poop at the other monkeys.

He screwed up today. He denied that he knew anything about an agreement orchestrating Stormy Daniels’ silence made between his attorney and Daniels’ attorney.

That means that one party to an agreement doesn’t recognize the validity of an agreement. Which means that Trump’s lawsuit against Ms. Daniels is invalid because the agreement that he purports she broke never actually existed.

I think the term “hoist by his own petard” might be somewhat applicable here.

Trump is notoriously litigious, throwing around threats of a lawsuit like a teenage punk throws around curse words.

He screwed up, though.

Now people know why there’s a revolving door at the White House for attornies representing Trump.

He’s a terrible client that won’t take advice. He won’t keep his mouth shut.

Even when there are 20 million reasons to do so.

In recent weeks, there have been a number of very tragic events, from the brutal attack and murder of seventeen high school students and teachers in Florida, to an attack at the Youtube headquarters yesterday that thankfully, led to the death of the shooter who apparently took her own life after shooting and wounding four other people.

Here’s the thing. In social media, there are now numerous posts about the perception that because the shooter in the Youtube situation was a female, vegan bodybuilder, the main-stream media wasn’t going to cover the story with the same degree of zeal as the murder of the seventeen teachers and teachers.

They aren’t the same.

By a factor of about seventeen.

There was another aspect of this that really rubbed me the wrong way. There were allegations that the mainstream media was ignoring and/or looking to bury the story because it didn’t fit in with some agenda. The fact is I found the story on the front page of CNN’s website.

It doesn’t take but a couple of moments to verify something before you post it. I understand the temptation to post something that supports a belief system or a set of values… but sometimes that post is bullshit. I’ve done it, and I regretted it.

Don’t fall for it.

Verify. And if you can’t verify, don’t post it.

Peace y’all.

I now enter the second year of blogging. I wonder where this will take me?

I do wonder sometimes who else reads my blog. I don’t receive a lot of comments, but that is probably due to the fact that I don’t solicit a lot of commentaries. I could probably offer up a few more controversial opinions, but I think it’s fair to say that I’m a fairly moderate American. I’m likely to be a little left of center on some subjects and a little right of center on others. I’m not out there looking to make people my enemy, but I have been known to tell a few people what they can do with an opinion that reaches for new extremes on the idiot scale.

For those that have read my blog from time to time, I welcome suggestions and comments. I do try to think about things before I expound on them, unlike some pop culture/political figures that infest the news cycle these days. I will also admit when I am wrong… another trait missing from the signature resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I guess what I’m trying to say is “I’m listening”. I’d like this to be a little less one-sided and a little more interactive.

Thanks!

Peace y’all.

OK, so here it is folks… I’ve successfully written 365 blog updates over the course of the last year.

For me, this is a pretty significant achievement in the world of sticking to something and trying to create a good habit.

There have been times that I didn’t have much to say. Some might posit that most of the time I had nothing to say, but that didn’t keep me from talking. Thing is, I know it. I know that there have been times that all I really cared about was hitting that two hundred word mark and calling it a night. Half-assed. Phoned it in. Crap work.

They aren’t all going to be gems.

I guess I need to think a little bit more about things that other people might think is interesting enough to read. In my line of work, there are a lot of things written, but so much of it is as painful to read as a night on the rack.

So, we enter year two. I wonder if I’ve changed at all in the last year, and how much. I don’t know. In some ways, I might be harder, in other ways softer (head? waistline?).

All that really matters is that I keep writing, really.

Gotta keep a chronicle…

Peace y’all.

Hey gang, it’s Easter, and I hope you guys had a great day, with the appropriate balance of gratitude, religious fervor, and chocolate bunnies.

Yeah, that may have sounded a lot funnier in my head.

I’m a practicing Christian, and if I practiced harder, I might be able to get it right. My wife is a much better Christian and Catholic than I am, and in the vase of religious matters, I turn to her. Anything related to family and faith, I sit down and shut up and my wife can take me to school.

She does that better than I do.

I’m practicing.

We did have a nice Easter, though. Gracie had several of her college friends over this afternoon for a dinner, then we kind of hung out and watched the second half of the women’s national championship game between Notre Dame and Mississippi State. The game was tied at 58, and with 3 seconds left, one of Notre Dame’s players hit an absolute prayer from three-point range to win the game. One of the most amazing shots I have ever seen in a game of that significance. Congrats to Notre Dame.

Back to the real world tomorrow. Teaching Office 365 this week.

Peace y’all.