Yup, 2022. What an adventure it will be! At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

This last year has been a real bleeping bleeper. I didn’t even get on the Harley-I didn’t want to push my luck. It’s sad, meeting up with Thursday Night Bikers, then watching them roll out on their ride. We still meet up at their destination and we have a burger and soda, but it’s not quite the same. Maybe next year-we’ll see how everything works out.

My Grumpy Self and the rest of the At Home Family all had the WuHuFlu last November. The Oldest Daughter came home saying someone at work had it (the fellow worker had the jab, so of course she came to work not feeling good), so when Oldest Daughter got tested – Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! So she was off work for two weeks, and the rest of us got the WuHuFlu too.

Now, the clinics and doctors won’t give you any non approved treatment ( I asked ). You are on your own. My Grumpy Self started checking the resources available to me ( DuckDuckGo, as if Google told me the sky was blue I’d check for myself ). It seems there are online doctors who will give you an “office visit” for $100, then give you a prescription for the non approved treatment. You can then order said non approved treatment online for another $100, and wait three weeks.

Or, you can check Tractor Supply. When I checked TSC online, their stores were out of the non approved treatment for 80 miles around me – except for the store in Mason City. Road Trip! My Personal Nurse and I jumped into the Adventure Buggy and made our way to Music Man City!

We picked up several tubes of the non approved treatment-the stuff seems to work ok. I haven’t noticed any side affects, like shaking my mane or stomping my hoof when asked a question. While we all recovered from the WuHuFlu, I’ve still got a cough and my energy isn’t back to what it used to be ( but getting better ).

Welp, I’d better take advantage of the 60° warmer weather we’re having today ( high in the upper thirties – not to long ago the high was like -23° ). Have to pick up branches in the yard from the 80 mph winds we had a couple weeks ago.

Happy New Year from My Grumpy Self!

I think I slept through it – again.

Didn’t see the ball drop, or the fireworks, or the midnight hug and kiss. I went to bed too early for all that – not that I’m old, I’m just tired and seem to ache in places I don’t remember having a reason for.

Ah well – I still got a New Year hug and kiss when I got up.

So with 2020 vision, I’m looking into the New Year (see what I did there? *snicker* )

** Move to Improve!! I’m working too many hours with a long commute, so I’m making a list of ways to change up and utilize my time. I’ve picked a harmonica, and I’m going to squawk on it for a little bit each day. I’m looking for a Spanish language lesson thing that I could use while I’m on interstate. I’m still looking into any exercises I could do while driving ( how about a treadmill with a steering wheel in the car? If you aren’t running, the car isn’t moving )

** Plan Long, Live Short!! Figure out where I want to be 5 or 10 or 20 years from now, and do what I need to do to move towards where I want to be. Take small steps, but make progress. While planning long, live short – realize each day is a gift from God, and there’s no guarantee of tomorrow.

While on that subject, I had a Doc try to convince me to take a “medicine” that would require frequent blood work to make sure the “medicine” wasn’t damaging my liver. I asked the Doc if there were actual studies showing the “medicine” prevented the disease he was referring to. Doc admitted “No”, but said it was expected to increase my lifespan by 2-3%. My response? “Doc, I fly airplanes, ride motorcycles, and work with explosives for a living. 2% is down in the weeds.” He hasn’t mentioned it since.

Ok, I’ll put the soapbox away.

**Share!! I need to improve on helping – sometimes listening is what’s needed, other times more substantial methods. I’m past the days where you could hit me for money and I’d automatically give – I may donate, but there will be a background check. Opinions are still available; I’ve got 2 or 3 on any subject you’re interested in.

**Blog More!!  Don’t know if it makes a difference, but blogging does require me to sit down and think, which is probably a good idea.

Time to go get stuff done or I’ll miss daylight!

Oh yeah – Happy New Year !!

So I called to see if The Most Excellent Dude wanted to go online…

T.M.E.D.  hi Grandpa

G- hi Most Excellent Dude!! Ready to rock minecraft?

T.M.E.D. Me and Zack and Luke are online.

T.M.E.D.  Zack says Hi.

G-  Hi Zack!

T.M.E.D. Luke says hi.

G- Hi Luke!

G-  Dude, you kick their butt ok?

T.M.E.D. Grandpa, we haven’t even got to the part where we are blowing each other up.

G- When you do, make sure you kick their butt.

T.M.E.D.  I will make you proud, Grandpa.

G- goodnight Dude

T.M.E.D. goodnight Grandpa

I do enjoy our intellectual conversations.

Q: Why does Cabela’s sell firearms to 18 year olds?

A: Because they’re not Dick’s.

On another note, there are reports of UFO’s dropping ‘glowing orbs’ over L.A., and folks on the interwebs discussing what they could be.

Brings to mind Cousin Eddie standing by the storm drain holding the drain hose, yelling up to Clark Griswold, “Sh*tters full!”

OK, back to the first thought. I was in town today, needing to pick up bags of ‘pre-poop’ for the household critters.  (Hold that thought, I’ll explain later ).

As I was saying, I was at the huge “home-farm-fleet-bonanza-superstore” cruising through the sportsman area. I stopped short, and was amazed-all the firearms in the display cases had the normal markdowns and sale tags-except the ‘evil black rifles’.  A week ago I could have bought a low end bad boy AR/AK type for 6 Franklin’s – today I would have to spend close to $1000 (or much more) to buy one.

I guess that must be the law of unintended consequences-the harder the gun haters try to get rid of guns, the more guns will sell.

Oh, yeah. ‘Pre-poop’? That’s what you buy the critters so they can turn it into ‘Post-poop’.

Walking the dog for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

…so it must be Spring.

Early Spring.

Excuse me, I need to go scrape the frost and snow from my windshield.

Spring.

Spotted this outside the local Wally-World on a warm weekend day.

Impressive, isn’t it?

I talked to the owner/builder–he looked just like you’d imagine, libertarian crossed with a mad scientist.  The motor is a Honda 125cc with an automatic transmission; the tires are Pontiac Grand Prix spare tires, the axle is a “positraction” – builder’s quote – looked like a straight axle to me.  The tow/push hitch is the arm from a satellite dish connected to a homemade hitch.  I don’t know why the mannequin head is attached to the trailer, other than when you see him cruise by it looks like a child is riding in the trailer.

I’ve shown people this photo, and I get asked one of two questions:

“Why?”  and “How fast?” If you ask “Why”, I don’t think you understand true independence; if you ask “How fast”, I was told “it starts qetting squirelly around 55”. I imagine it does-the ape hanger handle bars probably don’t help.

So, if you ever are in a situation were the normal answers don’t work, do like this dude and think outside the limits.

New ideas for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

Well meaning people that offer to help are good.  Well meaning people with their own agenda are something else.

Well meaning educated (college degreed) people can be, well, aggravating.

You’ve heard the cry “We need to do something!” No one knows what the something is, but we’re going to do it. Change! Change! Change!  I’ve thought about hanging an old change dispenser, empty, outside my work area with a sign reading “Sorry – We’re Out of Change”. So far, my ‘keep out of trouble’ filter has prevented me.

I’ve got all sorts of people “helping” me.  Some are just burning minutes ( “If you need anything, here’s my number” ), some, without any experience, will tell me how to do the job that I’ve trained for and spent years perfecting. The most aggravating are the folks that want data. They don’t know what they’re going to do with the data, but you need to collect it for them.

You’ve heard about “Rebel without a Cause”? This is “Data without a Clue”. Data, even analyzed and charted, without a reason for being, is worse than worthless. In a previous life, I went looking for some parts that were being made. I found them-rusted! Seems the plating department had run out of the chemicals they used. However, every day they took data samples, analyzed and charted the results. I looked at the charts-the line traveled right off the chart into never-never land.  They weren’t using the data for anything-it was just something someone educated had told them they had to do. No clue that the line should be stopped.

I’ve covered the Good, the Bad, and now the Something Else.  Folks helping you to further their own agenda are ‘Something Else’ . Doesn’t have to be at work – I’m sure that you can see this problem everywhere. I’m pretty much tired of being pulled into volunteer work, and after a while figuring out that I’m just there to support so-and-so’s effort to become a local/regional/state Grand Pobaah of Some Thing Important. Fortunately, I’m getting better a recognizing the signs, and exiting somewhat gracefully early in the effort.

Not saying all volunteer work is bad, or that people helping you all fall into these catagories.  Every organization has their internal structure with their own ‘quirks’.  Pick and choose the best organizations you can, and accept help – and offer help – as much as possible.

Figuring out how to recognize the signs and how to evaluate should be the subject of a future post.

Helping for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

…Do Not Slam a 24 oz coffee inside of 30 minutes just because you were a little stressed about the 2 hour commute to work (bad weather and traffic ).  I was able to make mistakes three times as fast as normal, though.

Note to self #2…

… Filter! Filter! When saying something feels like it would amuse you, don’t. It is better to have wished you had made a snarky comment, than to make the comment and wish you hadn’t.

I have a friend from Cambodia that has an unbelievable filter-I don’t know how he keeps from saying what I know he’s thinking.  Probably has something to do with surviving the Khmer Rouge period. I’ll ask if I can share some of his stories sometime.

Note to self #3…

…Sometimes it’s better to replace the old equipment than to keep struggling with the ‘classic’ stuff. I didn’t know how much better the new snow blowers were until I replaced the 25 year old snow blower. Makes life much more enjoyable.  Just hope the Queen of the Home doesn’t get the idea to replace this ‘classic’ model with a newer one that works better and doesn’t make as much noise.

Note to self #4…

…I think it would be better to work 5 years longer than you want, and then retire, than to retire and after 5 years discover you’re out of money and need to go back to work.

Note to self #5…

…You can always start taking better care of yourself.  (See Note to self #4)

Note to self #6…

…New gadgets can be neat and useful! I’m talking about a FitBit (See Note to self #5) You don’t realize how little sleep you’re getting until the little SnitchBit tells you (I slept longer than 5 hours! How can you say I only slept for 5 hours!) Now I have a goal of 7 hours a night-the little SnitchBit will remind when I need to go to sleep to get my 7 hours in.  Sadly enough, some nights it’s reminded me that I need to go to bed before I’ve even made it home from the evening commute.

It’s time to wind down, so-

Resting for the Good and True,

Billy Acre

what travel would be like in the future when you were a kid?

Or, Where’s My Flying Car?

Travel when I was a kid was b-o-r-i-n-g. My siblings ( otherwise known as the partners-in-crime to our long suffering parents ) and I would try to play games to make the time pass. Didn’t work well – a few years difference in age when you’re young makes a big difference when you’re playing a spelling game, or even an alphabet game.

You remember the alphabet game – work your way through the alphabet one letter at a time, using the first letter of the words on the road signs and passing trucks. The trick was to spot the letter you needed but not call it until the sign was almost passed, so your sibling competitors couldn’t spot it and use it.

Which brings up the second most popular game on road trips – arguing over the games you were playing. I think the winner was the last one of us who spoke before one of the parents in the front seat yelled “Don’t make me pull this car over!!”

So how do kids survive travel now? On the internet, of course!! We had the occasion to travel for several hours with the Intelligent Young Man – first thing that happens is the cell phone with the best data plan gets plugged into the charger, and then turned into a mobile hot spot ( Wi-Fi ) for the car. The rest of the trip is Tube of You, or streaming music/video, or online games. Not a chance to be bored.

Guess I’m jealous.

Travelin’ for the good and true,

Billy Acre

2016, I started posting again!

OK, it’s been a while. Been busy, working long hours, had a cold that seemed to last forever, blah blah etc. Really no excuse. So wash and wax the soapbox, because we need to step up and shout!

Do you realize that on this date in 1927 the Ford Model A went on sale for $385? The average salary in America in 1927 was $1,000 ( 50 cents an hour ) so a new car was 5 months income ( in theory ). How would you like to be able to buy a car today for 5 months income? Let’s see, if you made $15 an hour, that would be about $12,000 in 5 months. Actually, the Nissan Versa S sedan lists for $12,780, so I guess not much has changed in 90 years.

Well, gotta run. Things to do, money to spend, happiness to pursue.

Posting for the good and true,

Billy Acre