Horse Manure Park

This short article really got my attention. (Sorry, but this whole Michael Jackson thing has captured my attention.) The article says that Jackson was requesting the IV drug propofol for sleep. I know about this drug because I deal with it all the time. We use this drug for patients who are on ventilators. It is a very powerful sedative which renders a patient unconscious while the ventilator breathes for them. I could not imagine ever administering this drug to a patient without a secured airway. To do so is medical malpractice, as simple as that. You could easily put someone in respiratory arrest with this drug. I don't know if this is what caused Jackson's death, but he obviously was dabbling in (and had knowledge of and access to) some heavy duty drugs, judging by this article. I'll be curious to see if this drug shows up on the toxicology results. It might not because it's metabolized quickly, meaning it doesn't stay in the blood stream very long. But

We are home, looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight. We spent a long weekend (Friday - Monday) at the Dau farm near New York Mills, our annual summer gathering with Beth's family. Lots of good food, plenty of cold beer, a few genuine Cuban cigars and some nice conversation made for a relaxing weekend. The cousins played like crazy. If one word can describe the weekend, however, it would be "windy." We also got over an inch of rain Friday night and I can happily report our camper, on its first outing this summer, passed the "waterproof" test. It was good to get away from the house this weekend. We brought Grace camping with us and she is about the most laid back, low maintenance dog you will ever meet, but you could tell she was missing her life-long best friend, too. I admit we are all still adjusting to life without our Martha. It just seems so strange to open the door and her happy, smiling face isn't there to greet us. After eight yea

Man, is the sky falling? This has been a sad week, folks. I could hardly believe the news that Michael Jackson suddenly died today. I've always admired Michael Jackson. Anyone my age cannot deny he was the most popular entertainer of our time, even if you didn't like him or his music. I can't say I really cared much for him until 1988. In May of that year I got to see him live in concert at the Met Center in Bloomington and he totally blew me away. That's not just lip service. On my Facebook page last month I listed the five best concerts I've been to over the past 22 years and Michael Jackson was at the top of that list. It turns out I saw him in concert on a whim. You see, one Saturday morning in 1988 I was standing in a ticket line at the Dayton's outlet at Roseville Shopping Center (this was the dark ages where you either stood in line for tickets or called Ticket Master and sat on hold for an hour), waiting my turn to get Def Leppard tickets. It wa

The house is pretty empty this morning. I'm the only one awake, brewing my usual pot of morning coffee and Martha would have been in the kitchen keeping me company, licking my feet and just generally being annoying in her lovable way. I've had a day to decompress and reflect. Thank you for your thoughts, although I posted Martha's pictures more for my own benefit than to solicit sympathy from anyone. Still, it was nice to hear from you. I won't got into the details, but Martha's condition quickly deteriorated over the last week or so and yesterday morning I reached a moment of sad recognition that it was simply cruel to my dog to keep fighting this fucking disease, and she deserved to go out with dignity. The decision was quick -- if you call thinking about it for the past year as "quick" -- and she was in the vet's office within 25 minutes after that heartbreaking decision was made. I have nothing but high praise for the people at Lakeland Veteri

Martha 2001-2009 Goodbye, old friend. We'll always remember you.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads who read my blog. My friend Akbahr from Slovenia sent me a picture today wishing me a Happy Father's Day. I guess something may have been lost in translation... "For to make Father's Day happily to you !"

You could feel this brewing all day -- hot, humid, strangely overcast. I fired up the ol' radar and this is what I see coming at me right now (my house is on the black dot in the middle of the screen). It could be a bumpy night, folks. Wish us luck.

Time to update. It's been a while. I know it's bad when my wife asks me, "When are you going to update your blog?" I didn't think she read it, or at least not very often. It definitely feels like summer now. It is warm and a little humid today, but I'm not complaining. At least not yet. Give me a couple weeks and I'll start bitching and moaning about how hot it is outside. I'll need to go back and read my blogs about how cold it was during the winter to remind myself that I wished for warm weather a few months ago. It's a no-win situation. Give me any weather and I'll complain about it eventually. Last Wednesday I mowed the old farm near Hewitt (site of Farm Fest, of course). It was a beautiful day to mow and afterward I spent some time just sitting out in the yard enjoying the incredible quiet and peacefulness of the place. I had a couple Diet Dr. Pepper's and a couple Iguanas. I had a good conversation with Mom and Dad. It wa

If you follow my blog, you might remember I mentioned a couple months ago that my scanner went belly-up after just 10 months of use. I contacted the assholes at Hewlett-Packard at the time and they informed me the product was not under warranty. I argued and argued that I had purchased the scanner just 10 months ago, how could it not be under the one-year manufacturer's warranty? Well, my arguments were to no avail. They offered me a discount on a different product. No thanks. Well, things got interesting today. I received an e-mail from HP telling me it's time to upgrade my warranty since the one year manufacturer's warranty was about to expire. You can imagine I just about soiled myself. I was on the phone faster than a dog can raise its leg. I talked to Rahib or Abduhl or some damn thing and I couldn't understand a word he was saying... and no, that's not a racist statement, it is the truth . I could not understand him and his name was not Dan or Jim or B

Oh man, here comes the dreaded weekend. Not much else to say.

Just waking up and listening to Dave Matthews Band's remarkable new album, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King . I was disappointed with the their last two releases, but they got this one right. There's no other word for it... outstanding .