Horse Manure Park

It's a blue moon on New Year's Eve. Wonder how many times that has happened? I suppose once in a blue moon. Happy New Year to everyone.  Goin' to work now.

As you can see, Farm Fest 2010 now has a date.  We tossed a few dates around and the third weekend in August is what worked out best for the "band."  Hopefully we have the date set far enough in advance so people can get it on their calendars and get vacation requested. Gosh, the warm days of summer, camping and Farm Fest seem like a long way off right now.  Christmas is over and now we begin the "rut," as I call it -- the period of time between late December and late March. That's a long rut. It sounds like Friday through Monday we are going into the deep freeze around here, with lows around -20 each night.  At least that's what I heard on the radio on my way home from work this morning.  Actually, -20 is colder than a deep freeze. That's just stupid. The end of the year is tomorrow.  Over the past year I have had over 5,300 hits on my blog.   That's pretty cool.  It certainly gives me incentive to keep on writing.  Thanks for re...

We're back from our Christmas adventure.  The trip down to Waseca took some time and was a little hairy in places, especially between the Cities and Owatonna where the roads were covered in snow in places and it was difficult to tell what was where, but people were driving (surprisingly) slow and using (surprising) caution, so we got there slowly but safely. We had a fun time with the family and set off back home around 11:30 AM today.  It was a much less stressful drive home, the roads were in perfect condition and we arrived to a driveway full of about a foot of snow.  Of course, I promptly got the car stuck halfway into the driveway.  It was nothing a little shoveling couldn't take care of, but I'm blaming it on the tires.  Beth said I shouldn't have stopped.  I say I stopped because my shitty tires started spinning.  She got mad, got out of the car and said, "I'm walking home."  Luckily she only had to walk 15 feet. So after I got the ca...

Merry Christmas to all!  We have our Christmas cards ready to send to everyone, but stamps seem to be an essential part of sending a letter.  Due to lack of stamps in our household, I'm afraid your card is going to be late, but it's the thought that counts, right? We are scrambling here to get our stuff organized and packed.  We are going to take off tomorrow night, heading for Waseca, MN, which is where Beth's oldest sister lives.  We are in a race against Mother Nature.  There is a major winter storm a-comin' and it ain't looking good.  At least 14 inches of snow is expected for our area, starting late Wednesday night.  We are going to cut it close and we've got a long drive -- a little over 200 miles or so.  Racing a blizzard -- I think only Minnesotans would even try to do this.  Are we brave or just stupid? By the way, that's a rhetorical question. If the forecast is correct ( a huge IF ), we will beat the storm if (a huge IF...

I have been cold medicine-free for the last 12 hours and I am feeling a little more human.  I was alternating Nyquil, Robitussin, hot buttered rum, Dayquil, Sudafed, crack-cocaine, shots of brandy and Russian tea and it really made me feel weird - like a Jim Morrison "Lizard King" type of weird.  I thought everything was fine, but when the Christmas stockings started talking to me I decided enough was enough.  No more cold medicine.  I started detoxing myself from all of this stuff that was supposed to be making me feel "better" and I think my body is finally coming around, judging by the green, chewy leeches I am hacking out of my lungs.  (Sorry, too much information.) I still do not feel 100%, but certainly better than yesterday.  My sore throat is gone, but I woke up with a pounding headache and I haven't been able to get rid of it.  I'm not sure if it is my sinuses or the fact that I haven't had any coffee for the last couple of days. ...

A doozy of a cold has knocked me out for the count.  I felt poor earlier this week, went to work on Tuesday and started really feeling cruddy.  Now I'm just plain sick.  Sore throat, fever, coughing, sneezing -- pretty classic and crappy stuff. My wife is trying to nurse me back to health.  She made me Russian tea today, like her grandma used to make.  I live in a cave and have never heard of Russian tea, but it is pretty darn good.  This stuff is made with Tang, the same orange drink that I used to enjoy when I was a kid.  But Tang doesn't look like this anymore; nor does it come in a glass jar with a metal lid: Now it comes in just a plain, boring orange plastic container, and plastered across the label are the words:  "New BETTER Taste!"  I just don't understand this type of marketing.  This year Tang celebrated its 50th anniversary.  Why, after 50 years, do they need to be concerned about making it taste better? Mayb...

We got our Christmas pictures today, which I think turned out pretty cute.  My wife is pushing me to write my usual Christmas letter, but I can't find the motivation or time to sit down and git 'er done this year.  The way I look at it, my Christmas letter will go to the people who read my blog and the people who read my blog are already up-to-date with our life, so it makes it rather redundant and anti-climactic if ya ask me. Everyone at our house is sick and Neil especially sounds bad.  He is very "croupy" sounding and he'll bear watching closely.  There's nothing more stressful than sick children. There's only ten more days till Christmas.  We'll be heading to Waseca to spend the holidays with Beth's family... that is, provided we are all healthy by then! I am watching Turner Movie Classics (one of my favorite channels) and they are airing the original, uncut version of "Gone With The Wind," complete with overture, intermission ...

I have been listening to a lot of Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five lately. Without a doubt, most of you just asked in unison, " Who ?" It doesn't surprise me that most people have never heard of Louis Jordan, but I think it is a crime that he is not as well known as the thousands of artists he has influenced over the past 65 years.  My goal is to change that in my own little way by giving my blog readers a little music history lesson.  (And if you don't like music or history, then I really don't know what the hell is wrong with you.)  Who knows, maybe after reading this you'll be inspired to check out this fantastic and incredibly influential musician. (I should add that the following was written by me , using various sources from the internet... it wasn't just copied from some web site.  That would be pretty lame.) Louis Jordan was a band leader, lead vocalist and saxophone virtuoso, whose popularity grew in the early 1940s, where he proved ...

"I will be taking an indefinite break from professional golf. My pecker seems to be getting in the way of everything."

I woke up this morning and what did I see... Not much mercury staring back at me. -14* F Welcome to winter in Minnesota! YES!!!!!!!

I posted this on my Facebook page, but it is worth pondering here... John Lennon was murdered 29 years ago tonight in New York City.  On this night, I am the same age as Lennon was the night he died.  He turned 40 on October 9th, 1980 and died December 8th at the age of 40 years, 55 days.  I turned 40 years old on October 8th and I am 40 years and 56 days old tonight, December 8th. Weird.  And a little disturbing. The world lost one of the greatest musicians of all time that night because of one horribly disturbed individual.  As Elton John said, "It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain." Here is the most powerful song ever written by Elton John, in memory of his friend, John Lennon, who was taken from us far too soon on this night in 1980.  

Without going into details... If you are collecting disability benefits and you are admitted to an ICU because you are high on meth, hallucinating and a danger to yourself and others -- shouldn't your eligibility for collecting disability be immediately revoked? It really pisses me off that you and I are paying for someone else's meth habit. It should really piss you off too.

Is the weekend over yet? Blah. It's cold and we now have a dusting of snow.  It feels like winter and sort of resembles it, too. How many days till Spring?

Hello, Bloggerland... I am back.  Happy December 1st.  Only 24 more shopping days 'till Christmas! I am still trying to catch up on my e-mails.  I haven't been around a computer much over the past week.  My laptop suffered a massive epileptic seizure the day before Thanksgiving.  It totally crashed and burned.  I entrusted it into the capable hands of James at Brainerd Computers on Monday and he diagnosed the problem and fixed it right away. It seems Windows automatically downloaded a driver which wasn't certified yet and it corrupted something-or-other in my computer.  At least, that's my layman's understanding of it.  Word of advice: turn off your automatic Windows updates and acknowledge everything manually.  Specifically, do not allow Windows to download or install any hardware drivers from Microsoft.  At least that was the advice Mr. Computer gave to me.  And I trust his advice.  Believe me, it really screwed up my m...