Horse Manure Park

The days when we could walk outside and feel completely safe and secure are long over. People die going to school now. They die going to the movies. They die going shopping. They die going to work. They die enjoying themselves on a beautiful spring morning. We live in a country where expecting the worst and steeling ourselves for what unthinkable act of violence will happen next is simply routine. We can only pray that we - or someone we love - is not in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am not being pessimistic.  I am not being negative. This is our reality in today's America. And yes, it is really fucked up.

I've been watching a little news today.  The demise of Colonel Moammar Gaddafi Gadhaffi Qaddafi  ...or however you spell his name... has finally come to fruition.  Yet another dictator has bit the dust.  It interests me because it will certainly be recorded in the history books - Colonel Gaddafi Gadhaffi Qaddafi ruled Lybia for 42 years.  A total megalomaniac. But why did he remain a Colonel?  You would've thought he would have promoted himself to General of the Army or Ruler of All Mankind or something.  I've always wondered about that. But anyway, I haven't been "tuned in" to the news as much as I normally would be simply because I find these news channels - namely the personalities of these news channels - very hard to watch.  I can't stand their faux concern, their calculated facial gestures.  The whole damn thing is nothing more than an orchestrated stage show under the guise of "news." However, good ol' Wolf Blitzer of CNN gav...

We all have a morbid side and mine is manifesting itself in the form of casually following the Conrad Murray manslaughter trial.  It interests me for a couple reasons - first, it involves a drug that I have personally administered hundreds of times in my nursing career, propofol. But mainly because it involves the unusual and tragic death of the greatest entertainer of my lifetime - and perhaps of all time.  Yes, that's how I feel about Michael Jackson.  I admit that I probably wouldn't feel this way if I hadn't seen him live in concert, but I did on Friday evening, May 6, 1988.  I entered the Met Center as a curious observer and I left a convert.  I've seen everyone from Kiss to the Rolling Stones to Paul McCartney to Elton John and only Kiss has come even remotely close to the kind of show Jackson put on. That's not to say I don't think Jackson was a man without problems really screwed up,  because he obviously was.  But he could put on a show...

Sure, there have been bigger shiners in the world, but my son finally got his first, just to prove he's 100% boy.  I am embarrassed to admit that I've no idea how he got it.   He never cried or fussed.  He was just suddenly walking around with a bruise under his eye.  It's actually bigger than this picture shows... I think he just likes posing for photos. My first official shiner! Okay, I think I should clarify a few things about my "new look" blog.  It might be a little confusing as to just how it works, but it's really pretty easy. To read any of my entries, just click on the entry and it will come to the front of the screen.  When you are reading this "full view," you can toggle to another entry by clicking the arrow buttons in the upper left corner, or just exit out of the screen by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner. To see different views of my blog, use the buttons in the menu bar, which are labeled "Classic,...

Time for a bit of a facelift, huh?  I guess it's my way of celebrating my favorite time of year, Autumn - although I've never figured out why there's an "n" in Autumn.  Sort of like that stupid "n" in damn. Damn. Well, I gone and done it.  I am the happy owner of a new truck.  Thanks to Dan's of Big Lake for getting us an outstanding interest rate on our loan and for a smooth-n-easy purchase.  I'll kind of miss the old Camry, though.  It was a terrific car, much like my Tercel.  Truth is, I've never owned a Toyota I didn't like, but I've also grown partial to Hondas.  And for those who think I'm a rat fink for not buying an American product, only 10% of my vehicle has "foreign parts content," which came from Japan, the rest is from U.S. and Canada. Gosh, there's really not much to yack about right now.  Ava is really enjoying kindergarten.  What a difference a year has made for her.  I think the new, structure...

Yesterday on Facebook I noticed a few people were commenting about the world ending on Saturday.  I saw enough comments to get me interested in what the heck this was all about.  Because I pretty much live in a cave - or perhaps better described as a "bubble" surrounded by Mac-n-Cheese, Dora and sippy cups - I hadn't heard that some quack named Harold Camping is predicting the world will end on May 21st at 6 p.m.  (I'm not sure what time zone he's referring to, so I can't help ya there.) Anyway this delusional man has convinced himself using "fuzzy math" and numerology that the Bible has revealed (in secret code that only he can decipher, of course) that Armageddon will occur on May 21, 2011. What makes Harold so special?  Well, he's managed to dupe his followers into contributing $12 million to help him build radio stations, called Family Radio, all around the world to spread his cultish point of view.  He's sort of the Wolfman Jack of ...

Wow, another post?  Can you tell I am trying to stay awake?  Is anybody out there? * silence * Oh well, I have a tendency to talk to myself quite often anyway.  I'm good company, just ask me. Daylight Savings Time was last night, which meant I only had to work seven hours.  That did not suck.  It still seemed like a long night, though.  Two more shifts to go, then an eight hour class on Thursday.  At least I get paid for it.  It's all good.  Or pretty good.  ...well, maybe it's all okay.  Yeah, it's okay. I'm still waiting for all this damn snow to melt.  The eaves drip and tease me -- sort of like waving a sirloin in front of a hungry coyote.  But there is a lot of that white crap out there.  This will take a while to go away. Meanwhile, the Vernal Equinox (as opposed to the Venereal Equinox) is next Sunday.  Aaaaah, spring is just a week away.  That's reassuring, but I don't see many flowers bloo...

June 17, 2010 will be a date none of us will soon forget in this area.  Wadena was devastated by a tornado and my father-in-law's business was completely destroyed.   I wasn't aware of how terrible the damage was until I saw pictures, a sampling of which I am posting here.  The saving grace is no one was killed in Wadena, although two people in Almora were killed, as was a man in Mentor. Thanks to my cousin Tammy, my sister-in-law Sara and my nephew Kevin for letting me "borrow" these pictures from their Facebook pages (even though they don't know I'm doing this!).  It makes me so sad to see these pictures, but the force of a tornado is truly mind-boggling. Kevin took this picture at Highway 2 near Mentor, MN.  A man was killed at the Cenex station in town during this tornado. The next five pictures are from Sara.  This is what used to be my father-in-law's business, Leaf River Ag. My father-in-law's business, Leaf River Ag.  What loo...

I am sad to report the passing of Beth's grandfather, Dr. Harold Piltingsrud, who died peacefully last evening, June 2, 2010, at the age of 92. He served as a medical doctor with the U.S. Army during World War II, then went on to become the "town doctor" in Park River, North Dakota, for many, many years. He was a good, kind, decent man, respected by all who knew him.  He treated me like family from the first day I met him and I am honored to have been asked to be a pallbearer in his funeral. Godspeed, Pilt.  You're finally free.

An update on Hank, the stolen boxer.  The good people at Minnesota Boxer Rescue and the Minneapolis P.D. have found him.  He has been recovered and is okay.  The bastard that stole him also tasered him, apparently for fun, so the poor dog had to spend some time at the animal hospital, but he is going to be fine. Why does God allow these type of people to walk the face of the earth?  Certain elements of our society should be systematically eliminated and their organs harvested for people who need them, so that at least some good will come from their pathetic existence.  I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

The latest craze... stealing dogs.  This makes me sick.

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 ...

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...

Porky's Revenge was the third installment of the Porky's movie trilogy of the '80's. Twenty-five years later "Porky's Revenge" it has a whole new meaning. Probably just like you, I'm sitting here waiting to die of the swine flu. According to CNN, that's what I should be doing. We're all doomed. We're all going to die. It's just a matter of time. I am appalled (but not at all surprised) at how "dramatic" the media is making this. They are definitely hyping this to the limit. CNN even has swine flu theme music prior to their swine flu updates, which seem to come every 6 to 8 swine flu m inutes. Don't misunderstand me -- I know it is important to make people aware of this situation, but how carried away can the press get? At last count there have been 96 confirmed cases of the swine flu in the U.S. (in a country of 303 million people) and, unfortunately, one confirmed death. I swear one could almost hear the champag...

I took a gander at Fox News headlines this morning and here's a sampling of what I saw: Boy, 9, Made Plastic Parachute, Took Death Dive (classy touch, Fox) Deaths of 2 Michigan Children Blamed on Flu Brothers Admit Killing, Cannibalizing Older Sibling Teen Stabbed to Death by Woman in Wheelchair I stopped reading there. Nothing like wonderful, uplifting news to start your day, eh?

Time to update things, although there's not much to say. Our house has been rattled by some nasty stomach virus lately. As posted earlier, Ava was sick a week ago. Yesterday when I got home from work, Beth was not in good shape. She had been up most of the night puking. She felt lousy all day yesterday, but was able to sleep last night and is acting much more like her chipper self today. It was just a quick bug, but it was bad while it lasted. Somehow, I've been able to avoid it so far (he said, feverishly knocking on wood). Baseball season has started once again, a sure sign of spring. The snow is gradually melting, although it is always so slow to melt around our house because we have so many trees. That's okay, though, I'd rather have lots of trees and slowly melting snow versus no trees and green grass at the moment. Trees are good. I've also been noticing lots of robins lately and other little birdies (whose names I can't remember right now), al...

I was sad to hear Paul Harvey died yesterday, February 28th. Interestingly, he died exactly 12 years to the day after my dad passed away. Harvey was an icon in American culture. As far as I'm concerned, he was a legend. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom four years ago, Harvey's career spanned 75 years, but he first received national acclaim in 1951 when his program, "Paul Harvey News and Commentary" debuted. Harvey cut back to part time in May 2008 at the age of 89, after 57 years of daily broadcasts and as the show's only writer. Remarkable. I remember my parents listening to him every day and they always got a chuckle out of his insights, wit and wisdom. He was one of those rare breeds who had the gift of saying things just so, never offending anyone, but always getting his point across -- in most cases, quite powerfully. "The Rest of the Story," a short program in which Harvey would talk about the story behind a famous event or pe...