Daily Dose of BS August 31

I have never been a motorhead.  I have had cars, motorcycles, trucks and vans.  The reason I bring this up is that my car that I drive each and everyday I have had for about 5 years my Mom gave it to me because they got a new car and thought this car is on its last legs plus it got better gas mileage than my full sized van.  My Honda Accord has 341,660 miles on it, it starts right up, and moves right along, when my Mom and Step Dad owned it they did all the maintenance, when you were supposed to.   I really believe if you keep up on the maintenance it will keep your vehicles running to their full life.  I am only the second owner of this car.  My truck on the other hand has 203,000 miles and I believe to be on its last legs, which bums me out, I have had this truck for 7 years and my vehicle with the least miles is my full sized van with only 108,000 miles on it, but I can't afford to drive it with gas flirting with 4 bucks a gallon.  I think I could start the Schmidt junk car lot on the south side.  What has your favorite and least favorite car you have had?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 30

Facebook is an amazing beast, yesterday was my birthday and I had over 10% of my “friends” wish me Happy Birthday.  It is heartwarming that someone would take a few seconds out of their day to so that, for that I thank you.  It is funny about birthdays when you are a kid you can't wait for it and can hardly contain yourself with excitement when it comes to the gift time, when older I am not going to lie, I sometime forget how old I am, some days I feel as though I am in my 20’s others I feel in my 60’s I guess that is good that I am now 44 and right in the middle of where I feel.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend the last official weekend of the summer and the last bit of freedom for the public school kids of the area, here is hoping for a great safe weekend for you and yours and also a super learning filled year for the up and coming school year.  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 29

As Brewer and Shiply sang about in the 70’s new research is showing that being one toke over the line as a teen is linked to later declines in your IQ.  I have heard the saying don’t be a dope by smoking dope, but now they are saying if you are a teen who routinely smoke marijuana you have a long term risk of having a dropping IQ, the researchers didn’t find the same for those who waited until they were older than 18 to become a frequent pot smoker.  I for one do not smoke pot but know many who do and have routinely thought why don’t they make it legal?  I believe that if we do that the government will get us out of debt or at least or at least on the path to being debt free, the way we could make and save money is through taxes, tax it at a higher rate of tax, in turn it would bring that money in.  The people who are in jail for smoking it would be free to become a productive member of society,(or as productive as a pot smoker can be) those that sell it would be able to focus their skills at selling to other illegal things, and end up in jail again anyway, as you can't save stupid. 

Daily Dose of BS Aug 28

As a radio guy in a small market you are not going to get rich.  You can make an ok living but getting rich beyond your wildest dreams ain’t going to happen.  You know what I am ok with that, I made a choice and am happy with the choice that I have made.  I share my office with another guy here at work and I came across a coupon for something I was going to buy later in the week while I was reading the paper, I proceeded to rip the coupon out of the paper.  I got shot the what in the hell are you doing look, then the comment real men don’t use coupons talk.  I would have to disagree, I think that men that don’t use coupons are not the real men, isn’t it part of my job to add to my families wealth?  Add to the bottom line?  Make sure that the family has food on the table and to try to have extra money in the bank account at the end of the week?   Isn’t that part of what a man does?  Plus I am comfortable with who I am and ok with presenting a coupon, I questioned in return, asking what is wrong with it, and got the response at the it just isn’t what a man does.  Your thoughts?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 27

I hate late.  The fog this morning was horrible; I had a hard time seeing a half a block.  It was bad then good then bad again.  Driving blind is not good.  How safe do you suppose that is?  The one thing about the fog is that slows people down and makes them drive more defensively.  I didn’t even see a single phone out this morning and usually I see the glowing light of a phone in an oncoming car.  The slow down was taken to the extreme while driving through Onalaska, a semi was going 10 miles per hour, 10 miles per hour, it the driver crazy?  There are people that have to be somewhere, cause most people don’t just go driving at 4:45 in the morning.  I felt my blood actually getting warmer as I was stuck behind this person driving at a turtles pace.  I was glad when I got the chance to finally pass.  I was kind of surprised the after I passed that someone didn’t pull out in front of me off one of the side streets only to turn on the next street.  I guess when it is foggy people tend to slow down and pay attention.  

Daily Dose of BS August 24

Is it weird that when I was driving into work I was excited to get to work, not for the fact that I love my job which I do, but for the fact that we have a water cooler with ice cold water, and for some reason this morning I have been craving ice water.  While driving in I heard that Lance Armstrong has given up the fight to clear his name.  I do not get this, I always assumed that we as Americans are innocent until proven guilty, guess we are sometimes.  I got a call and a letter from the DMV about 5 or 6 years ago telling me I owed them money.   Huh are you kidding me what for, they said I way underpaid for a van that I bought, saying I underpaid by 6 thousand dollars and that I owed the taxes on the 6k and also a fine for lying.  I wrote a nice letter back to the state explaining how I got the van and kindly reminded them that I was innocent and that they needed to prove I did wrong, it was dropped.  I think that Lance Armstrong should be cleared for doping also, because he has had to jump through hoops and at every turn he has given up his fluids when ever asked.  Have I mentioned, I am glad to be at work.   

Daily Dose of BS Aug 23

I forgot my watch again, this seems to happen a few times a month.  I am addicted to my watch, not that I look at it lots but I miss it around my wrist, I get a constant wrist hug all day long.  My watch is one that my Mom gave to my Dad when we got his Masters Degree, they are divorced so my Dad gave me the watch.  I bet if you go back and read the Beloit College mindset list that wrist watches made the list long ago, my kids all have watches but never wear them.  Back to the mindset list, a list of things that incoming college freshman have always known.  Like there have always been blue M&M’s and that there are no tan ones.  There has never been a romper room, Starz has always been on Direct TV, Mr Burns replaced JR Ewing as the most shot at man in TV, history has always had their own channel, and the Lambeau Leap has always been.  See the complete list at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2016/ 

Daily Dose of BS August 22

I hate moving.  Not standing up and moving my body from here to there but the act of packing up all my stuff into boxes and loading it into trucks, vans, cars and into the care of others to a new location.  I bring this up because there are no less than 5 houses within a block of where I live up for sale.  This I don’t get, if we as a whole don’t like change isn’t moving to a new location one of the biggest changes that you can make in your life.  I know that moving to La Crosse was the best move that I ever made, it happened just over 20 years ago.  I moved here to work for the Eagle radio station and have not looked back, when I first moved here it was my goal to get to the Twin Cites as a radio personality, I ended up falling in love with the area and built my life around La Crosse.   Since my move here, I have lived in two locations, I rented for a couple of years and been a home owner for over 17 years, 17 years in the same space, kind of weird I know but new walls have been built others tore down, colors, furniture and the feel has changed, and as I started this out, I hate moving.  

Daily Dose of BS August 21

Ever listened to someone talking, someone who should know better and scratch your head and say to yourself what the hell?   We all have been hearing about Congressman  Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Missouri who is running against Senator Claire McCaskill, and his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.  HUH?  Did he ever take a science class?  Then claiming he misspoke.   The Republican party is now waiting for him to pull out of the race so that way they can point someone else to run against Senator McCaskill, McCaskill seems to be the only person who wants Akin to stay in the race.  What do you think?

Daily Dose of BS August 20

There are some basics that we need every day like food and sleep.  I get plenty of food because I can control that, but sleep is one thing that I don’t think I get enough of, I go to bed plenty early but of late have been having a harder time sleeping, from not being able to hit the bed sleeping like I used to, to waking up multiple times in each night and then not being able to fall back to sleep, because I have an active mind.  I have even tried to keep a pen and paper by the bed so when I get a life changing idea I can jot it down, well my penmanship is so poor when I am awake it is even worse when sleeping so I stopped doing that, so there is a tape recorder by the bed now, my voice sound lots deeper at 2am than it does when I am at work.  About 5 years ago I got a cpap machine and that has helped, but not as well lately, any advice for a better nights sleep?

Daily Dose of BS August 16

There are a lot of Americans who are not proud to be Americans, there are thousands who could care less about our Country.  People are out there bad talking us, burning flags, committing crimes and not giving a damn about a country that I and millions of others love.  These are people who were born here, raised here and have had the world handed to them, had the best of the best not because of what they did but what our forefathers have done.  There are natural born citizens who don’t care for America and could care less.  This ticks me off.  Then you look at some citizens who fight hard to be in America and bring their kids with them looking for a better life when they come to our country to be in the land of the free, home of the brave, yet they get looked down upon.  Correct me if I am wrong but don’t we all have our roots somewhere else if you go back far enough?  Yesterday was the first day of the Deferred Action Immigration Event, allowing thousands of young undocumented immigrants who want to be here, that want to work that have not been in trouble with the law, are in school, have graduated or have served in our military.  I guess if someone wants to be an American, and follow the rules, I welcome them with open arms.  For those of you who  don’t like it here or don’t want to be here, what is keeping you here? 

Daily Dose of BS August 15

Have you ever happened across any of the slight disappointments in life?  You know the disappointments that I am talking about right.  The ones such as pouring a bowl of frosted mini wheats and finding only a slight amount of frosting on the cereal?  You know what’s worse than that is getting the bowl of cereal ready have the hunger for the cereal then going to the fridge for the milk only to find out that there is either not enough milk for the cereal or worse yet pouring the milk taking the first bite of the cereal and having the milk be bad.  How about after enjoying a Chinese dinner and opening up your fortune cookie only to find you have been jipped out of a fortune?  I know that these are slight things to be upset about but there are many of these slight disappointments that add up to many disappointed people, how about when you finish up a job in the bathroom only to find that the person who was there before you didn’t replace the paper or maybe you’re out of soap or paper towels, not anything that will kill you but make for disappointments.  

Daily Dose of BS August 14

Today is an important day, don’t get me wrong every day is an important day, but today is extra special.  Today you could be part of the solution, you get to help choose many different elected seats from Congressional, to United States Senator federally to Legislative and State Senate, to Representatives to the Assembly, District Attorney and Clerk, Treasurer and Register of Deeds.  Voters may vote for candidates in the primary of ONLY ONE political party, if you do not designate a party preference and vote for candidates of more than one party then no votes will be counted, so please read the directions when going to the polls.  Voting takes only a few minutes, but the results are resounding.  The primary in my opinion is one of the most important votes you will make, since it is less attended than the main election meaning your vote really counts you also get to help to shape the election from a bigger pool.  Please get out and vote.

Daily Dose of BS August 13

 Last week was the first time I got to sleep in every single day for an entire week in over 2 years.  It was also I am assuming the last family vacation I will be taking with my entire family, my oldest goes for his senior year this year and already is growing wings.  I spent a few years in Scottsbluff Nebraska working in radio 20 years ago and would drive thru South Dakota to get home to the Twin Cities a few times a year and saw the signs for Wall Drug and The Worlds only Corn Palace and always just drove by.  On vacation I made sure we stopped at the above places and also many other roadside places.  We did the Corn Palace a week ago Sunday stayed at a great place off the Interstate at The Thunderbird Lodge, it was the first time I have ever stayed in a place with enough beds for the 6 of us.  What a great night’s sleep, plus it was close to the Corn Palace.  Next up was our trek across the state of South Dakota to Custer State park, stopping in the Badlands and if you have never been there, would greatly suggest it.  We were passing and getting passed by the bikers on their way to Sturgis, pretty sad that all the hotels and State Parks boosted their rates for the half million bikers and others coming into their state.  At Custer Park went on a Buffalo Safari and saw up close, close to 200 buffalos it was breath taking.  Off to the faces, and a pioneer dinner.  We then headed south to Scottsbluff to visit some friends we hadn’t seen in 20 years stopped at a restaurant we missed and then off to visit friends in North Platte Nebraska.  It is good to have friends, catching up and reliving the good old days.   

Daily Dose of BS August 2

The .9 isn’t fooling anyone, when gas is 3.64.9 why don’t they just say 3.65?  I am not fooled and most of the American public isn’t either, if that is the case why do it?  I guess that is why cars are 44,999 or other things are 1.99.  Why not make it 45 grand or 2 dollars.  The extra cent isn’t going to make or break anyone will it?  Wait let me take that back, we are getting nickel and dimed these days at the pump these days.  Gas prices are up again this week, we are up about 15 cents in the past couple weeks.  At 10 gallons that is a buck fifty every time you fill up, and if you thing back to about 14 years ago we had a bit of time when gas was 99.9 cents a gallon, my wages haven’t gone up 4 x in the past 14 years has yours?  In fact I think my wages have gone up .9% a year.

Daily Dose of BS August 1

All too often we get upset with service, either bad service for this or bad customer service for that.  We have all had our share of bad service.  If we get bad service we tend to complain under our breath and move one, only to return to that store to spend our money there again.  Kind of a sad commentary of us I think.  I am as guilty of it as the next guy.  When we get good service or even exceptional service when have we even said anything about it to the manager or whomever it was that gave us that service, I think in the back of our heads we expect that service every time we go somewhere right?  Unfortunately it isn’t the case; I so rarely receive superb service that when I do I say something, like thank you or you are doing a good job.  I went through the drive thru lane at Taco Johns last night on way to Logger game and blown away by the customer service that was given to me.  I had three contacts with the young lady working the drive thru, from the loud speaker to the purchase to the handing off of my food and each of contacts was better than the last.  I mentioned to her, thank you for doing your job well, for the positive attitude and for making it easy to be a customer.  I made an effort to save the receipt but must have tossed it, I think the name on the receipt said Chelsy but I may be mistaken, but whatever business ends up with this young lady working for them in the future, will be lucky.