Daily Dose of BS Aug 28 Labor Day Travel

Over 34 million people will be traveling this weekend according to AAA.  I don’t get it, why travel on a holiday weekend especially when we live in God’s Country.  In my mind since we are living in the upper Midwest we are lucky, there are 4 seasons, bluff or coulees, trees, grass, rivers and lakes.  I think we have it all, including high taxes but that is a different topic.  I can understand when people from other parts of the country travel to here, but for us to go elsewhere on a holiday weekend, that is crazy, as everyone is on the road, as I mentioned earlier 34 million people are going to be on the road, I can’t imagine having to deal with idiot drivers from not only here but from across the states rushing to get to their cabin or lake home faster than everyone else, going that extra 15 mph to add an extra hour of drinking time.  If you are one of the millions on the road this weekend please travel safe, slow it down and enjoy what you got.  And if you’re a kid that starts school on Tuesday enjoy your last few days of freedom. 

Daily Dose of BS Aug 29 birthday

The more things change the more that they stay the same.  Today marks the beginning of my 47 year on earth.  I am now 46 years old, it has been 7 years since I smoked a cigarette, 19 years since I have become a father, 26 since I have been on my own and 28 since I have been in high school.  Age to me is a state of mind as when you are young you think that 40 is old and now I have many friends who are 50 and even 60 years old.  I saw the Beloit College mindset list, the list that shows what todays college freshmen have known as fact.  I was surprised by what these kids know as fact.  Students heading into their first year of college this year were generally born in 1996. Things that this group of college freshmen know  “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.”,  The water cooler is no longer the workplace social center; it’s the place to fill your water bottle. “Good feedback” means getting 30 likes on your last Facebook post in a single afternoon.  Their collection of U.S. quarters has always celebrated the individual states.  I don’t know if things are better or worse off now-a-days but I am interested to see what happens to the world in my next 46 years.  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 27 words

Words are important they can make you stop or go, laugh or cry.  Words are what we speak and what we understand.  George Carlin once had a bit of the words you can’t say on television and for the most part I agree with that.  I do find myself saying words on that list too often.  Even though words are powerful they still are only words and we have to power to be offended or to not be offended by what people say.  I think that words have cut deep for most of us but the way we choose to react is what makes us who we are.  Some go over the top to try to prove what you said was wrong or at least partly wrong, some blow it off others try to out talk you or get you to dig yourself into a hole however you respond to words, good for you.  Because after all they are the we communicate.  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 25 breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I am a big fan of it and breakfast foods in general.  I have been eating yogurt most weekdays since the beginning of the year and it has made a difference I am down about 25 pounds.  As I mentioned I like a good breakfast and will wander out on weekends to try new and bigger better breakfasts but then back to the healthy yogurt during the week.  If you live in La Crosse you know about the Unk’s mess at Marge’s on Rose it is about five pounds of potatoes with ham, onions, peppers and eggs, enough for a family, and I have fed the family on it.  In Mindoro there is Top Dawg and their Dawg Pile, which is very similar to what they have in the Unk’s Mess.  In Algoma Wisconsin they have a Hash Brown Sandwich at Dean’s Dairy inn.  Yesterday my buddy Tom and I road tripped to Pork’s Bar in Desoto Wisconsin for me to attempt the Pork’s Challenge it consisted of a pancake, four pieces of Texas Toast, 5 biscuits,  4 sausage links, 4 eggs, American Fries, and all smothered in sausage gravy.  I finished about a quarter of it before I tossed in the towel.  Where is your favorite big breakfast?  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 26 Burger King

Does having Burger King talking about moving to Canada make you not want to shop there?  I was thinking about this over the past 24 hours, as a not so often burger fast food eater I came to the conclusion that if Burger King moves its headquarters and in return their corporate tax base to Canada I will no longer shop there.  Not that my few bucks a year will make a difference but every dollar counts, right?  I heard of some other companies are doing this as well like a drug company from the twin cities that was looking to do the same thing.  We as a country are working to heal and to see businesses want to pull out and move to another country is counterproductive.  If they are still working on keeping their brand strong in America I think that they should re-think this decision.   I am betting I am not the only red blooded American to think this. 

Daily Dose of BS Aug 21 internet

It is amazing how much we use internet technology in such an old school job.  Our national programming on our talk radio station comes over the internet, all five of our radio stations get special programming and commercials sent over the internet.  News, sports, weather and more - all internet.  So when our internet goes down here there are issues, I also believe that some of our phones are internet based also.  Its kinda scary that when internet is down our show prep goes down also, plus when the internet goes down we can’t check emails, or go on facebook.  Plus how are we supposed to watch cat videos?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 20 Ferguson

Ferguson Missouri is in the national media yet again today.   This protesting is continuing and is reminiscent to me of the Rodney King riots.   I am not sure I get the mob mentality that is going on here; I think that I am getting to old.  When I am unhappy something I work to try to fix the problem not to add to the problem by rioting and pillaging.  I guess I am lucky that I have a soap box to stand on to share my opinions, to share my ideas and thoughts.  Oh wait we all do it is called social media, more specifically facebook and twitter.  Let’s work on starting to mend what ails us and stop trying to drive that wedge deeper than it already is.  In the words of Rodney King, can’t we all just get along?  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 19 payday

I heard this morning that payday is a killer of the 18-35 year old age group.  I tried finding that story to grab info for my daily dose but couldn’t find anything.  Weird I thought immediately about drugs and alcohol but it also said that more young people used payday for more life experiences.  I have always hated payday, don’t get me wrong I like money but I hate the day, cause it shows or actually is written proof that you are not making enough.  Plus I hate going to the bank.   

Daily Dose of BS Aug 18 vote

I read over the weekend that they are now looking into “paying” people to vote.  I am not against it.  With our primary election last week and the low turnout kind of bums me out.  I read that in Los Angeles that they are offering up cash and prizes for those who took the time to vote.  I like it.  Why not offer up a discount on taxes or property tax relief if you show up to vote.  I bet that people would vote for a deal like that.  We need to do something to get people out and to get them to the polls.  What do you think?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 15 credit cards

I feel violated.  I went to my post office box to pick up mail for my business, in the mail was my visa bill, I have my usual charges, internet, phone, domain names, a few business lunches and a charge for Google and Youtube for an advertising campaign.  Huh?  I use Google as everyone does as a free service, I called my Visa company and talked to a nice lady in Florida, it was raining there yesterday.  I got put over to their fraud department, ya gotta love the music on hold in 2014 it was just noise, no song I have ever heard before with interruptions from a poorly recorded voice telling me to fax my info in.  Who has a fax machine anymore didn’t they go the way of the countertop answering machine or the VCR?  When the dispute people finally answered the phone 25 minutes later they were helpful but if they are that busy because of people filing claims of inappropriate charges don’t you think that they would add more operators?   I hope that I get a positive solution on this, and hope that whomever is hacking in and using others credit cards knows what a hassle this is.  My suggestion is to check and double check your billing statements. 

Daily Dose of BS Aug 14 flat tire

When driving into work this morning I heard a noise that I wasn’t used to hearing.  It was grinding and was coming from the back, I was about a mile from work so I continued on, after all it is dark at 5am.  I pulled into the radio station parking lot walked around the back of my car and low and behold I have a flat tire.  I could have swore and carried on but am not going to let this bother or bring me down.  I used to think why me and wtf, but as I am getting older and looking at all that goes on around me I realize that a flat tire every once in a while puts life into perspective, I mean there are people out there, people in my town that can’t afford a car or can’t put food on the table or make ends meet.  Here I have a flat tire on my way to work, meaning I have a car and a job and place where I call home.  If the tire is the worst problem that I have today I would chalk today up to a fantastic day.  I figure that life is all about perspective and how you perceive your problems and deal with the issues that come up daily is how your life will go.  Embrace the day, as it is a gift.  

Daily Dose of BS August 13 stuff

They say 15 percent showed up yesterday to vote, I bet it was less than that.  I went at 6 last night and was voter 54.  At 6 pm I was voter number 54 that is ridicules.  I don’t get it.  I see on that after the latest open meeting to talk about the library that they are now talking about keeping full hours at the library, for the next year because of carryover funds and no health care cost hike.  Ok it is good for this year; let’s come up with a long term plan so we are not talking closing the library every year.  I got some exercise equipment for my radio studio, I got a stability ball, a 70 pound stretch band and have some dumbbells that I have been using for the past few months.  Does anyone have any small area exercises that they could share?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 12 Robin Williams

Today is primary Election Day.  Please vote.  When I saw it posted on facebook that Robin Williams was dead I quickly searched online to see if it was verified.  It is sad that once you make it there are many out there that want to spoof your death, we have seen it with many celebrities.  When I was in high school one of my buddies had a girl friend who committed suicide and I saw the pain first hand from the pain that he went through.  Fast forward many years and one of my wives coworkers’ ex-husband took his own life.  A few years after that brought the death of Kurt Cobain and my Uncle Kenny who was a really good friend of mine while growing up took his own life, that one was the hardest for me.  In the suspected suicide of Robin Williams we can all see that even though you have a smile on your face and a gleam in your eye that there can be pain in your soul.  Today reach out to a friend that you haven’t talked to in a while, or forgive an injustice just because life is too short.  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 11 today

I had a heated conversation with my Dad yesterday about life in 2014.  He was saying that life was better in the 50’s.  See he just celebrated his 70^th birthday and I feel as though he was feeling nostalgic.  He was saying that people now a days don’t have meals together that everyone is in such a hurry to get nowhere.  I had to disagree and point out that we have meals as a family and it was something that was taught to me by him and my Mom.  Also brought up was the fact that life moves so fast and that people are not doing things like they used to.  I pointed out that if we continually thought the same that nothing would be solved that new inventions that we use every day for life and living would not have been invented if not for people thinking outside the box, that if we all thought the same we would be stagnant and everyone would think the same thing, how lame would that be?  In your opinion is life better now or when you were a kid?  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 8 passwords

Long gone are the days when you can use the word password as your password.  In fact they are now suggesting that we use 12 characters to keep our things safe, using symbols and numbers and caps.  As we are moving toward a more paperless society I think that there are going to be more and more crooks out there trying to steal our passwords and trying to get into our accounts.  I heard on the national news this morning that the big email guys google and yahoo are now working on making it more difficult for hackers to read your emails.  That is all well and good but isn’t that a little too little a little too late?  I am sick and tired of having to change my passwords then get an email from the company that I just changed it to say we are sorry but we have been compromised, this has happened at least 3x in the past year.   Are there any solutions?  Do you have any tricks to make these 12 digit passwords more memorable?  

Daily Dose of BS Aug 7 primary election

I bet you didn’t know that there is an election coming up next Tuesday.  I think that this election is more important than many of the elections that are coming up, you know why?  Because your vote matters more so with this next election because this election is the primary and the primary is important because it sets the stage for the next big election.  For those of you that didn’t know every vote counts, and especially at this August 12^th primary, it’s because the winner of this election gets to go on to run for next election, in November.  The day after this election,  August 13^th I am guessing we will be hearing lots and lots of the pac ads, Political Action Committee commercials as they don’t have to really follow any rules.  Anyway please take time out of your schedule this coming Tuesday, please schedule it now so that way you can exercise your right as an American and vote. 

Daily Dose of BS August 6 South Side Library

Over 200 people packed the South Side Library to show our support for keeping the library open.  I only heard one person who spoke out against it.  I very much dislike getting up in front of a group, but I got up and asked what about the South Side?  What happens to the kids and community when this branch closes?  I felt myself getting emotional as I explained why I even looked at buying my house 19 years ago it was because of the library being there, information for the taking.  Our little South Side Library has charm, charisma, and is breathing of life.  Following the library meeting was the National Night Out get together and the neighborhood picnic that took place had many from the neighborhood enjoying each others company.  One of the proposed solutions for keeping our library open is have it open 2-6 every weekday, what about families who work a 9-5 how are they to enjoy what the library has to offer?  Also if this neighborhood library goes down to a part time library won’t this library and the whole library system take a hit as many great librarian candidates would want full time work and would look elsewhere?

Daily Dose of BS Aug 5 smoke detectors

I feel like the Grinch and no not because I am crabby, I feel like the Grinch because of the NOISE, NOISE, NOISE.  I fell asleep last night like always, off sawing z’s then it happened the unpredictable beep from the smoke detectors, the beep to tell you that you need a new battery, the beep that can’t be timed, so if you try to ignore it, you can’t.  Ignoring it can not be done, beep,  trust me I have tried and last night I gave it a good effort.  We have three smoke detectors relatively close in proximity because of where the rooms fall and the top of the stairs hallway, so imagine a half asleep groggy Bob, beep, trying to diagnose the problem while in bed, with no hope, pop on the glasses and proceed to stand under the one in the bedroom, beep, ok not that one, flip on the daughters light oops, woke her up, beep, not that one either, it has to be the hallway detector beep again while under it.  Off to find a chair or something to stand on in the middle of the night without having to downstairs, flip on a few other lights, wake up the rest of the family get a chair take out the battery and ahh quiet, back to sleep for Bob.  I wonder if the rest of the family got back to bed? 

Daily Dose of BS August 1 headlines

How often do you click on a stories headline just to read what it is?  I do all the time, if you see the quizzes posted on fb do you click and take the test?  I also do that.  I find that it is a good release from what I am doing like spending time with my family or watching tv.  I didn’t realize that I spend so much time on my phone until I found myself up by myself with everyone else in bed with me taking a test.  I hate tests, always have I guess until now.  It must be my competitive noncompetitive streak coming out.  It’s a streak I really don’t care for.  Are you drawn to these types of tests?  I know I talked about reusing things earlier this week but I am excited about the new restore going in next to the La Crosse County Dump site.  It will be lots bigger and will have more to offer.  Have a super weekend.