Daily Dose of BS March 31 naps

Every afternoon about 2 I am ready for a nap.  It doesn’t matter if it is a weekday or a weekend.  If I woke at 4 or 8 that morning, I am ready for a nap at 2.  I have come to cherish my 20 minute siesta as a quick revitalization of my mind and my body.  I have a few friends who never ever take naps and I know many, most of them are fellow radio people who take a nap daily.  I find myself craving my quiet alone time and as the time ticks down to 2 I can feel myself falling into a lull.  Are you a napper or not?  If not I suggest you grab a blanket and a comfortable chair and give it a try. 

Daily Dose of BS March 30 service organizations

One of the things my parents instilled in my brothers and I, was to give back either monetarily or with time. I chose to work in radio so I have more time than money. There are tons great organizations out there that are in need of your time, and your money. Find one and help when you can. Today is Kiwanis radio day so as you pop around to the different radio stations in the La Crosse Market you will hear lots of different unfamiliar voices, talking about the benefits of being in the Kiwanis. The best thing about being a part of a service group is that if you are active in the group you are pretty much guaranteed to make some good lifelong friends, I am still friends with some of the guys I was in Boy Scouts with and my best friends are people that I was in the Jaycees with. My suggestion to you is be active within our community and let us all work to make our great communities an even better place to live.

Daily Dose of BS March 29 politics

With the Wisconsin presidential primary one week from today we are seeing the candidates crisscrossing across Wisconsin making empty promises and saying what we want to hear.  I wonder if once the primary is finished if they will even think of Wisconsin until the last couple of weeks before the general election come November.  My guess is nope.  These men and women running for president are just making their stump speech with their forced smiles and vacant assurances.  I am so ready for the hate in all the politics to be set aside and for us to start working on some solutions to some real problems.  

Daily Dose of BS March 28 expectations

Have we become a nation of people who expect mediocre, I think that we have, because if we ever have anything meets or comes close to what we expect we are happy.  Have your expectations ever been exceeded?  This past weekend my family joined another family for a mini vacation in Milwaukee we made it to a Bucks game and didn’t really have any other plans except for have fun.  I had seen a picture of a huge Bloody Mary, one that had all the fixings including a whole chicken, it was called the Beast, and it lived up to and exceeded its name.  I think that it is amusing that when we have good service or have something that is superior to what we expected we are blown away, but with the Bloody from Sobelman’s we were blown away.  Have you ever had something that far exceeded your expectations?  If so what was it?  

Daily Dose of BS March 25 Love

I ran across an article yesterday that had a list of things you should do for your kids every day.  Pretty far down on the list was the say I love you.  To me that was shocking.  I would have thought that you would say I love you regardless to your children.  I have been a dad for coming up on 21 years and a son for 47 years and I have said to my children every day that I love them, and every time that my folks and I end a conversation we pass on our feelings of love.  It was funny even when I was a kid and things didn’t go my way and I would have a fit yelling at my Mom and Dad that I don’t love them, I can still hear them saying back I don’t love the way you are acting but love you.  With Easter coming up on Sunday and families getting together, if you didn’t have the chance to say it in the past, there is no time like the present to say or show I love you. 

Daily Dose of BS March 24 small world

We live in a small world.  Yesterday I had the chance to interview the Governor of Guam an American territory and during conversation I mentioned to him that I didn’t know anything about Guam except that my cousin lived there, he asked his name I asked if he knew David, and he said that everyone knew David, to my shock, he really did know him.  Which made me think of the other people that I have run into that I either knew or knew someone I knew.  I was in Madison and ran into Morrie Enders after he moved away, I have ridden an elevator with someone I knew long ago in Milwaukee and while at a concert in the Twin Cities I ran into high school class mates.  Who have you run into in weird spots?

Daily Dose of BS March 23 sidwalks

In our couple of weeks of reprieve between snowfalls, lots of people have literary taken to the streets in all forms.  I have seen more people out and about walking, running, skating and biking in the past couple weeks than I ever recall.  I am glad to see people out moving, which brings me to my concern.  We were out walking yesterday enjoying the afternoon before the expected snowfall later today and a woman came running up behind us, then passed us on the grass but at the same time as she passed she shot my wife and I a dirty look, my wife apologized and that apology changed our conversation, we then started talking about the rights of the sidewalk, and the passing of people.  The woman jogging didn’t say to your right or left, she just assumed we had eyes in the back of our heads and were to be on the lookout for her, so we could move and give her the right of way, um sorry - not.  I guess what I am trying to say today it to look out for everyone one the road even the ones not looking out for themselves. 

Daily Dose of BS March 22 drugs

A couple of local police departments are looking at a new approach to the addiction problem.  The agencies in Campbell and Holmen are looking at a program that has had success in Massachusetts that helps an addict kick the habit, by offering treatment rather than jail time.  I am all for this, as we are seeing more people headed to court for possession of heroin and other drugs but only having them turned back to the streets.  I really think that something needs to be done and done sooner rather than later.  My wife and I have been going for walks lately and taking different routes to mix it up, we have been down just about every street and alley in our neighborhood in the past few weeks and there are lots of discarded syringes laying on the streets and alleys of La Crosse.  I have even seen them in a couple of the business parking lots.  With the amount of needles that have been handed out I guess I am not surprised that there are so many unattended needles. 

Daily Dose of BS March 21 voting

The smart phone companies announce in plenty of time that they are going to be releasing a new phone, the tease the new features, they bring out the pomp and circumstance and many are fighting to be first in line to be the first consumers to have the new widget.  I wish that people were as pumped up about voting.  It is funny that even though there are a million people posting each and every day that this candidate and that candidate are the best, they bad mouth these people and talk up these, there are still going to be people who even though they are waving the flag loudly for a particular candidate I will bet that they don’t get to the polling place to vote.  I used to know a person like that, she would wave the flag and then not vote.  I don’t get it.  Back to the phone thing I guess that Apple is introducing something today, I can hardly wait – just kidding I really I don’t care. 

Daily Dose of BS March 18 trees

The landscape at Riverside Park is a bit sparse.  The city of La Crosse eradicated 12 of the Ash Trees from the fabric of Riverside Park.  I am guessing that there will be a feeling of sadness and emptiness when we drive through Riverside this spring and summer, and of course the trees will be missed at Rotary Lights.  It saddens me to think that all these trees are gone from our beautiful city, and that our lovely canopy of leaves will for a long time be missing from the park.  I grew up in the Twin Cities and remember when Dutch Elm hit that area and the landscapes of the older neighborhoods changed.  I hope that something can be done to bring back some trees to Riverside Park.

Daily Dose of BS March 17 parking

A couple of years ago the city of La Crosse was talking about alternate side parking year round. I’m glad that that fell by the wayside. On Tuesday, La Crosse Councilman Gary Padesky proposed legislation that would end alternate-side parking on March 1 rather than April 1, and for many in La Crosse that is a welcomed relief. This really doesn’t affect me because we have off street parking but it is the principle of the thing in my mind. The fines aren’t enough to kill ya but at 10 bucks each and double then double again over time just for parking in front of your house for the season is enough to make a dent in your life’s savings. Looking back to last year the City of La Crosse Police Department issued 13,095 alternate-side parking tickets that at ten bucks a pop generated a minimum of $130,950, and that is if they were paid on time. To me it seems like a money grab, where does that money go to?

Daily Dose of BS march 14 time change

If you missed it you’re early, Saturday was one of my two least favorite days of the year.  This past Saturday at 2am we were supposed to change our clocks to 3am a little trick that helps it to be light later.  Obviously whom ever thought of this magical trick didn’t have kids.  I always loved it when it got dark earlier so I could put the kids to bed earlier, nowadays it doesn’t work that way as my kids stay up later than I.  I have been bitching about the changing of time since anyone would listen, guess what people hear it but no one is doing anything about it.  In the year 2016 there is really no need to move the clock.  They originally did it because of kids going to school and work in the fields, back before there were such good quality lighting, heck they even work on highways in the middle of the night as the lighting sources have gotten so good.  Let’s be like Ron Popeil and stop the madness we should just set it and forget it.  

Daily Dose of BS Mar 10 protect your home

There are more and more drugs making it into our society and with increased drug use, comes increased criminal activity.  What are your thoughts when it comes to defending your home?  Should you be allowed to defend your home at all costs?  If someone breaks into your home for whatever reason, do you have the right to defend to the death your house?  I ask because there is a case in Minnesota that had happened and the man is in prison.  The man has had his home broken into many times and was sick of it, defended him home by killing the two teens who broke in.  He is now in jail for 1^st degree premeditated murder for life with no parole after being convicted in killing the teens with no chance at a new trial.  At what point in a break in do you feel your life threatened?  For me, I think as soon as someone uninvited is in my house.  What are your thoughts?  

Daily Dose of BS Mar 9 lessons

Ever thought back to the lessons in life that you learned from your first job?  For me it was long ago, when I was in the Cub Scouts then the Boy Scouts we did a lot of volunteering at various places including the nursing home that was a block from my house.  That is where I landed my first real job as a maintenance guy.  I was rolling in the money making a decent wage of $4.25 an hour when all my friends were at minimum which was $3.35 an hour.  My have things changed.  You could almost add those two numbers together to reach minimum.  I think at that first job I learned how to work, I mean get my hands dirty and do the jobs I didn’t want to do.  I did learn that doing that wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I do look fondly back at the memories, and experiences that I picked up at that gig and I am sure I use them to this day.  I was taught to give it my all, to think, and to get along with co-workers.  I am sure there were other lessons learned as well.  

Daily Dose of BS Mar 8 erin andrews

When you are in your hotel room you have a certain assumption of privacy, right?  I think that you do, however I don’t feel like the hotel should be held responsible for Erin Andrews’ payment of 55 million dollars.  Hear me out, most of us have had something happen to us because of a product that we have used, right.  I lost my fingertip because of a dog leash, people get cancer from smoking, there are car accidents each and every day.  There are people who have taken pictures of people picking their nose and posting that picture online, there are pictures of people doing all kinds of weird and inappropriate things on the internet, either by choice or because someone took a video of them without their knowledge, do you think that the goofy pictures of the website the people of Walmart wanted to have their pictures taken and shared?  It is a fact of life.  Back to Erin Andrews, I think the stalker should go to jail for a long time, what he did was wrong, but I don’t think that the hotel should have a fine for someone altering a peep hole in a door. 

Daily Dose of BS Mar 4 music

Even though I work in talk radio, I love live music, live loud music, live loud 80’s music.  Yesterday I bought tickets to Def Leppard with REO Speedwagon and Tesla.  The show is October 7^th at the La Crosse center, and the tickets are the highest price I have ever paid for a music ticket $82.50 for the show.  Which is ok since it breaks down to just $27.50 per band and as I said I love live, loud, 80’s music.  Here is the kicker, I used Ticketmaster to buy my ticket.  There was $10.35 fee for each ticket bringing the cost per ticket to $92.85 and then on top of that there is an additional fee of $4.15 for the order for processing fee.  Wait a minute, am I the only one who finds fault with this?  Isn’t there a truth in pricing law out there?  I am all for live music, and for people to make money but aren’t these fees a bit much?  

Daily Dose of BS Mar 3 coffee

On Tuesday I didn’t have any coffee, and I had a splitting headache by the time I went to bed, about 85% of all US citizens use caffeine every day. I usually get my high octane caffeine from coffee, I used to be a huge pop drinker in fact when I first started out in radio I was a 12 pack a night person, of sugary caffeine filled bubbles (blah), I don’t know how I did it, I am not a fan of it these days. When I was a kid we didn’t have pop around the house except for a special occasion and that was on Mom’s bridge club day and a holiday when the relatives would come over and they would bring it.  A breakdown of the 85% of the population that drinks caffeine, pop is the most common source of caffeine, followed by tea then coffee. Funny how now caffeine is even in foods and other drinks as well. We are seeing it in some jelly beans, marshmallows and some gums too, it is no wonder we have a society of jittery jumpy people.

Daily Dose of BS Mar 2 hunger

It really doesn’t matter where here is, unfortunately there are hungry people here.  This past Sunday the LaCrosse Radio Group had a food gathering event for the Hunger Task Force, as part of Family Fest.  This Saturday will be another fund raiser for the Hunger Task Force, with Rockin out Hunger.  They are the food pantries food pantry, supplying over 60 different pantries and meal sites.  Whenever there is a Hunger Task Force event I encourage you to help as you can.  I have been lucky I have never been hungry nor do I ever want to be.  I try to think of these food gathering events as what would l want to eat rather than what can I clean out of the cupboard.  Please try to remember that if you don’t want to eat it or wouldn’t eat it why would someone else?