Daily Dose of BS Sept 29 Golden Brat

Today is slicing of the golden Brat at the American Legion Post 52 on 6th Street in La Crosse, and many are hitting up different places getting ready for Oktoberfest. As we roll through town today hitting up whatever prefest, festivities please think before you hop in a car. We are going to be seeing many people drinking to excess this weekend. It unfortunately is a fact. I know that you can go to Oktoberfest and either drink just a couple to be social or not drink at all. I have been on both ends of the spectrum over living in La Crosse for the past 25 year, I gotta say the years that involved less drinks were just as fun and maybe even more fun than the ones that had overindulged Bob. I understand that at festivals and especially ones where everyone seems drunker than the next person, you feel the pressure to drink to excess, as I try to show my kids that moderation is ok, but don’t let it get away from you. Think before that last drink.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 28 Oktoverfest

Are you ready for the annual La Crosse holiday?  Oktoberfest begins this afternoon with the Lederhosen Luncheon, the special fester carnival after that and the torchlight parade tonight.  Tomorrow morning swing by the American Legion for the annual slicing of the Golden Brat an over 90 pound brat severed up with all the fixings.  After living in La Crosse since 1992 I have been around Oktoberfest for 25 years, participating in the parade many, many times over those years, watching it multiple times and always amazed at the amount of people who come out of the wood work to watch and cheer.  I have never staked my claim to city property for parade watching, I am more of a floater.  On the years when I didn’t ride in the parade I would start in one area, and kind of party hop.  I hope that this years parade is more manageable in time than some of the years when it ended up being a 5 plus hour parade.  Here is to a safe, fun, trouble free Oktoberfest.  Gemütlichkeit, Ein Prosit and Old McDonald has a farm, ummm I mean EiEiEio…have a great fest.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 27 Google Birthday

Think back to 19 years and one day ago, there was no google, there was no easy search for your computer, no google maps, no chrome, no google play, no you tube, no android system for your phone, heck not many mobile phones back then no gmail there is a lot that this 19 year old company has done.  Think back to when you turned 19, what had you accomplished?  By 19 I had graduated high school, earned my Eagle Scout, but I am not sure of any global events I was part of.  Heck I would be hard pressed to say I have had that big of an impact on the world outside of my circle and maybe a bit further, but I wonder how many have that bigger influence?  I guess one of the ways we can make a bigger impact is to try new things, and not be afraid to fail, because I think that often times our failure leads to bigger and better things.  Happy 19^th Google, I am excited to see what you do in the next 19 years.  Oh and I did try something new yesterday, had honeycomb for the first time, I liked it.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 26 Trump Tweet

Are we headed for war?  A North Korea Diplomat say that his country has the right to retaliate and shoot down United States planes.  President Donald Trump tweeted that the North Korean Government led by Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer” was taken by North Korea as a declaration of war.  I knew that random posts on Twitter would end up getting us into trouble.  How can this tweet by the President be taken any other way than what was said and I quote “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”  To you is this legit, or is it drawing the line in the sand, or is it school yard name calling or bullying?  Any way you look at it, the rhetoric and exchanging of threats and insults from both sides has reached a new level in recent days.  Who is going to step in and moderate this? 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 25 end of the world

Well we dodged another bullet, I think there were 2 bullets that we have dodged in the past week, wasn’t the world supposed to end either last Wednesday or on Saturday?  If you are reading this I guess it didn’t happen.  I think at one time in my life I was worried about the world coming to an end, but now.  Not so much.  I wonder how many people based their life on a life expectancy of an arbitrary day or date that someone has picked?  I think if we live our lives to their fullest, do the things we like to do with people that we like to do things with, it really won’t matter when your clock expires.  Would you really want to know when the world is going to end?  I can think of at least a dozen days that have come and gone where I have heard that this is going to happen or that is going to happen, but really, I think if you live your life to its fullest each and every day, take advantage of opportunities that are put your way and try to smile and pass on your knowledge by either teaching, or mentoring you are doing well.  Holding grudges is a waste of time and so Is worrying, I am not saying I don’t do these things but I do try.  Have a great Monday.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 22 look

To the entitled college girl who threw up your hands after you walked out into the middle of street on West Avenue yesterday afternoon wondering why no one stopped for you, I am sorry I am one of those people who didn’t stop.  Apparently, you are not familiar with the physics of a car, if you are traveling at let’s say the speed limit of 25 miles per hour, and no one is truly driving at 25 but let’s say it is a perfect world.  So, for my car to stop at 25 Mph, there is a Thinking Distance of 25 ft a Braking Distance of 31 ft and a Stopping Distance of 56 ft, You and your college mind may have forgotten this, you expect when your dumb ass walks out into the busy street to immediately stop.  I will tell you this entitled college student one of the first things I taught my kids was to look both ways, and wait for a safe time to cross.  Don’t be stupid, because apparently, you were smart enough to make it to your ripe age of 19 and obviously, you were smart enough to make it to college.  Stop and look before crossing, it is only common sense. 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 21 world troubles

In-between the hurricanes, the earthquakes and the political turmoil around the state, the country and the world are we going to be able to rebuild and grown as a world?  I look at just what the hurricanes have done in the continental United States then add the most recent Puerto Rico hit by Hurricane Maria add to that the devastation that hit Mexico with the earthquake and sprinkle in the political unrest in the rest of world and we have the potential for unraveling, if you look the thread is hanging there and it will just take a couple of pulls to send us into either an economic crash, a world war or ultimately an implosion with the mad grab for everything.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 20 wash your hands

I have talked in the past about how too many people have been witnessed just walking out of a restroom and sharing with the world what they just deposited.  I just saw a report that said that our cell phones are pretty dirty also because we are on the things all the time including while on the throne.  But did you know that your money is one of the dirtiest things out there?  $1 bills from a bank in New York City were swabbed to see what was living on paper money. The scientists found hundreds of microorganisms with the most abundant were ones that cause acne, they also identified vaginal bacteria, bacteria from mouths, DNA from pets and plenty of other viruses.  They also found that nearly 80% of our money has traces of cocaine.  By the sounds of it we need to wash our hands way more often. 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 19 foxconn

Well he did it.  Governor Scott Walker signed the Foxconn incentive bill worth 3 billion dollars to help to bring the flat screen group to the state of Wisconsin.  If you think about the dollar amount 3 billion dollars that is a scary number considering that it is a 3 with 9 zeros after it, but if you divide that number by the amount of people in the state it is a lot smaller number it ends up being $519.12 per person still that is $519.12 that I personally don’t have and that money won’t be helping me at all.  What are your thoughts about the state going after this type of business?  Foxconn is the world’s largest contract manufacture of electronics and they will have that technology here in Wisconsin and will have the opportunity for our kids and our children’s children to have the opportunity to work with cutting edge technology.  But the big question is one that I learned in economics class, at what cost? 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 18 to kneel or to stand

Another weekend another protest, there were a few over the weekend with the what started off as peaceful protests in St Louis ended up in violence and the continuation of protesting on the field has many professional foolball players taking a knee during the National Anthem.  Did Colin Kaepernick start something that will continue for the ages, I believe that he may have.  Do you think that NFL players or anyone for that matter have the right to sit out during the National Anthem?  I think that he absolutely does have the right to do so, but we also see that he isn’t playing this year either.  Reports say that he wants to play, I guess time will tell if he does. There are lots of other players who are choosing not to stand or acknowledge the singing of the National Anthem The NFL went more to the point: “Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the National Anthem.”  I saw something go around on Facebook yesterday encouraging fans to protest the games because of this, I wonder how many did.  I didn’t watch the game last night, not out of protest but because NBC wouldn’t come in. 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 15 alternate side parking

The one thing you hear people complain about most in La Crosse is parking either that we must pay for parking downtown or that we don’t have enough spots or that we have the stupid alternate side parking from November till April.  The city council changed all that yesterday with a shortened alternate side parking season we now will have from November 15 through March 15^th to move our cars back and forth across the street to avoid the annoying parking ticket.  I was thinking about this and wondering about how the city will make up for all the lost revenue from the parking tickets, but I figured that they have made so much more on speeding tickets on Losey Boulevard that they can give us a few extra free days of parking on the streets in front of our homes that our taxes pay for.  

Daily Dose of BS Sept 14 shootings

Reports of a high school shooting in Washington state from yesterday has one dead 3 injured and a school janitor a hero.  There is also a report of a 19-year-old that killed his mom because she wouldn’t let her son keep a puppy.  I don’t get the anger that goes with these kids.  I am not sure if the coping mechanism is different with today’s kids then it was when I was a kid but I tell you what when I was a kid I was disappointed many times.  I never shot and killed anyone I never pulled a gun on anyone, I never wanted to kill or maim anyone.  I was brought up with the mantra of sticks and stone can break my bones but words will never hurt me.  I have said that nursery rhyme many times while growing up.  Guess what it worked, I made it through my childhood.  But the one lie is that sometimes words do hurt, I think that we and by we I mean us all we do need to watch what we say but we also need to have thicker skin and not take everything to heart, I do realize that is easier said than done. 

Daily Dose of BS Sept 12 community

I think that it is important to be involved in your community, from writing a check to help, or getting involved in a civic organization or a church. 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 the United Way Kick of Breakfast, and I have the opportunity to talk with many of the people involved in the United Way, and many of the organizations that benefit from the United Way. With the world the way that it is, the best thing we can do is to help out as we can, either with your check book, or by rolling up your sleeves, and being a part of the solutions. The best thing about rolling up your sleeves 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 community an even better place to live.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 11 emotions

This weekend was a weekend filled with emotions from the Steppin Out in Pink walk where 7000 people walked for breast cancer, Hurricane Irma reigned terror and destruction in Florida and is now headed to Georgia, and sixteen years ago today is a day that most in our generation will remember like the landing on the moon of the generation before, and the death of President Kennedy of the generation before that.  The patriotism that America felt, the American Pride that you had for the days, weeks and months after the tragic 9/11 attack at the World Trade Center.  I was working on the radio here in LaCrosse when a listener called and said a plane crashed into the World Trade Center and then a few minutes later another caller and then even more callers called with the news.  We reported the news and the feelings of the people who were living it, experiencing it, seeing it.  It was weird to have all air traffic cease after that day and when it finally resumed, remember how weird it felt and sounded?  I hope and pray that we never have to relive another 9/11 type attack on America.  God Bless America.

Daily Dose of BS Sept 8 equifax

I think that it is time for us to come up with a new system for identity, here is the reason why how many of our transactions have been hacked?  We had some big companywide hacks in the past few years of Home Depot and Target and today we hear of Equifax the company that basically handles our credit scores, saying that they had a security breach back and July and are only letting us know about it now.  The things taken in their breach were Names, Social Security Numbers, Birth Dates, Addresses and other information that could potentially leave consumers vulnerable to identity theft.  If the “big” guy is getting hacked with the loads of security that they have on their systems, how can we possibly keep out data out of the wrong hands?  I wonder if any of our stuff is safe anymore?  

Daily Dose of BS sept 7 what would you keep?

With this being hurricane season and us seeing the devastation of what was left in the path of these monsters, I have been thinking the last few days what if?  What if I lived in the line of the hurricane, would I leave my possessions behind, would I stay and weather the storm?  If did leave what would I take?  I came up with not a lot that I would take, I would want to make sure that my wife and kids were safe, and what else, I am not really sure, I have a lot of stuff, I think that we all do.  Besides the pictures that I have from my childhood, that I really never look at btw, most of the things that are memories are saved online somewhere.  Think of the pictures that you have taken over the past 2 decades, I bet now you take a whole bunch more because they are saved in the cloud, you have them, but you don’t have them, same as our money, we may have some savings but the records of all that stuff is in a computer somewhere.  When it comes to having to leave somewhere quick, I would grab my essentials, phone, meds, laptop, and then hope and pray that nothing happed to my home.  What would you grab?

Daily Dose of BS Sept 6 world end?

I have heard a few people say that the world is ending why else would there be these hurricanes, why would there be all this fighting, why would the drug epidemic be so bad.  So sorry to burst your bubble but people have been fighting all through the history of the world, there have been natural disasters, and people have been medicating and self-medicating for many, many years and will be sure to for all of times.  Why do you think that there is such a party when you are able to legally drink?  But let’s say that the world does end, let’s say that these are the “signs” of the end of times, what would you do any differently?  Me, I am not sure, I try to do the right thing each and every day and I also try to live my life to the fullest.  Any changes for you?