Daily Dose of BS May 31

I have an addiction my son pointed it out to me.  Hi I’m Bob and I am addicted to my cell phone.  I constantly am checking it for information.  From my emails, to my facebook to what news is breaking locally, to using my camera to the maps and gps.  There is so much that the phone has become that I feel naked if I am without it.  When I got my first watch for my first communion, I started wearing it and have been a watch wearer ever since, when I got my first job, I started carrying my wallet, most of the time it is empty but always is in the right hip pocket, when I started driving my keys were always close at hand and now the phone is teetered to my hip.  It is like an accessory that gives back tenfold, what other carry with do you have that gives you so much.  From the ability to go online, look up information, text, among other things, like a calendar and an alarm.  Oh yea you can also use it to make and receive calls.  

Daily Dose of BS May 30

In Wisconsin we are facing the recall of our Governor Scott Walker, the man who faced him in the 2010 gubernatorial election Tom Barrett is facing Mr Walker once again.  The polls show Walker leading Barrett by a margin of 50 to 45 percent.  There was a ton of effort going into this recall election from the people who stood on street corners collecting signatures for the recall, to yard signs, to door knockers, and automated robo calls, to people standing and picketing at different events, lots of time, effort and tons of money spent on political advertising.  Don’t you think that this is over kill?  If there would have been this much effort put forth the first time around that this would not be taking place today.  In the general election there was a turnout of less than 50% they are expecting between 60-70% out to the polls this coming Tuesday.  60-70% this is a lot of people but still not all the people who are eligible to vote.  Don’t you think that only the people who voted in the first election should be allowed to vote in the recall?  If you were too busy to be bothered the first time around why should you get a do over?  If you are not happy with the turn out of this election or any election maybe you should have helped with the original outcome and gone to the polling place and voted in November of 2010.  If the outcome comes back not the way you wanted this time around are you going to want another recall?  A recall of the recall?  This of course is tongue in cheek, but I am sure I have ticked off quite a few and they didn’t make it down here.  I think that you have every right in the world to vote, it is your right as an American.  Please take your responsibility to go to the polls on June 5^th and at every election after, don’t just make the exception to vote at this election because you either weren’t happy with the candidate or situation, please get out and vote in every election.  

Daily Dose of BS May 29

It has been over half my life since I have been able to legally buy beer.  I was up in Northern Minnesota this past weekend for the graduation party of one of my nieces.  Boy was it cold, when we left LaCrosse on Sunday morning it was 70 on the way up to a high of 96 heard from many that air conditioning was turned on for the day.  When we got to Two Harbors Minnesota it was foggy and cold, of course we dressed for LaCrosse weather, big mistake it was a high of 45 foggy, cloudy and damp.  What the heck were we thinking?  It is always fun though to get together and visit with family.  My nephew texted me on the way up asking me to pick up some beer since they were in Minnesota and you can't buy beer on Sunday, ah the joys of Wisconsin living, beer on Sunday and no 3-2 at grocery stores (at least that is what my 24 year old nephew thinks).   After hanging out at the hotel, my nephew who just turned 21, my 24 year old nephew, my sister-in-law and I went out for a beer at a local tavern.  It was the first time my 21 year old nephew was to buy a beer, I thought being the uncle that I would give him the money to buy the pitcher of beer I give him 9 bucks and said leave a buck for the tip, he proceed to leave a dollar on the table and then headed to the bar, I said no leave it with the bartender, he got the beer came back to the table gave me back my money and said that he didn’t have to pay for it, that they just put the beer on his cousins tab.   So he still never bought his first beer, I guess I will just have to go out with him again someday.  

Daily Dose of BS May 25

The next time you go to any store that sells cleaning supplies look around at the packaging for the soaps and cleaners, they are in colorful bottles, made with coloring that mimic power drinks and some of the bottles are in the shapes of pop bottles.  Why in the world would these companies do this?  I remember when I was a kid the Mr Yuck stickers were prevalent.  There was even advertising reminding parents to put the Mr Yuck stickers on the poisonous things under the counter, you would think that with how we have all become overprotective of our most valuable resource our children that we would continue with putting Mr Yuck stickers on our corrosive cleaning supplies and also work on packaging of cleaning supplies that did not looking like kool-aid. I heard on the radio this morning about in Texas so far this year that 71 kids had ingested the new Tide Pod laundry detergent because it looks like a piece of candy.  The people are Proctor and Gamble are now working on new packaging so that way kids don’t think of it as candy.  I think we should bring back Mr Yuck.

Daily Dose of BS May 24

This is it, my final day on the radio according to an email I got I am the winner of 1 million dollars.  I am going to pack up my stuff and hit the road.  How lucky am I, I never even bought a ticket.  All I had to do was respond with my social security number to the email and they will send me a check.  They promised.  People don’t lie and people don’t scam do they?  Heck it seems legit.  I wonder how many people fall for this?  I read a letter to the editor the other day about a grandfather getting a call from who he thought was his grandson asking for some money, the grandpa wanting to help withdrew the money and sent it to some foreign country to his grandson.  He ended up getting his money back because someone was paying attention and told him it was most likely a scam.  I wonder how many fall victims to something like this?  It is unfortunate that there are people out there taking advantage of the elderly and the socially inept.  As for me I am going to pack up my desk and am going someplace nice, after all I got a million free dollars coming my way.  

Daily Dose of BS May 23

It’s hard to admit I am getting old.  I take a nap daily, I can't stay out late, drinking doesn’t appeal to me as it once did, I have hearing aids and I sometimes hurt when I do things I am not used to doing.  I mention this because last night I went to a metal show at the LaCrosse Center.  I used to love going to shows the louder the better, it all started with my first concert with Motley Crue opening up for Ozzy back in 84, I have been going to shows ever since.  I first saw one of the bands last night back in 2001 Megadeth played at the Hollywood a few weeks before my twins were born.  In the past few years, not as many rock shows since there hasn’t really been any, I saw Korn and Disturbed last year, and a few lesser known bands since then, but none have been as loud and visually stimulating as the Rob Zombie show last night.  I found myself closing my eyes a few times and looking away from the stage because of the pulsating red and overabundance of things to look at.  I also hate to admit I was wearing hearing protection during the show, the nice thing is that my ears didn’t have any new ringing when I got home, just the ringing in my ears from earlier hearing damage from not wearing the hearing protection.  Today back to work, a bit tired, hearing aids in, glasses on and coffee grasped firmly in hand, I hope my memory isn’t going next, remind me when is nap time?  

Daily Dose of BS May 22

Have you ever been in the middle of your favorite TV show and had the weather alert go off and the weather guy come in over the best part of the show?  I am guessing we all have if you ever watch TV.  It was a year ago today.  Do you remember what you were doing?  I do I flipped on the TV in time to have Dan Breeden tell the other meteorologist that they should head to the basement.  If the TV weather guy is headed to the basement I had better do it too is what I thought.  Five of the six of us were home, my youngest son was at a friends.  I had called his friends mom to let her know that the kids should be in the basement, no sooner did I get the words out of my mouth a loud band and no electricity.  Thankfully the flashlights were right there and surprisingly they had working batteries.  The rain stopped, the sky color was a pale yellowish blue haze, things got quiet, the dog started barking and a weird eeriness was all around.  Pretty soon you could see it had cleared up, out the back door to see what had happened.  I was two blocks from the damage, the storm had blown out my back windshield of my car, and ripped some siding off my garage, but we faired really well.  I grabbed my recorder and camera, threw on my station shirt then headed out to check out the neighborhood damage, with all the trees down and the power lines down,  roofs off, damage done, it was amazing that we had no serious injuries, and no deaths in La Crosse, in Joplin Missouri they had a tornado on the same day, they weren’t as lucky as we were, 161 dead.   It could have been a lot worse, it is still weird to drive down 16^th Street with so many of the trees gone, I’m just thankful we didn’t get what could have been.

Daily Dose of BS May 21

It seems like more and more dropping their home phone lines.  I still have a home phone and am sure I will for many years as I have young kids, that and I have a great home phone number.  I have been running a business out of my house for many years and have had a business phone/ fax number for many years compliments of a magicJack internet phone, I am one that saw the late night tv commercial many years ago and thought what the heck, if I buy it and it doesn’t work I’m only out 20 bucks or so, I have had mine for at least 4 years and have been nothing but pleased, I bought a thin client so that I could keep my magicJack on all the time without running my computer, this worked well for quite awhile, soon after I got the thin client hook up, the folks at magicJack came up with the magicJack Plus, a device so that I could plug into my router and power and wa-la I would have phone, I finally broke down and got one, the only complaint I have is that I was not able to port over the pre-paid time I bought on my original magicJack, there is a $20 a year service fee for having the magicJack phone but for me well worth the fee.  Having a cell phone is lots easier, but if you need a fax number or a back up phone at your home, you should check out the magicJack.  

Daily Dose of BS May 18

Yesterday I had an awesome day I got to spend it with my twins in Madison, the annual 4^th grade field trip to the state capitol and the Wisconsin State Historical Museum.  You could not have asked for a nicer day for travel, and for this dad.  It was amazing.  I am so proud of the kids and how well each and every one of them behaved, everyone stayed in their groups and none of the teachers had to raise their voices.  We had well informed tour guides in both the capitol and the museum, in the almost 20 years that I have been in Wisconsin I have been on the capitol grounds but never inside, can you say beautiful, our tour took us into the Wisconsin Supreme Court, The Assembly Chamber, The Governor’s office, and the Wisconsin State Senate Chamber, while in there I asked where Senator Jennifer Shilling sat and the tour guide said right where you are sitting, how weird is that, and the proof was on the back of the chair.  As we were leaving one of the legs of the tour we ran into a protester, I don’t care which side of the Governors recall you are on, I as a parent of 4^th graders do not think that it is appropriate for you to protest with your anti anyone signs pointed toward and pandering to 10 year olds, on the other hand it is a free country and we have the right for free speech, I guess I didn’t like that the protester played up and for the kids cameras, and it did open up dialog with the kids and the teachers.  There were other protesters on the capitol grounds I read the messages, but they were a more passive protester.  We ended up the field trip at the robot museum in the Dells, I wish we had more time in the Museum.

Daily Dose of BS May 17

Lots of people give gift cards for gifts, I used to always be against them, but as I have gotten older I have had less a need than a want.  When you are first starting off in life there are things that you need to live like food, shelter etc, those needs don’t change when you get older but if you played your cards right those should be available to you.  Then you add the next tier of things like cable, internet, cell phone and home phone.  Bringing me back to the gift card idea, when I get a card now I will go out and buy something that I wouldn’t normally buy.  So it does in fact become a special gift, one of the bad things about them though is that you are forced to buy from a store maybe you wouldn’t normally shop at or maybe you may have to add your own money for the gift.  I have received a few of the Visa or Mastercard $50 or $100 cards over the years.  And saved them for a special day, like this past weekend when I went to the Mall of America.  I pulled out the cards so that I would be able to get something special.  One of the cards was from Christmas a few years ago and when I went to use it, it had about 36 dollars less than I expected it to have, well I looked at the back of the card and to my surprise after 12 months the card started charging you $2.95 per month.  Don’t you pay 5 dollars for the card to begin with, and don’t lots of people not use or forget about having the gift cards so that way the credit card company is making money that way anyway.  I am all for a 5 year expiration date but to charge me for not using it that is silly.  

Daily Dose of BS May 16

Having a cold when temperatures are above freezing sucks, my nose has been dripping, my throat has been hurting, I have been coughing and been sneezing, not one or two times but multiple times in a row.  If that isn’t a cold I don’t know what is.  I hate having a cold in the winter and when you get one when it is nice out it is even that much more of a pain in the rear.  Walking around coughing and sneezing while wearing shorts isn’t cool, also blowing your nose when it is 80 outside isn’t either.  When I am not feeling well in the winter I want to cuddle up with a warm blanket, when it is warm out, I don’t  want to be hot, how do you get rid of a cold and not boil to death with blankets?  Unfortunately I find if you want to stay awake you can only take Nyquil at night.    

Daily Dose of BS May 15

Why is it so damn expensive to order stuff at a ball game?  I went to a Twins game on Sunday and for two pops and two hot dogs it was 21 dollars, 21 dollars.  You know I could see if these were the best hot dogs in the world and if the bun wasn’t tore and the pop was bottomless, but it was an ordinary hot dog with way too many fried onions, and a 20 ounce Diet Dew, I am not a big pop drinker but I was not about to start shelling out 7.50 per beer.  The hot dog had almost a whole onion on it and I asked for light onion.  I thought to myself when you add ketchup and mustard to the dog you most certainly will spill, guess what I did.  Maybe it was a premonition or maybe I just know the way I eat and with a belly that covers a lap, if I spill I almost always stain a shirt.  Target Field is a good place to watch a baseball game but it is no Miller Park.  I don’t understand that when you live an area that is cold and snowy from the end of September till mid April why you wouldn’t put in a retractable roof, also when you go to a Twins game or a Vikings game at the Dome you don’t get the added excitement of tailgating at least not the whole tailgating experience that you get when you go to a Brewers game or a Green Bay Packers game.  Speaking of over-priced food I shopped to make breakfast for my mom for Mothers day at a grocery store in the cities and we are lucky here in La Crosse, the prices for food and beer here are a lot cheaper.  Plus we can buy beer at the grocery stores.

Daily Dose of BS May 14

What time is it?  Are you tied to a clock?  Does your life revolve around knowing the time and being somewhere by a certain time.  I am lucky enough to have a job that I love but is very tied to a clock.  From the top of the hour news, to the timing of what is said and how long a commercial or as we in the business call it a spot is, a 30 second spot is 30 seconds long and a 60 second spot is 60 not 59 or 61 seconds.  I live in a career where time is of the essence, and when things are not on time at work and in life I am stressed.  I forgot my watch this morning and realized it when I was backing out of the garage, how often will I look at my watch?  Guess what when it isn’t there you look at it all the time.  I never thought I was that dependent on my watch.  I must have looked at my wrist at least 10 times in the first hour I was at work, I finally put my phone on the desk so that I could read the time.  This past weekend I met my Mom and Dad and their spouses as well as my brother and his wife at the Mall of America, we all ran into traffic because it is the Twin Cities and traffic is part of the daily life there, needless to say most of us were late, and I was the latest.  I hate being late, but hate traffic even more.  

Daily Dose of BS May 11

I remember being in Banff National Park when I was a kid on the giant snow bus taking a tour of the glaciers there, above the driver was a sign that said Tipping is not just a city in China.  I remember asking the driver what that meant and having him embarrassed by it and said never mind.   For as cheap as I am with somethings, I like to say frugal, I am a pretty good tipper; I enjoy good service and don’t mind paying for it.  When did it become mandatory for every Tom, Dick and Harry to get tips though?  I truly can see if you go above and beyond in your job maybe get a little something once in a while, but when did it become the expected rather than the once in a while thing?  I am waiting for the tip jar to come out at the grocery store, or the convenience store, how about at the checkout at a fast food restaurant?  Do we need to tip the guy that walks in ahead of you into a building for holding the door?  Are we expected to tip the gal who slows you down in a construction area?  How about when you are driving through Illinois and have to stop at the toll road?  I know what would be a great time to tip, next time you get pulled over offer the cop a tip, and make sure that they know it is a tip for doing their job and not a bribe I would hate to have you get in more trouble for doing that.  I have a great money making idea, since I am just doing my job and entertaining and informing, if you feel the need to tip me go ahead, Daily Dose of BS 1407 2^nd Avenue North, Onalaska, Wisconsin 54650.

Daily Dose of BS May 10

Up till yesterday I have always wondered what the heck people were talking about when they complained about the people at the Onalaska office of the DMV. I have always gotten great service from a smiling happy employee.  I am trying to get rid of an old hard sided Normad camper that was on my land when I bought it.  I ended up giving it to some friends of mine who have a young family and would really get lots of use out of it.  This camper has been sitting on my land well before the time I bought it and was last licensed in 1998 so it has been quite a while.  I wanted to get the title for it so that my friends could license it and start enjoying it.  Well the first thing I did was call the Madison office of the DMV and spent over 30 minutes on hold only to get some paper work mailed to me.  The paper work asks me all sorts of questions about how I obtained the camper, asking for pictures both inside and out, having to have a police officer look for and write down the VIN number and sign off on it.  My camper is such an old camper that when they ask for the VIN number of it, there isn’t one on it, there is a serial number and there is a number stamped on the frame of the camper but it isn’t the VIN number either.  There is a patient number and other random numbers on the tongue of the trailer but not VIN number.  Leading me back to Onalaska, I brought my paper work that I got from the office in Madison, figuring that it would be easier for me to explain in person what I wanted to do than to write it out and send it back in to Madison.  Guess what the local office didn’t even want to have anything to do with me or my issues, saying send your writings to Madison along with a check.  With some prodding I was at least given the rest of the right paperwork to fill out and send.  Should it be this hard to get rid of a camper, I am beginning to think that I should have just scraped it for the money.  Daily Dose of BS weekdays at 5:15 on Magic 105.  

Daily Dose of BS May 9

Having four kids I have had my share of going to sporting events, conferences, art shows and school concerts. I remember when I was in band in middle and high school that after our concerts I always wanted to go somewhere for a special treat and it was always either Farrells or Bridgemans I don’t even know if either of those Ice Cream shops are around anymore. Fast forward about 30 years and things don’t change much, at least for the going out for a treat part, yesterday after my twins spring concert they wanted to go for Ice Cream at Ranison Ice Cream & Candy, great choice kids. Back to the music, the 4th and 5th graders at Spence did an awesome job of singing, playing instruments and speaking on the microphone, and as a person who does that for a living I am a bit jealous as there was one speaker who is in either 4th or 5th grade that could have a career as a voice over artist right now. The kids music teacher Mrs Pierce spoke after the show and said the kids came up with their own melodies after learning the songs for the show. I didn’t hear an off note. They say that children are our future and if that is true, we are on track for a bright future. Daily Dose of BS 5:15 weekday afternoons on Magic 105

Daily Dose of BS May 8

Are you mobile?  I am guessing that 99% of us are.  Only one of my 16 year old friends doesn’t have a phone, and of the kids that do each of them have a better and cooler phone than mine.  I have a blackberry curve.  I originally got a blackberry for the business aspect of it, and then got another one because I didn’t want to have to learn a new system.  My phone has been locking up so I went to the phone store yesterday and they suggested I get the update.  I agreed and proceeded to go home and downloaded the newest operating system, backed up my phone, tried to sync it and then installed the update.  A friend of mine works for a cell phone company and said the backup is easy and everything should be back to the way it was.  He was wrong.  It took about the whole afternoon yesterday to update and upgrade my phone, then all the shortcuts I put in to the phone were not in place, and all the newest phone numbers I put into my phone were not available.  The thing that gets me the most is my entire calendar was on my phone, so if I have an apt with you in the next year, please send it to me and if I miss an apt in the next while, I am going to apologize for it now.  

Daily Dose of BS May 7

Does anyone have pictures?  I am looking for any pictures of me in mid stride of Saturdays 5k.  I promise this is the last time I talk about my 5k quest until I can do the whole thing.  I am so proud of everyone who participated in this past weekend’s La Crosse Fitness Festival.  The organizers had a tough call for Sundays Marathon, as the thunder, lightning and rain hit the area early and by 5:15 they had to call the marathon and pushed the half marathon back by an hour and a half.  I bet that the disappointment was there for those who have pushed, trained and worried about the race.  Back to Saturdays 5k, I was sick to my stomach as I was getting ready for the 5k, I had nerves, and anticipation as we walked up to the starting line,  I went toward the back of the pack since I am not a speed runner, hell I am just starting after 43 years of not running.  Someone said the starting gun was fired and the 1000 people in line started to move, it took me 52 seconds to get to the starting line the fear turned into excitement, I know I can do it, we started walking, wanted to get warmed up for the jog, got to 2^nd street and up the incline, jogged up the hill thought it was about 5 minutes, was about 90 seconds, ooh ooh I am in trouble, how do I bail out of this is going thru my mind, then thought I can do this.  The next mile is a blur, I have no recollection of what happened.     At the half way point there was water, oh sweet h-2-o oh how I love thee.  Again conscious of my surrounding, hey there are people walking faster than I am jogging, wtf?  How is this happening, what am I doing wrong, they all look happy, me I am cursing each and every miserable step, the next mile or so was blurry again, we are getting close to Riverside Park, my legs feel like they each weight a ton and each shoe is a concrete barricade but the end is in sight, way way way over there.  My thoughts go from I can make it, to how much longer, to what was I thinking, to why am I here.  I all of a sudden hear Chad yell you can do it Bob, go.  It was the push I needed, I sprinted ahead, 3 turtles and a baby passed me up but I was bound and determined to finish with that awesome pace of molasses.  I reached the last turn of the 5k and my legs decided that I was done at that moment, Melissa who was in my training group said you can do it, its just a few more yards, it was enough to get me to the mouth of the finish line and Eric and his wife were there to help me through the finish line.  In a running time of 46.28 but take off the 52 seconds that we started with and have a time of 45.36.  I know I won't be winning any land speed records, but I got nothing to go but up from here.  You know it really wasn’t that bad and I am looking forward to doing another one sometime in July.  I plan on training until I can finish without stopping to walk.   

Daily Dose of BS May 4

As you have heard over the past 6 weeks or so that I have been in training for the La Crosse Fitness Festival 5k that takes place tomorrow.  When I started out I was able to run a total of 90 seconds.  At the beginning of this week I clocked in 20 minutes of jogging over the course of a 5k, last night I walked the fitness fest 5k to see how long the walk would take, I was able to finish with a walking time of about 57 minutes so just over 3 miles per hour, not a bad stride.  Tomorrow will be my first official 5k as a jogger; I walked it last night so I will have a time to beat tomorrow.  At 10 tomorrow morning the weeks of training will be put to the test, I have a bit of anticipation and am a bit nervous as I will be embarking on the unknown.   To all the runners, bikers and walkers in this weekend’s La Crosse Fitness Festival, congratulations on all your training and good luck.

Daily Dose of BS May 3

You’ve heard the old nursery rhyme rain, rain go away come again some other day.  Or its raining its pouring the old man is snoring he bumped his head and went to be and couldn’t get up in the morning.  I smile when I hear those old nursery rhymes.  They bring me back to a less busy time in my life, when it was fun to play in puddles, when you actually went outside to get wet rather than curse the fact that it is raining.  I am sure if you look back you used to enjoy a good rain.  I for one love the fresh smells right before a gentle rain or the greening of the earth after the pounding of a good rain storm.  It is funny I really don’t recall if we had much rain in April because the cool temps that we had at the end of the month after the beautiful weather we had at the beginning of the month skewed my perception of the weather.  But I do know we have had some big rain producing storms so far this month.  I think next time there is a gentle rain we should go out and celebrate the life that water brings us.

Daily Dose of BS May 2

They say judge not lest ye be judged.  I am sorry to say we are all judges, and juries as we all judge and try people on a fairly regular basis.   My friend Amy posted today as her post “Today, I will judge nothing that occurs. I will not classify, define, or label or analyze. I will shed the burden of judgement.”    I am ashamed of myself for taking in stray conversations and putting together my own assumption of what happened with the Sara Hougom murder in LaCrosse.   I am sorry for the passing of my theory to a few others.  I did keep my thoughts off the radio and for that I am happy, but am mad at myself for judging at a time when I should not have been.  You know what happens when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me and we have all been down that road a few times in our lives.  I am happy that the La Crosse Police have cracked the case of both the drive by and the senseless murder of a 20 year old college student.  I was sickened when it happened as was the rest of La Crosse and then to find out that she was killed over a purse, really.  How much money was in the purse?  I am guessing not enough to take a life.  In the LaCrosse Tribune today there was a story about the Hmong community and how they are bracing themselves for a backlash from the community, because the homicide suspects are Hmong.  I don’t get why there would be backlash there are idiots in all cultures and races, want proof look at your family tree, if you can’t find at least one outcast on the tree then I am guessing it is you.