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. 

Daily Dose of BS July 31 status quo

How would you like the national media to ask questions of almost everyone that you ever talked to, and have those questions be super personal?  How about every decision that you have ever made in your life be scrutinized and gone over with a fine tooth comb?  Or have no anonymity for the rest of your life?  Have your life in danger every time you go somewhere, or have to worry about the crazies?  All for $400,000 per year I don’t think so.  I don’t know why anyone would want the job of being President of the United States of America.  I just heard on the radio this morning that now the Speaker of the House is suing the President because he was doing his job.  The reason for suing rather than ask for an impeachment is because they think they will have a better chance of winning.  What about us Americans when are we going to win, when there is politicking in DC there is unrest, when there is unrest there is fighting and when there is fighting there is nothing getting done, when there is nothing getting done I guess that is status quo in Washington DC.  Lets stop the fighting.  And lets get things done.

Daily Dose of BS July 30 call back

What is the proper time to return a message?  Is it different for personal rather than professional?  I try to return messages within the next day part, or at least by the next day.  I dislike when I leave either a voice mail message or an email or a text to someone and I don’t hear back from them.  As I am writing this I feel as though I should clarify if it is someone who I am reaching out to for the first time, or someone I am trying to book as a guest on my show, I am ok with them not getting back to me right away but if it is a friend, or a family member I do wish for a return in the communication as soon as possible.  Unless they can’t or there is something wrong.  I tend to have an active imagination and when I don’t hear back from a loved one I tend to awfulize what has happened to them when they don’t call back, and no one likes to picture a friend upside down in a ditch.  

Daily Dose of BS July 29 waste

My mom would always say waste not want not.  I have been a believer of this for most my life as I think that we waste too much stuff as Americans.  Look at anyone’s pile on garbage day.  We throw away everything.  I drove by my neighbors the other day and they were throwing away an old waterbed set.  I took the drawers to make bed frames for the family cabin.  It often bugs me at what gets thrown away as there are many people in need that could use much of what is tossed.  I know when the big push for everyone to start using the flat screen tvs that many perfectly good tvs were placed out in the alleys and boulevards.  It really bugs me when bikes get thrown away and the scrappers grab them, I could name 3 kids right now that could use a bike.  And when it comes to food we throw away tons.  What can be done about this problem?

Daily Dose of BS July 28 brothers

I got to hang out with my brothers over the weekend.  It is funny we talked about mostly just stuff from when we were kids, no real life changing stuff but enough to make us laugh most of the night.  I don’t get the chance to just hang out with my brothers very often, in fact I think this was the first time that the three of us have hung out without anyone else probably since we were kids.  There usually is a spouse or kid or friend also in the mix.  We didn’t solve any world issues but we didn’t cause any either, we just kicked back and BS’ed.  Sunday morning brought our Dad into the mix he brought over a bottle of Sunny Brook that used to be his fathers, Grandpa Schmidt has been gone for over 25 years and toasted his life and our lives, and talked smack,  it is good to have family.  Best line of the weekend is when my youngest brother said it sure is great to figure out what to do when there are three type A personalities in the room.  

Daily Dose of BS July 25 media race

In the race to be the first to report on something is the media airing info that shouldn’t be aired?  Yesterday there was a horrific accident on I-90 where there was a fatality it was all over the media, including this radio station.  We reported what had happened and painted the picture as radio can.  On facebook there were photos of the crash site, and the smoke and fire the engulfed the area.  Our local tv stations had crews on the scene shortly after it happened reporting what had happened and today the newspaper has the pictures on the front page of the paper, are we thinking of the families when something like this happens?   Or in our rush to get the news or big story out first we overlook the people involved?  As I look at those pictures as a father and can’t help but to wonder what if that was my child, or a loved one, or someone that was my best friend and I saw it somewhere in the media or heard about it from an acquaintance that happened.   It makes me wonder if in our race to the top if we are on a race to the bottom?  

Daily Dose of BS July 24 drugs

I see we have mobile meth labs now in La Crosse, not that they are new to the area but are now more brought to the forefront of attention with the arrest earlier this week.  I had a chance to talk with the Police Chief about this on the air yesterday and am angered that we as tax payers have to pay for the cleanup from the chemical mess that these drugs cause.  If a drug manufacturer is making their meth in a hotel room or any enclosed space it costs thousands of dollars to clean that room afterward because of the chemicals and the health hazards that it cost to fix.  How do we stop the drugs?  Since I am talking about drugs I have a question about the Len Bias law, if it states that if someone dies because of drugs you gave to them, you get charged with murder why wouldn’t it also have in there if a person you gave drugs to who almost died that you get charged with attempted murder?

Daily Dose of BS Jule 23 customer service

What ever happened to customer service?  I went into a well-known business and waited 25 minutes before anyone from the business even said hello.  As a consumer it is annoying to go to a place that you spend hundreds of dollars a month just to have their service, and have them offer you no hello.  The deals that these businesses put out are for new consumers if you read their small print, what about keeping a long time customer happy and keeping them as a lifelong customer?  I think that this category of business needs to learn customer service, since the majority of us use their services.  I would also bet that this category of business would have the worst of customer service records in the industry.  Which businesses do you think have the worst of customer service and what should they do to fix this problem?  

Daily Dose of BS July 22 air conditioning

I broke down yesterday and turned on the air.  I had only had it on one other day this year but with the heat and the humidity it was time.  When growing up in Roseville, Minnesota we had central air, however I can only recall a handful of days that the air got turned on at the Schmidt house, if we were hot we could go in the basement, it was always cooler down there and there was a ping pong table and a tv.  Fast forward 25 years and I can hear my Dad coming out of me, if you are hot you can go down stairs to watch tv or ride your bike over to the pool.  Anyway I broke down and closed up the house, shut the shades and set the air to 78.  It is still much cooler than outside and with the fans on it isn’t bad and if I need it cooler I can always go downstairs to watch tv, or go to the frozen foods isle at the grocery store.  

Daily Dose of BS July 21 checks

A friend of mine posted on facebook yesterday that she was stuck behind someone writing a check.  And then continued to ask who still uses checks.  The check book comes out when paying bills but when it comes to purchasing things in stores I tend to either use my debit card or credit card that way I have proof that I bought it.  There have been many times that I misplace or loose a receipt and want to return it, so for me using a card works for my purchases.  Are you still a check writer or are you using plastic or cash to make your purchases?  And do you think that it is bad to write checks?