A hero’s birthday… 1 /31

I think I just I missed using the right word for older brothers are not heros, they are just down the block a little further. Brothers are guide posts, directional markers, as to what paths to follow or in my case which path in life could get you busted on .

Growing up, two of my older brothers were well older than I, they were out of the house off to prep school then college, you might say they were somewhat headed on the proper path to follow. Then there was my next older brother, we were only two years apart. He was just old enough to lord it over me till I had my growth spurt and the scales of justice caught up with him.
Bless his heart for he showed me what not to do most of the time. So with these three sterling examples. I was then required to lead my younger twin brothers onto the path of adult hood, we almost got there.

Where did my parents fit into the picture…guiding their flock ? Dad was out hustling bread for the table while Mom cooked and did the dishes. Oh the joys of brotherhood for we all leaned on one another. For those of you with the "right" type of brothers, you were lucky. For those of you with the "wrong" type of brothers, we were also lucky for in life, it takes all types.

Ya, ya, I would have enjoyed having a sister as well but it wasn’t in mom’s cards. Just think I could have learned from the softer side.
So here’s to my gearhead brother, happy birthday.

Thought of the day…
"If something which you are sure will meet
everyone’s approval, somebody won’t like it."

Quarters and halfs 1/30

Football games are in quarters, basketball games are also in quarters or were and there are four quarters in a dollar. A year is divided into four quarters or properly said, seasons.

Take 365 days in a year and divided by four equals 91.25555555 days per season. Its simple math but just somehow the seasons don’t come out equal. Look at the calandar, it got 12 months - divided by 4 gives you three. Three months to a season? Right? Wrong!

I’ve become an Einstein fan and his theory about his relatives now seems full of holes. However, he proved that the longer realtives stayin his your home, time dose expanded. When they leave time contracts. It the same with where you park your rear-end. If it’s in a nice warm climate, time flys. But if its cold, dark and feels like the wrong side of the moon time actually drags.

Mother nature affixed in all of us our own Einstein clock. Its speed is equated with our comfort zone. It’s like those guys in India who walk on hot coals. Why in the hell do they walk so slow? I’d be hell bend on fire racing for the nearest ice bucket. This is just an example of an instant of time, whereas winter is a mega instance.

So as we approach the time of the year we come face to face with this time problem , the subject of my favorite movie, "Ground Hog Day". I just hope that someone has that 4 legged fur ball for dinner, as the main course that is.

One liner of the day, "Always do right,
this will gradify some people & astonish the rest."

Book Club… 1/29

Once a month a group of ladies get together and review a book that they all have read for the month. Sounds exciting? NO? then let’s go bowling or something that will raise your heart beats a notch or two. Back to the ladies group, there are approximately 12 ladies in the group and Rosebud is one of them. This group rotates between houses and you can see where this is headed. Right, this month was Rosebud’s to host and all gals were to gathered at our place.

For the last eleven months I could find things in our cabin. Gloves, caps, eyeglasses, - you name it, I could usually find it. But now it’s book club time. Rosebud made a mad dash to stuff things away. She was trying to make the place like something out of Better Homes and Gardens, impossible.

So for a week we have been stuffing and hiding things away. To most people this would be easy. Not here for our little cabin for it is just that, little. I.E. is my chest of drawers. If I were to hurriedly open it without knowing, the "stuff" inside would explode out if it and be all over the room.

Of course I am excepted to vacate to premises on book club day and only return when the last car is well out the drive. So here’s the question…should I ask for equal time? Maybe a poker night with the boys? or a monthly pool league of the old farts? But please don’t come to me with the idea of a snow shoe group outing – that’s too heart healthy.

Today’s thought, " When stupidity is a sufficient explanation,
there is no need to have recourse to any other."

Come on you guys…I need additional one liners…
thanks Mrs. J for yours, let’s hear a few from you other Einstein’s.

Previous on 24….. it’s back… 1/26

We’ve waited since last May to find out what happened to Jack Bauer. All we had to do was to go back to season three. It’s the same deal. They’ve only flipped flopped a few actors but the tag line is still the same

"Previously last year on 24". It’s the same deal, some radicals swipe a nuke and set it off in L.A. You’d think the producers would get pissst at the writers. They are giving us the same old plot packed in a the same corn beef hash can and it still sales? You’d think they invent something new, spend a few extra bucks and send to crew to Oakland, Newark, Shreveport or Death Moines. Ant of these would be a better plot line. You know, add a little color to the show.

Then there is Jack Bauer’s, what a maroon! You think he’d just be a little tired of with nit-wites he’s working for. Of course he’s trying to pretend this is the real thing, your know it all our government in action stepping on it’s toes. So there it is, one for the better shows on TV falling off the book shelf into the waste basket. It’s a sad state for on the other channels there is zip as well. I’ve thought about taking up sowing or writing TV plots.

Today's thought, " Almost any man worth his salt will fight to defend his home, but no one has heard of a man going to war to defend for his apartment."

Advice…. 1/25
keep your head down and swing as hard as you can

Late fall one of the guys came up to me in the golf shop and told me he was headed to an island in South Carolina. I knew he and his daughter had one thing in mind, golf. They both loved the game. I happened to ask which island and he said Hilton Head….bingo, a small world.

The lights went on for during our early years Rosebud and I drove our young family down to the to Hilton Head Island in the spring. We’d spend time walking the beaches and hitting little round white things into channels and sand traps. I had known the lay of the land back then. Yet, time changes things and I was hesitant to give him advice. However, I did give him some suggestions...which he did ask for!

Last night he called and was still on a high about the trip that they had just returned from. He gave me big thanks and said they were going back next year. That did it, just reinforced that fact that I do happen to know a thing or two even though Rosebud thinks the opposite.

So for all of you that in the past that I have given advice that went unheeded. Tough, for in the future if you ask for advice from Doctor Phil it’s going to cost you, two beers and a lollypop.

Today’s golf foursome was submitted by the Huntser:

It’s a hooker, a slicer, a driver over water, and one that doesn’t know one hole from the next …. Monica, OJ, Teddy K, Bill Clinton

Pay the barber and smile? 1/24

There is something under my winter fur trooper cap and summer golf caps… a bare skinhead.
Yes, a bald chrome dome that transmits chills down to my toes. Baldness is passed on by our dear mothers. Bless you mother for a have sinned. Every morning in the mirror I am face to face with reality. Each morning there seems to be a little less of me to take care of.

I can only see two plus to this human condition. You use a lot less shampoo and your hair brush dies of neglect. At one point each fellow who starts losing it, stops and take a second look and the wheels start turning. We hustle over to Walgreens for a quick fix of Rogaine but its only a short term fix to a long term problem, a chrome dome. There is no stopping Mother Nature nor the ill effects of gravity. The waistline bulge is the other thing that’s usually passed along thanks to our pops.

In my closet I have jeans with three different waist lines 40, 38 and 36 inch. I feel like one of those adjustable mortgages. My jeans change sizes with the seasons. First there is 'lettus' season which is spring. It’s the real shock how tight the jeans with the 40" waist are so out comes the lettus diet and daily work outs at the fitness center. By June it's still tight fitting into a 38" waist. It takes most of the summer of working out - walking, golfing and swimming to squeak into a pair of 36" jeans. But then comes Brat/Beer time, tit’s fall and the cycle starts all over again.

Now back the hair problem...I gotten all over it, really.
The only thing the grinds me is forking over $15 bucks to the barber when it takes only two minutes to buzzz the sideburns.

Thought for the day, "Don’t ask a barber if you need a hair cut."

The great undertaking… 1/23

History buffs… how many of you have read the 3 volume set of Shelby Foote’s "The Civil War"?
Eight to ten years ago Ken Burns created a TV special on PBS, the Civil War, using Mr. Foote’s writing as gospel. It put things into proper light. So all these Americans were killing one another not by the hundreds, nor thousands but hundreds of thousands. And for what? Ya, I know slavery, states rights or as a southerner would say…get off my front yard.

Now, I am just finishing volume one. Let me tell you, Mr. Foote has a mouth full to say. I just got past the part about Antietem. This hit home as two years ago Rosebud and I were in Washington DC and drove home via the by-ways not the interstates. We were following the Potomac northward into Maryland. We came over a rise and there was the Antietem Civil War Battleground.

For some reason when authors and the media use the word casualties they should use the word deaths and when they use the word battleground they really mean cemetery. We stopped and walked the grounds. There was a diorama showing the highlights of Lee’s and McClellen’s moves. The lawns were cut and a few old cannon were in position. Then for effect they had some split rail fencing. But the heart of the matter really had to be looked for, the thousands of small grave markers.

Back then the majority of the guys didn’t know what the war was about only that the guys on the other side wore a different color uniform. And it’s the same today depending on where you are sitting, which side of the isle are you sitting on? or which religious symbol you carry. (Economics & Religion is the curse of mankind) in the 1200’s it was the crusades and in the 1860’s the Civil War. Now tour country is faced with a great undertakings. Mine is trying to finish volume one. Maybe in my next life time both will be concluded.

Today’s thought, " People who wear contact lenses should not have shag carpeting nor have to read fine print."

It’s Out cold… 1/22
ZZZZZZZZZZ, I was sound asleep Saturday early AM and I mean early. Then there came a buzzzzing.

In my fog I had had plenty thought of green fairways and sand beaches. The buzzing continued. Then there came a barking from downstairs. Buzzzzing and barking what in the world was happening on this dark cold morning?

So I got out of bed hobbled downstairs and let the dog out in the dark morning while the now louder buzzzy continued. Then the lights went on both upstairs and out side. " It’s ice fishing season, stupid." Out on the ice our springer just had to raise hell with five guys who had park right outside our window and were drilling holes in the ice a snowball’s throw from our home.
On of them was a neighbor from down the shoreline and the other four I didn’t have a clue. They were bundle up in snow gear and fur hats. You’d think that common courtesy would enter the minds esp. for our neighbor, but NO!

So now I am planning revenge. I can either…
Water Ski at 2 am in the morning (bad idea)...
Cut my lawn at midnight (this spring)...
Start chain sawing at 5 am (due unto others, first)...
Yet there are many others neighbors on the lake that I don’t want to offend so for now I will bite my lip and TP their home and yard later.

Today’s thought,
" Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die
even the undertaker will be sorry." Mark Twain

Pull up a chair 1/19

Last fall I did three years of cutting and splitting. I got way ahead of the game. We were more than ready for this year’s freeze out. We had doubts about cold weather but shouldn’t have. Finally it’s here, nightly fires and daily wood hauls. However, there is one problem hauling wood into the cabin; it’s our dog who must be a center of things.

We got this neat canvas wood hauler and you can really load it up almost to the point where your back goes out...so every morning I haul in three loads of nightly fire. To do so I’ve got two sets of steps and two doors to maneuver through all the while our springer is completely under foot. Add some ice, a lot of ice under foot, and a dog who thinks its her duty a haul in a wood stick as well a stick of wood and it’s a juggling act all on a new metal knee. It’s amazing that I’ve only hit the deck on several occasions.

Yet it all worth the effort. I light a fire get it roaring, grab a book head to the sofa with blanket in one hand and heating pad in the other. Then in my fourth hand I have a J&B on the rocks, cheers.

Today’s thought… " Natural beauty is enhanced by the distance from home."

Mr. Fix It 1/18

You mean the water heater went out? That's the news Rosebud gave me yesterday morning . Gad, we can’t do the dishes, wash clothes or even take a shower. I had to get right on this, she’ll have cats if we don’t have hot water. Maybe I should have morning coffee with the guys then get right on it….

So, step one is to shop around for a replacement. I mean you go on line at Menards, Loews or Home Depot to see whose got the best deal on a 40 gallon Propane unit that’s "in stock" plus at a real deal price.

After narrowing it down , I needed to play them a visit, kick some tires. You’ve got to admit that there is a big difference in seeing an Eddie Bauer sweater online and trying one on at their store. Same holds for hardware i.e. a water heater, you got to try one on.

So after traveling from store to store and looking at water heaters (they all look alike just like Iowans) you purchase one, roping it into your trunk and head for home. Now comes the hard part, hauling it downstairs and trying to make all the connections fit. For some reason all the measurements you made on the old one just will not match up with the new.

Then in the back of your mind pops the possibility of an LP gas leak that you may have caused.
Up flashes in your eyes a newspaper headline….from the Lakeland Times…
"Family blow to Kingdom Come!" Now comes what you should have done in the first place, call the local plumber and pay the piper, literally.

If I would have taken into account my time, mileage and a 2nd trip returning the water heater I would have been bucks ahead calling the local plumber in the first place saveing a lot of "I told you so's."

Today’s thought…
" Things go wrong in batches,
a whole lot of batches."

Wrong Keys...

It would be nice to be talking about the KEYS in Flordia but not to be. The keys that I am dealing with are the one used to type this and for some unknown reason once again they are all in the wrong spot. It's seems that I have once again locked myself out of blog documents.

The one person that I can ask for help knows less than I. What a pickle. I could just wing it today(once again) but then you'd know that careful thought hadn't been put into it. So for today there will be a huge void...something new and different.

Maybe I need to vacum the computer and get the 12 pounds of dust out of the thing. Maybe it needs spring house cleaning early. So I'll hire a maid and have the whole place done but that's wishful thinking.

So the only thing I can leave you with is today's thought...
"the race is not always to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong...
but that's the way to bet."

Sorry, I vented 1/16

Yesterday I got a little out of hand. I was P-O’ed. It happens, sorry. Then this morning it was – 15 degrees so I’ll chill out. Just little things can trigger my dark side, like a dead car battery.
I mean, during the holidays someone pushed into line while I was trying to get to the Salvation Army kettle.

Then moments later a car drove right past me while I was pulling into the car wash lane.
Come on now, I thought it was the season to be jolly and here I was thinking of punching her lights out.

It seems like everyone is in a hurry getting nowhere. So in yesterday’s blog I vented. The moment has past without injury to others or myself so this year I resolve to be a little LESS! That is in certain spots.

thought of the moment… "" when in doubt, use a bigger hammer."

Northwoods Foreign policy Jan. 15th

Remember when bombs were going off daily in Israel?
It use to kill many an innocent passerby and we heard about I through the world media.
Now bombs are going off in Iraq killing not just passerbys but many a US service person and we are really hearing about it because it’s us. It seems the value of human life in the middle east doesn’t amount to a hill of sand only if there is oil under it …even then they keep blowing holes in everything even their brothers in Islam, their own cousins.
So how can sanity take over?

For years we have purchase billion in oil from the Saudi’s. It’s time to blow the whistle on them!
I mean turn the screws on them. We’ll just tell them that we will not back our green back’s which they are amassing in Swiss banks until they apply pressure on their friends to the north and east, the radicals. Or, we’ll cut off their supply of Mercedes, no that won’t work. You can’t tell me that the Saudi’s can’t bash some common sense into Syria, Iran and their own brethren.

This north-woods man sees the Saudi’s as the biggest slugs the world has known. They are hoarding half the world’s wealth and for what? To build indoor snow ski hills along the Gulf and to finance ‘fringe’ elements who commit mass murder. How come the U.S. always gets the blamed for the inactivity of other countries who could due a world of good?
It's the old, "It doesn’t effect me, I don’t care!"

I say slam the door on the Saudi’s! Then if that doesn’t work we quite selling them executive jets so they can’t get to the casinos in Monaco. Then there is China, but let’s not go there, for where would Wal-Mart get its stuff? I mean I need a new high definition TV.


thought of the moment… " the past is always better than it was… the present worse than it is and the future finer than it will be!"

Help! I am on the look out for additional one liners or your favorite 'wit’a—isums’ more food for thought so I can share them daily with you all.
Got one? Good, then e-mail it to me at colemandeal@hotmail.com… thanks pals.

The Poles… 1/12
No, this isn’t about our friends with an ending of ski or sky. Today we are looking at plus and minus. You know… white and black, positive and negative, democratic and republican, pears or peaches. This is about opposites.

This all came about this AM when I was trying to put on my socks and couldn’t tell my right from my left. When it comes to your gloves there is no problem; the thumbs are always on the wrong side. The same holds for the labeling of "one size fits all." Well, maybe not.

Somethings we really get it wrong, very wrong, like when hooking up your car battery and putting the positive on the negative. My eye lids are still puckered. The same holds true with talking politics in a crowd. We all feel that we have the only possible answer to world peace and all the other people are full of hot air...or something that come out of the wrong end of a male cow.
It’s taken 6 years for George W to realize that he and the boys do not have the answers. Now, the gang on the other side are all full of smiles pointing fingers saying, " We told you so!" but that’s all they have are we told you so’s.

No one has come to grips with the situation…. not within the last 1500 years. King Richard II got his butt kick now it’s George’s turn. Somehow we must relearn not to put the positive car battery cable on a negative ground. Stay turn for the next blog’s enlightenment and we’ll point fingers in the right direction.

Today’s wisdom,
"Once a job has been fouled up,
anything done to improve it makes it worse." Mark Twain

Ya of little hope… 1/11

This isn’t butt busting news, nor a blog that will effect anyone other than several dozen people but… for many a year we would travel way down our backwood's road out to a place called the Willow Haven on the Willow Flowage. The Fowage is a body of water created by a dam in the Tomahawk River. It a very remote place in the winter gotten to by snowmobile or by slow moving cars on icy roads.

Most of the area on the way the is either owned by the paper companies or the state and the drive is back to nature. Yet, on the flowage's southern shore years ago a family built a restaurant. The Haven was a place where we’d enjoy an evening out. It had great food and a western sunset over the water that had you hooked for a day, a week or a month…. but like all ‘super clubs’ after many a year it got very old for the owners and the place closed last summer, a sad moment.

But praises be! the place was purchased by new blood and from what I’ve heard it’s better than it was? So boy and girls of little hope we were just rewarded and one of our favorite haunts is now back on the map.

This of course will require a mass outing of the masses at the first possible date. Join me with knife and fork.

Today’s thought,
"Years on the job have little to do with experience."

A present? you shouldn’t have… 1/10
As each of us sat around the Christmas tree and once again on birthdays as a little thought wells up in our minds…we tell everyone who went out of their way thinking about someone else..."geee whizzz you didn’t have to do that". But after many a year a person gets too use to others thinking about them, that gift giving almost becomes automatic.

It’s the same with the sun rise each morning. For me I always check to see if I am still breathing. It takes only a moment to give thanks before stumbling out of bed each day.

Yet some times it takes a slap in the face to awake us from taking things to "grantite".
It takes separation from family members and love ones to somewhat shock us back to reality.
For the last five years or so my son spent Christmas on either an aircraft carrier or on the other side of the world. This season we got to spent some time with his family and it was the best present of all.

As the holidays fade into memor, just remember those that stand guard for us across the world so that we may have the freedom to invest our cash in other countries. May we all hope that the only killings we make in is the world stock markets and not in the streets of Kabo, Bagdad, and Beirut. So let's all kiss off 2006!

Try this thought out! " Never teach a pig to sing...
it will annoy you & frustrate the pig."

The 12th Day 1-9
Time to take down the decorations, all of them, one last Christmas cookie, and a last piece of fudge. It’s going to be a long time to Fat Tuesday maybe it’s time to step up that physical fitness program

So out with the old tree and sweep up the pine needles. Here we go into the real dog days. the heart of winter. Actually it’s not to bad around here that is if we get some of Colorado’s snow. This year has been the topper. I mean flowers blooming in Washington and 2 inches of rain here December 30th?

My snowplow is dying of neglect and there isn’t enough snow cover to cross country ski. This 12th day isn’t a blue one, it’s brown. The only good thing is that the gas meter isn’t turning at it’s normal rapid pace.

But this is the 6th year of mild weather and our winter resort business in taking it in the rear.
So much of slay rides, down hill skiing, ice skating and all the normal winter stuff.
Time for sun block 40 and a walk along our frozen beach.

Thought for the day, "Self reliance is taught by those in need of help."

BTU’s 1/8

We must cut our dependence on foreign oil. That’s a standard issued by many in a green party for muti-years. Finally a few folks in Washington maybe getting it. The problem is that it’s a state thing not D.C. The problem is that each of us local slobs make the ant hill bigger.

In Iowa they are turning corn into gas, here in Wisconsin we are a little slow, we are trying to turn bake beans into gas, a very sticky deal. I remember years back I tried bouncing an idea off each of my kids…
I told them that they not only could retire for life (me too) but end the energy problem by developing a way of burning water in autos, hydrogen and oxygen. The simple elements formed right after the Big Bang pumped into your gas tank…wooo!

Each one of them , my kids, asked me if I was on something again and went along with their lives. Yet, here we are many a year later and all the auto makers are busy trying to turn water into the two gases. My brother has been doing that for years.

Four nights ago I watch in amazement a PBS show, Nova, in which researchers at Stanford are opening a door on a cheap way of producing Hydrogen…bingo… those guys will retire for life and Stanford U can take another bow. Now ever, if their advances go much slower our future will have endless summers in most of the north.


Thought of the moment, " Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself."

Dinner with friends… 1/3

What better way to welcome a new year than to be with OLD friends. For many a year several of us have leaned on one another. Maybe the word isn’t leaned, maybe it should be extended ourselves to one another. We went out to dinner the other night. As we all chatted away I couldn’t help by recalled all the wonders that all o f us have witnessed together.

We watched their kids grow into adulthood then parenthood. They’ve watched our crew with pride and satisfaction as we did theirs’. Through good and sad times we have just stuck by one another. There were times when someone could have walked, balked or became a disinterest bystander but that’s not what friendship is about. It even means biting your lip and sometimes looking the other way and yes maturity does suck at times.

All of us have grayed together, that is all but myself. No I don’t use hair dye, don’t have to… for I have bald dome not a gray one. So as another new year is upon us I not only look forward to good times with OLD friends…. but old times with new friends!

Day’s thought of the moment
"If you can explain clearly that no one can misunderstand, someone will."

Have another bowl game – part 2

Iowa Lost, Michigan lost, Notre Dame lost. However, Wisconsin won, amazing…

So what does that tell us? Only that there are a lot of bowl games and there are tons of people with nothing better to do than to watch games on their TV set rather than to do something constructive. There are other options you know.

Do could donate your time by working in a soup kitchen, no you say- to boring? Then how about trying ice fishing for a real charge? No you say- to boring? Say you are a very hard person to entertain.

I know you can get ready for our annual Poplar Bear plung, it's a mind set and a bottle of hot toties. The Plunge is where the locals sign up commerical sponcers then on a given day all meet out on the ice then some guy with a chain saw who cuts a hole in the ice. Then everyone jumps in and turns blue. It a very awakening expericence and a few bucks go to chartites, and the numbers are growing, still bored you say?

OK, then you can head with me to the library and check out travel books to warm places with sandy beaches. As for me I am betting on Ohio State and their warm beaches over Florida and their rainy season.

Have another bowl game 1/3
Maybe we are almost at the ½ way mark? And what are we finding out? Is it which teams have the title of Jock U. or which conference players have the highest GPA? I even heard that one school actually placed several of the players of the "oh, no" list for not attending any of the classes late semester?

Think of that, a school that was actually taking attendance of the jocks?
What is the world coming to when athletes have to pass as students? So the Big Ten didn’t win all their bowl games but once again Papa Joe at Penn State will graduate all of his seniors and non of them came out early to sign mega buck contracts in the NFL. SO who is the coach of the year, decade and century?

The coach with 10 all-Americans or the coach that teaches his players the proper values? Hats off to Joe Paternio