My understanding is that Grasshopper No.5 has officially been named "Entertainment Editor" of her newspaper. Congrats.
Good times are coming. Yeah, right. Our government is the process of implementing a healthcare plan that has not been written and will take until 2014 fully take effect. Making insurance available to everybody including 32 million new "enrollees" is going to cost huge dollars. Dah!
It is starting. Retired people receive Social Security. Last year there was no incease in the amount retirees got because cost of living was negative. I guess that is okay because we are still in a recession. The prediction is now that at the end of 2011, any increase scheduled for Social Security will be "eaten" up by Medicare Part B (Part B covers doctors and expenses beyond hospitalization). Medicare Part B is deducted from Social Security. So as medical costs soar in the future, net Social Security payments will actually decrease. The logical extreme would be for Medicare Part B payments to get so large that they actually offset all Social Security and retirees will get nothing to live on. Nah, that couldn't happen could it?
Inflation consumes my purchasing power. The last time I looked, gasoline is about $3.50 per gallon and increasing. Cereal is higher, clothes are higher. Inflation will keep increasing and my Social Security will be decreasing. I don't think that is good?
My saving grace is that I know my children will take good care of me and their Mom when the money runs out.
The brackets of the NCAA basketball tournament have been busted by lots of upsets. There is one "on-line" website that promoted filling out brackets with a prize to the winner. 9 million people entered the contest. After 2 weekends and 62 games, 2 people still have the potential of winning the NCAA contest. Ugly!
Grasshopper No.3 won the family NCAA contest. Grasshopper No.4 and I will have to dig deep. Hope No.3 doesn't spend it all in one place.
My snow tires come off the car tomorrow.
Love,
Dad
Officially it is Spring. By now snow storms are a rare event. Somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature. We got 10.5 inches the last few days. Maybe global warming has something to do with it.
My snowblower has been tested this winter. I store gasoline in a 2 gallon container and usually I have to make one trip during the winter to refill the container. I did that. I was down to almost no reserve of gas. I figured that I had enough for one more snowfall? The last snowfall event lasted 36 hours and was heavy and wet. By the time the snow arrives it is too late to run to the gas station. I snow blowed the first time. I still had some gas. I snow blowed the second time and I had fumes left in the gas tank of the snowblower. I am now out of gas. If we have no more snow, I am in the perfect situation. My gas does not "age" and lose it's octane and I can get fresh stuff in the Fall. If it snows, I have no gas for the snowblower and I can't clear out the driveway and sidewalks. I save $7 by not filling my 2 gallon container. Am I tempting fate if I do nothing. Exciting stuff.
Badgers basketball team lost and the NCAA tournament has lost some of it's luster. The term "blown up brackets" comes to mind. Lots and lots of upsets.
It looks like I will beat Brother Jerry in my NCAA picks.
Grasshopper No.3 seems to be fading in the NCAA bet.
Grasshopper No.4 might edge out a victory over me. It is tough to make a prediction because it is so close and I have to deal with his being obnoxious.
Stay warm.
Love,
Dad
With the help of Grasshopper No.1 (and my favorite son-in-law), we have a new wireless "blue-ray" DVR that is connected to Netflix. By pushing a few buttons, popular current movies are available on demand. How great is that? Now we get movies from Netflix via the internet, movies from Nexflix by mail, HBO movies, Showtime movies and Cinemax movies. Of course the premium channels have free movies on Demand. Our cable company has movies on demand. Does it seem like movie "overload" to you? Thank you No.1.
It seems like everytime I have a favorite basketball coach, he either gets in trouble or gets fired. Bobby Knight was my hero at one time. He was a great coach at Indiana but read too many of his own press clippings and turned into an a--hole. So I had to search for a new hero. I chose Bruce Pearl. He coached at UWM in Milwaukee very successfully and moved on to Tennessee. Every year has been a success. Pearl got fired yesterday for improperly talking to a recruit. I think he invited the recruit to his house for a "fry out". Mercy. Talk about ticky tack infractions. The truth is that Tennessee didn't want Pearl around. So now I have to find a new coaching hero.
Grasshopper No.4 is talking "trash" about the bet we have on the current NCAA tournament. You wouldn't believe the abuse I get. Doesn't an old man deserve some respect. He won't be so bold when I win the bet.
Grasshopper No.3 is trying to sell me a new snowblower. Somehow it is tough to get excited about a new blower in March. I know. I know. It is probably a good time for the best deal. I get the feeling that No.3 might make some money on the deal.
First day of Spring was yesterday. Guess what? Snow, sleet, and heavy rain are moving in for the next two days. The forecast is for up to 2 feet of snow in northern Wisconsin. Maybe I should reconsider the new snowblower.
Grasshopper No.2 is in Missouri hiking with her two boys. It is a good way to use spring break. In a couple of years, the boys will want to go other places for spring break and not with Mom.
Stay warm.
Love,
Dad
First matters first. Grasshopper No.3 and Grasshopper No.4 have challenged me in the NCAA basketball pool. Silly guys. After day one of tournament play, Grasshopper No.4 is sucking exhaust.
I have been having an occasional lunch with brother Jerry. The difference in our age is similar to the difference in age between Grasshopper No.3 and No.4 - close to 7 years. Jerry was always the little brother. He tagged along to baseball games to watch Jack and myself play. My Dad was usually the coach. Jerry would sit in our dugouts. As he got older, he became a batboy for our team.
When our Dad (Bucky) died, Jerry was almost 11 years old. He never had Bucky coach his baseball team. Bucky never saw Jerry play organized PeeWee League baseball.
I asked Jerry about his memories of going to "our" games as we were growing up. Most vivid in his mind was a baseball game involving Jack (age 14) and my Dad. My Dad had made a decision regarding Jack's placement in the batting order. Jack didn't like it. They started arguing and pushing each other around. Jerry remembers they wrestled and both fell to the ground on the third baseline. I can't imagine that because my Dad was the one person who could dominate Jack. Jerry thought that my Dad had been drinking before the game. Oh!
Anyone who has played sports remembers certain events or certain personal achievements. Jerry said that at age 10, he played in a youth baseball exhibition at an annual Booster Night promotion. It was held at the city baseball field called Carl Loebe Field. Jerry said he was selected to pitch. He hit a single, double, triple and homerun. I think they call that the "cycle". I know Grasshopper No.4 has certain shots in basketball he still remembers. I remember a game winning basketball shot beating Kohler when I was in high school. I can still see the basketball swishing through the net as time expired. Jerry says he remembers vividly the home run on Booster Night. He said it was a line drive down the third baseline and because of how hard it was hit, it made it past the pursuing left fielder. It is a homerun that will be pictured in his mind forever.
Jerry was just far enough behind me in years that we didn't have a lot in common. He had different friends and was just getting into sports when I was graduating from high school. But for a very short period of time, my Dad and his 3 sons shared sports participation.
With each lunch with Jerry, I learn a little. It is interesting to get his perspective.
Enjoy the warmer weather.
Love,
Dad
I'd be remiss if I didn't share what I know about radiation.
Years ago when I worked in Sheboygan, we had a stainless steel foundry. Some of our government business was for castings that had to be defect free. That required we take x-rays of each casting. In order to penetrate the casting, we needed a radio-active isotope. We had to train people on how to handle the radio-active materials and I remember brother Jack went to school regularly in Philadelphia to be trained. All x-rays were taken in a cement encased building and all employees were required to wear badges that measured exposure to gamma rays. All people working with the radio-active materials were required to get annual physical check-ups. It was mandatory.
Radio-active materials are insidious sh--. You don't know how many times your body is being bombarded by gamma rays. Some exposure is normal. The sun creates radiation exposure. Your friendly dentist exposes you to radiation with x-rays (they always say it is such a small amount, you have nothing to worry about). As a kid, I would buy shoes at the local Red Goose store and they would put my feet in an x-ray machine to see how much room my feet had. The radiation exposure was huge and they stopped the practice. The x-ray exposure I got from Red Goose stays with me to this day because it is cumulative.
In theory, you are allowed a maximum amount of exposure before your body begins to do funny things. The effects are not known for days, months and years. Heavy exposure to radiation mutates your DNA, meaning, that you will have trouble fighting off certain diseases. If you get DNA damage at a young age, your children will potentially get the mutation.
Many cancer treatments require chemotherapy along with radiation treatment. Once you get the maximum radiation doses that your body can handle, all radiation is usually stopped. That means if the cancer goes into remission and then re-occurs, you probably can never have new radiation treatments. Each person tolerates radiation differently.
I've heard claims lately that during the nuclear disaster in the early 80's at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Philadelphia, "not one single person died". Bullsh--. Nobody fell dead on the spot, but exposure to radiation affected millions of lives in different ways. Some of it didn't show up for 5, 10 or 20 years, but the incidence of cancer in people who lived downwind from the damaged plant is much higher than "normal". The problem is that with radiation exposure, it is hard to prove the nuclear power calamity is the direct cause.
I know this. Stay away from as much radiation exposure as you can. Limit your time of exposure. Be aware that when dentists take x-rays and doctors examine your body parts with x-rays, it comes at a price.
The nuclear meltdown that is occuring in Japan is more dangerous than the Tsunami. It will affect more people now and for years to come. Land around Chernobyl in Russia will be radioactive for thousands of years as a result of their meltdown.
The maximum exposure you are allowed is "your age multipled times 1000 and expressed in millirems. I am 70 years old. My max allowance is 70,000 millirems. I don't know what the hell a millirem is. I also don't know how much exposure I've had over the years because there is no body measurement procedure.
The lesson, Grasshoppers, is minimize your exposure to radiation. Period! It is bad sh--.
Love,
Dad
Today is supposed to be 42 degrees and sunny. You would never know that an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale hit this morning off the northeast coast of Japan. 8.9 is a "wow". The earthquake occuring underwater sets of a Tsunami with walls of water 23 feet high. Imagine a wall of water coming down the street as high as a two story house. And water keeps coming. The forecast is that Hawaii and even the west coast of the U.S, will be afffected. It kind of puts life in perspective.
I have always been interested in the engineering that goes into nuclear power plants. Japan gets 30 percent of all it's power from nuclear. Apparently there are 4 nuclear plants directly in the line of the Tsunami. New nuclear plants are built to withstand earthquakes. I don't know if a quake the magnitude of 8.9 is part of the design criteria. Tsunamis are another matter. A nuclear power plant has radio-active rods inserted into a core generating lots of energy (and heat). If the water cooling system for the core fails, potentially you get the "China Syndrome". That means lots of radioactive water and air can released into the atmosphere. News services are reporting that evacuation is taking place around one of the nuclear plants. That is not good. If you think a tsunami is devasting, uncontrolled release of radio-active materials would be a disaster. At this point, there are no reports of radio active releases.
So when you get 3-4 inches of snow and have to shovel again, consider yourself lucky. There are bigger problems in the world.
I suppose the fanatics will cry "global warning" but ever since the earth started cooling millions of years ago, earthquates have been occuring in some form or another. I guess you have to decide.
Tomorrow night is "Spring ahead" time. You "workers' of the world will lose an hour over the weekend and your time off will seem much too short. If you are retired, who cares.
Hug those close to you.
Love,
Dad
In early 1950's Major League Baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the good guys battling the Evil Empire, New York Yankees. Every year the Yankees would become World Champions. Every year, the Dodgers would vow to "get them next year".
The Dodgers had some great baseball players and were considered "blue collar" heros. My Dad of course fostered interest in major league baseball and there was constant banter about the Dodgers during each baseball season. It turns out that brother Jack aspired to be a catcher and Roy Campanella was the All-Star catcher for the Dodgers. Campanella was his role model.
Perhaps the biggest star on the Dodgers was outfielder Duke Snider. He died last week. His stories brought back memories. Duke was left handed and batted third in the batting order. He hit lots of home runs. This was in the days before "juiced up" baseballs and steroid laced athletes. Duke had 5 straight years of hitting over 40 home runs. What made Duke Snider's home runs unique was the design of the Dodgers baseball field. Ebbets Field had a short right field fence that was 38 feet high. To hit a home run, a batter had to launch a high towering shot that cleared 38 feet as it left the playing field. Duke Snider was a master at it. It captured a kid's imagination.
The Duke and company lost to the Yankees year after year after year. I think there were 5 consecutive defeats in the World Series. Finally, the Dodgers broke through and won the World Series (1955?). The Evil Empire had been overcome in 7 games.
Not long after the World Series victory, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles for bigger money and the rest is history. The Evil Empire still resides in New York.
Jack's hero, Roy Campanella was involved in a devestating car accident. He became a parapalygic and never played again. I remember Jack's disbelief.
Duke Snider was the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Dodgers. His baseball card was desired by everybody. He was a hero. He defined 10 years of my life.
Love,
Dad
I've always liked short mystery stories. There is always a curiousity about where the story is taking you and it is fun to guess the outcome.
There is a television series called, "Who Do You Think You Are? It is about tracing the family tree. Movie stars allow professionals to help trace their family back 3-4 generations and sometimes more. Emmit Smith from the Dallas Cowboys traced his ancestors back to Africa in the late 1700's. Kim Cattral from Sex and the City ended up in Liverpool, England, with a great-grandfather that was married to two women at the same time. Interesting stuff.
In the 1940's my Grandpa Chalk and Grandma Myrna invited Chalk's mom and dad to live out their lives at the City Club (Elmer and Addie May). Addie died in 1943. Elmer died 7 years later in 1950. Elmer had been a farmer for many years around Waukesha, Wisconsin, before moving to the City Club. Myrna had 7-10 years to "bond" with her father-in-law and share stories. One of the tales about Elmer involved his early years living in Canada, fathering twin boys and eventually moving to Waukesha. The validity of the story has always intrigued me. Do I have "shirt-tail" relation in Canada that trace back to Elmer?
I guess we would call the story, "Elmer's Secret". The story would begin with Elmer as a young man traveling to Canada on an adventure. He meets the first love of his life and in a moment of passion, fathers twin boys. He marries and lives a few years in Canada until he learns his wife is a tramp and she runs away with another man. Heart-broken, Elmer returns to Waukesha, Wisconsin, only to meet the true love of his life, Addie May. They marry and have two sons, Charles (Chalk) and George. Both sons become successful. Near the end of their life, they move to the City Club to be near family.
My tale is obviously a fictitious version of something that might have happened. Did Elmer go to Canada before he met Addie? Did Elmer in fact ever go to Canada? Was he married while in Canada or are his two sons "bastards"? Did he get a divorce in Canada before marrying Addie? You get the idea. Lots of questions, lots of unknowns. You can create your own story.
The lesson, Grasshoppers, is that there are many computer programs and applications that might answer the mystery of Elmer. By tracing back through the right courthouse records, press releases and obituaries, the truth may be readily available. Then again, what do I care whether Elmer fathered two little bastards in Canada almost 100 years ago? So the mystery goes on. Maybe it is better that way.
Love,
Dad
15-16 years ago, your Mom and I (and I think Grasshopper No.5) took a trip to Washington D.C. to visit the different monuments and museums.
One day we took a trip across the Potomac River to Virginia and drove down to visit the George Washington estate at Mount Vernon. I remember the terrific location over looking the Potomac. We toured the house which had been restored to it's original condition. My thought was that the house was smaller than I had imagined and very square in it's design. Lots of little rooms and narrow stairways. The home was considered austentacious in it's day. The quality of wood thoughout the house was impressive. The front porch overlooking the river had a view that was worth the price of admission. Stunning.
Which brings me to my story. Your Mom and I got an invite several weeks ago to visit Mom's brother Bob (and Mary) at their renewal project on the edge of the Kettle Morine west of Plymouth. I had teased Bob and said I was only going to show up when invited. We were invited. Mary prepared a home made meal and we toured the farm house. I will say that Bob and Mary are doing their part to keep the economy going.
Bob and Mary's home took me back to the Early American construction similar to what we had seen on the banks of the Potomac. The home is squared off with a big front porch (I understand it will soon get even bigger). The view of the "Kettles" is special and my guess is that a lot of time will be spent on the porch. The "renewal project" has been done in a very classy way with high quality wood, windows and decorations. Just like the George Washington home, every room is very simply designed and utilitarian in nature. Using the geothermal heating and cooling system makes it very unique.
So if you want to go back in time and enjoy a little bit of "yester-year", journey out to the Kettles and visit your Aunt and Uncle.
I did notice that there are no curtains on any of the windows. Mary's comment was "who is going to see you out here in the country"? I guess she is right but it would make me uncomfortable (maybe I've just got to learn to chill out). I visited the gorgeous Kohler bathroom to use the facilities and there were no curtains in the bathroom either. I wonder if George Washington had curtains on the windows.
Bob and Mary seem to enjoy their labor of love as they renew the past with the home. Isn't that what life is all about. They are enjoying the trip.
Love,
Dad