It's been a long, long, long time

 This is a long neglected blog. Does anybody blog anymore?  I can't post in Caughttraveling.blogspot.com because I'm not traveling now and I don't have traveling to speak about.

So, to dip my toes in here again, I'll speak about where I am and what I'm doing.

Books

I've been reading historical biographies and related books as a personal project.  I've known about It's funny (?) but as I started this journey, I realized how little I knew about all the great men of the time.  Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson from various media before.  Now, I started with "1776" by McCollough. Great book with a lot of information not only about the Revolutionary war itself, but more insight on Washington as a General.  Also in this time period, I read Kilmeade's book about Washington and his spy network in New York.  Then I read another McCollough book, "John Adams". I knew only about his part in the writing and presentation and promotion of the Declaration of Independence.  As I read the book, I got the impression that William Daniels really caught the flavor of the man in his portrayal in the musical "1776". Then I read Chernov's book on Hamilton on which the play is based. I followed that with books on Madison, Monroe, JQ Adams and Jackson. Throughout all that, I also read books by Kilmeade about Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates, The Battle of New Orleans, And the fight to avenge the Alamo.  I've queued up an autobiography of Martin Van Buren, but decided to finally read De Toqueville's "Democracy in America" first as it was written during the Jackson administration.

It's been interesting reading a number of accounts through the lenses of different biographies. 

I also read a lot of books on social and political ideas.

I've been reading some other books as well as a break.  I'm a fan of the Amazon series, Bosch. So I thought I'd start reading Michael Connelly's books which include various heroes including Bosch and Micky Haller the Lincoln Lawyer.  Also, we used to listen to books on audio while traveling, and there were a bunch of Jack Reacher books.  I only remember one of them, and so I started to reasd them as well.

I frequent thrift stores so the Connolly and Lee Child (Reacher) books come from there.

Lego  (the plural of lego is lego)

Because I could, I started collecting set of Lego and added them to all the Lego I have from the ones we bought  our kids.  I've built a number of various building sttuctures and play around wirh them.  Little Dash is the most amazed by what I do. 

Records

I have a generous collection of vinyl albums. Close to 1000.  I've tried for years to get a turntable that would connect to my laptop so I could transfer all that music to digital.  I generally listen to music mostly when I'm in my car, and if I can get something in MP3 format it's great.  I'm about halfway through.

Geocaching

Laurie and I began doing this years ago.  I've introduced the 4 older ones to it and even started an account for them as a group.  Last year, I took each of them out separately and did a bunch of finds.

Gaming

We became huge fans of the card game Magic the Gathering.  I've taught a couple of the kids to play but we don't much.  I also taught Eliza to play and she and I play a lot.  Anouther game we play is Catan which is a board game a lot like risk. all the kids, Eliza, Brett and their friends like to play.

Model kits

I used to make plastic model kits when I was in school. I started back doing that.  The kits are a lot more in cost, but when you consider how much everything costs today compared to then, it's not much different.

Well, that's what I'm doing.  I'll be posting rants on many topics as the time rolls on.

11/17/2021  12:51 AM  Fargo

April 29th - 19 days later

I can't take it.  I broke down tonight.  It is so hard for me to let loose, but it comes when I'm not expecting it.  I'm sitting here watching stupid tv shows we always watched. Someone loses someone and I just don't feel, but suddenly, the thought hits me that she should be sitting next to me watching with me, and it's all over. I'm crying and crying.  What am I going to do with out my darling?  A large part of me is so fucking lost.  As I'm curled up in a ball crying on the couch, the kitty comes up to see what is going on.  Great little furball.  Yeah, I can get a handle on the finances, and I'll be alright and all, but She has owned so much of my soul for the last 30 years that there is no replacement for that.  That kind of love has no chance of ever finding me again.  I was so lucky to have had her, and I know it was the same for her, but though I rejoice that she is with her son now, I am so broken for her absence. 

The Occasional post - Gun Control

I'm watching Hawaii five-oh. season 7 episode 5. "The Stand".   It's actually about gun control.   A parent of a high school shooter kills a couple of people and then takes the Hawaii supreme court hostage to gain a platform to speak out against gun violence.  Now. I really enjoy Hawaii five-oh.  But since the producers are left wing Hollywood types, They have an episode that talks about the subject of the second amendment.

Now, it's late, I'm tired and I have to work in the morning, but if I rant here, maybe I can go back to bed and sleep.

So, McGarrett and Williams have a discussion about guns.  Danny, who is from New Jersey is against private citizens owning guns. McGarrett, who is an ex-Navy Seal, is all for it.  The conversations initially lay out the differences of opinion, But then it all goes bad as it only can in Hollywood.

Danny brings up how the second amendment talks about militias, and well-regulated, but McGarrett never tells him how or why that argument is fallacious.  That is the hypocrisy of the left.  Put forth your point of view, but don't waste time putting out the opposing point of view.

In the episode, the man states about the high amount of mass shootings in America as opposed to other large nations.  He never admits that the majority of these shootings are from Islamic terrorists.  In the episode, a judge has just gotten his concealed carry permit and tries to intervene and gets himself shot while not seriously injuring the hostage taker.  This shows how silly it is to be a Concealed-carry person.  In the sterile controlled environment of a TV fiction show, life happens just as the left always predicts it.  So much less messy than real-world events.

The Family Leave scam.

There is a push by some Republicans to further the cause of a family leave mandate.  I don't know what form this would take, but such things for me, go into the same category as minimum wage.  Government intrusion into the free market workplace.

Mr. Miller starts a business selling widgets.  For a while, his business does okay, and he hires workers to work for him.  At some point, Mr. Jones opens a similar widget shop in the same neighborhood.  How does Mr. Miller insure he gets enough of the business in the neighborhood to keep going?

One way would be to lower his prices.  Of course, he can only do this to a point, and the lower income may affect his meeting his financial obligations.  Another way to do it is to provide not just a quality product, but the very best customer service.  To do this, means he has to hire the employees who are the best in personality and drive.  If he hires just a body to fill a spot, that person may not really care about Mer. Miller's business because he is just wanting that paycheck. But someone who has a desire to excel recognizes a growing business means growing opportunities.  That leads to customers preferring  Mr. Miller's friendly, helpful and knowledgeable  staff to Mr. Jones' employees who just go through the motions of working.

So, Mr. Miller has to carefully screen his employees to find the best people, but there are no guarantees they will accept the position.  How does he do this?  Well, compensation is the key.  He may not be able to offer a much greater wage, and that in itself may not be the only factor for a person to work for him.  If Mr. Miller can offer a group insurance plan, it might help.  This is where family leave comes in.  This is another benefit that can be offered in lieu of higher hourly wages which would sway a serious employee.  Competition doesn't always have to take the form of higher wages or lower prices.  Of course, if the work place is a positive enough environment, your employees are usually that much more productive and may make it possible to employ a smaller staff cutting those costs and allowing the employer to offer more benefit options.

When the government mandates an across-the-board benefit like the family leave, It destroys competition and ultimately causes failing business and higher unemployment.

April 7,2011 - What's happening.

Syria's leader drops Sarin gas on his own people killing over 100 civilians, including babies. 7 years ago, Obama drew a "red line" and put chemical weapon use on the other side.  Syria violated that, and all that happened, was a treaty where Russia lied or was fooled into saying Assad had either destroyed or gave t Russia all their stores of gas.  They then continued to use chlorine gas, but then used 72 hours ago, that same gas on his own people. 

This last week.  Trump has met with leaders of Jordan and Egypt, both leaders praising Trump.

Yesterday
President Trump approved a strike of 60 Tomahawk missiles to be dropped on the airfield from which the attack was carried out.

Today
Gorsuch through the nuclear option, was confirmed to the supreme court. Conservatives have regained their 5 to 4 advantage.

There is a terrorist attack by truck against pedestrians in Sweden

Trump will meet with China's President Xi.

This week in Football.

No way I'm going to document my feeling for an entire season.  Just sayin'
I have the opportunity to watch a lot of games this season, so I'll post all my prejudices as best I can.  You know how it is, Teams fall into four categories. Your team(s), teams you like, teams you hate, teams you don't really care about.  Am I right?

Okay, this week.
First, the San Diego Chargers.  This is one of my teams. My main team. I didn't get into football at all until my family moved to San Diego.  I saw the Chargers play at Balboa stadium back in the day.  I watched as Jack Murphy Stadium (now Qualcomm) was built.  I feel you have to support the home team.  It's like going to high school, and supporting the team of a different school. Really.  So here I am.  It appears the Chargers are committed to staying in San Diego.  if they don't, I'll find another team.  Phillip Rivers, Man. really. Over 43,000 yards. breaks the record for most complete passes by a San Diego QB.  The 31 year record was held by Football Hall of Famer, Dan Fouts.  The Chargers go into this game with 7 starters in the injured list.  Antonio Gates is finally back.  It was a tough game. Rivers and Gates seemed to not be on the same page all day, heck, they were reading different books.  However, the team seemed to be in the game and the Chargers managed to not squander another lead and beat the Broncos. So, barring any complications, this team is looking like it can pull through to better times.  And after all that happened today, the division is only separated by two wins.  Phillip Rivers is now no. 2 in the NFL in passing.

My second team is The New England Patriots.  I always root for them except against the Chargers.  Tom Brady is one of the finest QBs that has ever played the game.  I discount all the controversy surrounding the team because I think all the teams do all they can to win.  The Patriots just seem to suck at cheating, so they seem to always get caught.  Cinncinatti is a team I don't care about and I don't rate very high, and NE beat them 35to 17.

Of course, any team in the same division as your favorite is one you want to lose.  Today, two division rivals played each other.  Now what?  It was simple. the one with the best record should lose. In this case it was Oakland, which is doubly good because I just hate the Raiders.  Always have.  Kansas City did m a favor and Took them apart completely in a 26/10 win.

One of the big games today was the Green Bay vs Dallas game.  The controversy here is about how Tony Romo has been out, and the rookie backup QB has been winning games so it looks like it's questionable whether or not Romo will get his spot back. Since I have always thought Romo was overrated, I wanted Dallas to win just for that reason.  Prescott did not disappoint, and Dallas beat Green Bay 30 to 16.  Prescott broke Brady's record for number of pass attempts without an interception by a rookie. 177 passes and then, yes, an interception. But still a new record. Brett Farve made an appearance in the broadcaster booth and had a love fest conversation with announcer Troy Aikman talking about old match ups between the two of them. 

Green Bay was Jeremiah's favorite team, especially with Farve as QB. Consequently, I dislike the Vikings.  Good for them standing at 5-0.

I dislike Seattle and would have been happy if they had lost.  Despite a great effort and the help of a bad call The Atlanta Falcons lost 26/24

Colin Kapernicks sideline schenanagans has increased  my standing dislike for San Francisco teams. A win by the Giants was welcomed. 

Was this trip necessary? On political Debates

Sometimes I don't really know the purpose of political debates, unless it's to further the agenda of the mainstream media.  The narrative is decreed by the networks and moderators, so, the party candidate that they side with gets lowball questions and the opposition gets "gotcha" questions.

Politically we have a few different groups in America.  We have libertarians, who are closest in temperment to the true beatnicks of the 50s and the true hippies of the 60s.  leave me alone and just  be nice.  then you have the Independents all of whom actually belong to one main ideology or another, but don't want to be seen embracing any party's complete agenda. but face it, a liberal independent will always vote Democrat etc.  There are two groups within the Republican party, the Constitutionalists who believe that the Declaration and Constitution should be the rule of the land, and the Crony capitalist/Hooverites with their populist agenda.

So, it all comes down to knowing what groups the candidates ascribe to and picking the one that is going the way you would support. The important thing for the average voter is that he does enough reading to know the difference between the ideologies.