May days

As you may know this May 8th is the anniversary of
VE day. But did you it is also National Have A
Coke Day, National Military Spouse Appreciation
Day, the eve of National Lost Sock Memorial Day
and occurs during Nurse’s Week and Military
Appreciation Month?

It’s also raining here on the east coast of Iowa
which will cancel a lot of events we try to keep
track of. So instead we’ll list a few of the designated
days in May along with what is observed in May.

May 2015 is Date Your Mate Month, Foster Care
Month, Older Americans Month, National Bike Month,
National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month,
National Salad Month, and National Salsa Month to
name a few.

We mentioned today and tomorrow so here is the
rest of the month.

May 10 is Mother’s Day and National Train Day.

May 11 is National Twilight Zone Day.

May 12 is National Women’s Checkup Day and also
National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.

May 13 is National Frog Jumping Day and National
Third Shift Workers Day

May 14 is National Dance Like A Chicken Day.

May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Day and also
NASCAR Day.

May 16 is National Love A Tree Day.

May 17 is National Pack Rat Day.

May 18 is National Visit Your Relatives Day.

May 19 is National Devil’s Food Cake Day.

May 20 is Emergency Medical Services For Children
Day.

May 21 is National American Red Cross Founder’s
Day.

May 22 is National Don’t’ Fry Day.

May 23 is National Lucky Penny Day.

May 24 is National Scavanger Hunt Day.

May 26 is National Blueberry Cheesecake Day.

May 27 is National Grape Popsicle Day.

May 28 is National Brisket Day.

May 29 is National Paperclip Day.

May 30 is National Hole In My Bucket Day.

May 31 is National Save Your Hearing Day.

And that is by no means all the designated days
and weeks but if you say you have nothing to do
this month now, you may be fibbing.
Comments are always welcome.

Time to get busy

The weekend is almost over and the work week will
begin. The holiday feast leftovers are neatly
stored away for later consumption and the dress
clothes are neatly hung back up.

Around here, on the east coast of Iowa, that means
yard work tomorrow. It has been too windy and dry to
burn brush so we’ll tie it in bundles to be picked
up.

And of course we’re that much closer to the
elections so the campaigning will start heating up.
It was announced last week that the Mayor will have
a serious contender to deal with after his State of
the City speech Monday.

Our street is scheduled to be reopened tomorrow so
things may return to the organized chaos that is
life in our neighborhood. We are just glad the sink
hole has been repaired.

We will soon start listing upcoming events on
Fridays and will also bring back the Sunday
snickers.

People that know me also know I have the weird
engine gene that draws my ears to unusual sounding
engines. Since we’re from Iowa, that includes farm
tractors with strange engines. So here is a video
of pulling tractor with a radial airplane engine
doing its first pull.

Remember: we’re only young once, but if we refuse
to grow up we can be immature forever.
Comments are always welcome.

Do you remember?

New Year’s Eve is almost upon us and our
traditions are many.

It is an International event celebrated by
people around the world with parties,
family gatherings, feasts, dancing, the
countdown, and at least one rendition of
“Auld Lang Syne”.

Many make New Year’s resolutions that
are often broken before the hangover is
gone.

At our place we remember loved ones no
longer here to share the event with and
landmarks in our lives.

Anniversaries, the births of our children
and the lack of sleep for the next 18
years. I was always terrified they would
act up as I did when I was younger.

We remember times we couldn’t be with the
family because we were on a ship bobbing
around on an Ocean with only phosphorus
shells for mood lighting.

If you live long enough, and the kids
leave the nest, you count how long it has
been since you had children underfoot.

We smile when we remember holding our
bouncing baby boy in one arm and the fact
he is now 24.

It is a time cherished, if for no other
reason than we survived another year.

So Happy New Year! We hope it is as
enjoyable for you as will be for us.
Comments are always welcome.

Let’s stop the non-sense

As Scott Westerfield once said, ‘sometimes
the thoughts in my head get so bored they go
out for a stroll through my mouth. This is
rarely a good thing.’

But a recent article in Clash Daily got
me thinking.

It was about how University students across
our country were being told not to wear
“offensive” Halloween costumes.

Said “offensive” costumes included cowboys,
Indians, and anything involving a sombrero.
Along with “white trash” costumes, “hillbilly”
costumes, ghetto themes, or anything that
portrays a particular culture as “over-
sexualized”.

Is this really a problem? I mean the zombies
must feel slighted.

No mention of responsible alcohol consumption,
safe sex, or drug use just please don’t offend
anyone from anywhere for any real or imagined
reason.

Our question would be; why are people so
offended one day a year when in the
entertainment industry we see this every
day and it doesn’t seem to bother anybody?

In our Cinemas it is hard to find a movie
that doesn’t include nudity, profanity,
violence, and/or sex. We don’t hear an
uproar.

On our TVs we see and hear much the same
and we haven’t heard of a boycott.

Yet once a year, for a few hours people
dressing up as something they are not is
offensive?

Something is wrong with that picture.

Here’s a novel idea for something the
colleges could get behind. Why not demand
a cease-fire in Chicago on Halloween to
save some lives?

Or, why not volunteer to help clean up the
ghetto before the party starts?

At some point we have to stop the non-sense.
If we can’t, I give anybody who wants to the
permission to dress up as a tall, skinny old
redneck.
Comments are always welcome.

Enjoy the day

Happy Easter to all!

If you don’t celebrate Easter, happy Sunday.
And if you don’t believe in Sundays, happy
second Saturday of the week.

And if none of that satisfies you, go back
to bed.

St. Patrick’s Day

For those who don’t know the facts
about the Feast of Saint Patrick, we
shall try to confuse you even more.

Saint Patrick’s Day was first named an
official Christian day of feast in the
early 17th century. The holiday was
observed by the Catholics, the Anglican
Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church,
and the Lutheran Church.

It usually involved parades, festivals,
wearing green clothes, good food, and
of course booze.

St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain
in the 4th century into a wealthy family.
At 16, he was kidnapped and taken to
Ireland as a slave.

At some point he was told by God to
escape his captives and head toward
safety. When he returned home he joined
the church and became a priest.

He later returned to Ireland as a
bishop of the church and used the
shamrock to explain the doctrine of
the Holy Trinity to the Irish.

Over the centuries the holiday spread
to other lands with varied success. In
America it really caught on.

It was quickly changed from its
original celebrations to include
parades, festivals, wearing green
clothes, corned beef, booze, and
green beer.

After all, do we really need a holiday
to dress funny, get blitzed, and pretend
to be somebody we aren’t? On March 17,
everyone is Irish.

We hope you enjoyed our explanation of
the day, and that you can take time to
enjoy it.
Comments are always welcome.

Holiday lull

Christmas has passed and we are the cusp of
another holiday. We’ve always called it
Amateur Night but many refer to it as New
Year’s Eve.

Amateur Night always seems to bring out the
weekend warriors who drink more than their
limit and start believing themselves to be
Mike Tyson.

And we were saddened by the news of firemen
getting shot responding to a fire in Webster,
New York. We are also left with many questions.

If we heard correctly, at some point, the
shooter killed his own grandmother with a
hammer and did 17 years in prison.

This as always leads us to ask; how bad
does it have to get for someone to get a
life sentence? This guy should have never
got out.

New York has fairly strict gun laws and
an assault weapon ban. And yet a felon had
such a weapon, as defined by the press,
along with 2 more.

Then we have the whole “Fiscal cliff”
propaganda.

Basically we have a Congress and the President
claiming they can’t come to agreement over a
problem they created, knew was coming, and are
busily passing the buck on.

The President blames the House, the House
blames the Senate, and the Senate blames the
Republicans. Where are the great communicators?
Didn’t we hear something about reaching across
party lines during the campaign? The sad thing
is, we keep electing this same bunch back into
office so they be this inept.
Comments are always welcome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It may be a little early, but we’d like to
wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

As a friend reminded us recently, we shouldn’t
call it Turkey Day for the same reason we
shouldn’t refer to Christmas as Xmas.

Sometimes others say it best, and we believe
this is such a case. So, as George Washington
said in 1779 making the first proclamation
for a Thanksgiving holiday:

“Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to
acknowledge the providence of Almighty God,
to obey His will, to be grateful for His
benefits, and humbly implore His protection
and favor. Whereas both houses of Congress
have, by joint committee, requested me: To
recommend to the people of the United States
a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to
be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty
God, especially by affording them an
opportunity peaceably to establish a form of
government for their safety and happiness!

Now therefore, I do recommend next, to be
devoted by the people of the states to
service of that great and glorious being, who
is the beneficent Author of all the good that
we, that is, or that will be, that we may all
unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and
humble thanks for His kind care and protection
of the people of this country.”

Comments are always welcome.

Veteran’s day reminders

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. A day to honor
those of us who have served, or are serving
in our military. Thank you for keeping
us free, and Happy Birthday to the Marine
Corps.

We will mention just two things in this
post and close with a quote. While these
two things may not be important to you,
they are very important to us.

The first concerns those of us who fly
the flag at our homes. On Veteran’s Day
the flag should be flown at half-staff
until noon.

If you have a fixed pole, you can put
a black ribbon above the flag but below
the finial. The ribbon should not be
more than 10% as wide as the flag, and
twice as long as the flag.

It should be tied in the center with a
bow so the two resulting parts hang down
as long as the flag.

And the other thing is our local Veteran’s
Day parade. It will be tomorrow, starting
at 10 am. It will start near the Courthouse,
and should last an hour.

The parade will go south on Western Ave.
to 3rd street, east on 3rd street to Main
street, south on Main to 2nd street, west
on 2nd street to Scott street, north on
Scott to 4th street, and west on 4th to
the staging area.

There may be rain but it will be a warmer
than normal day. Bring an umbrella, put
on your raincoat, or just wear a hat. But
please, show up and support our brothers
and sisters who have served to keep us
free.

“It is the soldier, not the reporter who
has given us the freedom of the press. It
is the soldier, not the poet, who has given
us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier,
not the campus organizer, who gives us the
freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier
who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the
flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
— Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC (Ret)
Comments are always welcome

Happy Halloween!

Tonight is the night that all sorts of
strange creatures will be seen roaming
the streets. Yes, it is trick or treat
night in river city.

Tons of candy will be given away and
received in a few short hours tonight.
And tomorrow there will be a parade with
more candy given away.

Linus will be in pumpkin patch, and the
vampire kitten may surprise a few people
in our area tonight.

Because he is all black, the vampire
kitten is hard to see at night. But there
is no mistaking the sound of his bat-like
wings.

Do not be alarmed though, because our
vampire kitten isn’t weaned yet and your
neck should be safe until next year.

If you do plan on going trick or treating
tonight, please be careful and get back
home safe.
Comments are always welcome.