Motivation

What makes people lazy? Granted, I am probably biased on this point due to the fact that I am divorced from one of the single laziest people on the planet. But I won't narrow my focus down to just my ex-wife, a lot of people I see these days are lazy. Yes, I will give examples class, please put your hands down.

How about using a turn signal once in a while? How long does that take? How much effort into putting your left hand on a lever and pushing slightly. They turn off by themselves, you know. And last time I checked MOST cars come with them.

Raising kids is another lazy area. How many adults will not discipline thier children? I hear so many excuses about "oh, I don't believe in spanking" or "it's a phase". In my opinion people are just too lazy to deal with raising thier own kids. Teachers, who are grossly underpaid and overworked, are looked upon to raise these people's kids. Of course, you have the responsibility to raise them, just don't yell, correct, or touch them. There are even leashes for kids. Leashes! What, you can't hold thier hand??????? You have to put them on a lead and drag them places? Why have the kids if you aren't going to raise them? Why? Is it for the image? The two car garage, 2.1 kids, dog, picket fence image? I have a feeling that this is why some kids' schedules are more full than some CEO's. If parents keep them busy then they don't have to raise them, everyone else can. Soccer, baseball, music class, play dates, all so you can let someone else raise them. What a shame.

And no one has manners or a shred of shivalry left. Are there any guys left out there that know what side of a lady to walk on when you are in thier company? Please? Thank you? I am talking about adults now, not thier whiny kids. I am constantly reminded of this when I go out to eat or to a store. Customer service is replaced by "when is my next break?". I make it a point to chat with the cashier and bagger (if they have them any more). Most times I have a grand time. Cutting up and joking around. Mostly at my own expense. Remember, my mantra "If you can't laugh at yourself, then you can't laugh at anyone else". But sometimes I get a look that tells me this cashier is only up for talking if you are thier replacement. I have had wait-staff take my order, bring me the food and go away for 20 minutes or until I beg for someone to please refill my water glass.

I am not going into how technology has made us fat and lazy, hell I know that. I AM fat. I think technology has helped us more than anything, I am just talking about small everyday things that we seem to have forgotten.

Keep thinking July

I played in a golf outing Sunday. April 24th. One complete month after the first day of Spring. It was upper 70's and sunny less than one week ago. For those of you who are not midwesterners, Sunday went a lot like this....Snow, Cold, Wind. It was flurrying when we teed off on our scramble at 1pm. By the time we finished it had actually stopped snowing and we could take off our winter gloves long enough to actually putt the ball. My group played well, we shot one over. The purpose of the outing, cuz Lord knows no one plays on a Sunday like that just to be out of the house, was to raise money for my son's baseball team. You see, we are headed to Florida in July and this was to help raise some funds to ease the cost of the trips for the parents. We started on hole number 17. Side note, for those of you not familiar with the "scramble" format, all of the groups start from different holes so it doesn't take 3 days to play 18 holes of golf. Anyway, we started on 17.

Here is a normal routine while you hit in golf. You get out of your cart, select the club, walk up to the tee box, sarcastically remind your playing partners that your shoulders are starting to hurt from carrying them the whole day, select a tee and ball from your pocket, put the tee in the ground and place the ball on it, step back to line up the shot, address the ball as if you actually intend to hit it where you were just looking, take a couple of practice swings, hit the ball, curse.

Here is Sunday's routine. Stay in the cart as long as possible because the plastic windshield is actually doing it's job. When it's your turn, get out and select your club, walk quickly to the tee box, sarcastically remind your playing partners that your shoulders are starting to hurt from carrying them the whole day (hey, that NEVER changes), fish around in your pockets for the tee because your gloves are too big to actually feel it, take off one glove and quickly find your tee and ball, put the tee in the ground, take off the gloves and put them in your jacket/coat pocket, put the ball on the tee hoping the wind does not knock it over AGAIN, screw lining up the shot, address the ball, take one practice swing, hit the ball, curse the wind AND your shot.

We did this for 5 hours Sunday. AND we actually paid to do it.

Oh, and they served us cold cuts for the meal.

Ah yes, spring time. Things are turning green and leafy and the weather is getting warmer (with the exception of this weekend apparently). Of course, after two weeks of 70+ degrees weather and a charity golf outing on Sunday, there just HAS to be snow in the forecast. But enough of my whining. It is Cincinnati after all and the weather will change when you least expect or want it to.

Can someone please explain to me why reality shows do so well? And why they are called reality shows? In no reality that I have heard of do you get a million dollars for a month and a half of island living. I think when you offer a prize and rules and elimination, etc etc etc, its called a game show. Just because its not in a TV studio they can call it reality tv. Whatever.

And now we have a new Pope. A German one, which is good if you are from the west side of Cincy. A mostly German community. There are grumblings about his Nazi past and his age but hey, if 115 bishops think that he should be there then I guess its ok. Of course, I am not catholic so my opinion matters NONE.

I donated blood recently. I tell you this because I had my cholesterol tested, because it was free, thats why. It came back high. And so, being the upstanding person that I am, I went to my doctor (actually she made me go...something about wanting me around for a while). And I am glad that I did. I ended up getting a shot, peeing in a cup, having an EKG, some other machine attached to my body, and handing over several vials of blood. Almost 2 hours into it, they finally unhooked me and let me go home. And then the very next day I got the sort of bad news. Not only is my cholesterol high but my blood pressure is high too. It was explained to me this way...your arteries and viens are like pipes. When they are open and free of any yucky stuff (I made the yucky part up), then the blood flows freely and everything is fine. When there is yucky stuff (again, my words) in your viens and they are constricted then you have problems. Well, mine are constricted somehow. So now I am on a diet, needing a lot of exercise, and making follow up appointments. I will be the first one to admit that I am overweight. So, I am going to use this little forum to track my progress. Hopefully this will make me a little more militant about it and maybe even share some good news.

Wish Me Luck!

Missin you

This is going out to one person in particular. They know who they are and I am going against all of the "guys" rules here. I miss you. I know its only a couple of days but I can't help it. The seat next to me in the car is empty. The seat across from me at the dinner table is empty. It feels like I am missing half of me. The better half of me. I know you will be back tomorrow, I know you are having a good time, I know all of that. I am glad that you get this time....YOU time. Everyone needs time to recharge. Time to fill up the reserves. God knows life with me isn't the easiest but I try to make it the best. I guess I just want to tell you that I love you and I miss you.

So many topics so little time

There are so many topics to cover today. Another incident where a soccer, sorry futbol, fan was rowdy, or a hooligan as they are termed. More like felon. Hurling a lit flare at the head of the goalie. Nice.

There is a killer flu virus running around in test kits. A virus from the 50's that killed millions. Why is this still around? Whose bright idea was it to send it out? Ugh.

Brittney is preggers! Yawn. Her publicist probably thought it was a good idea since she is starting to fade. Next stop, propping up ratings for a fading reality show's Sweeps week in the near future.

There are states or a state out there that wants to legalize cat hunting? I am a dog person by nature but I really need more information before I start commenting on this. Why don't they just let a few Chinese restaraunts open up nearby....daily lunch specials and the cat problem is gone.

Watched Tiger win his 4th Masters in a dogfight. Personally, I think its good for golf that he had a "drought" and that he had to fight to get the win. If he is still dominating like he was a few years ago, its more boring than a fight-free, european soccer match.

Micheal Jackson trial still going strong. We have all kinds of witnesses and lawyers saying all kinds of things. Is anyone, anyone at all, asking the parents of these kids just exactly what was going through thier minds when they said that thier child could stay the night or weekend with Michael at Neverland?????? Hello? Anyone?

The pope has been laid to rest, now the super secret voting is going to begin soon. White smoke or black? I think that the voting process will get more press than anything since 9/11 when it happens.

At least some of these things bumped the Shiavo fiasco off the front page.

One last thing....
I miss you!!!!!!

Who Cares?

I'll admit I am sort of a sports junkie. I like to get the scores. I read the sports section first, ok second after the funnies. I enjoy when my kids play organized sports. I am lucky enough to live in a town with 2 pro teams, a couple of minor league teams, and high school sports that can sometimes teeter on the obsessive. Our Friday night high school football games get pretty intense around here.

We have a minor league hockey team, the Cyclones. They are a good team, at least I think so, they have made the playoffs in the ECHL previously. At one time I lived close enough to the arena that they played in that I had season tickets. It was a nice time getting together with all of my friends and heading down to catch the game. It was more of a gathering then it was going to see the hockey. We had great seats, but then they only averaged around 4000 per game anyway. I was single too, which had quite a bit to do with the fact that I could goto 30 games over the winter and spring and not worry too much about it. A little expendable cash can go a long way. My question is, being from the midwest, does anyone really miss the NHL? I have heard countless reporters and experts ramble on about how hockey does not have casual fans and that even if they do play next year that there may be irreperable harm done. Ok, same question, does anyone care? North of the border, I know I would get crucified for this attitude but given the last 10 years or so of the NHL's expansion policy, I am guessing that we down here in the States have quite a bit to do with the profits of hockey. We have hockey in Arizona! I lived in Arizona when I was a young lad. I didn't see snow until I was 6 years old and there is a picture of me throwing a snowball in shorts and a Tee shirt. Tell me that hockey belongs there. I haven't been to a hockey game, minor or major league, in a couple of years so I am not an authority on the state of the game, its up and coming players, the draft status. I do know that the frozen four is down to two. The cool couple for lack of a better catch phrase. Can someone please tell me, someone that is not a paid sports reporter, does anyone care about professional hockey???????

I am not catholic

Its been a while since I last visited this space. Between computer problems, site issues, work, and the kids, its tough to do any one thing every day. But anyway, enough of me whining about how busy my life is. I made it that way.

Pope John Paul II passed away since last we spoke. PJPII as he as been referred to. 25 plus years at the helm of the catholic church. Through a growth in the flock, of which I will speak later, to shame and misfortune of some priests and thier lustful ways. He was shot and forgave. He traveled. Boy did he ever travel. The most traveled Pontiff ever. Of course, the last 25 years of technology have given him and the Vatican more of an opportunity to safely travel around the world meeting with the faithful. He is truly the only Pope I have known. When he took office, I guess you can say it that way, I was a pre-teen and changing Popes wasn't high on my list of things I wanted to keep up with. I mean, MTV was still very young and actually showed music videos so I was busy.

I do happen to know a few catholics (I live in a conservative, highly German, midwestern town) and actually have a brother that converted recently. So I feel fairly confident that I can speak on this topic and the man without too much reservation.

I have many memories of seeing him on the news as he traveled and met with world leaders. They say he was a conservative Pope. I am not sure that there is a such thing as a liberal Pope, but oh well. I am not a catholic, as the title explains, but I would think that by it's very nature the role of being the catholic church's leader would be mainly conservative. Thousands of years of doctrine tend to do that to a religion. I will say that I admire PJPII. His forgiveness of Sirhan Sirhan, the man that tried to assassinate him, was huge. Yes, I know that he is supposed to do that but it was still a gesture that many cannot say that they would do. I know that the catholic church went through a rough period. Priests abusing thier power and sexually abusing altar boys. The church membership itself took a hit. Gay marriages within its membership. You have to remember that catholicism in in the top 3 largest religions in the world. Millions upon millions of followers. Mayebe Hindu or Muslim might be larger, I have no idea. Again, I am not catholic but I think PJPII's legacy will be one of compassion during many trying times globally as well as locally for him. I hope that his replacement can be as revered as PJPII. That is one large pointy hat to fill.