A Little Mish-Mash

You’re not just reading the blog of any half-brained nitwit.  You’re reading the blog of a half-brained nitwit who was quoted in Cory McCartney’s NASCAR article on SI.com this week.  Who says having a little redneck in your blood don’t pay off every now and then?  Anywho…

Got some thoughts on a few topics this week.  So, here we go:

• My son called me today and the first words out of his mouth were, “I luuuuv youuuuu!” just like his momma does from time to time.  Knew right away they either wanted to buy something or had already bought something.  After much hemming and hawing, he finally fessed up they’d bought another cat.  Black cat by the name of Zoe.  Makes three cats in less than a year.  Could have been worse.  Figured they would have bought one already.  Wonder what took ‘em so long?;
• May have seen a friend of mine posted a comment ‘bout me taking up for both President Obama and Sen. Chuck Schumer in my last post.  What can I say?  Even a broke clock is right twice a day.  Well, the ones that actually have a face, anyway.  Besides, wouldn’t be right for me to criticize folks for not seeing both sides have some good points if I didn’t acknowledge when someone is right myself.  Or should that be left?;
• Reckon you’ve heard about all the volcanic ash over in Europe.  Somethin’ else!  Travel plans getting ruined all over the world. Even President Obama had to cancel his trip to the Polish president’s funeral cuz of it.  Someone tweeted it’s a good time to be filming shows set in the Middle Ages cuz won’t have to worry about airplane contrails being in the background.  Now, that’s the power of positive thinking.  Anyway, read this volcano is considered a small one.  Hate to see what will happen when a big one finally goes off;
• This is a great time of year to be a sports fan.  Baseball’s going strong, the NFL draft is coming up, the NBA playoffs are starting up, and, best of all, the Stanley Cup playoffs have started.  Been watching them this week.  Forgot just how exciting playoff hockey really is.  You should drop by VS tv one night and check it out.  If you are lucky enough to catch an overtime game, you might just be hooked for life.  And, if it’s a game 7 in overtime, you definitely will be;
• Read today that Peter Angelos, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, refuses to hire Cal Ripken, Jr, an Oriole legend to say the least, to help out with the ball club.  Says he doesn’t want to ruin Ripken’s legacy if it doesn’t work out.  Also allegedly said he doesn’t want Ripken to get the credit if they finally start winning.  That’s a shame.  Just goes to show Mr. Angelos is not about the team winning.  He’s all about himself winning.  Very sad.  Think Ripken is one of the classiest players who ever played the game.  Never wanted him to break Gehrig’s record.  But, when I saw how classy he was in finally breaking it, became one of his biggest fans.  He was the reason I came back to baseball after the strike.  Still get goosebumps every time I think about him taking that victory lap.  Even saw him at Epcot in 1996 but wouldn’t go talk to him cuz he’s so classy didn’t want to bother him while he was with his family.  Sure hope Angelos changes his mind.  Imagine a lot of Orioles fans do, too;
• Get to listen to Pandora when I work on Saturdays.  It is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!  Have three stations:  Guns ‘N’ Roses, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana.  Used to have Metallica but some of the songs were too hard even for me.  In case you’re not familiar with Pandora, you choose a band you like then it programs songs for that channel based on songs in the same general category.  Although, have heard the Beatles on both Pink Floyd and Nirvana and Led Zepplin on all three.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.  The station plays that band about every third song or so, sometimes even sooner.  Highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already.  You may ask why not just listen to your iPod?  Well, you got me there except you may hear songs on Pandora not on your iPod.  Still purty cool.  Don’t cost a dime, either;
• A lot of folks I follow on Twitter are European.  Mostly British and Irish but some others thrown in there, too.  Pretty interesting to follow their conversations.  Been a lot of talk about the volcano ash this week, naturally.  But, it gets really interesting whenever there’s a football game being played.  (That would be soccer to those of us on this side of The Pond.)  Seems like they all are watching it.  Same thing when Britain’s Got Talent is on.  (You know, that’s the show Susan Boyle got famous on).  Have been some interesting political discussions, too. Sometimes I have to ask for clarification on a few topics and they are always nice enough to provide the extra explanation this dumb American needs to follow along.  It really is a small world after all;
• Gotta couple new blog links to the left.  One by Girl Gone Healthy (follow each other on Twitter) and the other by Forevafit.  Ms. Forevafit just started following my blog today.  Not sure how she got here, but welcome!  Checked out her blog.  It’s still in the developing stages but looks pretty neat!  Ms. Healthy’s does, too.  Both are related to fitness.  Know you will probably enjoy both just as much as I will;
• Special shout out to my friend Sue Mac!  She has several blogs over to the left, too.  She ran a 15k race this weekend that bills itself as the toughest run in the South.  Has two hills in it that must be killerz cuz everyone she talked to about it told her to walk up the hills, even the dude who signed her up.  You know those jokers have to be bad!!!  Well, she managed to finish in under two hours.  Pretty good considering she just started training for it last week.  Congrats, Sue Mac!  And, no, I’m not gonna run in it next year…probably;

Well, that’s all I got for now.  Appreciate you hanging in here with me.  Y’all have a great weekend.  Looks like I will be out buying some new running shoes myself.  Wore the tread off of the old ones doin’ all my runnin’!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

Y’all keep ‘em straight out there!     

More Gapses in the Synapses

Been some great weather where I am, but the pollen is still thick as all get-out.  Driving my eyes nuts, especially when wearing my contacts.  The more I blink, the more my eyes feel gummy. Yuck!  Anyway, have some more random thoughts to share this week.  Hope they interest you:

• The White House press corps got its panties in a wad this week cuz President Obama broke protocol and slipped off without them one afternoon.  This was the first time in about a bajillion years that a president has done that.  Oh, the horror!!!  It’s “protocol,” in other words, tradition, not the law, that the press goes with him everywhere.  Know he’s the most powerful man in the world and all that, but he should be allowed to sneak out every now and then.  So, just exactly where was he going?  Turns out he was going to watch his daughters play soccer.  Shame on him for not wanting the press to disrupt their game!;
• Speaking of the press, if you want to see how fickle they can be, hope you’ve paid attention to the Masters coverage over the last week.  Starting last Monday, Tigger was just about the only golfer they would talk about.  Thursday through Saturday you would have thought he was leading the tournament with all the coverage he was getting, and Thursday two legends of the game were leading when the day was through!  Now that he didn’t win, the press is talking about how horrible he played, he shouldn’t have played, Elin wasn’t there, etc.  Folks, he came in tied for fourth after not playing competitively for five months.  Pretty dang impressive to me, and y’all may recall ain’t exactly one of his biggest fans.  Just another example of how the press builds folks up just to tear ‘em back down.  Oh, by the way, congratulations, Phil, for winning!;
• Very sad what happened to the Polish government over the weekend.  Shows why our leadership and most big corporations won’t let all their powerbrokers fly together.  Sad thing about this is it could have been avoided.  The pilot totally ignored the air tower’s warning not to land.  Very sad;
• The Vatican sort of apologized for statements they’ve made about the Beatles in the past.  Made it in their newspaper while commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ last album.  Probably goes without saying the Vatican was not happy when John Lennon said they were more popular than Jesus.  Anyway, someone asked Ringo what he thought of the apology.  He basically said they have more important things to do than apologize to the Beatles.  Don’t think he was trying to slam the Vatican.  He was just trying to keeps things in perspective.  Guess he felt he and Paul moved on long ago so they should, too.  In the grand scheme of things, he’s right.  Gotta love that man!;  
• An update to an earlier observation.  Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, said he was going to introduce legislation outlawing airlines charging for carry-on luggage.  Now, can probably count on one hand and cut off some fingers the number of times I’ve agreed with Chuck on anything, but glad to see him come out against the airlines trying to pull this crap.  Fly quite a bit and see all these yahbos try to carry half their house onboard, but they really are the exception.  No need to punish the rest of us cuz of these knuckleheads.  Stick with it, Chuck!  Guess I’d better sew a finger back on, too;
• A friend of mine is a school nurse.  Said a little girl was sick enough to check out of school but didn’t want them to call her mother cuz “Mommy’s job is very important” or something to that effect.  Not passing judgment on the momma (could be she’s a single parent with 2 or 3 jobs), but it really struck a nerve with me.  Makes me worry that my kids might think the same thing about me.  Hope my kids don’t ever think they can’t call me when I’m working, especially if there’s an emergency;
• Have read Kitty Kelley is releasing an unauthorized biography of Oprah.  Thing is, none of the usual talk shows want to help pimp it cuz they’re scared of Oprah.  That’s pretty sad if you ask me.  But, with as wacky as some of her followers are, they probably won’t buy the dern thing no matter who’s trying to sell it.  Will probably get more pub this way, anyhow;
• Have really been enjoying Twitter.  (I’m @scotps23)  Have made lots of comments to folks but haven’t received many back.  Oh well, it’s still fun.  Am following a few celebs but don’t expect any of them to follow me back or even comment on my occasional comments to them.  Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars started following me this week.  He actually followed me first.  Think it’s cuz one of my tweets was about the show.  Pretty cool!  Have “met” some neat people on there.  Speaking of which…;
• Know some of you are health conscious.  You might be interested in one of my new blog links from the Chubby Chick.  Follow each other on Twitter.  Anyway, she’s blogging about her journey to lose weight.  She’s doing a great job with both!  Hope you’ll drop by and give her some encouragement.  Everybody needs a little dose of that every now and then.

That’s all for now.  If you live in the US, don’t forget your taxes are due April 15.  Gotta pay fer all this stuff Congress is passin’ somehow! Hope you’re having a great week and that the pollen ain’t choking you out, too.

Out!

Gapses in the Synapses

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween over the weekend. Ours was pretty nice in spite of the cold weather. Well, it was cold for the South, anyway. At least the rain quit around lunchtime. Could have been very miserable.

Anyway, have a few things to comment on this week. And away we go:

• Watched a little of the Vikings/Packers game yesterday. The Favre worship wasn't quite as bad this time, but it was a little much at times. Yes, it's great that a 40 year-old-man is playing his position well in the NFL. But, there are two things that have bothered me about both of his comebacks. First, the media acts like it's the Second Coming every time. As much as it may pain some people to hear this, he's only playing football. He ain't coming back to solve world hunger, solve the Middle East crisis, etc. There are much more important things to talk about in the world. Second, don't think he understands why people outside of Green Bay aren't really fans of him, anymore. It's not because he's not playing for the Packers and it's not because they are tired of the media oogling over him, although imagine that's got something to do with it. It's because it appears he drags these decisions out to get all the media attention he can out of it. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm, and, when he announces his retirement again, he will really mean it this time. Now that he's beaten the Packers twice, maybe he will finally ride off into the sunset and retire for good while he's still at the top of his game;
• Saw a story asking whether there's room for moderates in the Republican party. Made me a little angry cuz don't think there is room for moderates in either party. The reason for the story is there's a special election for a Congressional seat in New York. One of the Republican candidates withdrew from the race over the weekend cuz the other Republican candidate was ahead of her in the polls and in raising money. She was hand-picked by the committee cuz they thought her moderate views would appeal to more people. Maybe, maybe not. If people don't think she's likable, her stances probably don't matter a whole lot. So, now there are articles questioning whether there is room for moderates in the party. My answer is there's no room for moderates in either party. Read another story where Harry Reid added a public option to a Senate healthcare reform plan. Had to do it cuz the liberal constituency in his district was up in arms. So, he added something that will further drag out the process and probably has no chance of passing just to satisfy the less-moderate side of his party, which most likely shows him the most money. Think that is one thing wrong with America these days: there's no room for moderation in either party. Won't even get into the money part of it. Wish a viable third party would arise, or, at least a viable independent candidate. Not ashamed to say I voted for Ross Perot in '92 (before he wigged out). He had a pretty strong showing and got the attention of a lot of knuckleheads in DC. Unfortunately, he went crazy in '96 so both parties went back to their usual business. Sad to see;
• See where President Obama's poll numbers have come back to earth. Shouldn't be a surprise. Most politicians seem more appealing when they are candidates as opposed to actually serving. Wish they would delve a little deeper in those polls and ask why. If I had to guess, half of those who don't like him think he's taking things too far and the other half thinks he hasn't gone far enough. For those in the latter, he's only been in office for a year. Surely you weren't expecting everything to be solved in a year. Most of our problems have been bubbling for 15-20 years (and even longer). Don't care who you are. They ain't gonna be fixed in a year. If you are a regular reader, you probably already know where I stand on this so won't chew that bubblegum again;
• In case you were wondering, the blood pressure went down enough that won't have to take any pills for now. Have lost 33 pounds since the end of June in my Battle of the Bulge. Still hope to lose about 7 more before all is said and done. The Mrs has done even better than that. (Way to go, Honey!) Most of mine has been from running 4-6 times a week and using the Lose It! app on my iPhone to count my calories. My wife has done the same along with going to Curves three times a week. The hardest part has been finding the money for all the new clothes. (By the way, that's no excuse not to diet and exercise);
• A friend reminded me that you don't have to be alone when times are rough. You can always reach out to your friends for support. True friends will be there for you through good times and bad. They will also never complain about you reaching out to them. More importantly, you can always reach out to Jesus. He reminds us in Matthew 11:28-30 that He wants to help carry our burdens in life. All we have to do is ask. Just as a reminder, if you have anything you would like me or anyone else to pray about, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail. There is a link in my profile.

That's all I got for now. Just wanted to point out the left-hand side of the page in case you've never noticed. Have some quotes over there. Also have links to other blogs that I encourage you to check out. Feel free to become a follower if you'd like. Appreciate those of you who already are. Gives me encouragement to keep it up.

Peace out!