The Rambling Insomniac

Last Saturday, I took my two kids, Lyndsy and Buck, to the Washington County Fair. We had a total blast while we were there. We danced to some great polka music, hopped on all of the tractors on display and even caught part of a magic show. We made sure to eat a corn dog and some deep-fried cheese curds, all of which we washed down with some fresh lemonade. Although we already have goats, chickens and bunnies on our hobby farm at home, the kids still had a good old time walking through the animal barns and seeing all the different creatures. It was truly a great day.

But I do have one complaint. I took the kids over by the amusements to go on a couple of rides. Our first ride was on the merry-go-round. It cost me $9 to take my kids on it!! That’s just plain ridiculous if you ask me. Now I know they have special promotion days for rides, but nabbing you $3 per ride on non-promotion days is like highway robbery. All in all, we went on 5 different rides, and I dropped well over $35 on them. Mind you, these were all “kiddie” rides, as my kids are only 3 ½ and 2 ½. Maybe I can see $3 a ride for a roller coaster or something like that, but $3 for the spinning bumble bee ride just seems unfair to me.

Although the rest of the fair was great, I sure hope the Fair organizers find it in their hearts to make the “kiddie” rides more affordable in the future. My kids had quite the meltdown when I had to drag them away from the rides as they screamed, crying “Buy some more tickets Daddy”. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t justify another $35 bucks to go on a few more rides, so we came home and fed our goats and chickens for free.


                        Buck's New Friend

G’Night G’Town!

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. ~Walt Streightiff

This Thursday, July 26, 2007, marks a monumental day for my Dad. After putting in 50+ years of working for “The Man”, my Dad is finally calling it quits and retiring. Putting all my jealousy aside, I can’t tell you how excited I am for him.

My Dad’s name is John White, but he goes simply by “Terry”, “Dad” or “Umpa” to his close friends and family. He has had quite a ride in his choice of career paths (yes, paths is plural!), but always made darn sure he was providing for our family. I’ll probably miss a couple paths here, but I clearly recall all of the following jobs through his working life:

- Being a Police Officer in Milwaukee for many years
- Being a Car Salesman for Pat Long Chevrolet
- Being a Tool and Die Maker for MANY years
- Being a route delivery Salesman for Jewel
- Being a route delivery Salesman for Schwaans
- Being a Salesman for All American Window and Door of Germantown for the past 10+ years

My Dad was responsible for teaching me that you do not need to be financially rich to live a life full of riches. He taught me not to live to work, but to work to live. He always worked his tail off at any job he had, and put 110% into every one. Anyplace he ever worked, he made tons of friends and was always well liked and successful. He gave everything of himself to support our family and help all of us live the American Dream. At times, if he overextended us financially, he would simply put in some overtime to make up for it. But he rarely had to do that, because he much more enjoyed being home with us as a family. If that’s not a great example to live by, then I don’t know what is.

So, this one is for you Dad. Thanks for all you have done for your friends, family, coworkers and employers throughout the years, but most of all CONGRATULATIONS, because you truly deserve a break.

And although it’s not your final curtain call, here’s a link that sums up your story quite well if I do say so myself………….. One for Dad

CONGRATULATIONS DAD!

p.s. By the way, can you watch the kids for us all of next week? (just kidding)

The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours a week. ~Robert Frost

This week, I’m heading up to Northern Wisconsin with my buddy Dave for a week of R&R, and to do some fishing and golfing in the Eagle River area. One thing I’m totally looking forward to is “that smell”. If you don’t know what smell I’m talking about, I’ll try and explain. It’s something of a cross between pine needles, cedar and fresh rain. That probably makes no sense to anyone that’s never been up there, but to those that have, it probably makes all the sense in the world.

So, every time I go up north and smell “that smell”, I’m immediately reminded of so many childhood memories of family trips to Northern Wisconsin. My family was not financially rich by any means, but Dad always found a way to finance an annual weeklong trip to the Minocqua or Hayward area for our family. Some of my earliest childhood memories come from these trips........

- The “dumpy” cabins we would stay in and the fact that they seemed like castles to us.

- “Camp breakfasts” at Paul Bunyan’s.

- Catching my first sunfish off the pier when no adults were around to supervise me.

- Filling an entire KFC bucket with frogs we caught at Lake Sharon.

- Dad firing up the grill every night and cooking us some sort of BBQ delicacy.

- All the cool stuff we would buy in the gift shops in town. Bow and arrow sets, Mexican jumping beans, “authentic” Indian tomahawks and drums, pocket knives, cap guns, Chinese finger locks, rock candy, boomerangs, jaw breakers and a whole bunch of other novelties that would probably never be sold today because they’re considered lethal to children or are politically incorrect. That’s sad.

- Evening drives to the garbage dump to see the bears and early evening walks to look for deer.

- Sitting in the lodge tavern all day on rainy days playing pinball, drinking soda and eating potato chips until I was ready to puke.

- Bats that would swoop down and hit you on the head at dusk.

- Feeding all the animals at Jim Peck’s Wildwood (which is still there!).

- Dad fishing for musky the entire week, and never catching one, year after year, after year. I also remember him buying me my first musky rig and teaching me how to musky fish. Is it coincidence that I’ve never actually caught a musky!?

But most of all, I remember what fun we would have as a family. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to taking my kids on family trips to the north woods. So while this will be a good “testosterone week” for Dave and me, I’ll be scouting out some places to take the kids next year.

G’Night G’Town!

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. ~Robert Orben

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I’m a huge music fan. I love all kinds of music, and I’m not partial to any one type or style. My musical tastes are so diverse that I often catch grief from my friends for liking what they might consider “odd” types of music. Simply flipping through my CD case would quickly expose my vast musical interests, as you’d see CD’s from performers such as Judas Priest, Britney Spears, The Rolling Stones, Weezer, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Merle Haggard, Saliva, Johnny Cash, Christina Aguilera, Kiss, Beyonce’, Neil Diamond, Santana, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra and a plethora of others. I’m not ashamed to admit that you’d also find a couple of polka compilations, as well as a yodeling CD or two (yes, I LOVE yodeling music!). I guess I never really fell into that “one genre of music fits all” mold, as I just simply like a good tune.

Back in the 1990’s, I had amassed a pretty awesome collection of great musical performances on a single VHS tape (remember those?). Unfortunately, the tape was accidentally used to record a seasons worth of Seinfeld episodes, and my great performances were lost forever. Sniff. Well, that is until I discovered YouTube.com a while back. YouTube.com isn’t just for viewing videos of dogs on skateboards, but can also be an incredible place to be to find rare clips and performances of nearly any entertainer you could ever imagine…..which leads me back to my old VHS tape. One of the best performances on my tape was of Whitney Houston singing a song called “This Day” (click on the song title to view). Thank goodness, someone else must have liked it too and posted it on YouTube.com! I don’t care what style of music you like or dislike, if Whitney’s voice and singing on this gospel-type performance doesn’t move you, you’re either deaf or dead!

And speaking of gospel-type songs, if you didn’t catch Kelly Clarkson’s performance on the “American Idol Gives Back” show a couple months ago, you should check it out. While Kelly doesn’t have the pipes that Whitney has, she does a beautiful job with a song called “Up to the Mountain”. The fact that Jeff Beck is playing guitar for her adds an extra touch of class to the performance.

Maybe my friends and me are weird or something, but we’ve often had the conversation of “If you were stranded on a desert island and only had one CD to listen too, what would you choose?” Given my various musical tastes, I always have a really hard time with that one. Over the years, I think I’ve narrowed it down to Santana’s “Zebop”, The Beatles “Abbey Road”, or ANY album by Pink Floyd. Now, if I was asked the same question, but only had one song to pick, I think I’d pick the song “Mother” by Pink Floyd. No matter how many times I hear that song, the guitar work and melody simply give me the goose bumps. My buddy Dave and I have been known to play “Mother” at full volume a dozen or so times in a row while sitting around a campfire after downing a few Beam and Cokes. And once again, YouTube.com can give you a couple versions of this song as well. The first link below is from the most recent Roger Waters tour, and is quite a performance. Although David Gilmour isn’t there to play the lead, the guitar player with the band respects the original recording and plays the lead flawlessly. The second link below is the same song, but recorded by the original band members in 1980. OMG! Was that really 27 years ago!?!? It's another great performance.

2007 Pink Floyd "Mother"

1980 Pink Floyd “Mother”

I could ramble on forever listing links to great performances I’ve found, but you’d have more fun going to You Tube.com and searching around to find whatever it is that moves you. And if you find something you think I’d like, please send it my way!

G’night G’Town!

Music knows no frontiers. It is free all-where. It’s contribution to emotional integration, Human and divine, can never be fathomed. ~Chin Moy

Yes, it is only July 2nd, but did you know that this was actually the day that the Second Continental Congress declared our Independence from Britain? On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee drafted the Lee Resolution, which was supported by 12 of the 13 original colonies. Thomas Jefferson then expanded the Lee Resolution and drafted it into the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the same Congress on July 4, 1776. Now I’m not trying to blow any holes in the fact that we celebrate our country’s Independence on July 4th each year, but I found it very interesting to learn the significance of July 2nd. In fact, John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, wrote of the Lee Resolution:

”The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Given the fact that today, July 2nd, serves as such a key date in our country’s history, I suggest then that we begin the “pomp and parade” and celebration early, and just let it all hang out this entire week!

Here are some other interesting tidbits you can share with others as you celebrate this year:

- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day, which was ironically, July 4, 1826.

- In a recent PEW Research Center Study, 90% of Americans surveyed answered “yes” to the statement “I consider myself very patriotic”.

- Unfortunately, only 62% of those same people display the American flag in some manner at home, in the office or on their car.

- The word picnic was originated by the French and was originally meant to mean potluck.

- There are certain types of ants that actively go out and search for food. Once they find your picnic and a source of food, they immediately head back to their nest. Along the way, the drop secretions on the ground marking their trail so all their little buddies can follow it back to the food source. Pretty gross, hey?

- Boiling ribs before you grill them is the dumbest thing you could ever do. When boiling meat in water, a certain amount of osmosis takes place and all the meat flavor is extracted from the meat itself and replaced with water. Yuck. Any good rib cook knows the key to tender ribs is slow cooking. If you’re a “boiler” please e-mail me and I’ll send you my own personal rib recipe, which will get you out of that terrible habit.

- The speculation that Rosie O’Donnell will be replacing Bob Barker as host of The Price is Right is now over. She WILL NOT be the new host of America’s favorite game show.

Okay, that last tidbit had nothing to do with the 4th of July, but being a huge Price is Right fan, it was a huge relief for me and I just had to share it.

Have a safe and festive Independence Day week everyone!

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson