Working on the treasure hunt

Yeah, I'm still around and kicking. I've been putting all of my time into the next treasure hunt starting on November 2nd 2010. I figure after 30 years I better be putting on my best effort to make it interesting for all who participate. The pressure is on and leaves precious little time for anything else. To my advantage the weather is cooperating and riding my bicycle has been downright pleasurable. The prize is stellar and quite memorable in my opinion, at least within my budgetary linitations. Of course most treasure hunters are only after the coveted, engraved, trophy mug and the sheer joy associated with using one's brain to it's full capacity.

Free time will be arriving soon and there will be regular postings as in the past. Please bear with me for a short while longer. The treasure awaits the winner..................Joe

Meanwhile you can click on Greg's website to find any breaking news concerning the free game: www.wyomingriddler.com He does a good job on it.

Worldwide automobile recall

Look for an upcoming recall of every motorized vehicle ever driven on the American highways. It's coming soon. It appears that every car, truck, van, semi, or motor home is defective. here are some of the findings:

Vehicles consistently fail to stop and hit other vehicles, signs, buildings or other obstacles.
They accelerate beyond the legal speed limit without cause in radar zones.
They wander aimlessly all over the road. (This malady is most apparent on Friday and Saturday nights.)
They wear out over time and cost money to fix immediately following the end of the warranty period.
Just before accidents the steering inexplicably becomes defective.
They fail to fit into parking spots on busy streets without extreme effort.
They run out of gas at unexpected times.
No matter the type, style or color of vehicle, most lose value at an uncontrollably fast rate.

It's pretty obvious from this intense research that motorized vehicles are all defective and should be recalled and replaced at no charge to the owner. I, of course remain neutral on the subject as I am not particularly knowledgeable on the intricacies involved here. My resources are limited to news reports and my own vehicles that provide me with personal transportation. All these recalls befuddle me but I can see that through diligence and research by wise people we learn about such stuff. Incredible!.....................Joe

Lesson learned from a kid

The annual Silver Treasure Riddle game becomes 30 this year on November 2nd 2010. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the beginning. Hundreds of thousands of people have participated in some way. I've seen three generations of treasure seekers walk through my door. All of these people have had an opportunity to have a lot of free fun and learn a little more about carbon monoxide poisoning. It's been a lot of fun for me too. I also learned a couple of life lessons along the way. Some of them rather humbling.

I ride a bicycle, a lot. I can be seen all times of the daylight hours riding around somewhere in the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan area. Mostly I am simply another anonymous biker amongst hundreds, once in a while someone recognizes me and says hi. Around here I am also known as the Wyoming Riddler, a name placed on me back in the early 1980's by one of the newspaper reporters that have covered this game over the years. At first I kind of shied away from it. It sounded a little corny, but after a year or two I began to savor the notoriety. Yeah, I'm the Riddler. Felt sort of good. Then it began to go to my head a little too much. I began to feel important instead of being just one of the crowd. Then I learned a lesson from a small child that brought me back to reality.

I was riding along a busy 4 lane street and came to a stop at a red light. A car with heavily tinted windows stopped alongside and the rear window was rolled down about 4 inches. Little fingers folded around the top edge and a set of eyes looks intently at me. The front window rolled down and the woman in the seat asked me if I could pull over and sign an autograph, her daughter had recognized me and I was a favorite TV star of hers. I nodded yes and pointed to a parking lot across the intersection, we met there after the light changed. The woman handed me a small note pad and with my chest stuck out and head held high I wrote, "Have a wonderful day, The Wyoming Riddler" and proudly handed it back to the woman. She read the autograph with a puzzled look on her face. After a moment of apparent confusion she asked, "Why did you write Wyoming Riddler" we thought you were the cook on TV called Mr. Food? It took me a moment to recover and admit that I wasn't and rode off in complete embarrassment. My head deflated as I continued my ride home. Lesson learned!

So here I am, working on the final details of the 30th annual treasure hunt. A little humble in my memories at being able to meet so many wonderful people over the years. Thankfully I've learned that it has little to do with me but more to do with a free game and the coverage of the local and national news media. It's a lot easier to buy hats for a smaller head too............Joe

Blogging subjects

Some people can blog every day and always have an interesting subject to blog about. Just like some people always know what to tweet or write on face book. I envy them, they are my cellphone, Internet, notepad and blackberry heroes. In scanning over different sites I find that, when it comes to blogging, the limit has not been reached yet on subject matter. There are blogs covering flowers, food, books, movies, cars, bicycles, blood pressure medicine, post WWII military poetry, horses, cats, gerbils, gardening, jokes, batteries, electric lighting, furniture, psychology, diamonds, pianos, all kinds of art, writing, any college or university you can find, aging, staying young, running, passing gas, hiking, shoes, ink pens, and feet just to name a few. Makes me feel a little inadequate. I find some of these and other subjects would be difficult, if not impossible for me to bring into any conversation, let alone blog about on a daily basis because I know nothing about them I can't even ask an intelligent question.

I did find a favorite though, magnets. What do you know about magnets? Do you find them attractive? They do have their positive as well as negative sides to them don't they? A lot of people don't like to discuss magnets though. Yeah, they can be very polarizing can't they? The favorite movie of magnet lovers was the Golden Compass so controversy is not unknown to them as you can see. If a person is opposed to the benefits of magnets it seems that they are still drawn to them anyway, attracted by forces unseen. Kind of spooky.

I, on the other hand, find myself bereft of a subject to write about today. I guess I'll have to spend a little more time checking out the subjects available until I settle on something interesting...........Joe

A positive outlook by turning off TV

Just like most people, occasionally my outlook changes from positive to negative. Sometimes it's the weather, sometimes it's a sore foot or other physical malady, sometimes it's a disagreement with someone, a close friends misfortune, you know what I mean. I'm not talking about depression or anything like that, just a little turn of the lips from a steady smile to a slight downturn instead. It usually doesn't last long at all, for the most part I have a very positive attitude and have a happy life irregardless of problems, I can usually handle anything that comes along. One evening recently, as I was slowly winding down from the days activities, sitting in the old easy chair, finishing up my reading with the TV news on in the background, I felt just a twinge of negativity and I couldn't detect any real reason for it. No arguments, no other than normal business situations, no financial problems, just another day in river city as far as I could tell. Then why the negativity all of a sudden? I put down the paper and sat for a moment to think about it, I didn't like it. At the end of the day I usually feel so good it's hard to settle down and get to sleep, but not for negative reasons, it is because I enjoyed the day so much I hate to see it end, I continue to savor it. Then, as I slowly became more aware of my surroundings it dawned on me, I'd broken a major rule of mine: I had a TV news program on.

A long time ago, in a magazine article of suggestions on how to fall asleep easier, front and center and of major importance was the statement that if you want a good night's sleep stay away from TV news programs for at least 4 hours before going to bed because they were so negative in their reporting. I'd abided by that rule ever since to the best of my ability. Here I sat, subconsciously being pelted with all these negative comments from some (rather pretty I must say) woman reporter, gently bobbing her head and creating facial expressions of sorrow, fear, dread of impending disaster and overwhelming hopelessness. I could feel it, the pull of my greatest fears being brought right into my living room by a group of people with trusting faces. I was being bombarded by all the negative aspects of every story while the positive elements were skipped over or completely overlooked. The world was on the edge of the Apocalypse!

Off went the TV! It took a short time to return to the real world. Problems and difficulties do come up from time to time, they have since the beginning of time. Mankind has survived it all albeit sometimes by the grace of God. We grow smarter and stronger with each generation. people die and people are born, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. That's life. get over it and move on. That's the positive view. The negative view is that, except for the expensive and comforting trappings of the news room, the rest of the world is best avoided by staying home and watching the news instead of going out and living life to it's fullest. They even provide with the head shaking and facial expressions exactly how we should "feel" about the news. We don't even need to find our own emotions, they are all part of the show, just like a movie. Just like the article said, I don't need that.

I slept well last night. No TV news. It's not all bad but why take a chance. I'll just grab my trusty old newspaper, it doesn't shake or nod unless I'm doing the shaking or nodding. I'm positive about that.............................Joe

Katy Perry and Sesame Street

It's all over the web, Katy Perry's duet with Elmo gets dropped from program. Viewed as inappropriate by thousands of concerned parents around the country the producers took the right step and decided not to air it. Now the video is on YouTube, most believe that is where it belongs. Censorship? Not hardly. Simply doing what's right after making a not so good decision in the first place.

I read over hundreds of comments on a site dealing with just that issue. Most agreed that Sesame Street is supposed to be a bastion of safe programming for kids and this skit didn't fit that mold. Some bullies pulled the freedom card and said that any show should be able to present anything and it is the responsibility of the parents to guard the child from what they deem inappropriate. So much for the "It takes a community" theory in Hillary Clinton's book.

My take on it is that some places should be expected to air child friendly, non-controversial material. Leave them alone. They did the right thing. There is only one Sesame Street and it's for kids. There are hundreds, thousands of sit-Com's that show adult material every moment of the day. I suggest that those who enjoy Good old Katy Perry: Turn the channel, tell your kids that you just don't agree with the excellent programming on Sesame Street, you prefer the "anything goes, every parent for them self" programming.

Now, lets get on with the day. ArtPrize is here in Grand Rapids, the garden is filled to overflowing with ripe vegatables and the weekend is filled with sunshine. who could ask for anything more? Baseball and football are on the radio so I'll probably never turn on the TV all weekend long.

Free game. Brain food

Phew! The past couple of weeks I've been trying to tie up some loose ends concerning the 30th annual Silver Treasure Hunt. Riding my bicycle in search of the hiding spot for the elusive medallion has produced quite a few challenges this year due to considerable road construction. Mud, gravel, deep trenches, road blocks and closed except to local traffic obstructions are everywhere. But there is no need for concern. The long anticipated Riddle describing an obscure locality will be disclosed on the first Tuesday of November as usual. Once again thousands of treasure seekers will converge on the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan area to claim the prize of silver, the coveted inscribed winners mug and other mystery gifts.

The intent of this annual treasure hunt is to use your cognitive problem solving skills, enjoy the beauty of the area, have fun and also learn a thing or two about the danger of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. At last count there were over 40,000 participants in this free game. There is one prize for the first person to retrieve the metal medallion but in my opinion anyone that uses their mind in pursuit of it is a winner. Due to CO poisoning I lost my memory for two years and believe me, it's not easy living without a memory or the ability to think in a normal fashion that we all take for granted.

I hope you join in the fun beginning November 2nd 2010. I'll see you then. For more information go to Greg's game info sight at www.wyomingriddler.com ............................Joe