Gasoline prices and elections

Having voted in several presidential elections I've gotten to see some of the trends that present themselves around election time. Case in point: Gasoline prices!

Do you ever get the feeling we are being played? There is the OPEC thing that's been around since the late 60s or early 70s with certain suppliers controlling the faucet of oil supplies in their petroleum rich areas. Squeezing the hose to bring up the price gets more money into their coffers. Good business sense they call it. Then, on a regular basis we have to deal with unstable governments of oil suppliers and the on again, off again liquid energy spigot. When we import so many gallons upon gallons of oil each day there are so many variables it's mind boggling. The feeling of being played doesn't come from them though. Those elements aren't really predictable are they except that uncertainty is itself guaranteed. What I mean is the gasoline prices at election time.

What was gasoline a year ago per gallon, maybe $3.90? But at that time no one was involved in a battle for the presidency with the cost of gasoline as a huge issue to the average driver. Who exactly controls the prices is simply not open to the public. There are so many doors and dummy corporations we'll probably never know. There are also so many excuses as to why the prices shoot up around traveling holidays and after elections it would be hilarious if it weren't for the huge hole it leaves in our wallets.

I don't know enough to point fingers and place blame, or if it even is a control issue. But, facts present themselves in a way that makes me wonder. I wonder of more is in play here than supply and demand. Is there someone behind the curtain like in the movie, "The Wizard of Oz"? Oh yeah, I almost forgot last year $3.90, as high as $4.10 around here, now, a few short weeks before the election: $3.20 and probably going down. Just like the last election! Why do you suppose that is?

Dealing with a bore.

Ever notice that occasionally, when you are having a conversation with someone, suddenly you realize that, in their opinion all your things and ideas are crap and all their things and ideas are "special"? You know what I'm talking about don't you? We like this kind of coffee, they think it tastes terrible because that kind is better. You like this kind of car, they like that kind of car because ours is terrible and bad in every way. It's the same with almost anything. If we don't like what they like we are obviously ignorant, uninformed and in need of their direction and advice which they are more than willing to spend an enormous amount of our time imposing on us. We are left with the feeling that according to them, we cannot make a rational decision. Period! Nope, we are not capable of making up our own minds. Besides an acquaintance or two I get that feeling from more than a few salesmen and, of course, political ads and those news reporters and the subtle facial gestures
and head movements they make while reporting in an "unbiased" way.

The advice from those in the know says that when you are faced with an opinionated know it all, your weapon of choice is the question. Any question will do to start but it is important to stay with an aggressive attack of inquiry so as to deplete the resources of the offending social bore. Who, what, why, where and how, with the occasional, "really?" Salesmen, news and the political stuff aren't really a problem for me, I find it (according to the latest poll) almost equally balanced between humorous and annoying and I am in charge of being there or the on/off switch. It's when meeting this problem face to face in a social setting that I need to sharpen my strategic maneuvering abilities. I'm looking into this question weapon thing.

My first question?
"Did you know there is a booger smeared on the side of your nose?"

That should get the conversation started in the right direction shouldn't it?

History class one-O-one

You can't go back to the past.

Over time, children's TV cartoons have evolved to, in part bring down the level of violence. Mighty Mouse was always doing big timer damage to villains, Penelope somebody had a bunch of crooks as her protectors and Wiley Coyote wrought terror upon the helpless desert habitating Road Runner. On the retail side, pop guns, cork shooting rifles, cap loaded revolvers and bows and arrows are so totally avoided so as to not put the tools of violence into little Billy's hands and create anti social behavior. Cartoons most often in recent years have become a horse of a different color. Cute, non violent, complete equality and so obviously non argumentative. Powder puffy, soft, calming colors, low voices, big eyes,  able to show emotions at a single word, apologetic and unconditionally forgiving. All this change coming about because the theory is the old cartoons showing the battle between good and evil confused the little minds of our kids. How's that working for us?

Clothing is changing too. Now that our kids are so much more mature at a much earlier age modesty is considered old fashioned and stifling to imaginations filled with all those mature ideas of dressing up like their older "equals". Walt Disney brought us the Mousketeers for our safe amusement half a century ago. Fun, innocent and entertaining while maintaining an element of modesty and good taste. To the point of using constricting undergarments so as to not overemphasize the bust of blossoming teenagers. Parents could safely allow kids to watch without supervision to explain the stuff about sex. Today's kids are way too smart to give that much fun a second look.

School dances at one time were having all sorts of difficulties because the guys would make themselves sick drinking a bottle of Coke straight down without swallowing or the girls would get caught with too much make up. Gum on the school grounds was considered a huge problem. The more mature, well adjusted and informed teens of today don't even mess with that kid's stuff. They only dress revealingly enough so as to validate their sexual prowess they learned so much about in class, dance as if they were about to pro-create and speak with a four letter word category I never even knew existed.

Cap guns are scarce but paint ball guns and soft air rifles resembling assault rifles and machine guns are sold everywhere.

You can't go back in history. All of those changes were made to help us live in a better, less violent society. How's that working out for us?

Melting polar ice and swimming

While reading the newspaper the other day, (yes, I still faithfully read the newspaper) I came across an article regarding the melting of the polar ice. Seems the ice is melting at an alarming rate, in part due to global warming but mostly because we are in the middle of the 150 year earth temperature cycle. Rather confusing if you ask me. Imagine, us little people changing a world that has existed millions of years without us meddling with it. There was even a time when the world got sick of those huge prehistoric reptiles and sucked them up into bogs and turned them into oil. Us humans weren't even around at the time but the benefits of that reptile purging and subsequent production of oil have definitely brought about a quality of life we wouldn't have otherwise had. A lesson in evolution I guess. But I'm drifting away from the melting of the polar ice aren't I?

Anyway, this ice is melting and it is logical to assume that the water resulting from that melting has to go somewhere. I'm wondering just where it goes? The great lakes are at an all time low. We've got ships entering the great lakes from the oceans this water is melting in every day. How bout we take some tankers, fill them with the water from melting polar ice, bring them up the waterway into the middle and dump that water to fill the lakes back up. Might as well use that water otherwise it's just going to make the oceans overflow, right? Some may assume that we, as insignificant humans can't possibly take on such a task, but I think if we are the cause of all that melting, we can make use of what we've done. Or, something like that. Then again maybe I just didn't read far enough into the article to get the basics of cause and affect, or effect whatever the situation is. That's the trouble with trying to learn about the world with limited information. An old saying goes, "He has just enough information to be dangerous!"

Where's all this going? Well, I know a person that is so caught up in cause and affect that when she goes swimming, after she dries herself off, she wrings out the towel over the lake or river so as not to change the destiny of that particular body of water. If she finds some sort of aquatic life on the shoreline, she places that aquatic life thingy back into the water so as to carry on the proper cycle. She's a nice, intelligent person but I guess maybe I don't have enough information on that thought process. I would never make fun of anyone doing their thing to preserve the world in an educated and thoughtful way but I'm lost when it comes to extremes. Lions, and tigers and bears, which exist just as naturally as we do, do not concern themselves with all that stuff. Beavers aren't worried about the environmental impact of their dams, birds don't take make surveys of cause and affect before letting loose with droppings, and the world keeps moving on regardless.

So, what I'm wondering is this: If the water left on my body after a swim is wrung from a towel back into the pond, now saturated with my sweat and other stuff, does the now polluted water have the affect of eventually melting the polar ice? Maybe, just maybe. Is this climate situation being generated by nature to make us extinct and turned into some type of energy for the next type of creature that attempts to rule the world? Now there is something to think about.

Home again!

"Be kind to your enemies: It messes with their heads!"

Well, alrighty then! What's been going on in the world in the past few weeks? Whatever it is certainly has taken me so far off the beaten track I haven't had time to be here. I hope to change that. At any rate I'm here now and just put the fingers to the keyboard and we'll discover stuff together OK?

The bicycle trip around Lake Michigan is on hold for the moment. Frankfort was my last stop. It'll all happen in good time but not just now. Geez! I certainly live in a beautiful state.

A fellow from England, Dave Mitchell sent me a few encouraging words regarding my book: Joe's Story. He says he found it amazing and heart warming. He also found it very informative and enlightening on the issue of carbon monoxide poisoning. He has a friend that contracted CO poisoning and had to be treated in a hyperbolic oxygen chamber but is doing fine now. Dave it seems owns Scarthin Books somewhere near London overlooking a scenic river. They have a site on the web. www.scarthinbooks.com

I've been very excited since receiving the news that Joe's Story has been chosen as a text book for a course at Grand Valley University. Adding to that was the honor of speaking with the students of that course this past Wednesday for several hours. After speaking there was a question and answer period. I was pleased to find how knowledgeable and serious those students were about the book, the story and life, choices and consequences. I hope to speak with them again in the near future regarding a more intense discussion of carbon monoxide.

Planning is not my strong suit. I have a friend that plans her day by the hour and maybe even minutes. She is happy and gets all kinds of stuff done that would be impossible for me to fit into a day. I really admire that. I don't even have a calendar I can write things on let alone an hour by hour appointment book. I've tried it ands it lasted for about an hour or so before my cluttered life got in the way and I didn't have time to write any more. Planning is a learned skill. I guess I'll have to plan enough time to learn that skill......................One of these days.

I had an Internet service provider for 13 years. Kind of a neat, albeit slow wireless unit that plugged into the computer. It really got slow the past year. The service, Altel was purchased several years ago by Verizon and they are discontinuing the service in the next month. I've known about it for over a year now and procrastinated on going in and transferring to Verizon. I feared the higher cost of 4G. I live on a budget and wasn't looking forward to giving up something else to get Internet service. An unfounded fear it turned out. After all was said and done, the new service is faster, much more flexible, far less restricting and last of all..............Cheaper than the older, slower service. Yea!

The political robo calls have me almost convinced to get caller ID. The political emails are a bit much too. Lets not us get involved in political stuff OK?

Go Tigers!........................SeeYaLaterGator!

A thief in the night

I live in a very nice, middle class neighborhood. We neighbors mostly know each other at least casually and the children run freely without fear. The yards are decorated with nic nacs and blooming flowers. Bicycles often lay on the grass over night where kids left them in a hurry to get to dinner or a TV show. As I said, it's a very nice neighborhood. Don't let that fool you though. Nice neighborhoods don't mean that you can become lax in keeping your things protected. I drive a nice car with a remote locking system. Almost every night just before I shuffle off to bed I pick up my key fob and push the lock button. It's almost a guaranteed habit. Several years ago a thief snuck into our back yard, opened the unlocked door of my car, threw my stuff all over the inside of my car, making a huge mess and also stole my cell phone, a camera, several tools and flashlights and about $10 in small bills and change I keep for minor emergencies like a snack attack or parking ramp. I felt violated but there wasn't a huge financial loss. I did proceed to purchase a remote door locking system to prevent that from happening again. I was diligent about locking the car and made it almost a habit. I would bet money that in the past three years I've only forgotten to lock the car three or four times at the most. Last night I forgot. Last night that thief sauntered into my back yard and opened the unlocked door of my car, only three feet from my back door mind you, stole about $10 in cash, a camera containing priceless pictures of my bicycle trip around Lake Michigan and my two granddaughters, a couple flashlights and a jack knife and then, for some unknown reason, threw most of the rest of my stuff all over the inside of the car. Must be some sort of "total conquest" thing. Maybe proving in some way that this sneaky thief is the master of his domain and can do anything he wants. He did leave my phone this time but I know why: I have a basic phone. My phone has buttons and no apps. It's like no all powerful thief would be caught dead with a phone like that.

I "almost" all the time locked my car. I figure that in order for that thief to get into my car on the "almost" day, then he's been there lots more times when it was locked. He's a persistent thief. That means that I must unfailingly lock that car but even more I need to watch outside more often during the night. Maybe get some sort of security camera. That thief needs to be caught, he doesn't belong around my neighborhood. He got a computer from another neighbor a couple weeks ago. We all knew he was sneaking around. The fault is all mine, I knew better than to leave my car unlocked. No huge financial loss but the feeling of being violated is more than before. I hope I've learned my lesson. It cost me some irreplaceable memories this time.

Art Prize: Art? Really?

Being of limited exposure to the art experience, there are times when I experience a bit of confusion when it comes to the precise definition of what is and is not "art". Art Prize is in full swing in Greater Grand Rapids. From huge to miniature, whispy to solid, beautiful to ugly, ridiculous to sublime, tasteful to detestable, attractive to repulsive, art is an elusive idea. Last year a beautiful, tasteful, colorful, non-controversial portrait won first prize. It was magnificent. The art world was up in arms over it. Evidently, a work of art isn't a work of art unless most people of good taste find it repulsive. In that vein, this year there is a professional group of judges thast will determine the winner. That way the prize won't be recieved by an artist who isn't really an artist because they created something beautiful. The judges will make sure that the winner will be someone who challenges good taste to such a point that only the elite and knowledgable will appreciate the value of such a unique item.

I guess true art will always bypass my little world of ignorance and bliss. I just don't have the time to study the value of tasteless, repulsive junk arranged into some meaningful and thought provoking form. This Art Prize event is quite the thing around here. I applaud the promoters for bringing it to area. Hundreds and thousands of folks swarm into the city and see art forms in all sorts of venues. A very special time. It spurs thought and conversation and in some cases I am sure, action of some sort. I do feel somewhat sad however for those folks who's special art is stuck in a far corner of the city, way off the beaten path and few visitors get a chance to see it. Yeah, that's kind of a bummer. But let me tell you, in my personal opinion, as fun and enlightening and thought provoking as all this art is, some of those items, pretending to be art are better off in the bottom of a garbage can or the tank of a porta potty for obvious reasons.

I guess this is what art is all about, discussion. I guess that's good. I have noticed though that when it comes to the discussion of art and how it can be so obviously contraversial and repulsive, if you or I actually state the obvious: Some of it is simply tasteless garbage. We are berated for being ignorant and opressive. Truth be known, I believe that when some of this art is displayed in public, in the name of freedom, in front of anyone, it is actually a type of tyranny and opression to an otherwise sensible society.