Monday morning ramble

TEXT is just ink on a page until a reader comes along and gives it life.  - Louise Rosenblatt

I suppose I should write SOMETHING before I lose internet for good later today.  I'm taking my old router in to get it replaced as they said I could get UP TO 200 meg DL by switching out my old router . . . . we shall see.  I'm typically at 68meg download at the moment so I doubt I will SEE any real improvement.

Of course a study said that people with high speed internet have 25 minutes of sleep LESS then people without high speed internet.

High Speed Internet Is Causing Widespread Sleep Deprivation, Study Finds

****************************

DJ, Elwood and I went to the Brewer game Friday night and what a game it was . . in the last inning.

As you can see from the image MY seat was not perfect.  Some guy with a huge mammoth head covered 1st base all night and 50% of the time people were taking photos or selling beer or just standing doing nothing in the aisle.

Lesson - always have the aisle on the RIGHT side of you.   We moved around so it was no big deal - had to get the $12 (literally) beer.  The seats I believe were better then the Club section - no wait - the club sections seats are better/wider but there is more, and better, beer the section right below the club section.  We found one place with 30 craft beers on tap . . . . for $12 each.  Seemed expensive. $12 for a Mudpuppy Porter.

Of course when Elwood had to have his cigarette we waited near TV screens and hung out with our favorite friends.

The game was GREAT - I've never seen a walk off Home run before.

Then the next night balderdash was at the 1st inning blow-out game and in the 9th inning I got a text about NOT going home early and now a home run ties it.  Brewers won, he could have left after the first inning.

HEY - I was not saying people need to leave early but if you are one of the many people whine about the length of MLB games - he could have left after the first inning knowing who would win. just sayin'.    PERSONALLY - I would not leave, it's stupid and I have no isses with teh length of baseball games.

His game took 3:09   about 8 minutes over the average.  My game took 2:46 and I feel ripped off.

********************

Relatives flying in from Texas Wednesday to escape the heat.  Sadly I have golf league Wednesday night and gone all day Thursday on a 18 hole Nagawaukee / Brewer game day.  They are going to the Packer pre season game so no worries.

6:46 tee times in Nagawaukee. that means I gotta get up at like 4:30.  AAAAGH!! 

*********************

Detox Saturday DJ and I circumnavigated that little green jewel Fox Lake. We stopped at Town Park . . . .park on the north side to let Gus out and saw a beautiful rain garden surrounding the goose poopy parking lot.  This is something Drexil should have done on their parking lot

 In fact all Columbus parking lots should be surrounded by rain gardens that soak up massive amounts of run off rain instead of costing Columbus tax payers money to process rain water that leaks into the sewer system.

Then we stopped at a drive in in Fox Lake for a bite of food.  DJ gets a BBQ which was pretty much Sloppy Joe.  Mullins in Columbus is MUCH MUCH better.  I had a 1/4 cheeseburger (Mullins does not have 1/4 cheeseburgers - SAD!).

Gus was doing well and people were OF COURSE looking at him and then an older guy, out of the blue, comes over and asks if Gus can have the rest of his burger.  (Gus is like a beautiful woman who gets all sorts of free things from strangers).

We said yes and Gus gulps down a 1/8 burger.  We finish up and I take him over to say thanks and Gus shakes his hand and the man's wife asks if Gus can have a little more and the husband takes her 1/2 of a 1/4 pounder and shows Gus who GRABS it out of his hands and is gulping it down to laughter.

The crowd laughs and I turn to the next table saying this is how we feed Gus and what you YOU have.

**************************

Omega-3 - a $15 billion industry for something that has yet to be proven a good thing.  There have been 79 studies with over 100,000 people and so far "omega-3 consumption has little or no effect on promoting heart health".

FISHY FISH PILLS

I take 2 fish oil pills a day as MY doctor says it makes my blood slipperier and avoids strokes.

*********************

Josh Roselius - the actor that broke an egg for the "This is you brain on drugs" propaganda commercial is 100% for legalizing cannabis "It's healthier then alcohol" he says.

********************

Another? Star Trek?  YUP - CBS all access will have yet another Star Trek - this one staring Patrick Stewart - YUP - that same one in the OLD Star Trek.  So while Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels) plays Captain Pike if the new old new Star Trek  Patrick Stewart will play Jean Luc Picard (sp?) in the new new Star Trek.

*********************

BTW - Big Brother 20 has been outstanding.  Players that know game theory is making this show outstanding.  STILL - the best pure strategy game on TV.

******************

I really hate this months horoscope for Aquarius:

"You don't always do well with relationships, but guess what? You are headed straight toward a whole mess of them. They will be uncomfortable, terrifying, nauseating, and chaotic - exactly the qualities you despise in life.

Your little world is about to come tumbling down and you are left standing with nothing but your dignity, if that. Oh well, you are used to making a complete fool of yourself. This month will be no different. "   

***********************

things you overhear

"Time flies when your life is going absolutely nowhere"

*********************

Seems white collage ages woman are fleeing the GOP in droves. 

 Other polling tidbits

5% of American call them selves vegetarians - the same as in 1999.
++++
10% of men have lied to get out of jury duty while only 4% of woman.  MEANWHILE - I have never ever been ask to be on a jury - NEVER.
++++
So far there have been no cracks in the blue wave.
++++
Meanwhile - over 100 psychiatrists signed a letter and presented it to the powers in charge saying then believe Trump is losing his mental facilities.  Even Omarosa, a long time friend for 15 years has been shocked and said listen to a speech from 10 years ago and listen to one now.  Completely different.

He can't even say whole sentences now.  She said "this is NOT Trump being Trump, this is Trump losing his mental stability".   

***************

Weather - after tomorrow (74) the temps will rise again to the low 80s. Pop up thunderstorms for the work week.  Nothing much happening

USS Indianapolis / Clock tower / Golf

If you are reading this Friday morning, 73 years ago today the survivors of the Indianapolis have been in the water since midnight Monday.  Their have been atrocities and pacts to kill fellow seaman if they went crazy. . . . . many many went crazy from drinking seawater.

At about 11:00 a plane piloted by Wilber Gwinn (Angel) flying at 9000 was having issues with a new long range antenna that trailed out the tail of the plane . . AGAIN.   He went back to crank it in and spotted an oil slick, probably from a Jap sub and since they were submarine hunters, "open the bombay doors" and they dropped to 3000 feet.

Then . . wait . . what are those in the water, men? Going lower he spotted men and then more men, perhaps 30?  He followed the slick and kept counting more and more men, 130 was the count now but there were no ships that had sank recently.

He circled and was trying to call Peleliu but with no functioning long range antenna nothing was getting through and he was low on fuel.  He dropped a ink marker and circled as long as he could.

Meanwhile another plane at 9000 feet. a patrol bomber, saw the marker and then spotted Gwynn, also thinking it was a Jap sub. Gwynn said there were men in the water but unknown origin.

A message was sent

THIRTY SURVIVORS SIGHTED SEND ASSISTANCE         

In Peleliu the message was received but being bored the radio operator decoded it himself instead of taking the normal 4-5 hours to officially decode.

Earlier - the control officer at Philippine Sea Frontier noticed the Indianapolis had not arrived yet and sent a message to the plotting section "erase the Indy from the board".

5 hours later the message came back - NO "Men in the water". 

Survivors 2013. Mel in red. Ed Harrell back right and seems to
be Mike Pence having a photo op. 

In Leyte the surface operations officer noting the Indy should have arrived 3 days ago. Frontier commander learned "men in the water" and he too upon looking noticed the Indy was not there either and sent a message.

INDIANAPOLIS HAS NOT ARRIVED LEYTE X ADVISE

That got every bodies attention all around the Pacific. The thought was that Indianapolis had never actually left port and contacted Guam. 

No - the Indy was not there. Perhaps Indianapolis was out on training?

NO, not training,

A simple message was sent to Admiral McCormick

HAS INDIANAPOLIS REPORTED TO YOU

McCormick's reply

NEGATIVE

++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm reading this book and literally have tears of excitement in my eyes that I need to wipe away . 

DJ and I have always felt we lived separate yet curiously alike lives.  One strange thing among many is that Mel was rescued by a PBY Catalina which is the exact plane my dad flew search and rescue in WWII.  So so many similarities. Her dad and mom were born 7 years apart, same with mom and dad. We both have entrepreneur brothers 7 years older.  I'm 7 years older then DJ, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. 

When I took Mel to a Madison Mallards game where he was honored, about the 7th inning and old guy came up to Mel. He said he was in Leyte and the crew of his ship were all wondering about the Indy and to a man they KNEW something was wrong but nobody would listen.  Nothing could sink the Indy.

**************************

Ten Million is what it takes to make you heart tick faster . . . .  is what I have always thought but what Phil Mickelson said about his upcoming one on one 18 holes against Tiger Woods on or near Thanksgiving.

***************************

In Columbus news - The Clock tower is missing hands - Did Darvin take them?  NO - he didn't and that is not even funny (well, sort of). The clock is being repaired as some 125 year old piece broke.  They just don't make them like they used to.

**************************

GOLF - had an interesting round where  I hit a fellow player in the balls with a line drive - I should have yell TWO!

Par three - instead of the CORRECT club that always comes up short I decided to go 20 yards OVER the green and NOT in the swamp this time.  Of course I popped it up and it went halfway.  So I drop my ball in the drop zone and duff it to 1 foot from a pot bunker, then into the bunker, then into the same bunker and then again into the same bunker.

What do you do when you are REALLY pissed off?  You take an anger swing and the ball FLY'S out hitting Tony in the . .well . . you know but the ball ends near the the hole.  I should have done that the first time.  I took an 8 on a par 3 and bought Tony a beer since he will no longer have children.

HOWEVER - on the 9th hole  I hit my 3rd shot on a par 5 and it lands literally 2 inch's from a deep deep bunker. SHIT!

I stand in the bunker as best as I can and the ball is now eye level.  It's not even a baseball swing I can take. I have no clue what the ball will do once it hits the club face and I still have 20 yards to go.  Club faces are not made to hit a ball in this way.

I swing and the ball ends up 1 foot from the hole.  PAR   

Ended with a 49 with an 8 on a par 3.  Hit 6 fairways again.  My new swing is awesome.  I flattened out out that puts my hips in play instead of all arms and falling back.

For balderdash - 6 bogies, 1 par, 1 double and a 1 blow up.

*************************

You know - I used to like Rudy Giuliani.  I thought during 911 he was outstanding.  And now - as someone who has a real writing career said

“Hey, when did Montgomery Burns become a real person, and why is he having an entire conversation with himself like he’s hearing voices?”  

Yea - now he is as incoherent as Trump and HE IS HIS LAWYER.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Does anybody watch Salvation? it's getting pretty good reviews even in it's second season. MIGHT have to watch it.

**********************

I had to laugh when I saw that Melania Trump only watch's CNN and there was a BIG fight on Air Force One because the RULE is  ONLY FOX.   Those two will be separated when Trump quits the White House or goes to jail. 

*********************

Late blog today because as part of the senior Center Committee we are now LIVE on the TV in City Hall.  Riveting entertainment for sure.

Gus - trapped in the bedroom by big Iggy last year

************

WEATHER - Should Gus the Weather Dog have his own account on Facebook?

 Heat index 94 Saturday and 90 Sunday cooling off.  Next Thursday for the BIG day. 18 holes and a Brewer game looking like 83 and thunderstorms starting about 1:00.

Politics from a Political Science dude

A friend who runs a football pool I'm in is a political scientists at the UW and had a wonderful write-up yesterday. We have been stressing that he should publish his text but ney.

So if you are leaning right you can skip this.

The polling for the Democrats in Wisconsin has consistently shown a slight but outside the margin of error lead for the Democrats in 2018 here in Wisconsin.  Tammy has had a fairly consistent 10+ point lead on both Vukmir and Nicholson.  And Scott Walker fatigue is setting in.  Winning a third term is not easy (yet Tommy Thompson won FOUR terms), and historically a losing Presidential campaign typically burns up any political Capital Governors have back home, and Walker’s numbers only ever slightly recovered after he shut down his Presidential campaign here in Wisconsin.  After drastically cutting funding for public schools and the University of Wisconsin School system he is now actually running on the message of being the “Education Governor”.  While I will be voting for Kelda Roys early this week, I expect Tony Evers to be the nominee and he is the Wisconsin State Superintendent of Schools and Walker’s “Education Governor” meme was always based on the presumption that Evers would be the nominee and the GOP is trying to neutralize Evers on the very issue where he is strongest.  Our primary is August 14th.

But we thought we were going to be fine against Scott Walker before and fell short.  I place nearly all of the blame on Milwaukee County (and GOP voter suppression efforts there) that saw voter turnout plummet (especially urban black Milwaukee County voters) in 2016, allowing Trump to win the state by 20,000+ or so votes, and allowing Ron “super genius” Johnson to upset Russ Feingold for the Senate seat.  And the problem in Milwaukee county extended to this springs Wisconsin Supreme Court race where the Progressive Rebecca Dallett defeated an absolutely putrid GOP nominee Michael Schrenock.  What still alarms me about that wonderful election is that Dane County (Madison) had a larger voter turnout in actual numbers than Milwaukee county and Milwaukee County is far and away the most populous county in the state.  While it is tremendous that Dane county, the Progressive core of the state is so mobilized, the fact remains that Dane County should not generate more votes than Milwaukee County in raw vote totals like they just did in this Spring’s Supreme Court race.  So while I am cautiously optimistic for this fall in Wisconsin, I am not doing any happy dances yet to be certain.  Milwaukee County needs to wake up and start voting again if the Democrats are going to make progress on the statewide level.

I am also eyeing a couple of the House races that are sort of under the radar but could get interesting.  Glenn Grothman, the repulsive racist homophobe is showing signs of weakness in the district that has been Republican since I first was able to vote in 1980 (Oshkosh and Fond du Lac are the largest population centers in the 6th CD).  The Democrat nominee will be Dan Kohl, nephew of former Senator Herb Kohl, and his fundraising is outpacing Grothman’s by a considerable margin.  In fact. Grothman’s fundraising has been so anemic the House Republicans are sending up alarm flares over this race.   Have not seen polling out of the 6th CD yet, but Kohl will clearly have the resources to run a viable campaign this fall with 98 days to go.

And of course Paul Ryan’s open House seat is a slugathon.  Randy “Ironstache” Bryce appears on track to win the Democratic nomination against an aggressive primary opponent Cathy Myers, who has gone negative on Bryce, who has almost entirely focused on the GOP and Trump and Ryan’s failed leadership.  Bryce is a fundraising juggernaut, well over a million dollars raised and even Emily’s List has not allowed Myers to keep up with his fundraising.  I just hope she doesn’t cause him to spend so much in the primary that he is reduced to meager funds for the fall election effort.  The expected GOP nominee will be Bryan Steil, who is a bland man of few accomplishments unless chauffeuring Paul Ryan around the district when he is in Wisconsin is an accomplishment.  But the Big buck sugar daddies & mommies here in the state have anointed Steil as their guy, so I expect him to win the GOP nomination walking away.

********************************

The Brewers picked up a slick fielding second basemen which is weird and as Council said last night the Crew will have to get creative.  It seems Schoop, a 2017 All-Star was too good to pass up so lets take a look.

Schoop is a very very good fielder with very good range. A typical power hitting Brewer that strikes out a lot and hits into a lot of double plays (like everybody on the team) but when he elevates the ball it goes places.  Expect 25ish home runs. The one thing is this guy is an every day player and has missed only 2 games in the last 2 years. 

 Can't bunt, can't hit and run but is "ok" on the base paths. He comes from another  home run ball park so no change there.  The one thing that helps is he is right handed and his career numbers shows he hits RHP well so platoon is a viable thing. 

Then at 3B we have Moustakas who is almost an identical fielder to Shaw at 3B.  Big, VERY slow, poor against LHP and hits into a TON of double plays. HOWEVER - he comes from Kansas City a pitchers park so his HR total will go up. 

and we still have Shaw. 

Pitching the Brewers picked up  Joakim Soria.  Remember how good Kneble was last year?  Soria is better. When it comes to the bullpen, ERA is a meaningless stat but his FIP is outstanding.  Soria is a closer and I feel the Brewers sort of have four (4) closer's at the moment.  Soria is a ground ball pitcher as opposed to Kneble a fly ball pitcher so I don't THINK Miller Park will be a big issue with giving up HRs.

So there ya go. Brewers are tied for 1st place and we shall see what happens next.

**************************

Meanwhile - floating in the Pacific 73 years ago today the horrors started for real.  The survivors of the Indianapolis have been in the water for 3 days with no food or water and hallucinations are starting to creep in.  Some sailors are drinking the sea water and having a horrible death.

For 50 years the families of the survivors, in low hush conversations, have always talked about how they thought there were things not being mentioned about the ordeal at sea.  Now things are coming to light. 

What a nightmare because the crew is hallucinating and a few are turning to cannibalism to get liquid (not many but . . how many do you need) and there are other things going on in the separate groups now spread out over 60 miles.  My FIL was in a small group a floaters without a raft or net.  One problem is that when someone dies they don't sink. They just float with everybody else.

The Navy blunders continue to pile up.  The Indianapolis was suppose to go over a line, like in aircraft that go from one towers control to another.  When the Indianapolis failed to acknowledge a radio transmission they decided to wait until the Indy contacted THEM. 

Then when the plotters who keep track of military ships assumed the Indianapolis crossed the line to the other control, they just erased the Indy and assumed the other controllers would take over.  The other controllers did not know this so . . . the Indianapolis vanished from all plotting. 

****************************

Here is a funny story.  I wish Chief Miester was still reading this blog (he read it every morning) as he would get a chuckle.

In Waupon a stoner dude was golfing and asked a foursome if they wanted to get high.  WELL, one of the foursome was the Chief of Police who informed him it was bad timing.  The stoner dude started to run but stopped and was walking back and stuck the bag of pot down his pants - one small problem. 

His zipper was open and the bag fell out his zipper. THAT, is also bad timing LOL 

********************************

Did you see this new walkway in Vietnam? so awesome cool.  I wish the American government and Columbus for that matter was open for more art.

              

I think Columbus needs something like this. It would draw more people here and we would have a REAL tourist attraction and reason to visit.  Better then an old water tower nobody ever looks at that cost a LOT of money to save.

We could have used that money for a bike path that actually would have been useful to families who look to move here.

*************************

WEATHER - the only change is in the far out forecast. After Sunday the temps go down to the low 80s . Maybe some storms tonight around 11 and Monday into Tuesday. All else is the same.  Warm weekend. Upper 80s

Cheers