Have you ever watched your cat. Man my cats have it good! They have very few rules and they only have to follow them when you are looking. They climb on everything, they scratch everything, and are self-cleaning! They find a nice sunny spot in the winter and sleep in a ball, and during the summer they find a cool place and sleep all stretched out. They chase what they want and ignore you and everything else if they want. The best part is they make us clean up after them because they know if we don’t, we will find surprises in the box of laundry soap! If one of the dogs gets to close they just give them a claw to the nose and that puts them back in their place. And when they do want attention they just rub against my leg and purr. Yep, pretty much the worst thing my cats have to deal with is where to leave the hairball. Some days, like today. I just want to be my cat!

What happened to the News! We have problems in this country and all I hear about is the latest celebrity wacko child names! They interview the president and ask him about his wife’s new haircut. What happen to the press distrusting everyone and asking hard questions? I am increasingly yelling at the TV during the news, not because I don’t like the information but because they aren’t asking the right questions. Somewhere along the way it became about ratings. Even the old-timers who are still around are not doing the same kind of stories. Do you remember 60min before it became a joke? Our country has some real issue we need to discuss, the House, Senate, and White house have to come to the table and solve them. Instead of the press putting pressure on our elected officials to get the job done, they are the band playing while the titanic is going down! Lest you think I see some doing a better job than others I say they are all doing it! When is someone going to step up and say whats wrong is wrong, and get news back to actual reporting!

i just realized, as I sit in a Starbucks for the second time this week emailing someone about meeting tomorrow at another Starbucks. It isn’t about the coffee and they know it! Yes, they sell coffee and I do like it. But I don’t come in here and order the twenty-seven dollar wimpo-chino or a weasel pooped chi-latte. I order a large (Venti for you who really care) coffee and find a table with an electrical plug so I can get some work done. They have made it a perfect place for me to write and email people and based on the number of others typing away on their laptops I would say they agree. I ave about an hour before I have to be somewhere and this is a perfect in between stopping place. I saw an article about some Starbucks removing outlets because they had squatters. You know them, they come in, order a small coffee and eight hours later move to Panera Bread for the evening shift. These people are going to ruin it for the rest of us! I can see spending a few hours but  then move on. I think Starbucks should put a timer on the side of their cups and after three hours it dings and you have to leave. That would also free up the prime tables so I don’t have to always sit facing the sun in the corner.

I have spent the better part of a week now trying to get a management server to talk to a  network switch. I have called the manufacturer and they could not help. They actually read from the manual to me over the phone. I have changed the settings that the manual says will make it work on and off and it still isn’t working. I log on to another one which is identical and it works, so why won’t this one? I am so frustrated I want to take a baseball bat to the equipment. This is why technology is so frustrating! This is also why most of the time tech support is more like voodoo than science. I have worked on a computer for hours just to have it suddenly start working. Why? I could not tell you. I did what had worked for other computers and it just didn’t work. Yes, tech support is knowing what to push or the right settings for a specific issue, but the really good techs I have known are the ones who know what to do after the correct solution still doesn’t work!

Just because it’s Friday!

When I was growing up on really hot days my mom would do a dinner of salads. We would have tuna salad, potato salad and a version of ham salad using spam. We would sit around with crackers or bread making various creations. This was a real treat in my mind and I look back at it in fondness as a family bonding moment. So when I hear people slamming Spam it isn’t so much a culinary issue for me. I couldn’t tell you the last time I even tasted Spam or if I like it or not. Don’t we all have something like that? A smell or taste or product that makes us smile inside? These are memories that can not be manufactured. If they could McDonald’s or Kraft foods would have bottled it already. They take us back to a moment lodged somewhere in the back of our gray matter and can only be accessed by the trigger of the same food or situation. My other example is Chef Boyardee, my brother and I went camping and we eat two cans over a camp fire. Again, haven’t eaten it in years but I still think of it as fine dining!

I do not like clowns! They freak me out. There always seems to be something just not right about them. Oh, I can see the painted on smile. It doesn’t fool me! You can’t change my mind about it by trying to get me to talk to them. When you get close they smell of cigarettes and alcohol. At least that’s what I imagine. You also see closely that they have painted the makeup over a five o’clock shadow which gives them another layer of creepiness. Of course no sane person would get that close to one. I think they all drive a white panel van that says “free candy” on the side of it. When you open the door a dozen of them pile out! They are employed by the circus to catch children and turn them into carnies. This is why the circus has never had much appeal for me. Like the animals and jugglers but I can’t watch them when I am keeping an eye on the clowns!

I know what your thinking. Bob, that is just irrational! You would say that, but you would be wrong. Those of us who hate clowns know better!

When you need to make a big decision how do you decide? A magic eight ball was designed for those who can’t figure these things out yet no one would really leave it to a magic eight ball to decide, would they? I pray for clarity and sometimes I don’t seem to get any. I try to weight the pros and cons but most of the time I can tilt that to which ever I think I want. I could talk with friends but each one seem to have different opinions so I end up with more choices than answers! I wait for one of the doors to close but sometimes both doors stay open. Over and over I end up making a decision only to re-think it later. Have I confused you? I know I am! A friend and I were discussing this the other day and his insight was to the point. Is life a rope, a linear path that leads straight? One which if we go to the left or the right we fall off the path we are intended for. Or is life more like a forest, which is full of trees with multiple paths through, but the goal is always the other side? I am no Biblical scholar but I know that God has a plan for my life. I have seen to many evidences of his hand in my life to not believe that there is a plan. The question is whether I am tapped into what he is doing or floating on the wind. I haven’t really worked this out in my mind but I think on this often. Pleasure, pain, good choices or bad they all play a part in what God calls our good! But like the great philosopher Ozzy Osbourne has sung, Don’t look to me for answers, don’t ask me I don’t know!

I heard a story this morning on the news that the security for today’s inauguration was several million dollars. I am all for celebrating a new president getting elected and I am not saying we shouldn’t whether my guy wins or not. I am saying we are in a mess now and have been for some time. Wouldn’t it show everybody how serious we are about fixing it if we just did something low-key for once? I know the money spent today is a drop in the bucket but we have to start somewhere! Every elected official, congressmen or women should be willing to take a pay-cut or not even get paid if we can’t fix the countries problems. I understand someone has suggested that but other have said it is un-constitutional. I like how they bring up the Constitution on this but forget it when it comes to passing laws for everyone else. those we have elected have to start worrying about getting us back on the right track and less about their own pockets!

I’m not exactly sure but, at some time in the past they stopped allowing commercials for cigarettes and switched to letting prescription drug ads on TV. While cigarettes are not a good thing the commercials had to include a warning that cancer and death were a distinct possibility. I’m not sure that the drug commercials are a real improvement. At least with cigarettes I could say to my kids, don’t ever smoke! Now I have to explain things I don’t want to. When they were younger they would ask. Dad, why are those people in those bath tubs? Thank goodness they are in separate bathtubs or I would have some real explaining to do? Now we just sit through the commercial awkwardly looking around the room trying not to make eye contact. The worst is listening to the list of side effects. Uncontrollable bowl movements, loss of hearing and vision, depression, thoughts of suicide , yellowing of the eyes and teeth, and the four-hour unmentionable. Do they really want me to buy this drug? I don’t go to the doctor and ask for uncontrollable bowl movements, I go to get a cure for what is ailing me. If the doctor gives me a prescription for a drug it wasn’t because I saw it on TV. I know that they have to tell us the side affects on the commercial, it is the law. I would think that they are going to sell these drugs based on Doctors recommendations not on TV and me knowing the side affects causes me to ask if there is an alternative cure!