This post is of no importance whatsoever, but I thought I’d let some of the thoughts in my head come out.

1. The NFL is probably going to kill the golden goose in the next few months.  Billionaires arguing with millionaires are going to ruin the NFL 2011-2012 season.  If the disagreement was over something altruistic, such as providing financial and medical assistance to former players who have fallen on hard times and can’t make ends meet due to injuries from their playing years, I could probably go along with it.  But my gut tells me it’s going to be a pissing match over money and the length of the season.  Nothing kills an entertainment activity like it going away long enough for us to find something else to do.
2. The influx of European and especially Eastern European players into the NHL has improved professional hockey.  When I was a kid, there were talented players, but there were almost as many bruisers on the teams.  These thugs were on the ice for no better reason than to lay a beating on whatever talented player or bruiser on the opposing team was targeted by the coach.  Now, there seems to be at least two talented players for every bruiser, and the officials seem to be coming down hard on the thugs.  This leads to more athletic and exciting play, with what I consider fewer fights and cheap shots.
3. Those of us who grew up in the United States in the 1970’s will remember the ABC Wild World of Sports.  Howard Cosell and Jim McKay would come into our living rooms on weekends when there wasn’t a major football, basketball, or baseball game going on.  You’d see an hour or so of skiing, them some bowling, a hockey game, and then something oddball like fencing.  There would also be a shooting, hunting, or fishing show mixed in occasionally, which is unheard of on today’s broadcast stations.  For several years, that kind of mix disappeared as the big three American sports completely dominated the airwaves.  Now that there about 17 cable sports networks that broadcast games, the broadcast networks seem to be picking up the idea of a mixed sports card again.  So far this afternoon, NBC has broadcast a hockey game, a couple hours of skiing/snowboarding, and now they’re showing a rugby game between South Africa and England.  As much as I love my football, and will sometimes watch baseball and basketball, watching/listening to other sports is a lot of fun.  Here’s hoping that this trend continues.  Heck, someday they might start showing Australian rules football or Irish soccer on American TV.
4. BooBoo has started playing soccer for a couple hours a week at his day care.  It’s part of a program the director has to get the kids more physically active every day.  He also has a tumbling activity once a week, and spends an hour a day in a little gym they’ve set up for the kids.  Boo is little enough that it’s just running around and trying to kick the ball, but some of these kids are taking it way too seriously.  That means their parents are taking it way too seriously.  When I was growing up, organized sports didn’t start until the 2nd or 3rd grade at the earliest, with most kids not taking it seriously until junior high.  Now, my friends talk about taking their first and second graders to soccer practice two and three days a week, with games on the weekends.  Someone Irish Woman knows has a daughter who is extremely talented at competitive swimming, and is pushing her to try for the 2012 Olympics.  This child, who has been swimming competitively for over a decade, spends at least 6 hours a day in the pool, and is in a competition almost every weekend.  Homework and a normal social life are sacrificed in a pursuit of a spot on the Olympic team.  You can’t tell me that is healthy for her.  I understand that the cost of college is skyrocketing, and competition for athletic scholarships is tight, but turning your child into a one trick pony who will falter when they finally blow a tendon or lose interest in their trick is a disservice to your child.  A counterpoint to this is my other friend who has three girls who all play soccer.  He and his wife work hard to make sure the girls have every opportunity to succeed in soccer, but they also make sure they have other activities and do well in school.  An athletic but still well-rounded young lady will go further in life than a single threaded jock who has been taught since day one that the only thing she can do well is run, swim, or kick a ball.

Anyway, that’s my sports thoughts for now.  Football is gone for the time being, but you’ll be seeing some of these core dumps every so often.

Like most parents these days, I worry that my kids won’t want to read much at all, or won’t want to ready anything but garbage.

Imagine my surprise when my daughter asked to read our copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and has been having lengthy discussions about racism and the civil rights movement with Irish Woman.

Add to that the fact that she wants to get a copy of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and Little Bear wants to read it when she’s done.

And knock me over with a feather when Little Bear asked for my copy of “Schindler’s List” this morning when he told me about reading “The Devil’s Arithmetic” in school.

I’m not sure if I can take credit for this, but I’m happy with the situation.  Girlie Bear has already read both “Monster Hunter International” novels, and she’s chomping at the bit to read “The Grimnoir Chronicles” with me.   I think for their birthday this year they might be getting some Heinlein.

Be Sure of Your Target and What is Beyond It

The manager of a cookie factory in Wisconsin decided to clear out some of the birds from his factory with a shotgun.  At least one pellet of bird shot missed its target and struck one of his employees.

Where do I begin?  First, using a shotgun inside of a structure to kill nuisance animals is the wrong answer.  You’re more likely cause harm to the structure and its contents, living or otherwise, than you are to scare off the critters.

Next, he obviously didn’t make sure his employees weren’t down range.  It’s only by sheer dumb luck that the employee only dug one piece of lead out of his head, and wasn’t hurt more seriously.  Don’t start with the “bird shot won’t kill” argument.  My son’s Red Ryder BB gun will kill if it hits the right part of the body at the right angle.

Then of course there’s the fact that there are bleeding birds flying around in the rafters of a food factory.  We will occasionally have a bird get into our house through the basement door, and once we flush it out of the house or the cats catch it, there’s always a mess to clean up.  I can’t imagine the mess that a number of birds living in a building will create, but I can sure imagine where it will land.   How this situation got past the local health department is beyond me.

I sincerely hope that the employee who was shot has no long-term problems, the blunt skull who peppered him with bird shot is punished, and that the cookie company calls a real exterminator.   Moron gun owners like this give the rest of us a bad reputation.

Now y’all excuse me while I go downstairs to check which brands of cookies are in our stockpile.

From Tam, of View From the Porch fame:

At least you don’t have to shovel cold.

We’re supposed to have a warm sunny spell next week here in Louisville.  Hopefully Irish Woman will recharge her solar cells.

H/T to Carteach on this one.  Spread the word.  These are very popular brands of .45 ACP.

Posted by Carteach0 at 4:46 PM 

Senator James Webb (D) of Virginia has decided to not seek a second term.  Senator Webb has been serving our country in one form or another for a good chunk of my lifetime, and I believe that the Senate will be diminished by his absence.

Webb is a combat veteran from Vietnam, and has worked hard at championing the causes of veterans and service members.  He is an old style gentleman, who even if I disagree with some of his views, can still show respect and be respected.

Look for the fight over his seat to be extremely contentious as the two dominant parties gouge, kick, and bite over control of the Senate in 2012.

A group of people in Florida helped a 3 foot long squid which had washed up on shore get back to deep water.  They all seemed very concerned for the delicious animal’s well being, even quipping:

“He’ll probably get eaten by a shark,” Gorman said. “But I’d rather have (the squid) die in the ocean where it’s supposed to.”

 Mr. Gorman and his companions have obviously never had fried calamari as an appetizer, or fettuccini tossed with sauted squid, garlic, and white wine.  How we as a species stay at the top of the food chain sometimes escapes me.

These are the same kind of people who get upset that a dog gets into a park and takes out some of the flying vermin, and will try to chase the geese out of the canine avenger’s path.  The people I hang out with get upset because the geese can’t be cleaned, plucked, marinated, and roasted after Rover chews on them.

Personally, I would have used that cooler to ice the son of a gun down and get him home quickly so that he could be used as an organic meat supplement for the family dinner.  But that’s just me.

From my wonderfully humorous Brother in Law, who advised me to not let Irish Woman see this one.  Caution – Salty Language ahead!

Before you ask, yes, that is what my home area in North Dakota looks like in January and February. And that is my definition of winter beauty.

If your doctor says that you shouldn’t eat 12 hours before surgery, then don’t eat or drink anything during the 12 hours preceding your scheduled surgery time.

Corollary:

If your child’s doctor, even if said child is 14 years old, tells you not to let him eat for 12 hours prior to surgery, don’t leave him alone with a box of donuts the morning of surgery.

While getting braces put on his teeth, Little Bear’s dentist noticed that he had an impacted molar that was coming in sideways behind his other molars.  Basically, his jaw isn’t big enough for all of his adult teeth.  A surgeon was consulted, who scheduled Little Bear for surgery to remove it.

Since he would be going under general anesthesia, we were advised that he could have no food or drink for 12 hours prior to his surgery appointment.

This morning, we all showed up at the hospital at 6:30 to get Little Bear registered and into the surgical ward.  Little Bear and his mother were driven by his grandmother, who we will call Medusa, because apparently having your ex-husband drive you and your son to the hospital makes too much sense.  But hey, why rob Medusa and me of a chance to sit across a room from one another and think hateful thoughts at each other?

Anyhoo, registration went quickly and we were escorted back to a small room where surgical prep began.  Little Bear changed into the normal gown, an IV was started, and we began the wait.  After the nurse, the anesthesiologist, the nurse anesthetist, surgeon, another nurse, another anesthesiologist, the janitor, the local representative of the forces of evil, his counterpart in the forces of good, two guys who were lost and looking for the shortest route to Las Vegas that didn’t go through bat country, and the doctor again all came through the area, asking us questions and having us fill out paperwork, we found out that we would be delayed an hour or so due to an emergency surgery that had bumped us.

Mind you, each of these people asked us if he had had anything to eat or drink since last evening, and Little Bear and his mother avowed that he had indeed fasted the prerequisite 12 hours.

Medusa and I stayed in our neutral corners.  I chatted with Little Bear, read several articles from a magazine with him, and did some web surfing on my phone.  Medusa came and went as she needed to find coffee, somewhere to smoke, a restroom, another smoke, more coffee, and another trip to the restroom.  Maybe somewhere in there she went off to terrorize a village or something.  Personally, I was hoping that someone would drop a house on her, but I digress.

After a couple of hours of waiting, the nurse anesthesiologist came in and administered the pre-surgery medications, including a good healthy dose of Versed.  Within a minute or two, Little Bear was quite relaxed and happy.  I can now say I know what signs to look for if he should ever try narcotics.  After another half hour or so of waiting, the charge nurse came in and did final prep for surgery.  As she was unhooking Little Bear from all of the room monitors and getting his IV and such ready for transport to the operating room, she went though all of the initial questions one more time:

What’s your name?
What are you here for today?
Do you have any allergies?
Have you had anything to eat or drink in the last 12 hours?

To the last question, Little Bear, still being stoned out of his gourd, replied “Nothing last night, but I had a piece of a donut this morning before we came to the hospital.”.

Needless to say, the surgery is being rescheduled.  A patient under general anesthesia has to be competely empty because if he were to vomit, he might asperate, causing pneumonia or death.

To say that I was irritated with my ex is an understatement.  Yes, he’s 14, and he should know better, but why even have donuts on the kitchen table when your son can’t eat?

Once Little Bear sobers up, I’m going to have a long talk with him about peronsal responsibility and why he shouldn’t do what he’s told not to.  I’m just glad that we were delayed long enough for the Versed to turn into a truth serum with him and that he fessed up before they put him under.

As for Medusa, I’m sorry to say that the sun wasn’t out today, so she didn’t melt into a pool of icor when she stepped outside.  Better luck next time, I guess.