other stuff

While everybody sends greetings out to all the people on their lists, most of whom they can’t remember how they ended up on this list in the first place, I’d like to send one out to a special breed of person: atheists.
I don’t hate atheists, I think it amazing somebody would play with their eternity like that and I like to think that I give them all a purpose because if there were no God, atheism would have nothing to deny.
School districts and universities along with government entities have become quite adept at removing “Christmas” from verbage in their never-ending quest for separation of church and state and self-appointed mission to cram their views down everybody’s throats. I’ve been writing the most vocal proponents of removing Christmas by telling them to really impress me – if they truly believe in their mission, then make a stand and earn my respect: Stop taking Christmas off. If there’s no God, and nothing to celebrate, stand by those words and send out a memo to your staffs and tell them you’re eliminating it as a holiday. You’ve spent so much time trying to cram your beliefs and views down our throat, this truly puts your money where your mouth is. You may have to deal with some of that unpleasant “Democracy” you probably heard about back in elementary school before you took on the role of Christmas Czar and imposed your beliefs on the rest of us. The unpleasant result will more than likely be being cast out of office, or having your employees vote with their feet.
Tell you what my atheist friend, I’ll make this easier: Even though you’ve used your constitutional rights to cram your views down the throats of those who do believe differently than you, I’ll give you partial credit and partial respect if just YOU don’t take “the holidays” off. The holidays came about as a result of the birth of Jesus Christ. You don’t believe in that – show us all by working through the holidays and living your beliefs, not being a hypocrite and taking the birth of our Lord off. Please send me a fax confirming that you are living your beliefs, I’ll celebrating the birth of our Lord and King – and both of us will be living our beliefs. That’s my gift to you.

…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY…

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS FROM 10 TO 14 INCHES ARE EXPECTED.

* WINDS AND VISIBILITY: NORTHEAST TO NORTH WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW…WHICH COULD REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN A HALF MILE AT TIMES. LOCALLY STRONGER GUSTS OF 30 TO 40 MPH ARE EXPECTED NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR.

* MAIN IMPACT: ACCUMULATING… AND BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL MAKE TRAVEL HAZARDOUS. BITTERLY COLD WIND CHILLS OF 15 TO 30 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW MEANS THE COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WILL CAUSE DANGEROUSLY LOW VISIBILITY AND DRIFTING SNOW. SNOW AND ICE COVERED ROADS…AND DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS CAN BE EXPECTED. DELAY TRAVEL IF POSSIBLE. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL…USE EXTREME CAUTION AND ALLOW EXTRA TIME TO REACH YOUR DESTINATION. BE AWARE THAT YOU MAY BECOME STRANDED AND THAT IT COULD TAKE MANY HOURS FOR HELP TO ARRIVE. KEEP A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT IN YOUR VEHICLE… INCLUDING A FLASHLIGHT…FOOD…AND WATER. LET SOMEONE KNOW YOUR TRAVEL ROUTE AND EXPECTED ARRIVAL TIME AND HAVE A WORKING CELL PHONE IN CASE YOU BECOME STRANDED.

November 30, 2008: It’s been a long holiday. Fortunately my brother stayed here until this morning. He was a constant companion and distraction, making sure to stay near when Kat was at work or in between chores, etc. We’re all doing about as good as can be expected given that Jordan wasn’t with us. We had big plans for this Thanksgiving. He was going to come visit for the weekend. We were going to play XBox 360 until our eyes were blurry. He spent his time after school most days in his deer stand. He was hopeful he’d get his deer by the time he was going to come visit and we were going to turn lots of the meat into jerky for him – most likely to have with then when he spent his days after school ice fishing. And our tradition since he was a little boy was late night turkey sandwiches. I’d always ask if he wanted mayo – he’d always politely tell me he liked his plain. I’d always tell him “you don’t know what you’re missing…” He’d always tell me he was fine missing it. We’d take our sandwiches into the living room and inevitably he would put his favorite movie in – “The Santa Claus”. We’d watch it for the thousandth time that visit. No matter how big and tough he got, he never lost the magic. He loved the outdoors. I didn’t get to see him much as he got older. Our schedules were insane, he was always busy. And now that I’ve seen all the people in his life, how loved he was…I understand more why now.

Jordan learned something I wish I had learned earlier on in life. I didn’t really learn it until the last couple of years, maybe even the last year or two. What Jordan learned early on was to live the moment you’re in. Live it fully and experience it. Be happy and just enjoy this moment. Most of us don’t do that. We say we do but we don’t. We’re busy emailing, texting, watching commercials, mentally somewhere else. Wherever we are, we’re anxious to get somewhere else. We rush the moment we’re in to get to the next moment where we impatiently wait to jump to the next. Thursday, November 13, 2008, at 6:15pm, I sat across from Jordan Lee at Outback Steakhouse. He had just turned 18 that Monday – and just gotten his grad pictures back which he brought for me. He talked most of the time, I listened. He talked of which colleges he had narrowed it down to. Asked what’s good here. Talked of ice fishing and hunting. How he was going to wait to get a job until hunting season was over. He asked about the farm, deer hunting in Wisconsin, this and that. He laughed, smiled and kidded. Never once did he look at or take out his cell phone for what must have been a zillion messages and texts waiting for his reply. He was living this moment. We went to Gander Mountain to buy his birthday presents – he chose ice fishing supplies. We shopped and talked. He was going to let me know if his ice fishing tent was warm enough with the small heater or if he needed that larger one – that was going to be his Christmas present. As we checked out, his gifts came to more than the ‘limit’. He suggested he put one of the two shirts he couldn’t decide between back. I told him to keep them both and it’s his birthday.

Not many can point to the exact time of their last communication between themselves and a loved one. I can. It occurred on November 13th via cell phone text messages, shortly after a father and son finished birthday shopping. Jordan was heading back to his home in Cloquet, and I was on my way back to my farm in Wisconsin. It went like this:

8:20pm: Happy birthday again Jord. I’m very proud of u and glad I got to see u
8:31pm: Yeah thanks for takin me shoppin. I had fun
8:32pm: Good i’m glad. Me too.

One night later and my son would no longer be here to text. I know that because I have checked my phone a thousand times. That last conversation is saved in my phone’s inbox. There won’t be any more texts from or to him but I still check. Just in case this was a horribly bad dream. So my advice to you is to fill somebody’s inbox right now. Say you’re sorry, say you miss them, say you love them, say hello. Make sure your last message sitting in someone’s inbox at 8:32pm or whenever is something you’re glad you told them.

Jordan.wav

Jordan\'s last voicemail letting Barb know where he was that afternoon after school, 11/14/2008

Gun History

After reading the following historical facts, read the part
about Switzerland twice.

A LITTLE GUN HISTORY
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control.. From 1929 to 1953,
about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated.

——————————

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million
Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

——————————

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total
of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were
rounded up and exterminated.

——————————
China established gun control in 1935. >From 1948 to 1952, 20 million
political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated

——————————

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. >From 1964 to 1981, 100,000
Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

——————————

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000
Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated

——————————

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million
educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

—————————–

Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century
because of gun control: 56 million.

——————————

It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by
new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their
own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500
million dollars. The first year results are now in:

List of 7 items:

Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.

Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.

Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the
criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in
armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the
past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is
unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the
ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public
safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was
expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns. The
Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.

You won’t see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians
disseminating this information.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes,
gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens

Take note my fellow Americans, before it’s too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them
of this history lesson.

With guns, we are ‘citizens.’

Without them, we are ‘subjects’.

During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew
most Americans were ARMED!

If you value your freedom, please spread this anti-gun control message
to all of your friends.

The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in
defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more
important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is
supplemental.

SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!

SWITZERLAND ‘S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.

SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY
CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!

IT’S A NO BRAINER!

DON’T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS
IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET.

I’m a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment!

If you are too,
please forward.

Just think how powerful our government is getting!

They think these other countries just didn’t do it right.

Learn from history.

2 years of life – work, marriage, ups and downs as you’ve seen throughout the past couple of years took its toll on me and one of the things thrown out was working out and fitness. Finally I got fed up with how I looked – particularly after seeing pictures of me from the Windchill BBQ – so I finally decided to honor that new year’s resolution to lose weight and get back into shape. So… though I had lost 4 pounds since the beginning of the year, that’s frustratingly slow ‘progress.’ I went out and bought an elliptical trainer the day after the BBQ weekend and started that day (August 21st) towards my goal of getting back into shape. Since that day I have carefully monitored my dietary intake and worked out as much as my body tolerated, stopping only because I know a body needs at least a day healing and recovery after several days of fairly intense workouts. The result? Since August 21st I have lost 6 pounds and dropped a pants size. I’m adding back in weight training so hopefully that will speed things up as well. The funny thing is as we get older – and slower – we also start to rationalize and explain it away and worse…accept that this is just how things are. It was that acceptance of mediocrity that caused something to snap inside me. I don’t accept mediocrity at work, I don’t accept it in the things I do – why should I accept it in me? So there. It was a private accountability to me – now I’ve aired it in public so you can harass me if I fall off the bandwagon as well. You won’t have to. I like being able to feel my muscles again, I like the energy boost and the feeling of strength returning. Here’s to seeing less of me.

You can watch the live action as we race to get things set up for the Windchill Memorial BBQ! The links are below:

Windchill Action Cams

Here I am along with Dr. Ken Ripp being interviewed about our new organization – Integrity Health Network.
Almanac North June 2010 <

Almanac North #1832 from Almanac North on Vimeo.

Hey guys,

I think the rest of the Windchill story that was scheduled to post at the same times the original post – all went into drafts from the end of February through March. I did it while I was really tired at night this year – so it was sort of true to form to the original posts – unintentionally! Sorry if you had been following it and they suddenly cut off. I published them all two minutes ago so they’re not in order but sometimes technology isn’t our friend…

Jeff

The dictionary defines the term “meteorologist” as:
1. One who studies meteorology.
2. One who reports and forecasts weather conditions.

What it fails to include is item number 3: A scientific sounding name for being wrong nearly 100% of the time.

Case in point – for the past couple of days these esteemed fortune tellers of the weather have been warning us about the impending big storm. Road plow crews were placed on 12 hour shifts, people were told to hoard their children, gather food, burn their paneling and furniture, be ready to eat their pets, save bottles of air for when our communities lay buried under an avalache of snow, starting Friday night snow was to begin to falling in amounts tantamount to biblical proportions, by Saturday we were told up to a foot of snow will have befallen us – for those of us who lived to see it Saturday night would see a lull and Sunday it was all to begin again, with another half foot predicted. This morning as I look out at the slightly overcast sky and wondered if I should sweep the few flakes that had apparently gotten lost and fallen on porch, I wondered how much these people are getting paid.
What a perfect job. Paid to be right or wrong in percentages. How safe would you feel if you settled into your seat on the aircraft to hear “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to welcome you aboard Snafu Airlines Flight 911, I’m your Captain, Allis Lost. Today there’s a 10% chance we’ll be cruising at 35,000 feet, with 70% chance of arriving safely at our destination…” Or go to the dentist to be told there’s a “40% chance I’m about to drill into the correct tooth, with an 80% chance of success (and that remaining 20% chance of accidentally drilling through your jaw)…”

“Yes sir, and how would you like that done? Medium rare? Well there’s a 70% chance you’ll be able to survive eating it without salmonella or some other horrible fate befalling you, and what would you like to drink with that last meal?…”

Or in my job, wonder how long my board of directors would keep me employed if I told them there’s a 60% chance we’ll be in the black next week, or telling staff there’s a 40% chance they won’t have a job if I screw up some other percentage. A large part of my job is forecasting, sometimes up to 1, 2 and 3 years out. If I screw it up, people lose jobs so there’s not this little comfortable “30% chance”. I’d imagine you probably have a job that requires some degree of accuracy in what you do – are you able to come within 20% and call that accurate and keep your job? So why do we give these chronic liars a scientific sounding title like “meteorologist?” Why aren’t they called weather fortune tellers? Guess I’d better go sweep up the few flakes from the perfect storm and let the animals know they’re safe, I don’t need eat them today.

YES! I survived the week… Weekend plans include holding up behind locked doors, peeking out from behind closed blinds with a suspicious look at everyone that approaches and yelling obscenities at passing wildlife.