Excerpt from, "Time to Fly Free”

"Today I will catch up on the things I need to complete. I will take notice of the things I've started, and I'll work toward. Have I been procrastinating? Have I been putting something off until later that I can do now? I will look at my list of their completion.

If I'm current with things I need to do, I can use this time to rest and do nothing responsibilities or suggested activities, and today I will begin - or complete - those things I said I would do later.

Today is about completion."

This is one of the daily readers I get via email from Hazelden. It’s ironic that it comes after a weekend of extremely hard work at home. I need to go back to work just to get rested up. Whew!!

Friday: Mowed the lawn, trimmed hedges, hacked away pesky Blackberry Bushes, dug up flower bed.

Saturday: I did a complete makeover in the garage, cleaning and rearranging.

Sunday: I spent 7 hours doing the same to the basement.

Monday: Have it all done so I can enjoy the upcoming vacation in August and what’s left of the summer weather here plus hearing the NFL lockout is over…PRICELESS!!

NPR "IS NOT" the way to start your day…

Every morning when I come home from work I tune in to NPR because it's the clearest FM radio station for morning news here. I more often than not have to quickly turn it off because their reporting is so biased and partisan it ticks me off to no end. Today was no expectation; it was a report first on how the GOP candidates for Pres had abandoned Cap & Trade (C&T) and Global Warming (GW) and second how all us doubters are morons for not buying it.

First they jumped on Romney, Pawlenty, Huntsman and even RINO McCain who's not even running for reversing their opinions on C&T and GW. Honestly I could care less that any of them have had a change of heart. Even if one of them gets in the White House and flip flop's back in favor of it, the congress and the voters will have none of it so it's academic.

Still NPR had to get their jabs in about how the GOP field is going right on these issues. Those potshots didn't bother me as much but the second report spent a great deal of time attempting to convince all us non-believers that we're uneducated idiots or misinformed about the science of GW. In the report they said and I'm paraphrasing now, "97% of scientists and scientists associations all agreed that GW is man made and that something must be done to curb it."

Now I've read many reports to the contrary, 97% is an inflated figured. The number is actually close to 50% to 60% of the scientists who actually have academic backgrounds in Meteorology who buy manmade climate change.

If you follow my page I've posted numerous studies and links from all over the world of scientists who claim the whole man made climate change issue is a farce and a fraud. The science isn't there to support it and the science these so called "experts" have used is data that has been reported to be falsified and compromised to convince all us "non-believers" that it is fact.

Now to get back to my original rant which is on NPR, once the White House and the Senate hopefully fall into the hands of the GOP in 2012 one of the first steps that must be taken is to defund NPR.

NPR clearly is not non-partisan in its reporting and never has been. Some would say it's a miniscule amount of money that is being used from the federal budget to fund NPR so why bother? It's the principle more than the money. Why should a single cent of the money I pay in taxes go to a mouth piece for every left wing cause there is that I'm strongly against? It has to stop NOW!! Too many brainless drones on the left follow the drivel on NPR and shallow it whole and NPR shouldn't be able to claim their some objective 3rd party.

As a consequence we have to battle even more of these 1960's Mother Gaya Eco-Marxists who want to finish off this country and this economy with this unproven crappola. We have to start back on the road to some sensible and realistic national energy policy that isn't going to throw us back to the Stone Age. Every day that NPR and their loyal Tree Hugging followers bang their drums and the EPA and the Obama Administration with their unelected Czars enforcing destructive environmental laws by executive fiat the country gets one step closer to a complete collapse.

NPR has "National" in its title but by no means is their reporting suited to a broad National audience. Let the rich and shameless left wing limousine liberals fund NPR on their dime and not mine. Those that feel as I do please keep writing your elected representatives so when the opportunity presents itself in 2012 we can finally at long last put an end to taxpayer funding of NPR.

Emerald City trip still glimmers

Funny how you begin a journey with an ultimate goal or destination in mind but that goal becomes secondary in the big scheme of things once you get there. Such is the case with me and the wife’s trip to Seattle earlier this month.

The goal was for us to both see U2 in concert for the first time having been big fans for over 30 years. Make no mistake the concert itself was fantastic, one for the ages to be sure but the mental images I have a few weeks later are less of the about the places and things we saw while we were there but all about the people.

13 years ago I couldn’t have said that when I drove a truck over the road (OTR) going through almost every major city and state in the U.S.  It was all about the business of making money back then with very little time for pleasure. I had been through Seattle several times on 1-5 on the way to somewhere else but never dipped down into the city limits.

I could have found a place to park my 18 wheeler and have a cab take me in but I never really felt like I had the time to give the city justice. I knew Seattle was and still is a special place and I didn’t want to cheapen it by taking the 10 cent tour. As an OTR Trucker, for me any way, the primary reason for doing the job in the first place was to make money. If the wheels of the truck aren’t rolling the dollar signs in the bank account remain static so during that time it was money first and pleasure second.

In 1999 they had Qualcomm for Truckers which was the first GPS systems installed in civilian vehicles but they were not as advanced as the dash board or cell phone technology of today. That said, I didn’t know enough about Seattle, nor did I have any close friends there at the time who could serve as a tour guide for me. So my only experience with Seattle was just driving through on I-5 and admiring her beauty from the Driver’s seat. So finally after years of waiting my boots would be on the ground in Seattle.

Kane made the visit special

My Stepson Kane Charlson is stationed in Seattle with the Coast Guard. So that was part of the reason we decided to take the train up there because we knew he could chauffeur us around the city. He knows the city fairly well so he took us right where we wanted to go quickly and easily so we could enjoy the sites without spending much time in a

car.

Kane was more than patient and was so accommodating and animated during our site seeing tours. He gave us the great recommendations for food, like Marination Station and the Portage Café.

He also took us to his place of work at the Coast Guard Base that’s right in the heart downtown Seattle. He showed us where he works and what his duties are at the base and he also humored us by going on a tour of the Polar Sea which is one of the Polar Icebreakers they used in Alaska to keep shipping lanes open in the winter. The Polar Ice was being decommissioned so we had a run of the mighty ship with only a few Coasties on it.

Kane also took us to the Olympic Sculpture Park, The Fremont Troll, Gas Works Park and he went on the “Ride the Ducks” tour with us which was one of the many highlights.

Kane is shy and was somewhat of an introverted person in his younger days but he’s blossomed and matured tremendously over the last several years. At one time he rarely spoke or shared his feelings about anything. On this visit he was smiling, laughing and was very engaging to be around. We spoiled him with meals and some other gifts and his appreciation showed. He sincerely had a great time with us and even though he had to work while we were there and he was tired he really make a big effort to indulge me and his Mom.

Kane has turned into a fine young man; he’s still a little rough around the edges but who isn’t at his age? All in all I’m very proud of him and what he’s done with his life so far. Thank you Kane for a great time, you’re the closet thing I’ve had to a Son and what a great Son you’ve become.

My Brother David and the U2 Concert

While I’m an encyclopedia of the NFL my kid Brother David Jacques is what you’d call an encyclopedia of concerts. I couldn’t tell you how many concerts he’s been to in his 40 years but more than he could probably count or remember himself.

It was the very cool to get to go to my first big arena concert with him. David loves music and it was so awesome to see him in the groove with the music. He was singing, clapping and pumping his arms up and down like the crazed rock fan that he is.

The Eats

Every place we ate was so great. The Bombay Grill in the University District was by far the highlight. It’s the best Indian food I’ve ever ate anywhere. The Jade Garden in Seattle’s version of Chinatown was just as good too. No offense to the people who live in Astoria but the Chinese Restaurants here are of a sub-standard lot. Nothing is as worse than below par Chinese food. I love Chinese so every chance I get to go to a big city such as Seattle or Portland I treat myself to it.

 The “Baltimore” Connection

One of the oddities of the trip to Seattle was just how many people we met from Baltimore. At least 7 people we met in our travels around the city had some connection to Baltimore. I’m still not sure what it means if it means anything but it was one of those weird coincidences that keep happening again and again. Soon Jenny and I were asking the people we met in casual conversation, “Are you from Baltimore?

 Jenny the Traveling Companion

The best part of all of course was getting a long overdue vacation with my beloved Jenny. Jenny is the definition of fun. She doesn’t hold to any special regimented course and is always spontaneous. She is always positive and smiling and her laughter which is continual always makes whatever we do a pleasure. She and I both have the ability to walk up to anyone and start a conversation and make a new friend. I adore these parts of her personality and it’s why each day I love her more than the last.

Before we left for Seattle I was very worried that since we had so many people to see and accommodate (Kane, David, her friends from Wyoming, Kane’s Aunt and Uncle etc.) that scheduling and time constraints would hamstring our own personal time together of the things we wanted to do. I was able to let go of that once we boarded the train to Seattle and decided this time not to be consumed with following a set of organized activities. If you know me personally you’ll know that I’m a highly organized individual who dislikes disorganization just about as much as any personal or business characteristic a person can have.

Letting go and letting God has been a tough credo to live by all of my life. But since I did on this trip everything seem to come together and all the worry I had about people, places and limited time was not even an issue. In the 3 full days we were there we had a hell of time and took in just as much as one could possibly hope to do in that time frame. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do or see but that will give us something to look forward to on the next trip to Seattle.

The Facts and Fiction about Japanese Internment Camps

Instead of just writing a piece about how unjust it was to intern the Japanese during WWII, which it was in hindsight, the writer: Matt Winters, Daily Astorian, 7/11/15, Editor's Notebook: 40 years later, memories of vanilla-flavored evil return piece makes an unsubstantiated claim through a 3rd person that 3 Japanese we’re taken out of the Heart Mountain camp and murdered. He was clearly attempting to lure the reader in with a false claim and shock journalism. He later goes on to discuss a photographer who had taken photos at the camp and also how many Japanese served in the military during WWII which are perfectly legitimate topics to remember about the Japanese Americans and the camps.

I grew up 15 minutes from Heart Mountain and know the history about the camp. Never, in all the years that I lived in Wyoming did one story surface about anyone being murdered. The 1st third of Winter’s story was devoted to the idea that the murders were feasible. Then later in the article he finally admits that he no evidence to support such a claim. Whether he believed the camps were right or wrong it’s not responsible journalism to write about hearsay, rumors nor attempt to paint a misleading picture.

He also wrote that 2 detainees were shot because they were attempting to escape. One he claims wasn’t trying to escape at all but even the evidence about that shooting is debatable. Even it wasn’t, if only 1 person was shot under mysterious circumstances that shouldn’t be an indictment of whole camp experience. A total of 260,000 Japanese were held in all the camps and during that time if only 1 individual was shot under questionable circumstance that’s far from barbaric behavior.

The camps should be a source of some American shame. Taking private property from the Japanese was outrageous. So was the detainment in hindsight but during that time period Americans had learned spies had helped contribute to the destruction of Pearl Harbor. That was an unprovoked act of mass murder and the fear about where American Japanese loyalty lied while overblown was a genuine concern.

Prior to WWII every race on earth had committed far more unacceptable acts of murder and torture during war time including the Japanese. Remember The Rape of Nanking?

The Americans provided food, shelter and none of the detainees were beaten, tortured or murdered. It’s important to remember they were released and did have the opportunity to assimilate back into American society. Many families became happy productive members of the Powell area after the war. Where are these stories?

No reasonable person can defend the camps but tabloid journalism shouldn’t be allowed to alter the facts about important historical events.

Laughing Loud about "Laughing Wild"

Jenny, our good friend Helen and I went to see Laughing Wild at the Pier Pressure Productions in Astoria last night. It was a great trip back to the late 80’s featuring a man and  woman each suffering from various neuroses while living in New York City. They dramatized the relevant personal and social issues of the time period in a very funny and intense way.


The Actors  William Hamm and Jenni Newton covered politics, religion, abortion, Aids, GLBT issues, and you name it ! A wide range of personal issues came into question like paranoia, anger, negative and positive karma, love, hate and more. I was really starting to worry how many times Bill hit the floor when the physical parts of the play demanded it. Hopefully Bill has a good chiropractor. He must have had some time as a Hollywood stunt man.

It was small live theater at its best painting realistic and poignant portraits of how to or how not to cope with the insecurities we all have in common. Taking in a live theater performance is a fantastic way to break away from the typical disappointment of today’s forms of movie and television entertainment. We enjoyed it immensely and we thank Bill, Jenni and the director, Susi Brown, for putting the time, energy and passion into a very enjoyable night out.

I wish I were...

I wish I were big enough to honestly admit all my shortcomings.

Brilliant enough to accept praise without it making me arrogant. 

Tall enough to tower over dishonesty. 

Strong enough to welcome criticism.

Compassionate enough to understand human frailties. 

Wise enough to recognize mistakes. 

Humble enough to appreciate greatness. 

Brave enough to stand by my friends. 

Human enough to be thoughtful of my neighbor. 

And spiritual enough to be devoted to the love of God.

Author unknown