Go Crazy Folks!

Sooooooo.... we are happy? Yes we are. The Cardinals, those sad sack losers of the Central Division, mismanaged every year by idiot Tony La Russa and constantly battling between winning and penny pinching short sighted management, pluckily scrap their way into the National League Championship series. Right? No, it is not THAT feel good story.

Our feel good story had an underrated team suffer through a series of major injuries keeping it’s act together and then regrouping, rebuilding, supplementing it’s roster with key additions as the fans once again just kept showing up. This is a great story.

Ownership A
Management A
Team Heart A
Fan Support A

That is a nice report card. Maybe because of the Chris Duncan distraction management only gets a B+. These guys are good and in the second half of the season they dominated. They have been somewhat average down the stretch when facing motivated teams and quality pitching and have not been scoring enough but they already had it locked up.

So I worry about our ability to hit good pitching. I worry about our closer’s head (as you always need to worry about a closer’s head) and I look at all the talent and all the heart and well... it is great that they brought us here.
Let’s enjoy the distraction.

Erata: Shitmydadsays, Sonny Rollins

Sooooo lets take a break from ranting about what is wrong with government, Obama, our political system, the Christian right/big business (unholy alliance), the medical industrial complex, our legal system...and of course me. The Diner Review has lost it’s way with no Diner Reviews in...well a long, long time. Very sad. I had intended to watch the Lutheran South Lancers battle there perennial enemy the Lutheran North Crusaders. Normally over the last 30 years or so North has romped but this year North is 0-4 and South is 1-2 and well.... who knows? But it rained so I am home watching “Jerry Mc Guire”. The movie that asks the fundamental question “did you shoplift the pootie”.

Speaking of excellent quotes I am insisting that everyone who cares about me go to the Twitter site http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays . The feed is just this guy named Justin who lives with his dad and posts things that his dad says on his feed. I will not steal the brilliance too much but I will give you this:
"I'm sitting in one of those TGI Friday's places, and everyone looks like they want to shove a shotgun in their mouth."
This is my gift to you.

***
So last week my wife left me (it happens more and more frequently and for greater and greater duration) to go work at a charity auction. Feeling sorry for myself (another typical state) and I saw that Sonny Rollins was coming to The Blanche Touhill performing arts center. I had never seen Sonny Rollins and I had never seen the Touhill. I have an excellent (if deeply troubled friend) who has three talented children who are all musicians and he is a jazz aficionado and so I inquired whether he was going which led to:

1. Him paying for me to go
2. Him driving
3. Him offering me his umbrella
4. Him purchasing really expensive first row seats; and
5. A reallyunbelievable night.

The Touhill is unbelievable. I felt like I was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They did the right thing and instead of making it like “The Family Arena” they made it like “The Fox”. The place seats about 1600 people. http://www.touhill.org/building.html Very cool and we were ushered to these first row seat and the only microphone on stage is 5 feet in front of me. The crowd was inspiring all in itself. We always talk about diversity in this town but I was amazed at the age and racia diversity in the front row and looking around it was more of the same. You do not see a lot of this in St. Louis (none in my experience).

I do not have a great appreciation for Jazz. I like almost all music (Really have no appreciation for classical and opera) but Jazz has eluded me to a large part. In college and shortly thereafter I had a Sonny Rollins CD, several Thelonius Monk CD’s, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, some Coletrain but most of it is just for show. Very few songs made a mix CD and rarely were played other then background music in my house. It is for me an embarrassment because I know how important Jazz is to all the music I like and it is cool and I should like it more.

Rollins occupies a rare place in the pantheon. He is 79 years old. Started playing professionally when he was 18 and played with everyone. Developed a nice heroin habit, got arrested in 1950 for armed robbery, went to Rikers and cleaned up in methadone program and since then he (other then a couple of 10 year sabbaticals has been playing ever since. He is a bucket list musician for me (there are still several on the list like Van Morrison and Tom Waits) but I want to see guys like this before they die. I did some homework, (checked his Wikipedia page) and listened to “A Night At The Village Vanguard” and went.
He waddles out... or more kindly shuffled. I had been prepared for this. He said a few words and started. I think he played 8 or 9 songs but played for well over 2 hours. He had an awesome band consisting of a conga player, drummer, guitarist, bassist and trombone. It was awesome watching them each take turns on the lead and take solos and he was with them the whole way and lead for most of it. I cannot imagine having the wind to play that long at my age. It was kind of like going to church for me. I focused, I grooved, I zoned in and out, I occasionally got antsy and bored but for the most part it washed over me. It was an awesome experience.

It was another chance to focus on how blessed I am. T think about all the beauty and fun I have not even found yet. Thinking about having nice friends and spending a significant bit of time thinking about all the shit Sonny Rollins has seen in his 79 years. I will not see as much. That might be a good thing. But boy could be play.

Why Are We So Angry? Maybe "WE" Are Not

So we have a continuing theme of anger in our country and it seems to at the current administration. The Tea Party people, the Christian right and the “conservatives” all will tell you it has nothing to do with “the President” but the policies AND with the people who are “the system”.

Where is anger at people and administration who brought us here? It is non existent. And it should be. Bush is done. Even Cheney is done. But their cobbled constituency of the biggest American Corporations and Banks and the radicalized evangelical community remains as an incredibly solid base of 20% of the electorate and a boat load of money. These loud, angry people are controlling the debate. They are “motivated”. When engaged what they are motivated to do it is to tell the government to “just stop”. I understand the sentiment but once again where were you for the last 8 years? The government is a big ship that is hard to turn and momentum in any direction is hard to stop. We headed down this road for the last 30 years which were great years. Reagan and Clinton and Bush’s dad ran us down the path that unbridled capitalism (funded by government in many cases) will solve all problems and that government debt has no consequences. Unfortunately we all suspect that Obama will accelerate that process but be clear, Obama has not spent a penny of our money yet. Our deficits and indeed this budget are all creatures nurtured by our past “leadership”. But we have stuff like this going on:

PHOENIX (AP) — About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Good stuff!














I have really appreciated the few Republicans who have said “Elections have consequences.” This guy was elected by a large majority. He was never unclear about what he wanted for healthcare and America spoke that this was “change” they wanted. When faced with being frightened regarding how the details might effect them they have reacted like everyone would and are saying “whoa”. I know the system is broke and cannot be fixed but do not change it if it is going to effect me. We elect people at times for the purpose of forcing us to do unpleasant things and putting a bullet through the head of our current healthcare/industrial complex might be one of those things. Our country voted hugely for change and groups of vocal people, peacefully assembling while carrying guns to meetings and asserting their rights have hijacked that majority will. I have not seen a single tea party member who has said, “I voted for Obama and I made a mistake”. It is important to note that literally tens of thousands of Americans have joined these peaceful/angry/reasonable/spontaneous/coordinated by Limbaugh, Beck and FOX demonstrations. According to the census bureau there are approximately 307,500,013 of us in the United States which means that as many as 307,400,013 have not yet joined these citizen revolts. But you wouldn't know it to watch ANY cable news.

What about racism? Seriously? This is a meaningless discussion. We are NOT a post-racial society and will not be in my life. It is a fact that many of us are VERY uncomfortable having a black liberal as a President. Some of us have let this color and exacerbate our basic opposition to his policies. This is a fact. Live with it. People are human. I do, when watching FOX hearken back to the days when you were a traitor and a commie under the sacrosanct rule (when Bush was President) to "Never Criticize a sitting President at a time of war." And so i not be remiss. Lets talk about ACORN. This organization was originally a good idea. They have blown it and are done. No matter what an organization has stood for you cannot be "entrapped" into the type of stupidity they have and not have organizational accountability for your employees. They as I said are done. I do note with interest that the same cannot be said for pro life organizations when there members kill people. They cannot be blamed for the crazies among them.

This was of course stupid then and it is stupid now. But where from the Christian right is the basic moderator of their faith? Of our faith? Of MY faith? Jesus lived under an oppressive totalitarian regime. In all the Gospels other then "render unto ceasar..." he didn't say squat about it. he wanted his disciples to focus on healing people, helping people and moving them to faith and to concentrate on the higher things. There is this guy who wrote a lot. St. Paul. He wrote a lot of letters to people in strife and dissension. On such group was the Phillipians. They were a generous people and this was a letter of spiritual encouragement. Paul said "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

So where does that leave us? Well, perhaps all of us are NOT that angry. perhaps by watching Glenn Beck, exchanging email forwards that mock the President, all just reinforce our feeling that EVERYONE feels this way. Maybe talking to people who agree with us and do not challenge our vitriol (especially from a Christian perspective) is self reinforcing of our anger. Perhaps we ought to read a book. Maybe some fiction or maybe even better some American history. because one of the other things that really saddens me is the lack of confidence the angry people have in the greatest Democracy in the free world. Every President, from Lincoln to Obama had been accused by some segment of the country in undercutting and imperiling our Democracy. They have not succeeded in doing it yet. This guy will not be the one to get it done either.

When we are talking about healthcare, government, or our brothers and sisters in the human race... think upon these things. INDEED.

Here was a thoughtful rant on healthcare from an unexpected source, my favorite singer songwriter James Mc Murtry. A tax paying Texan. http://blurt-online.com/blogs/view/2781/

The Northern Michigan Circle

Soooooo....Northern Michigan. What is it that leads me there? It is a destitute area. They have tourism...for a few months. They have fruit. They have a lot of water between Michigan, Huron, about 1000 in land lakes and a couple of rivers. It is not particularly perfectly beautiful. The soil is bad, sandy soil. There are some beautiful panoramic lake views but away from the lake... not so much. I guess we come for the people but even the town of Arcadia does not have that much (anything) beauty to offer.

When we were up there for Labor Day we had time to kill. Arcadia is on a little Highway called M-22. It breaks off of 31 down north of Manistee and then goes up on the edge of Lake Michigan to Onekama, Arcadia, Frankfort, Glen Harbor, Leland and Northport and then goes south along Grand Traverse Bay dead south...through Suttons Bay and ending in Traverse City where it finishes into 31 again. Our friends at Wikipedia have this to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-22_(Michigan_highway)
M-22 has it’s own conservation society and the M-22 logo is showing up on all kinds of hats, shirts and stickers and I have sported more then a few of them. They are raising money in order to preserve certain parts of the unspoiled beauty along the road. There has been some spoilation by things like the Arcadia Bluff’s Golf Course which was carved (butchered) out of the dunes.

I had never driven M-22 it’s full length from Manistee to Traverse City and we had time and it seemed like an adventure so....off we went. As you head north from Arcadia you cruise through Frankfort which is slightly upscale for Northern Michigan but not too much so. A couple trendy restaraunts and artsy stores. It sits on Crystal Lake and Lake Michigan and the Betsie River dumps into Frankfort Bay and Lake Michigan. You head north from there and you hit two little communites of Million dollar homes on Crystal Lake which glints shiny blue through the yards.

You cruise under a canopy of trees and enter The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and you stay there for most of the rest of the way north. It is pretty sweet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Bear_Dunes You pass over the Platte River and thenhead up to Empire which is a sweet little beach town with an average burger bar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire,_Michigan Empire gives way to a pretty rolling drive up to Glen Harbor where you get your first feeling of a little Michigan town that is totally in love with itself. Glen Arbor has the Cherry Republic which is a tourist trap trading on the cherry theme and you can get cherry clothes and cherry salsa and spit cherry pits and well, it bores me to tears. It does have two things which make it a great stop though. One is Arts Pub which has a sweet college and sports theme. http://www.artsglenarbor.com/ and The Cottage Book Shop. Arts has the best hamburgers I have found in northern Michigan. Just the right thickness, juicy and hot. I would of liked to have had a beer but...I had miles to go. The book store just has a nice eclectic selection and also carries a lot of local authors like Jim Harrison who writes nice books that seem to feature northern michigan people. If you are bored you can back track a mile and hit Glen Haven which also has a nice beach and a light house.

Youhead north or actually East from there on the West Harbor Highway and then it takes you eventually to Leland. Leland is the premier Artsy/Fishing/rich people coming to spend the summer place I have seen. The fishing village has a lot of boats and charter fishing and you can head out to North Manitou or South Manitou Island. I will do that sometime. Evidently therer is not much out there anymore. We went to an Art Fair they were having and walked around the wharf and I bought a cigar at a (the) grocery store there. Aside from having an impressive wine selection, the grocery store was....crap. As a tourist destination though the place was top notch. Lake Leelanau is a huge inland lake and it drains over a nice fall which runs under Highway 22. Plenty of outdoor dining and plenty of stuff to walk around and see.

From there you head north to Northport which we had been warned was nothing but proved to be... the Northport of the peninsula. Once again a nice beach. Once again a nice beach and really nice old town. I will need to go check that out some time in more depth too. I was a little sad and wished we could have stayed a little but it was time to head south as this was the northern nexus or our trip.

From there is was just a beautiful trip south down the west arm of the Grand Traverse Bay through Ahgosatown, Omena, Peshawbestown (seriously) and Suttons Bay. You drive almost the whole way south on 22 with the bay out on you left and it ispretty awesome to see. As you get closer and closer to Traverse City the boats get thick and then just as suddenly as you started you hit the intersection with 72 and 31 and you are in downtown Traverse. Time for a Bell’s Oberon at the U and I Lounge.

Still Ending Summer: Labor Day Weekend in Michigan

Soooo....end of summer REDUX! Just when you think it is really over... you go Northern Michigan for a long Labor Day weekend. We decided since our daughter wanted to work at camp for end of season when they never have enough staff that we should go up and hide for a weekend. Listening to the church bells chime at Trinity in Arcadia at 7 on Sunday night toking on a little cigar I bought up in Leland, reminds me that tomorrow we have to head back home for a violent 9 hour drive that will truly, and finally be “THE END OF SUMMER!”

This was a good trip. When i say we came up to hide I mean it in the truest of senses. We always know a lot of people up here during the summer but the end of summer, we knew only one couple at camp and only a few of the kids working. Very little pressure to socialize. So we did not.

We left Thursday afternoon after school and got in at 1:30 A.M. Friday morning which means we woke up here which is always good. It got down to about 50 over night and we were already avoiding rain at home. Win/Win. Friday was a slow day. breakfast with Laura up in Elberta and then getting laura settled in on staff. We then went and picked Blackberries There is something about picking your own that makes me feel... like an illegal immigrant. We got our fill and later on had dinner up at a place called The Manitou a little north of Crystal Lake. It was average. We came and went and looked around camp, saw our daughter briefly and went to the Big Apple bar and sat alone in the place with the owner watching Detroit come back and beat the brewers splitting a pitcher of Bud. Not a bad day.

Friday dawned early with a hangover. It started the same way every day up here does for me including yesterday which is to get up, feed the dogs, let the dogs out, let the dogs in, load the dogs in the car and go to the gas station to get the Traverse City paper. Unlike yesterday, today I made breakfast and then ate and read the paper. We then took a long walk around town, through the woods, out on the point and even a little beach walk. The I had to go over and help a retired Lutheran Minister trim his trees. I held the latter as he wielded a chainsaw over my head cutting branches. Fortunately he could only get a few and I dissuaded him from using the ladder to get up on the roof. No one died or broke a hip.

Continuing Friday we decided to take a canoe float. Everyone from Arcadia goes and floats the lower Platte which lazily meanders down from Platte Lake through Loon Lake to Lake Michigan but it is slow, boring and I have done it at least 10 times now. Feeling adventerous we decided to float the middle of The Betsie River which meant driving to Thompsonville. We went to a camp ground which contained primarily bikers and then got in the 15 passenger van (illegal everywhere now I thought) and were dropped off with our canoe at a road overpassing the Betsie in the middle of no where.

Once we were dumped with our canoe we started down the Betsie. It is supposed to be one of America’s premier trout streams but they had also warned us that in a week the sakmon would be running so thick up stream that they would be an obstacle. Hard to imagine. The river trends toward narrow and winds around like a snake. It also has a lot of obstacles in the form of trees and dead falls. Also, when it gets narrow it can get fast. It was a very tough float but we were all alone and din’t see a sole. It was probably too much a float for our skill level. We never tipped but we upended three times and ended with a lot of water in the canoe and a very sore butt. We left there getting done with the two and a half hour float in about two hours. It was bee-utiful.

We left there and attemoted to go to a bar our son had recomended. It was “The Laughing Pony” in Thompsonville. It had thiry motor cycles in front of it. We passed. Still soaked from the canoe float we decided to go to the Manistee County Fair! I had never been to a county fair. I had been to a State Fair and it was cool. Lots of really big pigs and really good (bad) food. What I learned was that county fairs, though amusing briefly in a sad, dirty kind of way, really suck. Some rides more suitable to a bad Catholic grade school picnic. A few BAD food booths (cold pizza, funnel cakes, coney dogs, I think that was about it.) a booth full of 4-H exhibits (and what not), two barns full of animals (the pigs were not that big) and that was about it. After my cold slice of pizza the most interesting thing was they had little kids peddling tricycles and pulling sleds with the big moving weight like a tractor pull. Their parents and other onlookers cheered the straining youths on and it was... creepy.

In our next installment....Highway 22 and the Michigan Circle! Wait for it... wait for it....

Endless End Of Summer: GOOD MAGIC

But what about the good magic. Our Cardinals finally lost on last week but not by much. They were in it till the end. The night before that Pinero pitched a great game and the night before Wainright and Franklin protected a one run lead. How sweet is that. magine what might happen if they start to hit again with the starting pitching we hve now and the closer Franklin. I am starting to wear my Cardinal hat every day. Breaking it in for the playoffs and beyond. The town has a buzz and you grab your sports page every day just to read some new details. It makes mornings better. And a lot of nights there is a game to go to or one on TV and you get to see if they are going to find a way to win again while the Cubs find another way to lose. The poor Cubs. It is like slow moving death to watch it. But we come here not to bury the Cubs because they have buried themselves. 11 1/2 f=games out. Seriously.... how does that happen?
Smoltz
Carpenter
Wainright
Pinero
Somebody
Ryan Franklin could stop a freight train.
It is time for us to make that run boys and girls. Something good can happen and possibilities are endless. Be afraid Philadelphia... be very, very afraid.
****
The Tigers...blistering....humiliating...emasculating the Illini. I would say that is looks good for Mizzou but Illinois (and the Big Ten on the whole) were so bad on opening day that no conclusions could be drawn. Sam Bradford going down looks like a break but it looks like he will be back by the time they finish their patsy schedule. Still it is fall and we can dream. 37-9. Wow.
****
I have the benefit of knowing a lot of talented people. On of them is Dan Kukla. Check out his Blog and see what he has to say. He is going to graduate in December with a journalism degree from Miami of Ohio or Miami University or whatever the hell they call it now. He wrotes about the dreaded red Hawks with a passion. he also has written about his summer mission trip to Vietnam. I cannot read too much about the red Hawks but he did have coffee with Joe Buck and I like to read what he writes. Check it out. he writes well. Sometimes it makes me smile.

Endless End Of Summer: Black Magic

Sooooo I guess I am sidelined by this “end of summer” jag. Since we cannot go to the beach with Annette Funicello I guess we are just going stay here and see if August, and now September finally turns into the hot, humid, nightmarish St. louis summer that makes it what we call HOME! There are two things on my mind today. They seem like the end of something and the beginning of something. Some good magic and some black magic but magic never the less.

Jeff Smith and Steve Brown did the perp walk this last month. I do not know Smith other then he was the “rising star” youngster in the state Democratic ranks. That was last week. This week he is a felon waiting to be sentenced. Steve Brown is in the same boat. It is a bad boat. Brown is a long time acquaintance. He used to be a U-Club member with me and had a nice squash game. He is a life long public servant. He was a State Senator. Smith was a State Representative. They have both resigned. Somehow they were involved with distributing a flyer smearing Carnahan who was running against Smith for Congress. They didn’t own up to it and then.... wait for it... wait for it... covered it up. Lied about their involvement to the investigators and then The FBI.

I like Steve Brown. I think of him as a good person and when he was working for the State AG’s office he helped me out once or twice with clients demystifying the process for me. Picturing this nice, helpful public servant, putting himself in a position where he was forced to wear a wire to get his friends... makes me sweat. He and Smith and their story, hammer home one of my least favorite life lessons which is regarding mistakes and perhaps (gasp) prove me wrong. I have come to believe that I am only two mistakes away from having to move into my parents basement. They might not have a basement much longer. I also believe I am three (bad or stupid) mistakes away from jail. It appears (once again) that my math is wrong. It only takes two bad mistakes to go to jail. These guys illustrate that. Not bad guys, just a little bad judgment, a little not owning up to it and a lot of bad luck to go with it.

Unfortunately the same rules seem to apply to all aspects of life. Marriage, job, parenting,friendships. When you lose focus (and we all do) you screw up. We look at people like Jeff and Steve and say to ourselves that they were bad people or hopeless screw ups but the fact is that they were just people... like us. As much as it pains me the same is true for Mark Sanford and all the rest.

There but for the grace of God.... Go I. And it could happen to me tomorrow. And maybe you too. So do not be too smug about our latest felons. Say a prayer for these guys, light a candle for them and show the grace you hope people will show you and yours when the screw up. But don’t expect a lot from them. That is the Black magic that haunts me at end of summer.