Country living has made several impressions on me these past weeks. The funniest story comes from a friend of ours who had an interesting conversation with another woman about how they both went to a wedding where the couple and all guests attending wore camo! The conversation went something like the following:
Woman 1: " I went to a wedding where everyone wore camo!
Woman 2: " So did I! .. were we at the same wedding"
(At this point they both realized it was in fact NOT the same wedding and that two camo weddings had happened in the same area in the same year)
Woman 1: "Well at my wedding they had the ceremony in a deer stand!" (The apparatus used to secure one to a tree when deer hunting)
Woman 2: "Oh yeah? Well at my wedding the bride and groom rode away on a 4 wheeler!"
Woman 1: (here comes the trump card) "Well, at my wedding, the groom's father had passed away in the last year. So as a memorial to him, after the ceremony, they shot his ashes out of a shot gun!"
This is by far the funniest episode I have been privy to thus far. But rural Illinois isn't all deer stands and shotgun dedications. The area has a certain charm to it. Last weekend, Amanda and I went to a trivia night at the local Knights of Columbus hall. At a trivia night, various families from around the area get a table together. Then an announcer reads off 10 rounds of 10 questions each to the audience. Each table bans together in an attempt to answer as many questions as possible. All the money goes to charity and everyone eats snacks and drinks bad beer including but not limited to PBR and Coors Light. It was great to hang out with the folks. People who get dressed up for goin' out on a Friday after a week of real hard work.
I have also been running again, which after 3 weeks is finally starting to feel good. Today was my first 3 mile run of the training that made me feel good. I do get more odd looks from the locals who wonder who this nut job is running in 15 degree weather. But I also get a good amount of waves.
I love the sunsets and the quiet snow falls on the country roads with no one around for miles. I love the tractors on the roads and the abundance of individuals wearing Carhartt overalls. No one drives foreign cars and no one is impolite. In short, I am enjoying living here. The place has a beauty that I can't quite explain. Not like mountains or rivers or woods. It's more subtle, more quiet and secluded. It's not grand but it feels more like your own, more like home. It's a beautiful place to be from.
Cheers.
"Oh, to be home again.
Down in ole' Virginie.
With my very best friend.
They call him rag time Willie.
I can't wait just to sniff that air.
To dip that snuff I won't have no care.
That big rockin' chair won't go no where."
-The Band
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Crisis
"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."
--Rahm Emmanuel
"Crises have long been seen as great opportunities to expand the federal government's power while the people are too scared to object and before any opposition can get organized."
--Thomas Sowell
Also, more on the the culpability and responsibility of the deranged Catholic Obama-voter.
--Rahm Emmanuel
"Crises have long been seen as great opportunities to expand the federal government's power while the people are too scared to object and before any opposition can get organized."
--Thomas Sowell
Also, more on the the culpability and responsibility of the deranged Catholic Obama-voter.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Let the Change Begin
For all of the Catholics who voted for the current president under the false assumption that his administration would bring about a positive environment of 'change' and 'hope' - your foolishness and manipulated notions have been actualized. The decision enacted this week will funnel hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money to the direct killing of the unborn under the guise that an abortion is a 'basic health care need' .
During the Bush administration, President Bush was heralded as a great humanitarian on the continent of Africa because no longer did Africans have to kill their unborn children to receive U.S. funding for health care as they had to under Clinton. Yesterday, in a 'quiet' proclamation from the White House, our taxes have been made available to be spent on abortions around the world.
Clearly, the time of change has come. Due to the majority of voters, and the majority of Catholic voters in our country, we are now funding with taxes the killing of the innocent on a grander scale.
If such a 'quiet' and disastrously destructive decision can be made by one man in the first week of his administration, just imagine the endless possibilities of four years of such decisions.
During the Bush administration, President Bush was heralded as a great humanitarian on the continent of Africa because no longer did Africans have to kill their unborn children to receive U.S. funding for health care as they had to under Clinton. Yesterday, in a 'quiet' proclamation from the White House, our taxes have been made available to be spent on abortions around the world.
Clearly, the time of change has come. Due to the majority of voters, and the majority of Catholic voters in our country, we are now funding with taxes the killing of the innocent on a grander scale.
If such a 'quiet' and disastrously destructive decision can be made by one man in the first week of his administration, just imagine the endless possibilities of four years of such decisions.
Quote of the day:
A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa, treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at will.
--Eric HofferSaturday, January 17, 2009
The Wisdom of Professor Sowell
This is a wonderful article from one of our country's smartest men, Professor Thomas Sowell of Stanford's Hoover Institute.
I find it particularly interesting after a day of frustrating and fruitless job searching.
I find it particularly interesting after a day of frustrating and fruitless job searching.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Random Thoughts
-Have you ever considered how disgusting the water is in a bobbing for the apple dunk tank? Come to think of it, any dunk tank really.
-President Bush will be beloved by this time two years from now.
-The priest who will be saying our wedding mass has a relic from Padre Pio ... a lock of beard hair!
-I would never live in New York city, unless death was the only other option. What a dump.
-The generation of our parents is the generation that had been to the Communion rail and now forgets why it's important to go. Our generation is becoming the one that hasn't been to the Communion rail but yearns to go, and now is beginning to.
-I love living in a town where everyone knows what "The new Casey's" is but also long for a town with a good cup of coffee.
-That scene from E.T. the movie in the corn traumatized me for about 8 years.
-After not running for a while, it takes 3 weeks of full running to get to the point where I enjoy it again.
-At the local grocery store, I contemplated buying a 24 pack of "Stagg" beer because there was a 1/6 chance to win a Stagg camouflage hat.
Cheers.
Quote of the Day:
Charles Foster Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Thatcher: Don't you think you are?
Charles Foster Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
Charles Foster Kane: Everything you hate.
-President Bush will be beloved by this time two years from now.
-The priest who will be saying our wedding mass has a relic from Padre Pio ... a lock of beard hair!
-I would never live in New York city, unless death was the only other option. What a dump.
-The generation of our parents is the generation that had been to the Communion rail and now forgets why it's important to go. Our generation is becoming the one that hasn't been to the Communion rail but yearns to go, and now is beginning to.
-I love living in a town where everyone knows what "The new Casey's" is but also long for a town with a good cup of coffee.
-That scene from E.T. the movie in the corn traumatized me for about 8 years.
-After not running for a while, it takes 3 weeks of full running to get to the point where I enjoy it again.
-At the local grocery store, I contemplated buying a 24 pack of "Stagg" beer because there was a 1/6 chance to win a Stagg camouflage hat.
Cheers.
Quote of the Day:
Charles Foster Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Thatcher: Don't you think you are?
Charles Foster Kane: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Thatcher: What would you like to have been?
Charles Foster Kane: Everything you hate.
Monday, January 12, 2009
A long awaited announcement!
I am pleased to announce to the Hotter than New Love Nation that Ms. Amanda Crane and I got engaged on the 30th of December!
We went to daily mass at 7 a.m. at St. John Cantius in Chicago, the wind was blowing fiercely and the church was warm and the mass beautiful. After mass we knelt down in front of the nativity scene and prayed silently for a few moments. I remember looking up at the holy family, particularly at St. Joseph and meditated, as I had so continuously for the past 6 months or so, on what it meant to be a father and a husband. His face looked stern, concerned, and compassionate. He did what had to be done, out of love, for his family ... at any cost. He was totally devoted and chaste. His entire purpose was to nourish and supply for the Holy Family. And it was in front of the Holy Family that I asked. And she said yes!
The ring I rescued from the people's republic of Portland. It is a 1930's vintage art-deco ring. It is entirely hand crafted. The white gold arches and delicate buttress-like supports on the side of the ring lead up to the hand cut circular diamond, perfectly cut to reflect every bend of light.
I had a conversation with Aaron Berlin, my former master, expert winemaker and friend asked me, "So you spent most of the money you earned in the long harvest, working the night shift 15 hours a day on a ring?"
"...Yeah" I replied.
"Cool!" he said.
After over 16 months of my rambling and wandering I have finally come home to Illinois to be near the Amanda and the Crane family. We have already begun wedding plans and are looking intently and anxiously to the future. Your prayers and telephone calls are greatly desired!
Cheers!
We went to daily mass at 7 a.m. at St. John Cantius in Chicago, the wind was blowing fiercely and the church was warm and the mass beautiful. After mass we knelt down in front of the nativity scene and prayed silently for a few moments. I remember looking up at the holy family, particularly at St. Joseph and meditated, as I had so continuously for the past 6 months or so, on what it meant to be a father and a husband. His face looked stern, concerned, and compassionate. He did what had to be done, out of love, for his family ... at any cost. He was totally devoted and chaste. His entire purpose was to nourish and supply for the Holy Family. And it was in front of the Holy Family that I asked. And she said yes!
The ring I rescued from the people's republic of Portland. It is a 1930's vintage art-deco ring. It is entirely hand crafted. The white gold arches and delicate buttress-like supports on the side of the ring lead up to the hand cut circular diamond, perfectly cut to reflect every bend of light.
I had a conversation with Aaron Berlin, my former master, expert winemaker and friend asked me, "So you spent most of the money you earned in the long harvest, working the night shift 15 hours a day on a ring?"
"...Yeah" I replied.
"Cool!" he said.
After over 16 months of my rambling and wandering I have finally come home to Illinois to be near the Amanda and the Crane family. We have already begun wedding plans and are looking intently and anxiously to the future. Your prayers and telephone calls are greatly desired!
Cheers!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
oops
Another prominent demmie indicted recently. Apparently corruption is not limited to our grand state. See the article here.
The funniest thing to me about this story and the Blagojevich story is how the media hardly ever says "democrat" Rod Blago, or "democrat" so and so is indicted on counts of X and Y. But whenever a republican runs into trouble, you can never hear their name without "republican" in front of it. The article above doesn't mention the word democrat until the fourth paragraph.
After Blagojevich was impeached I thought it was quite hilarious reading the comments from the one person in the Illinois house who voted against impeachment.
This from CBS:
"The one lawmaker voting against impeachment was Rep. Milton Patterson, a Chicago Demorcrat who represents the South Side. Rep Elga Jefferies, also a Chicago Democrat, voted present.
Patterson said he wasn't defending anyone, but that he read the impeachment committee's report and wasn't comfortable voting against the governor. "I have no firsthand knowledge of any of the evidence," he said.
'I went by my own gut feeling, it's as simple as that,' he said. 'I read the report. If the government is going to indict him, let them go ahead and do that. That's their job and I'm doing my job.'"
CBS also noted - quite accurately - that Illinois has become the laughing stock of the country. With comments like the above, it's quite easy to see why.
CBS then tried to get the focus back on Obama and away from his friend Blago by quoting several Chicago dems who were frantically trying to re-associate Illinois with the chosen one. Shifting focus and reality is a common tool used by the media, cleverly emphasized by Mark Steyn this past week:
"In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year's Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from Jan. 1, 2009, but from 2005, and, while the corpses are certainly Palestinian, they were killed when a truck loaded with Hamas explosives detonated prematurely while leaving the Jabaliya refugee camp in another of those unfortunate work-related accidents to which Gaza is sadly prone. Conceding that the Palestinians supposedly killed by Israel were, alas, killed by Hamas, France-2 says the footage was broadcast 'accidentally.'"
Fascinatingly enough, I discovered that the president elect is a smoker. Did you know that? What is interesting about this to me is not that he smokes, quite heavily apparently, but that I didn't know this until about a week ago. I have read and/or watched the news in which Obama was the focal point for the past 6 months. Apparently the new savior of America and humanity has an incredible staff to bend and blur reality to portray an image rather than facts. The modern-day media is the result of not seeking truth. It is a result of obeying agenda-driven individuals. Which is why the media, particularly print media, is intellectually bankrupt and speeding toward financial bankruptcy.
Cheers.
The funniest thing to me about this story and the Blagojevich story is how the media hardly ever says "democrat" Rod Blago, or "democrat" so and so is indicted on counts of X and Y. But whenever a republican runs into trouble, you can never hear their name without "republican" in front of it. The article above doesn't mention the word democrat until the fourth paragraph.
After Blagojevich was impeached I thought it was quite hilarious reading the comments from the one person in the Illinois house who voted against impeachment.
This from CBS:
"The one lawmaker voting against impeachment was Rep. Milton Patterson, a Chicago Demorcrat who represents the South Side. Rep Elga Jefferies, also a Chicago Democrat, voted present.
Patterson said he wasn't defending anyone, but that he read the impeachment committee's report and wasn't comfortable voting against the governor. "I have no firsthand knowledge of any of the evidence," he said.
'I went by my own gut feeling, it's as simple as that,' he said. 'I read the report. If the government is going to indict him, let them go ahead and do that. That's their job and I'm doing my job.'"
CBS also noted - quite accurately - that Illinois has become the laughing stock of the country. With comments like the above, it's quite easy to see why.
CBS then tried to get the focus back on Obama and away from his friend Blago by quoting several Chicago dems who were frantically trying to re-associate Illinois with the chosen one. Shifting focus and reality is a common tool used by the media, cleverly emphasized by Mark Steyn this past week:
"In Paris, the state-owned TV network France-2 broadcasts film of dozens of dead Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year's Day. The channel subsequently admits that, in fact, the footage is not from Jan. 1, 2009, but from 2005, and, while the corpses are certainly Palestinian, they were killed when a truck loaded with Hamas explosives detonated prematurely while leaving the Jabaliya refugee camp in another of those unfortunate work-related accidents to which Gaza is sadly prone. Conceding that the Palestinians supposedly killed by Israel were, alas, killed by Hamas, France-2 says the footage was broadcast 'accidentally.'"
Fascinatingly enough, I discovered that the president elect is a smoker. Did you know that? What is interesting about this to me is not that he smokes, quite heavily apparently, but that I didn't know this until about a week ago. I have read and/or watched the news in which Obama was the focal point for the past 6 months. Apparently the new savior of America and humanity has an incredible staff to bend and blur reality to portray an image rather than facts. The modern-day media is the result of not seeking truth. It is a result of obeying agenda-driven individuals. Which is why the media, particularly print media, is intellectually bankrupt and speeding toward financial bankruptcy.
Cheers.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Two Words: Gun Safe
My move down to So-Ill is complete and I am now living in my apartment. The place I moved in to is probably the nicest apartment in town. It's also a former retirement home. So, the doors are all huge and there aren't many windows. Also, many of the residents are elderly folks. I live with a lot of elderly people in an apartment complex with big doors... I do not live in an old folks home. But, when I was playing guitar yesterday, some old ladies did bang on the wall and scream at me. I hope they like bluegrass or this will be a long eight months.
I also started my new job at an elementary school in a small town in So-Ill. I am working as a teacher's aid in a special ed classroom right now. Our kids are age 6-8 and have a wide range of conditions from Autism to Downs Syndrome. They're all great kids. And, I am pretty much in way over my head. The funny thing is that the kids know this for the most part which makes my life that much more interesting. For example, one of the kids managed to hide from me in a TV cabinet and laughed himself silly when I tried to get him out. So far though, my favorite part of the job is when I get to do one on one reading lessons with the kids. It takes a great deal of patience and a lot of time, but the end result is rewarding, profoundly so.
Now for a list of funny phrases I've heard since I moved to Southern Illinois:
"Aw hell, that gun safe can hold a shit ton of guns."
"I just changed the boy's diaper and he totally destroyed that room! Excuse me grandma."
"After the wreck, I managed to get the car in to the Long John Silver's parking lot, dragging the bumper the whole way."
And now for another installment of things I miss most about working at Owen Roe and Oregon in general.
1. Punching down and tasting wine right off the press.
2. Beautiful sun rises with Mt. Hood and sun sets on the farm.
3. Making the angry red neck noise with Berlin and Vanderslooth while working too late.
4. Ranting about politics with Stephen
5. Jesse's meals at the winery.
6. The Owens
7. Panaderia Gonzalez's home made tortillas and wonderfully cheap burritos.
8. Organic food and free produce every day
9. Free beer and wine
10. The cold bachelor pad that was always well stocked with delicious Hobbs beer.
11. Berlin, Jeff, Marcus, Chris, Brash, Mariano, Stephen, Darius, Matt, Zoe, Jennifer, John, Jesse and Mary.
The new question for you; why should you keep reading this blog? Well, even though Kentucky and Oregon are behind me, what could be better than a teacher's aid, broke, living in southern Illinois in an old folks home? The possibilities are endless! The madness!
Cheers.
I also started my new job at an elementary school in a small town in So-Ill. I am working as a teacher's aid in a special ed classroom right now. Our kids are age 6-8 and have a wide range of conditions from Autism to Downs Syndrome. They're all great kids. And, I am pretty much in way over my head. The funny thing is that the kids know this for the most part which makes my life that much more interesting. For example, one of the kids managed to hide from me in a TV cabinet and laughed himself silly when I tried to get him out. So far though, my favorite part of the job is when I get to do one on one reading lessons with the kids. It takes a great deal of patience and a lot of time, but the end result is rewarding, profoundly so.
Now for a list of funny phrases I've heard since I moved to Southern Illinois:
"Aw hell, that gun safe can hold a shit ton of guns."
"I just changed the boy's diaper and he totally destroyed that room! Excuse me grandma."
"After the wreck, I managed to get the car in to the Long John Silver's parking lot, dragging the bumper the whole way."
And now for another installment of things I miss most about working at Owen Roe and Oregon in general.
1. Punching down and tasting wine right off the press.
2. Beautiful sun rises with Mt. Hood and sun sets on the farm.
3. Making the angry red neck noise with Berlin and Vanderslooth while working too late.
4. Ranting about politics with Stephen
5. Jesse's meals at the winery.
6. The Owens
7. Panaderia Gonzalez's home made tortillas and wonderfully cheap burritos.
8. Organic food and free produce every day
9. Free beer and wine
10. The cold bachelor pad that was always well stocked with delicious Hobbs beer.
11. Berlin, Jeff, Marcus, Chris, Brash, Mariano, Stephen, Darius, Matt, Zoe, Jennifer, John, Jesse and Mary.
The new question for you; why should you keep reading this blog? Well, even though Kentucky and Oregon are behind me, what could be better than a teacher's aid, broke, living in southern Illinois in an old folks home? The possibilities are endless! The madness!
Cheers.
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