Ride

Stoupini and Kadizzle took a long ride to the lake on the motor cycles.  Back roads took us through fields and up and down section lines.  The wind was insane.  A pheasant here and there and the roads were dry. At last we got to the lake and the boats.  The lake was whipped into a fury by the wind, and it was a good day not to be on the lake.  On the way back we stopped by Rita's the sewing lady.  Rita did not seem to be around, but we did get to see her miniature horses.  The big ones were only the size of a big dog and the young ones were tiny.

I Hit The Wall, you better listen

I Hit the Wall  Click on it you fool. Willy always gets it right

Wake Up Tired

What happened to the days when you could jump out of bed?  What happened to the body that could pedal a bike up a steep hill in West Virginia?  What happened to the eyes that could read without glasses, the ears that could hear?  Like leaves in the fall old age is raining down on Kadizzle. The joints are stiff and failing.  Bed time is early.  Cars get old, goats get old, age is unstoppable.  The Earth keeps going around the sun and the clock keeps ticking.  The air comes into the lungs and goes out.  Simple task become great obstacles. What is the lesson?

Old means you get to see the world differently.  Slow seems better and better.  Things that used to matter don't.  Like a tree in the forest you see the other trees around you become devastated by beetles, wind, erosion, and age.  The people you know, the people you worked with get picked off one by one. Old so and so gets drawn up to Jesus.  Are you next?  What is the schedule?  Will you go in a puff or will you fall apart inch by inch?   Hope I cheered everyone up.

Well the sun is shining and the wind is not too strong, so maybe old Kadizzle should run up to the boat and hoist a sail. Let the wind take him where it will.

Life in the Vast Lane

Here we sit in the vast open spaces of North Dakota.  Although the sailboat is chomping at the bit ready to go it has only made two brief forays into the vast inland sea of Lake Sakakawea.  The wind gods have uncooperative.  High winds and cool weather have damped the desire, and add to that a Mrs Kadizzle with a broken wrist.

Kadizzle was delighted to find he was named one of the top ten writers on the Weelunk Blog. Weelunk is a local blog back home in West Virginia.  Viewing the blog has been a lot of fun seeing the old sites of home and exploring the local history.  The Blog has stories and remembrances of people who live there and those who have moved away. Wheeling is a very old city on the Ohio River.  The river city brims with history.  George Washington visited very early and claimed a lot of land for himself.  Washington's relatives are buried on the top of Wheeling Hill.

Not far south of Wheeling is the Mason Dixon line.  As a kid Kadizzle crossed it almost every weekend going to our hillbilly hideout farther south in the state.  So maybe a trip to the lake today.  May the sun keep shining.

A bunch of jabroni's

Old Kadizzle grew up in Wheeling, West as they say "by God" Virginia.  Wheeling had a lot of different ethnicities.  With Italians, Poles, Syrians, Orthodox Greeks,  and every other brand of human there were many words that floated around.  One of those words was jaboni.  It must have been Italian. As a kid I heard the word.  Never knew what it meant, but figured it was not good.  Looking up the work the common use is to call someone a jabroni and you are calling them a loser.

Wonderful Crazy Club Day

Yesterday was a bummer and a day of cheer was badly needed.  Yesterday poor Mrs. Kadizzle broke her wrist.  So the day was a total disaster. Late in the day Shanika called and said he was sponsoring breakfast at the Crazy Club on Thursday.  Well Thursday turned out to be a brighter day. Mrs Kadizzle got to sit in the sun and recoup.  Kadizzle went to the Crazy Club for breakfast.  Shiny with her dog was there, Shanika had already arrived, and the word from Shiny was the owner of the meeting hall would show up.

It all came together.  Kadizzle was the only member present not born in the hamlet of Hazen. It was nice to have the owner present.  After the invocation stories were shared about growing up. The topic evolved around childhood scuffles.  Kadizzle seemed to have a more destructive and violent childhood to relate than the locals. After a good round of stories, and the quiche Shanika brought .  Shanika, Stoupini and Kadizzle took off for a long day of adventure.

The goal was to explore the Northern part of the badlands.  So in Shaniks SUV we headed west.  Eventually we got past Grassy Butt.  On a little past the North Unit Park and onto a dirt road. We headed out into the vast nowhere beside the Little Missouri.  The goal was  some nirvana valley Shanika wanted to show us.  We could not find a trail that was not blocked by a stream and never made the goal, but indeed we got to see some of the most wonderful country in the country.  The Badlands are little known or appreciated. Kadizzle has traveled the whole country and the Badlands are as good as it gets.  Of course now the badlands have oil wells sprouting like the weeds in your yard. Thankya Jesus the oil game has slowed down. The sheer amount of oil field equipment sitting idle is amazing. Stores built for the boom are running at one third capacity. The overbuilding of everything is amazing.  Somebody has lost a vast sum buying and storing things that are not being used.

To Kadizzle's surprise Shanika nor Stoupini had ever taken the road along the Little Missouri from the Long X bridge back to Killdeer.  So off we headed through some wonderful country polluted with oil wells, but still full of good scenery.  In the course of the trip road work was encountered.  A young college student stopped us with the traditional hand held stop sign. We had to wait for two motor graders working.  Kadizzle was bored and thought he would cause some ornery conversation.  Kadizzle asked the young college student how to get to New York from here.  A little stunned in the absolute middle of nowhere the college student asked where we were from. Kadizzle lying through his teeth said New York. Kadizzle explained that someone in Dickenson had told him to go north and we ended up in the oilfield.  A little amazed the student told us to go down the road and turn left.  Stoupini and Shanika quickly caught on and went on with the charade.  After a little fun with an incredible BS story we confessed we were from Hazen.  The flagman admitted he thought our story was suspect.

We traveled through Indian country and up by the lake.  Kadizzle had not been in some parts of this country for many years.  Seeing the change brought on by oil was interesting.  Every rancher that struck prosperity put up  a big gate entrance to his property declaring who he was.  Pumping money out of the ground changes everything above ground. Some for good, and some not so good. Killdeer has an indoor pool and a wellness center.  Empty housing for oil workers sits everywhere. Building built with great anticipation the boom would never end sit idle.  Although people dream the boom will not come back.  Oil has been found once more in great abundance in Texas.  North Dakota can scratch and sniff, but it cannot compete with the new West Texas find in the Wolf Camp shale.  So history repeats itself. The history of boom and bust is the history of the West.  It might be uranium, it might be gold, copper, or oil, but the story is always the same.

Orthodox Athiest and his pastor

A knock on the door and there was the reverend.  The pastor occasionally has a glass of wine with Kadizzle.  It was early in the day, but the good man of god was not going to turn down the wine.  So out to the back deck and the discussion ensued.  Kadizzle is perplexed.  What should be the most conservative pastor of the most conservative church seems to be a closet liberal.  So the political talk and Kadizzle's recent adventure with the congressman were discussed.

Reverend wants to get some hiking done in Colorado.  Kadizzle tries to explain that at the high altitude hiking will be hard.  He is from Colorado and does not think it will be a problem, but he forgets he is a lot older.

For some strange reason the reverend alway shows up at just about the time he is needed.  Perhaps the lord does work in strange ways.

Launching Boats

Kadizzle is sure he holds the record for launching sailboats on Lake Sakakawea.  Today another boat will be baptized.  Launching sailboats is not so bad, but getting the beast back on the trailer is a nightmare.  The problem with sailboats is the keel.  Some larger boats need to be in eight feet of water to get the boat off the trailer.  This means the an extension has to be used.

The normal process it to take the boat and trailer down to the edge of the water, unhook the whole mess, and add the extension.  A favorite memory of this process gone wrong was years ago.  Andrew wanted Kadizzle to help launch his craft.  In the confusion Kadizzle thought Andrew had locked down the hitch and Andrew thought Kadizzle had done the task. Nope, the trailer was not secured to the truck.  This was not a problem until the trailer with the boat started down the ramp.  Kadizzle tapped the brake for a moment.  Andrew was up on his boat the Jenny Rose.  The sudden little application of brake pulled the trailer hitch up in the air off the ball. There was enough slack in the rusty safety chains to let the trailer get a little momentum without the truck.  The old rusty safety chains snapped the welds with no problem.  Down the ramp the boat and Andrew went.  What could you do? Nothing.  Andrew's eyes were the size of two moons.  As the boat went on its way sailing with no wind or water it picked up momentum.  All is well that ends well.  The boat with Andrew aboard launched itself with precision and no problem.

Observing this was old Captain Kit.  There was a minor problem with this procedure.  Now the trailer unhooked to anything was out in the lake by itself under water.  Andrew seemed a bit concerned, but Kadizzle assured him it was no problem.  Kadizzle took a small anchor he happened to have in his truck and tossed it into the water hoping to snag the trailer.  To his amazement the first cast was good. Captain Kit panicked and had the park rangers rushing to the scene.  When the rangers arrived the trailer was emerging from the water hooked onto the anchor rope.  Rushing to the edge of the water the park ranger said " Is there a problem?".   Kadizzle said with a big hidden grin " No, we do it this way all the time".

The Deceitful Bird

Old Kadizzle thought he might go for a motorcycle ride so he hopped on his one cylinder steed and took off.  A visit to Stroppini seemed in order.  A good way to get to the East end of Hazen without going through traffic is to take the route along the railroad track.  Follow the alley down behind the hospital until you come to a little bridge that goes under the railroad track.  Here you will find a little path that leads along the track and back out to the highway.

On this little excursion Kadizzle stirred up some sort of bird.  The bird did what birds do. The bird pretended to be hurt.  The idea in the birds mind was to draw Kadizzle away from the nest.  To Kadizzles amazement the deceitful little bird hobbled right down the path. Kadizzle followed the bird wondering when the bird would give up the charade and return to take care of the baby birds.  Finally after leading Kadizzle a couple hundred feet away the bird turned back to take care of the young.  This was a bird with a bird brain.

Now we live in an age where adults are fooled by birds with bird brains.  Our politicians have learned the art of deceit from the little bird.  Draw the attention away is what the bird does. Draw the attention away from the nest.  For Republicans the nest is the tax breaks.  Republicans only want to live without paying taxes. That seems pretty selfish, so the goal is to draw the bird brains attention away from the real issue.  The Republican bird seeks to confuse.  The Republican bird wants to draw the easily fooled man down the path.  A bird that appears to be crippled is a good meal for a Fox.  The Fox thinks he is smart. The Fox follows the bird down the path little knowing that he just passed up an easy meal.  Back at the nest the Fox just ran away from are delicious baby birds that could be eaten so easily.  However, the Fox with a much bigger brain than the bird has been fooled.  There is an easy solution to our problems, we have the resources for everyone to live a decent life, but if we are going to allow a few to take too much, and ask the rest to do without the easy life is not in reach.  In the end are we going to be diverted by the decietful bird drawing us in the wrong direction? Trump seems to have proved it is a very simple matter. Trump has a bird brain, but he has fooled a lot of people who should know better.  What is really going on?  Is the bird really hurt? Are the Mexicans really pouring across the border? Diversion works for the bird.  We must be the dumbest Foxes that every walked by a meal fooled by a birdbrain.

The Sing

Voices turned into music as the summer sing got off to a good start.  For many years young men which are now old men have joined together to sing.  Normally The Stan Rodgers Glee Club meets in the top of Harvey's barn.  Too much cold caused a relocation. So at the lake house the old men gathered to sing the traditional sailing songs.  Leave her Johnny Leave Her,  The Northwest Passage, Rolling down to old Maui, and many other sea shanties were belted out.  Kieth has a wonderful voice, an excellent memory, and can play a couple instruments.  Thankya Jesus.  Shanika is also good on the guitar, knows the words and was once a performer at Madora. Too many desserts were put on the table, there were some excellent whistle beans, and there was some kind of strange blueberry bratwurst.  As usual some stories were mixed in with the singing.  Kadizzle was give grief about his recent attempt to shove money down the shirt of a congressman.  A couple people pointed out that is against the rules.

The night moved on and the crowd thinned out.  The bottles of wine, port and beer got emptied.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and a second sing may be scheduled.  A couple years ago Kadizzle introduced the sont "The Parting Glass".  The song has become part of the tradition, and Kadizzle wants it sung at his funeral.
The sun is climbing in the sky and the day will go on no matter what.  Shanika spent the night at Kadizzle's house.  Scheduling problems mean the Crazy Club meeting will be held today, so after breakfast the meeting will commence. Stoupini is out on the west coast so we might have to have a phone conference with him.

Dreary Day

Up early, and the first cup of coffee is finished. The Earth has rotated once more, and has made it around the sun to the point we call summer.  Our planet is less significant than a grain of sand on the beach, yet we all seem to thing we are the center of the universe.  This brings to mind the old story of the mosquito floating down the river with an erection yelling " Raise the drawbridge".  Often Kadizzle tries to fall asleep at night imagining his place in the universe.  When you think you are something just put yourself a few thousand light years from Earth and see how important you are.  This brings us to another favorite saying " Most men lead lives of quiet desperation".    Hope springs eternal, and spring gives everyone hope.  We should have the hope Trump implodes and the country can move on.  Pence would be little better.  What needs to happen is a rewind.  The election should be held over.  Most games have some provision for fairness.  After you find out the election was a fraud and the president is a mentally ill incompetent idiot don't we have the right to a fresh start? So here we go, nothing's getting done in the country, some may say that is great, but we need roads, schools, and there are a lot of problems to fix.  Can we afford to just watch Trump jump from one crisis to the next?  The bumbling of Trump is like nothing ever seen in the White House before.  Sure Clinton got a blow job and that was a great story, but few feared Clinton would arbitrarily start a nuclear war.  Trump is a special kind of crazy.  Many now speculate he has a mental condition.  If you ever read one of his speeches as it is written using his exact words you will not doubt he is nuts.

The Prisoner

Yesterday an old friend left a note on my doorstep.  The man who is now somewhere near fifty I first met as a municipal judge when he was a teenager.  As a young man he discovered the art of getting into trouble. He did not learn anything from his sessions in court with me as the judge, and he went on to the big house on drug charges.  In prison he met a local man who murdered his wife.  The local man is doing life in prison. So my old friend and I had a phone conversation.  From the man doing murder he told me he learned a lot. I guess he did. I realized that the man who had done prison time had much more respect for humanity than so many of the people who should be in prison.  This man cares. He grew up.  It may have taken three times the allotted time, but he finally grew up.  One thing we discussed was the phony Christians.  As it happened the man had been in the same church as Congressman Cramer.  Congressman Cramer is willing to take health care away from poor people so the rich can enjoy tax breaks.  This is simply wrong and against every Christian principle, but Cramer goes around with the fake Christian badge on his shirt. Cramer is against abortion, but has no problem of taking food away from a living breathing child.  So in my book the ex prison inmate is far more moral than Cramer.

Cramer said he had no problem with working until he is 72.  Kadizzle explained to Cramer that works fine for a politician, but no so well for a coal miner, a truck driver, or a carpenter.  Cramer is willing to raise the retirement age to protect the rich from paying taxes.  What a wonderful man Cramer is.  The Bible is full of instances where Jesus ask people to protect the rich.

The Primitive Mind

We now live in the modern age of communication.  However, some of us do not understand the basics of communication.  If you want to use a mailbox to send a message you need a stamp and a letter.  In the last couple of years someone has chosen to run my mailbox over late at night.  I am not sure what message they want to send me. Do they want to tell me they are incapable of using the phone, walking up to me and having a conversation, or that they disagree with my philosophy.  Primitive cultures wrote pictures on stones, used smoke signals, and even developed sign language.  

Recently a Republican at a townhall meeting got up spontaneously and started to choke me as I asked the congressman a question.  The message seemed relatively clear.  Apparently he wanted to send me the message I was not to speak. 

How do you get a message to someone?  The new gun culture suggest that if nothing else works shoot at the person.  Raising your voice and speaking loudly might work.  Kadizzle has been guilty of that.  The big danger with any message is that it will be misinterpreted. This can have disastrous results.  The only safe way to greet another person in the modern age is a handshake.  Hugging people has become very popular, but Kadizzle can see how this can quickly go bad.  Once while acting as a substitute teacher Kadizzle walked to his classroom early in the day.  Some young girl who apparently like Kadizzle as a teacher was so excited to see him she ran down the hall jumped up into his arms and gave him a big hug.  Kadizzle was thrilled at the enthusiasm, but also embarrassed.

We have now become a society that quickly sees evil where there is none.  We have become prone to misjudge things and put a value on things.  Too quickly we assign a value to an incident.  Years ago Kadizzle learned a good lesson.  Kadizzle was sitting in the car in the winter waiting for Mrs Kadizzle to come out of Sears in Bismarck.  As Kadizzle sat a man pulled up beside him into a handicap parking space.  The man jumped out of the van and ran towards Sears like an Olympic sprinter.

Kadizzle was enraged that someone would be so abusive of the handicap parking system and was going to confront the man when he returned.  As Kadizzle's anger started to increase he could see the man coming back out of the doors at Sears.  The man was pushing someone in a wheelchair.  His actions were perfectly legitimate.  Only by seeing the whole incident from beginning to end could one get an accurate picture of what took place.   Had Kadizzle driven away he never would have known what really happened.  The lesson is not to assign cause or effect too soon.  What you think you are seeing may not be what you are seeing.

Kadizzle got into a kerfuffle with Congressman Cramer recently.  The whole incident revolved around a distressed women who asked the congressman for help at a town meeting.  The Congressman wants to destroy Obamacare and enable the rich to have massive tax breaks.  This upset Kadizzle and the issue of taxing people became the topic at the meeting.  Kadizzle told the Congressman he did not mind paying taxes to help someone like the woman with the child who needed so much care.  To demonstrate that we could take money from the rich and give it to those in need Kadizzle approached the congressman with his wallet open.  Kadizzle took all his money from his wallet and attempted to give the money to the congressman. Kadizzle told the congressman to take the money and give it to the woman.  The congressman refused to take the money. Kadizzle tried to put the money  in the pocket of the congressman.  In a failed attempt that did not work.  Kadizzle put the money down the shirt collar of the congressman.   Now this is where perception and reality diverge. Kadizzle never shoved the congressman, but that makes a good story.  So those inclined to agree with the congressman chose to see that as what happened.  However, the video shows it did not happen.  This is how magic works.  The magician wants you to perceive something that is not true.  He wants you to chose to believe something that is not true.  The lady did not get sawed in half. It looked as though she did, but nope it did not happen.  There was no magic, you deceived yourself.  In the end it is up to each of us to police our own mind.  Don't let that one part of your mind take over.  Keep the rational part of your mind awake.

Pay Attention

One of my nephews from Virginia spoke with Kadizzle at length last night.  Politics was the topic.  My nephew expressed concern about our country and what is happening.  He explained his awakening.  Democracy is under a huge threat.  The days of sitting home watching sports and getting lost in nonsense need to end. Pay attention.  Our basic rights and the basis of our country are under attack.  The gun nuts for years have been scared they are going to lose their guns.  You have to give them credit.  At least they got off their ass and fought back.  The country is being divided.  There are the have a whole lots, the have something, and the half nothings.  We have become a country dominated by the interest of those at the very top. The top few percent own and run the country.  Those in the middle and those on the bottom are there to be exploited.

Right before our eyes Trump and his gang are taking.  They are taking a bigger piece of the pie for themselves with massive tax cuts for themselves.  They are setting up the rules to steal public resources and lands.  So much can be learned from Hitler and what he did.  The German people Hitler set up were some of the most educated people in Europe.  If you pay attention to how dictators work you will see they all use the same tactics.  Put this in your notebook. Trump has admitted many times in the most public way he admires dictators.  Trump has told the American people he admires Putin, and the dictator of North Korea.  Trump has already invited several dictators to the White House.

So lets play golf, watch some football, and see what is on TV.  None of this is my problem.  I have gas in the car. I have a TV that works, I am not hungry or cold.  The simple reality is people do not get excited until they are in pain. Nobody cares unless they are somehow personally affected.  If the town ten miles west of us is bombed so what it did not destroy our cable and it looks like a good day to fish.  Americans just cannot understand that it works it's way up the food chain.   In Germany the most vulnerable were attacked first.  No one cared when the gypsies were rounded up.  No one cared when the severely disabled were rounded up.  What people could not see was that Hitler was working his way up the food chain.  So now we have Donald Trump destroying health care.  Doesn't matter to me, it has not affected me yet.  That is the American way.  Kadizzle always thinks of Germany and when the German cities were fire bombed. It was a hell like no other.  Read about it.  When the cities burned what did the Germans who did nothing think.  To them Hitler was the answer.  In the inferno did it occur to them what they had done.  Did they realize that by doing nothing they had brought on the flames that were roasting them.  How many of those people who were burnt alive realized that they had been enablers of Hitler and done nothing?  Today we have Donald Trump. People see him as an amusement and harmless.  Hitler was once seen that way.  History is no longer taught in our schools.  People have no concept of history, even recent history.  Teaching history has a purpose.  You learn about the mistakes of those before you so you do not repeat them.  Trump and his gang know the old tricks.  They know how the McCarthys of the past lied and manipulated idiots. They know how to use fear, and the classic tactics to fool the masses.  Car dealers remember what works.  When they find and sell a car to the first sucker they use their knowledge on the second sucker.  That is how history works for them. Look back to the depression and learn some history.   See what happened the last time the rich took it all. No forget about it load the boat and go fishing, watch some golf on TV.  Who cares I am warm, and not hungry, it just is not my problem.

A good story is better than the Truth.

A good story is better than the truth.  In the last two days Kadizzle has spoken to news media people and told them his story.  These people know Kadizzle never shoved Congressman Kevin Cramer.  There are video tapes that recorded the entire incident. The tapes very Cramer was never shoved. Kadizzle put money down the collar of Cramer's shirt, this is true.  The shoving makes a much better story.  Some man attempted to choke Kadizzle as he spoke to Cramer. The man was thrown out of the meeting by the police.  The man was not present when Kadizzle attempted to give the money to Cramer. The video verifies this. This was told to the Bismarck Tribune, The Washington Post, and Rob Port.  All of these outlets report it incorrectly. It make a good story.

A Big learning experience, or perhaps a refresher.

A few times in my life I have seen an event take place and then saw the results as they appeared in the media. My first experience with this was many years ago when there was a strike at the coal mine where I worked.

Today I got a good refresher course in how things happen, and how they get reported.  I had a kerfuffle with Congressman Cramer. The dustup was covered by the news media. Rob Port who is a right wing blowhard and would love to be Rush Limbaugh had his say.  As usual he distorted the whole thing with his typical right wing slant.  Port did not have the decency to call me and ask for my accounting of what happened. The Bismarck Tribune did call and do the correct journalistic thing by letting me tell in my words what took place. Once I read the Bismarck Tribune account I found a glaring inaccuracy. I asked them to correct it. Since Nick Smith of the Tribune taped the whole thing he can go back and see that he is wrong.

Nick Smith wrote that a man constrained me by choking me. According to Nick Smith this was done in order to keep me from acousting Cramer.  That is not what happened. The man came to me and started to choke me while I was asking Cramer a question. The police grabbed the man and ejected him from the room. The video will show that.  When I tried to give Cramer money for the women with medical bill after the man had been ejected the police asked me to leave, and I did. Why Nick Smith would distort the incident I do not know.  I asked Port to call me so I can tell him what actually took place I have not heard from him. TV presentations were so short and so little context was explained or shown that it was really scary. So hopefully I am smarter than when I woke up this morning.

Confront the Congressman Day

Kadizzle has long been disgusted with North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer. Cramer was an early supporter of Trump. This morning Kadizzle got up and decided to attend Kevin Cramer's coffee meeting in Mandan. Kadizzle prepared seven questions to hand out to people attending the meeting. The seven questions were things people could ask Kevin Cramer.

Kadizzle got to the meeting early and handed out the question list to 35 people. Prior to the meeting Kadizzle had a chance to personally speak with Cramer on several subjects. Cramer was polite and listened, but gave all the pet answers. On the border wall Cramer said spending 21 billion was fine with him.  Kadizzle asked him if the money could be better spent to help the states with schools and other problems. Cramer said that is a state problem.

Kadiizzle spoke with Cramer about the need to raise the Social Security Cap.  Cramer said it could be raised a little and that would solve the problem. Kadizzle suggested it be taken off low income people and adjusted so the wealthy would pay more.  Cramer had no  comment to that suggestion.  Cramer gave the pat answers and made it clear he was very much in favor of protecting the rich.

So the meeting began and some poor young woman about 25 crying told her story about the birth of her child with severe health problems.  The woman managed through her tears to explain the financial predicament they were in.  She indicated that she followed the Republican rule to carry the baby to term.  Of course Cramer gave a wishy washy non answer.

Cramer refused to admit that the repeal of Obamacare would result in a massive tax break for the wealthy.  At this point Kadizzle got infuriated and asked Cramer why the wealthy could not be taxed to pay for the predicament of the poor woman who spoke earlier.  Someone in the audience said "Tax me" .   Kadizzle got up and told Cramer something to the effect that he would be willing to pay taxes to help the people with no health care.  Cramer would not answer yes or no if repealing healthcare was a break for the rich.  Kadizzle got carried away and walked up to give Cramer money to help the woman.  Cramer would not take the money so Kadizzle tried to shove it in his pocket.  Prior to all this some guy who supported Cramer came up and tried to choke Kadizzle as he asked a different question.  That man was escorted out by the police.  After Kadizzle tried to place the money in Cramer's pocket he was escorted out by the police. The police did the right thing and Kadizzle probably did the wrong thing.  In the end Kadizzle hopes Cramer learned that snowballing the simple minded is no longer going to be as easy as it used to be.  All is well that ends well. Of course the Kadizzle family thinks Kadizzle had a crazy spell again, but Kadizzle feels if we can have a mentally ill president, the Kadizzle family can afford it's own mental case.

Summer is crashing down.

The seasons roll by.  Summer seems to be coming. Sometimes it seems like a freight train rolling toward Kadizzle, and other times a snail.  The good ship Sovereign sits at it's slip like a horse in a stall.  Rodger and Kadizzle took the boat out for sea trials and miraculously everything worked.  Mrs. Kadizzle dutifully placed the bedding on the bunks.  If God is willing and the wind blows this weekend may be our first trip west.  Sleeping on the boat in the quarter berth is usually a pleasure.  The quiet and darkness in a cove with a little cool air provide ideal sleeping.  Awaking in the morning to the sound of geese and looking out the hatch to see deer grazing is a pleasure.

So here we go summer is coming.  Kadizzle has accumulated too much chicken meat around his waist. One good way to deal with too much chicken meat is to peddle the old bicycle up to the boat. Now that is a 23 mile trip.  It is unlikely the motivation will come, but the exercise is needed.  The first obstacle on the trip is the hill by the cemetery immediately north of Hazen.  They cemetery was placed there to remind bike riders that if you do not get some exercise you will soon be in the cemetery.  You can also get to the cemetery by heart attack, the one you get from going up the hill beside the cemetery.

A bicycle is a wonderful device. You can turn it around and coast back to Hazen at any point going up the hill. Will power is in short supply so that is definitely a possibility.  If one just rode the bike around Hazen there would be no hills.  Hmmm that might be a solution.  Of course bike riding can make one hungry. So maybe Kadizzle should avoid it and just surf the internet. That is a sure way to lose some chicken meat.

Learning to Drink in Wheeling

Somehow we all got introduced to the ancient evil of alcohol.  In Wheeling most likely it was beer.  Way back in the old days, which would have been the late and mid 60's Wheeling had a great system for creating future drunks, and reasonable drinkers.  Most young teenagers probably started with a swig from the home supply, but soon a better supply was needed.

If my old mind serves me correctly the legal drinking age was 18 when I was a teen.  This could be justified because all you could legally get at 18 was 3.2 beer.  It was training beer. You would likely drown before you got too drunk.  Although the legal age was 18 it seemed to be the widely accepted standard that if you were tall enough to put a quarter on the bar you would be served.  Checking IDs was unheard of.

On Washington Avenue there was a bar where all the teenagers hung out.  I just cannot recall the name of the place. After consulting friends still in Wheeling the consensus is the bar was The Cardinal Inn. This is a picture of the place in more recent times.

 My first memory of that place and beer was an incident that involved a friend.  My friend Mike thought he had an ideal scheme to come by some beer as a pre-legal person.  Mike called the bar from a phone booth across the street.  Mike pretended to be his father.  As the fake father Mike called the bartender and said he was sending his son down to get a six pack.  Somehow the bartender sensed a rat or the scam had been tried before.  From the bar you could see across the street to the phone booth, so the bartender could see Mike making the call.  The bartender told Mike he could see his father in the booth across the street and recommended his father come get the beer.  Mike went dry that day, but it was not long that he realized like every teenager did when they got a little older sixteen seemed to be the age of passing and the same bar would serve you.

On the corner was another bar.  I think it was called Moxie's.  According to folklore kids would get off the school bus and go in to have a beer and a hotdog.  The amazing thing about the bar we hung out in was that more than likely no one in the place was of legal age at times.  Over on Edgington Lane was Tom's and the Alpha.

The police in the old days seemed more like chaperones.  If you got out of hand they told you to go home. Rarely did anyone have a run in with the police.  As you got older and braver you branched out to other bars, and there were plenty of them.

 The Wheeling College students were frequently at the Washington Avenue bars.   Somehow an alliance was formed with the college students and the high school students were allowed to attend the keg parties of the college crowd.  A wonderful place existed for these parties.  If you went to the end of Edgington Lane and up Boggs Hill Road there was a place you could get down to the creek.   The creek split and formed a peninsula.  On that flat little piece of ground someone had placed an old pickle barrel from The Burger Chef. That barrel could be filled with ice and a keg of beer placed in the barrel.

On warm evenings a fire would be built the kegs would appear and the party was on.  One of the best aspects of the remote location was crossing the creek to get to the celebration.  In no time someone was inebriated to the point they fell in the creek, but the best show was when you would hear the roar of a motorcycle about to cross the creek.  The engine would rev up,  and there would be the brief perception of movement, and then the splashing sound of a crash.  Down at the creek would be some idiot laying in the stream with his motorcycle.  Not sure if I was ever the idiot.

If all the drinking stories were retold it would be book length, but somehow most of use survived.  One fond memory that does come to mind is a sunny day with young guys sitting in front of the Cardinal Inn.  Down the street coming from The National Road was an old 30's or 40's car with some old geezer driving it.  The car was moving very slowly and as it got in front of the Cardinal Inn a bunch of the young guys ran out and jumped on the back bumper of the car.  From watching it seemed like they had done this before.  The weight of the people on the back bumper was enough to lift the front of the car off the ground.  The old guy driving just kept going down the street with the front wheels three feet in the air.  Although I was amazed it seemed like this was a well rehearsed circus act that had gone on before.  The old guy  cooperated.

Another strange memory of sitting outside the bar in the daytime was the passing of Lonnie Banks dump truck.  Lonnie Banks was a black preacher that had a combination church and house of ill repute on the top of Rock Point road.  My uncle once defended him on charges of prostitution.   Lonnie Banks had an old beat up pink dump truck.   As we sat in front of the bar the dump truck came down Washington Avenue with three trumpet players standing in the back.  After a blast on the trumpets in unison they would yell " Come to Lonnie Bank's Church".   No doubt if you did go to that church you would hear some wonderful music.

Growing up in Wheeling was like growing up in the Twilight Zone,  strange things seemed to happen all the time and no one seemed to think of anything as unusual.

The Good Ship sits in the water

After a lot of work the Sovereign sits in the lake.  So another summer begins.  Hanging around the boatyard shooting the breeze is always part of the process.  This year Kadizzle had a chance to chat up some of the people with sailboats you never see out on the water.  Some people are shy, and some people don't like to get too far away from the dock.  All the old sailors are getting older and shot up.  Age is taking it's toll on the old pirates.  All alone our boat sits waiting for the others to come out and play.  Every sailor likes to  buy some gadgets every year.  Kadizzle got a nifty little umbrella he can clamp to the rail.  It is cheap and will probably fall apart at the speed of lightening.

Always Kadizzle invites a lot of people to sail. Few ever show up, but you never know.  It turns out Shiny has a bad hankering to sail so that is one mission that needs to be completed.  Stoupini is nuts about riding Amtrak so again he is off towards Portland on the train.  Shanika made the last trip with him, but it did not suite him. Kadizzle has not take a train trip for forty years, and might like to try it again.  One thing you forget on American trains is they go through the junkyards of the country.  You get to see the absolute worst part of every city. You are not on the bad side of the tracks, you are on the tracks.  So the sun comes up and the sun goes down.  Perhaps we can put up a sail this week.

The Hoopleheads

The Hoopleheads get to have their guns, and of course some money to go to religious schools, and also some laws to harass women.  What the Hoopleheads just do not get is how they are manipulated so the wealthy can clean up.  A Hooplehead has no concept of what 53 billion dollars is.  Once you go over the number ten, numbers are meaningless to the Hoopleheads.  Then number six works, that is how many bullets you can put in your gun.  What could a state, a county, a city do with 53 billion dollars?   The Hoopleheads drive over bridges about to fall down.  The children of the Hoopleheads are taught by teachers almost on welfare. Yet the Hoopleheads just don't notice when they are robbed blind by the Republicans.  Now the Republicans are going to take health care away from the Hoopleheads so they can get their tax cuts.  Of course the Hooplehead have Rush Limbaugh blaring in the background and just don't notice.  It is hard to feel sorry for the Hoopleheads when they constantly insist on shooting their own foot off, but that is freedom. The freedom to dumb yourself down.  The freedom to elect Donald Trump.  The freedom to go broke buying lottery tickets.  It is all fine as long as you have something to eat and are not cold.  Only if you take away the flat screen, and the fishing boat will the the Hoopleheads rebel.  In the meantime steal every cent they have, they just don't get it.  Promise them lots of biggly things like Trump does.  Tell them for 19.95 they can take a pill that will give them an erection they can use for a fishing  pole.  The Hooples love to be robbed and lied to.  God bless the simple minded Hoopleheads.

Now this reminds Kadizzle of a story about an old Hooplehead woman in West Virginia.  Her husband had too much shine and his brain cells were not functioning normally.  So the husband liked to go out in the yard and act like a chicken and make chicken noises.  This sort of annoyed the neighbor.  One day the neighbor said to the old Hooplehad lady " Why don't you make your husband stop acting like a chicken out in your front yard?'.   The old lady replied " He don't hurt nobody, and besides we could use the eggs".   That is how you justify voting for Donald Trump.

Visit from Shanika

Shanika stopped for the crazy club meeting.  It was a good meeting but the special article involving sensitivity had to be invoked.  Shiny took great offense when Kadizzle called her skinny.  Shiny left the room.  When Shiny came back she said " What if I called you a fat slob?".  Kadizzle replied " I am".   That did not solve anything.  So the parliamentarian Stoupini was called in to figure out how to deal with the mess.  Stoupini pointed out that Article 17 prohibited talk that was insensitive. So all was put back in order and the meeting continued.

Now for the news this morning.  If you would read The New York Times it would be helpful.  This morning Gail Collins who is one of the best humorist wrote another good column about the multiple personalities of Trump.  Go to the NYT and read it for a good laugh.

Kadizzle and Stroupini will be doing boat work today.  First we have to fix the screens for the hatch.

The cable guys worked all day on Kadizzle Street putting in the new fiber optic cable.  Kadizzle decided to get som mule tape from the crew.  What in the hell is mule tape?  When the cable guys finally pull the actual cable through the conduit they hook it to the mule tape that is in the conduit.  Next they pull the mule tape out and the cable comes with it. This results in hundreds and hundreds of feet of brand new mule tape.  They only use it once.  Mule tape is handy.  Mule tape has a tensile strength of 1250 lbs.  It is about a half inch wide, made of nylon, and flat.  If you can get the bigger stuff it is good for up to 5,000 lbs.  Normally the crew just throws the stuff away.  So now Kadizzle has two life time supplies of the stuff.  If you need some mule tape just let Kadizzle know.  It is amazing what gets thrown out in the process of so many construction jobs.  Kadizzle is a scrounge.  If Kadizzle becomes a hoarder we are all in big trouble.

Call the meeting to order.

About 9:30 the meeting at the Crazy Club will be called to order.  Now that Stroupini has retired things seem to be more regular. Stroupini is having a hard time adjusting to the freedom of retirement, like so many he thinks his former work cannot go on without him.  Across the ally from the Crazy Club is the Pocket Park. Kadizzle helped Steve do some cleanup there yesterday.  The Pocket Park is slowly springing to life.  Sharbuak will soon do his magic and get the fountain running.  People will sit at the table and wifi.

Our street is abuzz with cable activity.  West River Telecommunications is putting fiber optic cable all over the country and it is coming down our street at the present moment.  A rare site, men digging ditches by hand.  Kadizzle managed to snag some pulling tape from the cable guys.  What in the hell is pulling tape? Pulling tape is what they use to get the actual cable through the conduit.  The stuff is handy.  It has a breaking strength of 1250 pounds.  It is only used once then they throw miles of it in the garbage.  In any other country someone would make something useful with it.  Kadizzle like to have hundreds of feet of the stuff to tie things in the truck to hoist things, or pull things.  The stuff is thin and only one half inch wide, but very strong.  The contractor cannot take a chance of the cable not making it through the conduit.  So if you want a bunch let old Kadizzle know.

Slowly the sun is creeping up over the horizon.  You know summer is almost here when light from the sun shines on the North side of the house.

You must get up every morning and read The New York Times as Kadizzle has told you many times.   Today there are a bunch of good articles.  Friedman speculates on the mental illness of Trump, a great article about how the Airbus is assembled in our country, and a nice historical piece about Thomas Jefferson's early life.   So here goes another day.  Mrs. Kadizzle is still in bed and may soon be demanding coffee.  The Earth will continue to spin.  Also one might read the article in the New York Times about shipping across the North Pole.  Global warming is here and the idiots that inhabit our positions of leadership have no clue.  So if your  house is on fire enjoy the warmth of the fire and perhaps you can cook something in the coals when the house is properly burnt down.  Trump is doing what he can to hasten the demise of the planet.  Have a nice day.

Living on spills.

Kadizzle took the first bicycle ride of spring yesterday. The journey went by the farm supply area south of town.  In an effort to have a chat with Berg Kadizzle ran into a young woman loading a truck with farm fertilizer.  Kadizzle noticed a bit of fertilizer being spilled.  Kadizzle is frugal, cheap, or you name it, he likes to give himself the illusion he saves money.  So Kadizzle asked the woman if he could have the spilled fertilizer for the price of cleaning it up.  She said Kadizzle just needed to bring a container like other had and they would fill it for free from the spilled material.  There must be other scrounges and cheap asses around.

The amount of waste in our country is astonishing.  A person with a little effort could live just by picking up spilled product.  In Hazen during the potato harvest one easily can get a winter supply of potatoes by simply gleaning the potato field.  If one were ambitious there is all the spilled grain one could want at the elevator.  You could grind it into flour or feed it to your chickens.

Being a scavenger is like a game.  Reusing something is not a disgrace.  Containers are a classic example.  Why would anyone go to Home Depot and pay for a bright orange new plastic bucket when you can get one almost anywhere.  Want a nice water container?  Buy one for $12 or you can get all sorts of excellent five gallon water containers safe to drink from just for asking.  Often in our crazy society the container cost more than the contents.  Every type of nice container and dispenser is available for free if you just know where to look.

When we camp we often want firewood.  You can buy a bundle of five pieces of nice firewood or you can go around the campground and pick it up free in the morning.  The people who bought the bundle did not burn it all and left it by the fire pit when they left.  People call Kadizzle cheap, he takes it as a compliment. Next time you go by the guy living under the bridge you might ask if he was frugal.  He may not have been during his working years, but now when he pushes his grocery cart he is a little frugal.

The New York Times

The morning update always involves the New York Times. Editorials in the NYT are always on spot and the best. The NYT hates Donald Trump, and Trump returns the favor.  Trump has been an amazing buffoon and now you know a lot more about people.  A lot can be known by finding out if a person was and still is a Trump supporter.  Almost every day Kadizzle drives up to the lake to work on the boat.  There is a nice little home beside the road.  At the home flies a Trump flag, no American flag.  It says so much about the person that lives there.  It is not our country that is important anymore, it is the Trump fantasy.  Each time Kadizzle sees the Trump flag flying proudly on that idiots flag pole Kadizzle wants to stop and say " Being an idiot is one thing, but waving a flag that says I am an idiot is special".

What is astounding about the Trump phenomenon is who turned out to support the man.  Imagine going to your doctor and finding out he voted for Trump.  What kind of minister could support Trump?  Wouldn't it be scary to have to go before a Judge that voted for Trump?  Once the truth went out the window, the game was on.  Every day there is a new low for Trump.  Trump has now invited the president of Philippines to visit the United States.  In case you have not been keeping up the Philippine president has arbitrarily been killing 7,000 people suspected of being involved with drugs.  Of course if you kill 7,000 people you are bound to get a few guilty ones, but a lot of people just got shot on the street by simple rumor or deliberate set up by people who did not like them.  Of course El Trumpo does not know a dictator and murderer when he meets one.  Trump thinks the guy is great.  Just cannot wait until Trump suggest we shoot anyone suspected of a crime in this country on the spot like they do in the Philippines.

Kadizzle is astonished.  A good long time friend of Kadizzle voted for El Trumpo.  The friend is very religious, and cannot explain why he voted for Trump.  Trump has violated every commandment more than once.  No person could be more pathetic or unChristian than Trump, now someone please tell me how the religious people could justify voting for him, especially now that he has supported three of the world's worst dictators.  When I think about Trump voters I want to think of the commercial that used to say  " A mind is a terrible thing to waste.