Usually Ignorance is a choice

Being ill informed is not a requirement for anyone, it is a choice. A second choice is where you get your information. The dumbing down of our country is scary. People want to believe some silly nonsense, then they can find someone like Rush Limbaugh to reinforce their fantasy. Today the New York Times has an excellent article "Building a Nation of Know Nothings".

Read the article and pass it along to some hard core right winger. See if they choose to remain ignorant.

The Long Slug back to North Dakota

Today we head back from Evergreen. About ten hours from now we will pull back into our driveway in the middle of nowhere ND. After so many years in North Dakota everywhere else is crowded. Today we will travel through some of the most unpopulated areas in the country, from the extreme urban pollution of Denver to the blank places in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Northern Colorado.

Upon this Rock

About three hours of work went into moving a two ton rock yesterday. Kadizzle and Fran moved the rock about ten feet. This was done with the most ancient technology possible. A lever, and a fulcrum were the main tools. Because of a drainage problem at the mountain retreat in Evergreen the rock had to move.

Busy Day at the Recycling Center

North Dakota Hoopleheads

Here is a challenge for anyone. Kadizzle is gong to give you a state with a lot of coal and oil under the Western end. Now Kadizzle is going to give you two dollars for every dollar you send to the federal government. Next your state gets billions in farm subsidies, and of course that is your major income. Now your challenge is to avoid looking good. North Dakota Hoopleheads are being told their Republican leaders are genesis. North Dakota Republicans are beating their chest about how they have a surplus of money they have stolen from the blue states. A key to stealing the money was electing Democrats to Washington to whine about the poor farmers. So what do the Republicans want to do? Every redneck in North Dakota wants to send Republicans to Washington to just say No. The real Hooplehead logic is the failure to realize North Dakota has an aging population. North Dakota will be more and more dependent on federal handouts. Drop kick me Jesus through the goal post of life, don't let me waver to the left or the right.

Grandma caught a wild Monkey

There is speculation humans can catch things from monkeys, and it could also go the other way. You will note both grandma and the monkey she caught are infected with what is known as Einstein hair. This young monkey caught high in the Rockies has an incredible vocabulary for a 15 month old monkey. This monkey has mastered all the sounds needed to pronounce just about anything. However, the monkey cannot yet grasp the Grandma, Grandpa routine, consequently Sylvie the monkey has two Grandma's. One has a beard and a big belly.

Baby Sitting at 8500 feet

Sylvie was up at 5:30. Her engine was running and in no time the day is started. As a grand parent it is hard to understand how we ever made it through the task of being a parent. It is a big job and requires constant attention. Erin, and Fran both work from home, so someone has to distract Sylvie while they work. Erin is in New York, so that leaves the grandparents. Yesterday was a day of walks, splashing in the pool, and constant energy. Kadizzle cannot figure how ancient people or pioneers dealt with children. It seems to have been impossible to move a wagon train across the country with a bunch of little kids. How did Indians live in cliff dwellings with little children. How could anyone survive with two or three little kids tagging along. The people of old did not have strollers, diapers, baby bottles, cups that do not spill, and baby intercoms. One could easily understand how infant mortality could have been terrible. Add to everything else coping with childhood disease, and medical problems. How did they do it?

The Stagecoach Stop

Traveling from Hazen to Evergreen, Colorado chances are you are going to travel on two important old stage coach routes. One stage ran from Bismarck to Deadwood, and the other ran from Cheyenne to Deadwood. By chance Kadizzle stopped at a historic marker to empty his radiator. The marker gave a brief history of the Bismarck stage. That stagecoach could make the run from Bismark to Deadwood in 36 hours. It must have been a grueling trip. Later in the day as the Kadizzle adventure searched for a place to pitch a tent they had to go looking for Tom. The Kadizzles wanted to camp in the yard of an old school they found down a gravel road. Some fellows at the intersection said Tom was down at the old stage coach stop cutting the grass for the election on Tuesday. When we found Tom he said we could camp at the school house and gave us a brief history of the Cheyenne to Deadwood stage. His grandfather had been a driver on that road. This is the stage stop.

Bad Luck with Tires.

Nothing lets the air out of you life, like the air quickly coming out of the new tire you just bought. Kadizzle has become a specialist in sidewall catastrophes. The latest was today. After a terrible day yesterday where all our plans went afoul driving to Denver we ended up in a State Park in Wyoming. It was one of those days where is something could go wrong it did. Finally at nine we crawled in the tent and thought one terrible day was over, but no, some idiot ran a generator until 1 A.M. Kadizzle was going to confront the Dinger, but The Commander suggested he might get his ass whooped.

When the sun rose Kadizzle hoped for a better day. Prior to leaving the Kadizzles had prepared a special coffee kit so we could have fresh ground coffee brewed by the tent in the morning. One small problem, no matches. Steam came from Kadizzle long before it ever would come from the coffee. Simple solution, go get some matches. Kadizzle jumped in the car and headed out. Carefully looking, backing and going slowly to avoid rocks Kadizzle tried to drive out of the camping spot. It was not to be. A strange crashing sound with a boom signaled a flat tire. It was not a simple flat tire that could be patched, but a ruined sidewall. The rock Kadizzle hit had to be hit with such precision to cause this problem that it is unlikely the feat could be duplicated. So it looked like a new tire, but you don't just buy the tire to match the other in nowhere Wyoming. After driving thirty miles to Wheatland, we had to buy a temporary new tire in order to get to Erin's. Next we find the damaged tire is covered by a warranty, but the warranty is only honored in Bismarck, North Dakota. Never, never buy those silly road protection warranties unless you never intend to travel. Last winter we had to replace a tire on our truck when a nail went through the sidewall. The year before a shell casing went though a tire sidewall. The tire lasted two days until we got to Erin's when a drywall screw went though it. Kadizzle would guess we have spent over one thousand dollars in the last three years from damage to the sidewalls of our tires.

A Licenced Genius

Kadizzle once had a friend who was a licensed genius. Often we would get in an argument and he would explain to Kadizzle that he had a card in his wallet that proved he was a genius. Although Kadizzle graduated from college, and attended graduate school for two years Kadizzle has never become licensed as a genius, although Kadizzle probably is one. How do you become a licensed genius? It used to be you could get licensed through Readers Digest. If you suspected you might be a genius you could sign up for a test from Mensa. Mensa is an organization for geniuses. My good friend did not pass the genius test the first time he took it. You can study and take the test more than once if you are not a real fast genius. The nice thing is that it takes no educational qualifications to become a genius. My friend did not graduate from high school. The time and money he saved by getting certified saved him a fortune. No college expenses, no text books to buy, no countless hours wasted studying and reading. If Kadizzle had known he would have taken the test early. If you get in an argument with someone who is a certified genius and they pull out their card you are lost. No point in going any further. The first time it happened to Kadizzle he just shut up bowed his head and walked away. Being wrong is never pleasant, but having a certified genius tell you that you are wrong really puts you in your place. Kadizzle has learned not to argue with cerified geniuses. The best thing to do is tell them what you think and ask them if you could be right. Once you are certified you don't have to renew your certification. Imagine if two guys applied for a job. One had a doctorate degree from Harvard, and the other one was a certified genius from Readers Digest. Who would pass up the genius? Kadizzle recommends that if you think you might be a genius you take the test. You never know. The Commander says Kadizzle is a certified idiot. I think she can administer that test. The certification to be an idiot is not that hard. All the commander did was ask Kadizzle to do the dishes, and cut the grass. Kadizzle said he could not find the dish soap, and the mower was out of gas. The Commander said to Kadizzle "you are a certified idiot". Hopefully the card will come in the mail in a few days and Kadizzle can register as a Republican.

Hopeless politics

Last night Kadizzle attended a dinner honoring Dorgan. Dorgan seems like he just gave up. You could just see somehow that he felt the mess in the Capital is hopeless. Basically he is a good man fighting for the common people. As Kadizzle sat there bored to death with the typical political nonsense he recalled once when he called Dorgan. Cannot even remember what the call was about. Kadizzle expected to get some secretary in an office that would give him the brush off. Instead Dorgan took Kadizzles call in the hallway of the Senate. Dorgan spoke as long as he could and said he had to leave for a vote. Kadizzle has always been amazed in North Dakota that when you want to get hold of a person in government you can. Years ago Kadizzle had a problem with a car dealer in Bismarck. Kadizzle called the attorney general. The AG took the call said he would take care of the problem, and he did. Kadizzle was new to North Dakota and never thought such a thing was possible.

Sadly our government has been brought to a standstill by Republicans that can only say no. Like little stubborn children they just say no. To get elected all they have to do is play one of their magic cards, guns, gays, abortion, or god. If a brick took the Republican stand on guns, gays, god, and abortion the brick could win office forever in North Dakota. Currently we have enough bricks in North Dakota to build a wall that will stop progress forever. Dorgan is right to feel hopeless.

Chaos in the Universe

Disorder drives some people nuts, Lord Kadizzle has a high tolerance for disorder. On the other hand The Commander demands things pretty orderly. Thinking about this Kadizzle remembered an old song he once heard. The exact words to the song will not come back, but the jest of the story was something like this. A neighbor lady came over to another woman who was in her yard and complained about the fact that the woman's husband was out in the yard every day acting like a chicken. The neighbor asked the old hill billy woman if it bothered her that every day her husband walked around in the yard flapped his arms like a chicken and cackled. The old hill billy lady said "No it don't bother me, and besides we can use the eggs". Life is what you make it. Look on the bright side.

God loved the Chiggers

Mark Twain was probably one of the best writers that ever lived. He hated flies. One book he wrote that never was published in his life time was "Letters from the Earth". Mark Twain was not religious in fact he was very anti religious. In order to sell his works his family tried to cloak this as best they could. In "Letters from the Earth" Twain had a lot of fun at the Bible's expense. One very entertaining story he wrote was about how Noah had to get everything on the arch. After Noah had been at sea for six weeks Noah realized he had no flies. Noah had to turn the ship around and get two flies. Twain was always infuriated with flies and could not understand why Noah brought them. Lately Kadizzle and other sailors have been the victims of chiggers. These little bugs are common to the south, but with global warming now seem to be making good homes in North Dakota. If you ever had them you know they are worse than flies. Like Mark Twain Kadizzle wonders what Noah was thinking when he herded two chiggers up the gang plank. Did Noah have any clue what he was doing. This is a picture of one of his crew members after they were bitten by the chiggers.

Kadizzle Threatened with death

As usual The Commander woke up like a nuclear power plant coming online. She said things were going to happen fast. It was going to be a hot day and The Commander wante the grass cut while it was cool. Kadizzle was disqualified for cutting the grass this year. Apparently his methods were lacking. However, Kadizzle is the clipping boy, and is allowed to refill the mower with gas. Things were looking good. Kadizzle went to the gas station got gas as instructed, did the dishes as instructed, placed the wheelbarrow in the proper position as instructed, put the pickup truck in the loading position as instructed. Things were going good until Kadizzle went to get the mail. Kadizzle got caught in a little BS session at City Hall. Sure enough his cell phone rang and the jig was up. In a furious voice The Commander informed Kadizzle the death penalty would be applied if he did not get home forthwith and empty the grass clippings from the wheelbarrow into the pickup. To cover his posterior when he got home Kadizzle made The Commander a nice glass of ice water. Apparently there will be a court marshall hearing later today. Hopefully Kadizzle can throw himself on the mercy of the court. According to The Commander death by stabbing is the normal punishment for failure to empty the wheelbarrow as scheduled. Hopefully it will be a long knife, if she uses the pearing knife it may take multiple blows to go through all this fat. To appease The Commander Kadizzle has purchased a new mower shown above.

The Fox is in the Hen House

Captain Kit runs the marina where poor old Kadizzle has to get the sewage pumped out of his boat. Lately Captain Kit has not been taking his medication as required. He fired the nice kid that worked at the dock and has been in a foul mood. Kadizzle and Kit have been in a kerfuffle over one of Kadizzles rants to the Bismarck Tribune. The mean old Captain has made it clear that Kadizzle's droppings are no longer welcome at his sewage pump. Last week Kadizzle let it be known among the fleet that the code phrase to indicate Kit is working the docks is "The Fox is in the Hen house". If a reasonable person is working the docks one should announce on the radio " The Chickens are laying eggs". Last week as luck would have it Kadizzle was first to the pump out station and announced "The Chickens are laying eggs". The Fox was in the Hen House yesterday, and things did not look good. As Kadizzle pulled in to get his sewage pumped a storm was brewing in the southeast. On the dock a storm was brewing between Kit's ears. The mere site of Kadizzle's ship was driving him wild. Kadizzle circled the good ship Sovereign in front of the docks while a power boat struggled to take on fuel. When it looked as if Kadizzle could leave Kit the best of all possible shipments, Kit emerged from the Hen house with a face bright red with anger and yelled to the Sovereign " The pump is broken, I can't pump you out". What a terrible stroke of luck for Kadizzle. The good ship "Gone with the Wind " had just pumped out, but mechanical devils struck. This luck has hit Kadizzle before. Kit has a pump unlike any most people have encountered. The pump heals itself. After Kadizzle leaves it is not unusual for the pump to heal and then next ship gets pumped out. Kadizzle has a hand pump that would allow him to pump the sewage into buckets. Captain Kadizzle thought about pumping the sewage into buckets and leaving it on Kit's dock. It would be fun to say to Kit "I'll just leave my sewage here, when you get the pump fixed pump it out, and I'll come back for the buckets". Of course on leaving it would be nice to flip him a fifty cent piece.

Sovereign successfully attacked several ships.

Sailing is certainly easier than cleaning the boat. After several harsh hours obeying The Commander as the boat was cleaned it was time to have some fun. As we cleaned the boat Jayden watched, questioned, and commented. Jayden is the grandson visiting his grandparents on the neighboring houseboat. Jayden has sailed with us before, and he began to hint it would be nice to go out for a sail. The wind was just right and it did not take a lot to push Kadizzle over the edge. Over the protest of The Commander Lord Kadizzle unleashed the good ship and we took off in search of treasure. Out in the big water we spotted two ships. One looked heavily laden with goods. Our maneuvers were ill considered and poorly timed and the the ship managed to make the Evil Capetian Kits port before we could unleash our cannons. However, the swashbuckling Jayden soon spotted a smaller prize. Jayden had been in the crows nest looking for booty when he spotted the other ship. The cannons were readied on the starboard side. Kadizzle had instructed Jayden to act friendly so as not to give away our evil intent. As the other ship neared Jayden waved and smiled. It worked the cannons were fired and the ship slowly sunk as we unloaded the booty. In retrospect now Kadizzle recalls how this adventure started. Jayden was playing with the winches on the boat. Kadizzle tried to explain to him how they worked, but realized it would be easier to show him under sail. Jayden picked it up pretty quickly once underway. More young people need to study the profession of piracy first hand, and spend less time in front of the computer. With piracy becoming more popular these days off the northwest coast of Africa it could be a good career.

The Lord Works in Strange Ways

Surely the Lord does work in strange ways. It took Lord Kadizzle three years with the help of many to build the Pocket Park on Main Street in Hazen. Tonight a local family gave an excellent musical performance there which was mainly Christian music. The crowd was overflowing into the ally and it brought great joy to Lord Kadizzle's heart to see the park so well used. Listening to the wonderful performance Kadizzle could not but wonder about the mischievousness of the Lord. At best Kadizzle is an agnostic, and at worst an orthodox atheist. Never would Kadizzle have dreamed he would build the biggest Christian music venue in Hazen. It is a dream come true to see so many people enjoy a summer evening in what was once an abandoned lot with weeds knee high. When I die I am sure someone will have my fat rendered into bio diesel for a church bus. Kadizzle will get to heaven even if it is through an exhaust pipe.

The Same Story

It would be nice if Kadizzle was not as guilty as everyone else, but the same stories get told over and over. As we get older the nice thing is we all lose our memories. So if we are lucky we forgot the last time Willy told us about the time he caught a fish that had swallowed a cigarette lighter and when he cut it open the lighter was still burning. Usually the lapse between when you tell the same person the same story is a couple of months or a year, but when you reach a certain age you may only be able to go an hour or two. Wives are the ones who really suffer in this story game. The poor commander has heard Kadizzles stories so many times she often puts a halt to them right out of the gate. This saves someone the tragedy of hearing the whole mess over. People tell stories because our society does not like issues of substance to be debated in public. If you take religion and politics off the table there is not much left but to tell the same stories over and over. People can talk about books, movies, or sports, but this can be hard on the illiterate like Kadizzle. One technique Kadizzle has adopted as a listener to a repeat tale is to see how well the current version matches last years. If you listen closely the location often changes and so do many of the key details. So you are not always listening to the same story, but often a new and improved version. The most fun is to listen to a story when you were one of the characters. Since you were there you have your own version of what happened. The fun part is comparing your reality with the story tellers reality. So if you are bored hearing the same story over test your memory while you listen to how Uncle Willy had an old dog that could sing.

Fight the Rats and save hundreds of dollars

For over an hour Kadizzle fought on the phone today against the health care rats at Blue Cross and finally won. Blue Cross refused to pay for a prescription because it was not prior approved. The prescription was for an emergency. Finally one of the dunderheads higher up the food chain at Blue Cross realized you cannot prior approve an emergency. One thing Kadizzle has realized in life is that when you deal with corporate American you have to just keep going up the food chain until you reach someone who can make an intelligent decision. Kadizzle has done this hundreds of times. The medical system in the United States is terrible and the most overpriced in the world. You will not understand this until you have to pay for it. I can get Benicar in Canada for $98. In Hazen it is $235. I hate Blue Cross, The crooked American drug companies and the right wing Hoopleheads that made sure we did not have the same health care most advanced countries do. For lack of health insurance my daughter just paid thousands for medications that would have been covered in any advanced country but this one. My daughter is not a welfare cheat. She works hard and has been trying to start her own business. In the United States we bankrupt young people so the rich don't have to pay taxes. It is wonderful. Drill baby drill.

Bear Den Bay on the Week Long Sail

Lake Sakakawea has to be the best sailing in the country.

The Good Ship Returns

After a ten day search we never found the Northwest passage, but we had fun trying.