Update in America

The time is rapidly approaching for the Kadizzles to head south.  Today our oldest daughter is 40.  Seems impossible that we have a daughter 40 but the clock keeps spinning.  Now it comes to me. Last night Kadizzle was thinking about a subject for today's briefing.

Mr and Mrs Kadizzle have been watching the series "Mind Hunters" on Netflix.  As usual it is well done and in no time we are binge watching. Yesterday we watched three episodes.  The story evolves around how the FBI got into profiling criminal minds.  Two FBI agents go to prisons to interview serial killers.  The show is well done and is very much based on actual killings, and killers.

Perhaps Kadizzle has written on this blog before about this, but Kadizzle grew up and went to school with a psychopath.  It was not until college and a psychology course that Kadizzle realized his old schoolmate Charlie was a psychopath.  At Marshall University in West Virginia Kadizzle sat in his room and read a description of a psychopath.  All of a sudden it hit him, Charlie is a psychopath.  Charlie was also at Marshall attempting to get a degree.  Charlie's college came to an abrupt end when one of his psychopathic tendencies got him thrown out of school.  That is a whole different story, but also an interesting one.

Psychopaths are very charming people, and very good actors.  Of course there are degrees of the problem.  Psychopaths have no empathy for other people.  They can seem like your best friend, but it would not bother them a bit to steal from you or kill you if it suited their need.  A good argument can be made that some of our presidents are psychopaths.  Our current president, and Richard Nixon certainly had the tenancies.  Psychopaths are excellent at playing people.  Trump does this every day.  Trump knows exactly how to play the redneck mind, and he knows he does it.  When you see Trump in action you see he really doesn't care about anyone.  Poor people are just pawns to him.  Trump could care less about children having health care, or hurricane victims getting help, but he knows what people want to hear.

The law and rules mean absolutely nothing to a psychopath, they are just problem you surmount when getting to your goal.  Psychopaths have absolutely no conscience.

This gets me back to Charlie.  At one time Charlie lived on the second floor of a house with his mother and brother.  The people living below had some chickens in the yard.  Charlie did not like the chickens and thought they were annoying.  Charlie would take a pen knife and put it under the shoe laces of his tennis shoe.  The blade of the knife stuck out in front of the shoe. Charlie then would put some corn on his shoe.  When the chicken came to get the corn Charlie would kick the chicken. The chicken would fly up in the air and come down dead. Charlie thought the whole thing was fun, expedient, and it did not bother him at all.

Trump and the Republicans lie on a daily bases.  It is expedient, and it serves their purpose. The upcoming tax cuts are a prime example.  The tax cuts will be a windfall for the rich, and do little if anything to help the working class.  All the data and research indicates it is a massive fraud. However, it will serve the purpose of getting campaign donations for the Republicans so lying is no problem.

Running from the fire

Thankya Jesus it is not happening to Kadizzle.  We are not about to burn up like so many people in California, but we do have a minor part of their problem.  The clock is ticking and soon the Earth Module will be packed and headed toward the southwest.  Now like a house on fire we have to decide what to take or what not to take. We always take too many clothes.  That is a minor problem, but the gizmos are the real problem.  You need ten different kinds of charges to keep all the crap charged.  Then what if you have to repair something?  What tools should we take?  The worst thing is to get to the middle of nowhere and wish you had something.  The big item on the question list is the solar panel.  It has not been used in the last couple of years, but if you get stuck in the middle of nowhere it could be a great bonus.  The damn thing weighs about sixty pounds.  Weight is everything in this game.  The less you carry in the Earth Module the better.  When you put the brakes on to stop the caravan the brakes have to stop all the junk behind you.  The brakes if overburdened may not do the job.

A few years back we had the great crash that turned the previous Earth Module upside down and demolished both the living quarters and the pickup pulling it.  So Kadizzle has become much more conscious about the physics of stopping.  Stopping has everything to do with weight. Ask any ship captain or engineer on the railroad.

So what do we take, what do we leave?  The little items are as big a problem as the big ones.  Too many times some little item will solve the problem. If you had the right screwdriver you could fix the blasted thing.  One thing always on the back of the mind is getting stuck. If you are up some god awful forest road and you are stuck, what do you do?  A few simple tools might solve the problem. A saw, a shovel, some rope, a small winch.  Now what if you don't get stuck?  You carried all that crap for nothing.

Perhaps there is a solution.  One thing the Kadizzles have invested in is satellite communications.  Now the Kadizzles have a small hand held device that can reach a satellite from anywhere in the world. The device can send an emergency notification with our location or our problem.  Perhaps we should just carry the " Help I am down and can't get up" button and just call for help.

Retirement

Down at the Crazy Club a nice discussion was held yesterday on the subject of retirement. What is it? Do you work? How do people approach it?  Stroupini is back from the coast, The owner of the meeting hall was present, and Shiny and here dog.  To Kadizzle retirement is being unfettered by bills, task, or commitments. Divorcing oneself from structure is very hard for some people. Kadizzle woke up this morning clueless of what he will do today.  Many people cannot stand the idea of uncertainty and have to plan every moment, every meal, every task.  Kadizzle just likes to like what he likes. If it feels good keep doing it. If it is no fun stop.  This does not work for a lot of people.  They always focus on an upcoming problem. Death is an upcoming problem. How much enjoyment you get between now and when the coffin lid closes should be the focus, not the bad spot on the grass, the laundry, or the hole in the street.  Life is about what you focus on.

At the Club House opinions swirled about how to retire an what to do. A lot was said about civic duty, and volunteering.  You can volunteer and enjoy it.  A vast pool of wealth exist in the retired community.  People with a lot of knowledge are in the retirement stage of life.  This concept swung the conversation to the role of old people and wisdom.  Do we respect our elders and their wisdom? How did the Indians relate to the elders of the tribe?  What kind of Tribe do we now have?

Over at Rita's Crazy Club they are sewing away and getting ready for Halloween. Rita rents costumes.  Like a couple of little kids Rita and Bingo went out and bought scary Halloween stuff.  When Kadizzle popped into their meeting hall they were running a remote control spider across the floor.  On the other side of the room an electronic hand was walking by itself. 

The wonderful Gesundheit Gazette will be out today.  Ichabod is the editor of the Hazen Star.  Kadizzle occasionally sits down with Ichabod to discuss politics.  Ichabod is astute on the subject, but caught up in religion and politics. Ichabod is so  skinny he looks like he escaped from a spaghetti package.  Although Icabod is a good writer most of his paper is drivel about the nothing that goes on around here.  Mildred made a quilt.  Elmer's dog hunts mosquitoes, and so on.

Mrs Kadizzle read an article about how ignorant theTrumpster is on economics.  The Trumpster claims because the stock market is up he is wiping out the national debt.  The man is clueless as well as dangerous.

Getting Old is scary

Old Kadizzle just read a lengthy article in The NewYorker about a guardianship scam run in Las Vegas.  The frightening thing is that it happens.  The scheme is set up to allow guardians to loot the estate of older people. The particular case the story centers on involves the daughter of an older couple. The daughter tries to protect her parents that have been captured by the guardians and put in a nursing home. The guardians bilk the older people and make a fortune doing it.  The courts go along with it and the whole thing ends up like a kidnapping.

These type of abuses are reported publicly and the legislatures in states like Nevada fail to act.  The lesson is be nice to your children, they are your only hope to avoid being captured.  If you don't have children god help you.  You can be captured and your assets stolen.

Alexa is a little dumb, but is getting smarter

Kadizzle has an affection for gadgets.  Over the summer Kadizzle purchased the Amazon Echo, and an Eco dot.  If you don't know what these are, maybe an explanation is due.  Both are little gizmos that can understand your commands and play music, radio, or give answers.  Now the Kadizzles are regularly yelling at Alexa.  You don't really have to yell, but Mrs Kadizzle is so used to yelling at Mr Kadizzle that she figures it is best to yell at Alexa.  The morning routine now is to awake and yell Alexa play KCND radio Fargo.  Alexa in her polite stewardess voice obeys.  Alexa doesn't say " Do it yourself".

Now the Alexa programmers have figured out how to get Alexa to control the Sonos system.  This is super duper. The Sonos speakers which were great in and of themselves are really nice working with Alexa.  You can yell at Alexa and tell her to play relaxing music on Sonos in the kitchen or in the bedroom.  Of course Alexa will do math, call people for you,  give you reminders and so on.  There is a way Kadizzle could get Alexa to turn on the coffee, but that has not been set up yet.

Now the home base is semi automated it is hard to leave for the winter.  The Earth module does not have voice command. Wait yes it does.  Mike get the coffee, Mike turn on the radio, Mike open the door, Mike pick up your clothes.  So once you leave in the Earth Module Alexa becomes Mike.

Thinking about Thinking

Honest Omar got Kadizzle reading a book about how the mind operates.  This morning The New York Times ran an article about the same subject. How many people ever stop to think about how they think. Are we rational?  Of course not.  Billions of people believe in strange entities in the sky.  You have superstition, and on it goes.  The question is how do you get people to believe things contrary to what is real?

Kadizzle has two daughters and he like to think both of them are well endowed intellectually.  Can you raise intelligent children or more precisely can you teach children to think?  You can surely give them some very bad thinking habits.  Take them to church and give them a good dose of indoctrination. Religion has a debilitating effect on thinking and sadly it is one of the worst things you can do to young people.  How does religion teach children to think?  Religion legitimizes believing in things that are not provable or factual.  Religion teaches children not to question, but to simply obey.  Religion teaches children so many bad thinking habits the list is endless.

Most knowledge is gained by questioning and observation.  Kadizzle taught his children to question. Question authority.  Because someone is the Pope, or the Mayor, or the Teacher, that gives them no special access to reality.  Things are not always what they appear is an important concept to give children.  The Earth appears to be flat and it makes sense, but dig deeper.

Don't be afraid to say " I don't know".   When your children ask you a difficult question like " Is there a god?".  Be an adult, simply say " I don't know".  You don't know.  When my kids and I got into this kind of discussion Kadizzle would say " I don't know, but some people believe...."   Giving children a sense of certainty is great, but if you destroy their mind in the process it is a sin.

One of the greatest modern tragedies are the people that home school their children.  They keep them home and indoctrinate them.  Those parents rob their children of reality.  Fortunately it often fails and the minds imprisoned by idiocy break out and come alive.

Currently Republicans are bent on destroying public education.  A good crop of stupid people serves the Republican party well.  Get the religious to help and you pave the way for more Trumps.

The Theater

Went to the theater the other night.  Decided to shoot someone in the dark did not like.  Got up shot the guy.  Another person with a gun got up to shoot me, but before he turned to shoot me someone else got up to shoot me.  The first gun defender guy shot the second one.  A third got up and shot the second. Quickly went out to the lobby.  Put gun on person selling popcorn.  Ordered popcorn.  Ate popcorn while gunfire in theater continued.  Read in paper many innocent people died when gun crazy people shot each other in the dark no one knows who shooter was.  Gun logic in action.

Now imagine the insanity in Las Vegas when people say more armed people would be the answer.  What if hundreds of people were shooting back at the hotel?  How many people sleeping innocently in the hotel would be shot or injured?  Do we really want simple minded people defending us? Look at the military.  Highly trained people with weapons.  How many times do soldiers kill other soldiers on the good guy side?  Now imagine some of the stupidest people you know trying to sort out the bad guys.

Communist Birds

Kadizzle is generally against killing things. Of course there are exceptions. Kadizzle leaves the deer alone, and every other specie of living creature in North America accept one.  Today we went after the pheasants. Pheasants are not native to our country. Trump would not like them. Pheasants are from China. The wall in China does not keep them out.  So this morning Kadizzle and the boss went out to give the pheasants their due.  Out of practice the old gun tablemeat missed the first few shots, but finally on a remarkable shot Tablemeat came alive and the bird came down.  Later Mrs. Kadizzle plugged one. She hit one earlier but it got away.

Birds are one thing that one might shoot for food, but Kadizzle thinks there should be open season on stump preachers. Stump preachers like Pat Robertson, and Billy Grahm that prey on old ladies should be in season at least part of the year.  There should be a special tag to hunt Rush Limbaugh.  Should Trump be hunted? No he is so clearly mentally ill that only tranquilizer darts should be used on him.

How does the mind work?

Honest Omar gave old Kadizzle a book .  Generally speaking giving Kadizzle a book is about like giving a dog a book. Kadizzle has a small attention span, but the subject off the book did get the reading going.  THE BELIEVING BRAIN is the book. How exactly do we think? How do million, in fact billions of people believe total nonsense. The book tries to answer the question. If you never asked yourself " How did I come to that conclusion" you should try it.  How many people believe in mystical magic beings that we cannot see?  Yup billions of people. It would seem if you owned a brain, and it is questionable if a lot of people do, that at some point you would wonder how it works.

The brain pulls a lot of tricks on us. It sees patterns that are there, and it sees patterns that are not there.  Too many times the brain wants to believe.  Everyone would like to believe Donald Trump can and will make America great again. However, a lot of brains realize this is unlikely to happen.  Why does one brain fall for the scam, and another brain doesn't?  Wouldn't it be nice to know.

So almost to the end of the book Kadizzle has some new insights.  A major controversy with the brain is the idea of a soul.  Is there part of the brain that goes on after death?  No one knows, of course the religious will chose to believe.  The word is chose.  No one knows.  Why do people chose to believe?  That is a mystery worth looking into.  That is what this book is about.

Right now the country is in the midst of a gun insanity problem.  A lot of people chose to believe all sorts of things about guns that cannot be backed up with data, facts, or common sense.  It makes no difference if someone is out to get you or not.  It is what you believe.  If you believe someone is going to do you harm you think you better have a gun.  The strange thing is you are 68 years old, no one ever came after you in a situation where a gun was needed. Doesn't make any difference.  It could happen.  You could be hit by a small asteroid. You have never seen one or even come close, but it could happen. People have had small space rocks come through their roof.  Now do you get a better roof, do you move into a cave, what do you do? Nothing.  Somehow your brain treats the idea of a robber coming to your house entirely differently.  How does your brain get you to the state of mind that you purchase a gun. 

On it goes.  You go to church they tell you things that are clearly impossible.  You believe these things.  Why? How?   Pick up this book, pick up some book and open the window into your own mind.

There is no gravity in the United States

Amazement, is all one can think when a whole nation pretends there is nothing we can do about the gun insanity in this country.  No other modern country in the world has the carnage we do.  There are endless things that can be done.  However, the Republicans, Fox News, and the NRA have captured the minds of our most paranoid, and uneducated citizens.  The notion that someone is coming to get my gun is such insane nonsense, but it works.

One simple way you could control guns is treat them like cars.  You have to license them, register them, take a test to drive them, and have liability insurance on them. Pretty simple right.  We don't want people killing us with cars.  If you get drunk and drive a car you don't get to drive anymore.  You can get drunk and shoot a gun, no problem.

This is an age of technology, and it is an age where stores have RFD devices in clothing. If you try to steal a nice coat from a store an alarm will go off when you walk out the door.  How does this work? Attached to the coat is a small chip with called and RFD. RFD stands for radio frequency device.  When the device is exposed to microwave energy it becomes energized and gives off a radio signal. No battery is needed. The signal identifies the device and sets off an alarm.  Some police departments, and the military already have these devices implanted in their guns.  This means the police can go into their gun safe and instantly identify and inventory all the guns in there.  If every gun was required to have an RFD the gun would set off an alarm at a school, a bank, a church or a rock concert.  But we are  a nation of dolts, simple minded people easily manipulated and scared.

So no one is going to do anything or even give a shit until their son, daughter, wife, or dog gets shot by a gun nut.   No other country is so driven by ignorance supplied free by the Republicans, Fox News, and the NRA.   Our neighbors daughter was at the most recent shooting.  She was badly shaken up.  What if she had been shot?  Would the people in Hazen think any differently about  the gun nuts.   Every gun nut wants to say the gun is not the problem.  How in the face of numbers can they be that stupid.  People don't get mowed down in Canada, England, and dozens of other countries that control guns.  When those children were shot at Sandyhook so many people thought now we will get the fog of ignorance lifted. It did not happen.

Today's invention

Let's pretend math doesn't work

Some of us went to college, some didn't.  Some of us took classes in statistics some didn't. What does statistics have to do with anything.  Well gee, golly, you can predict things with statistics.  You can predict who will win the election long before the votes are counted.  You can predict how many pheasants are in a section of land by counting crowing.  So what? Try this you can make correlations. Is it just coincidence that countries with universal health care have healthier babies, longer lives, and better health care in general?  Is it just coincidence that the casino always wins?  Is it just coincidence that we have the highest gun violence of any country and the most lax gun laws?

The simple answer can be had with math and statistics and the answer is clear, but a whole lot of people are clueless how statistics work. A whole lot of people never took a statistics class.  A whole lot of those people chose to believe things that are simply not true and can be proven untrue with statistics.  Insurance companies understand statistics, casinos understand statistics, and the people who rip you off with rebates understand statistics.  Taking money from fools with statistics is the oldest game in town next to prostitution. 

We live in a country where people simply do not understand math.  One percent of the population owns damn near everything.  People have no idea of what one percent is.  If you say ten to the average idiot they can comprehend that number, but once you go over one million things get foggy.  When you talk to a country full of math illiterates and you try to explain how the military budget is eating their lunch, they are dumbfounded.  You just cannot explain big numbers to dolts.  The dolts are convinced the poor are eating our lunch.  The numbers clearly show it is the rich who took the cheese, but emotion is what come into play when dolts look at numbers.

Tax cuts for the rich work to make the poor prosperous. Bull shit, no number shows that, no statistic shows that, but that lie has been sold to the dolts. Remember dolts do not understand numbers. Dolts understand stories at the coffee shop. Dolts feel things, they don't know things. Dolts see bums, and street people, and dolts feel they are the problem. Dolts don't see Donald's kids inheriting millions tax free.  Every dolt buys a lottery ticket for the simple reason every dolt thinks he can win. The dolt saw a guy on TV who won, so that means he can win.  The dolt is broke and has no money for a tattoo because he bought too many lottery tickets. The dolt is sure he will win, it just takes time.  The dolt is sure he can win at black jack, it is just a matter of time. Dolts can manipulate reality.  Dolts have reality manipulated for them.  Republicans cultivate dolts like carrots. Feed the dolts good quality fertilizer and watch their belief grow.

Dolts think terrorist are going to kill them, nope it is far more likely a car or cancer will get you, but who wants to spend money on cancer research or wear a seat belt, or quit the cell phone while you drive? Certainly not the dolts.   Drive down the interstate.  Every truck drive is distracted on his cell phone driving 80,000 lbs of crap.  The truck driver voted for Trump and is sure the terrorist are after him, and he has a gun in the cab to protect him from the bad guys.  Back to statistics.  The cell phone has the greatest chance of getting him killed because he did not notice the railroad crossing ahead, but the dolt doesn't understand statistics.  So next election the dolts will fill their brains with knowledge from the coffee shop and the truck stop. The dolts will listen for hours to KFYR radio in Bismarck spew right wing insanity.  There is no math, and there are plenty of dolts. One is in the White House, and we love him, because he pokes those pointed headed college people in the eye.

I made this thing last night

Preaching to the deaf

In the little burg where Kadizzle lives he has become friends over the years with two of the prominent ministers in the town.  The ministers speak candidly with Kadizzle because they know he is not part of any congregation.  Both have clearly revealed they in no way would ever support a man like Donald Trump.  Now for the irony.  These men of God have preached for probably a combined total of sixty years to the people of our burg.  Did the message sink in at all. Hell no, the little town overwhelmingly voted for Trump, and the very people who are his lickspittles.

So what is the point. Every Sunday the good children of God sit and listen, but they do not hear. How does this happen? They hear what they want to hear.  The same people who listen to their preacher in the morning go home and tune into Fox News.  They hear no contradiction between the lies of Fox News and what they heard sitting in the church pews.  An old saying is " There are none so blind as those who will not see".  Apparently the same holds true for hearing " There are no do deaf as those who will not hear".   Now Kadizzle is far from any kind of bible thumper, but he does know there is a strong contradiction between what Jesus said and what Trump says.  So up the street from Kadizzle is the church.  Around ten people will shuffle in there to learn about God.  They will walk out believing God anoited Donald Trump to help the poor by giving Tax breaks to the rich.  As the Bible say " The lord works in strange ways".

Wonderful Outing

Three old goats rode through the badlands on the cycles.  The lord shown upon us.  We found a Garden of Eden trail rarely used by anyone.  Shanika and Stoupini were not up for going out of the canyon we descended into.  We had to take the long way around to avoid the steep road that let us descend.  We took a dead end road and met two Broke Back Mountain guys in a wonderful cove back in the boonies.  At last we got back to the truck.  The area around the Killdeer mountains is ablaze with color and a trip there is justified.  Back home a bachelor party.  Mrs Kadizzle is camping up below the dam so the three men had wonderful meat and potatoes with a salad.  As this is written Stoupini is at the grocery store getting the ice cream. Wonderful day.

Crazy Club outing

Shaneka is coming up from Mandan. Hopefully he will bring some goods from the bakery.  Stoupini, Kadizzle, and Shaneka will go on a motorcycle jaunt to the Badlands. Hopefully we can find some rugged roads for the dirt bikes.  Only a short meeting was held at the Crazy club yesterday and items still need resolved so the meeting will reconvene today.  Mrs Kadizzle went over to Rita's Crazy club to get the scoop on the squatter problem.  Rita and her husband Bingo bought some property with a house. The house is occupied by a drunken squatter.  The simple solution would seem to be just throw the guy out.  However, when you run a crazy club nothing is simple.  The squatter is rumored to have a gun and he is an ex felon.  Now to throw in some spice the squatter has a girl friend that visits.  Under the guise of doing laundry the girlfriend shows up and the practice making little squatters.  So if Rita doesn't get them out before the breeding is successful she may have a real infestation.

Mrs Kadizzle is all excited about her upcoming trip down into the Grand Canyon, so she is going to do a practice hike and sleep out tonight.  This is like practicing for a root canal.  Kadizzle maybe able to sleep all night with no snore kicks from the young peanut all night.

The Trump insanity goes on and on.  The New York Times has lost it's mind.  The NYT hates Trump so much almost every editorial is dedicated to pointing out what the crazy man is doing.  It is good reading and the Trumpster is insane.

The machine inside my brain.

Chicken meat on the highway

Around the equator of Kadizzle is an accumulation of chicken meat.  Only vigorous exercise can get the chicken meat off.  Yesterday Kadizzle decided to accompany Mrs Kadizzle on a bike ride.  Mrs Kadizzle was going to ride her Mountain bike at Harmony Lake.  Kadizzle cannot afford the expensive bikes Mrs Kadizzle has so he was going to ride his old beater from Hensler south.

The plan was to ride paved roads towards the boss. Kadizzle thought the road south on 1806 was paved, wrong.  Kadizzle ended up peddling 25 miles 15 of which took place on gravel.  The only salvation was the motor grader must have recently passed and made a nice smooth path on one side of the road.  In the end it was actually a pleasant ride. At home the scale indicated two or maybe three pounds of chicken meat may have fallen off onto the road.

One of the main purposes of that road is to get to Cross Ranch State Park.  Scenery along the road in the fall is very nice and the trip is recommended.  To get some water Kadizzle stopped at the park's boat ramp.  A couple old goats were having trouble getting their fishing boat back on the trailer so Kadizzle helped and we got it on.  A little upstream it  appeared an older couple had their fifth wheel set up right beside the river.  It looked like a great spot and tempted Kadizzle to do the same.

Off to the lake today to help get one more boat out.   The summer shot by and the sailing was limited.  Transition time is upon us.

One of those days

The clock on the microwave reads 5:33 A.M.  Kadizzle awakened at 3:30 from the usual strange dream.  Unable to get back to sleep Kadizzle tossed and turned until about 4:30.  The hell with it just get up and start the update.  There will be a crazy club meeting at 9:30.  Kadizzle stopped at Rita's crazy club yesterday afternoon. Kadizzled chided Rita that she needs some new members.  Rita finally has some help in the sewing shop.  Now Rita has two helpers.  One woman is younger and quiet.  The other older woman is a good cackler and full of laughs.  Rita is trying to move into some property she bought with her husband, but the house is infested with a bum.  The old owners were hoarders and Rita is having a hard time evicting them so she can move in.  Describing the bum that occasionally occupies the place it seems Rita has a potential member for her crazy club.  With one more cackler in the sewing shop the remeadigus will be improved.  Over at the library progress is being made on the new park.  Trees are getting planted.

What can you do at this hour of the morning?  First a littler updating on the Trump insanity.  Hard to believe we are living in this world where a man suffering from several forms of insanity is president, but here we are.

Kadizzle is considering the purchase of a 12 volt cooler/freezer.  Two companies make a very nice one, ENGEL and ARB.   However, they are not cheap, six to eight hundred dollars.  The Kadizzlites could use the thing in the car, one the boat, and as an adjunct to the Earth Module.  With extra freezer space the Earth Module may be able to go longer before grocery store refills.   A real bonus would be running the cooler from the solar panels.  That would mean we could boondock and still have plenty of cooling power.  On road trips it would be great to just plug the thing in and not worry about ice.  Just about have myself convinced.  It will probably take a big pair of pliers to pull the money from the wallet.  If anyone wants to buy this for our Christmas present go for it.

This is the great transition time of year.  We begin to get ready to head south. Mrs Kadizzle is all psyched up about her Havasupai hike in the Grand Canyon.  The energy bug wants to do a practice hike and camp up by the dam to try out her new pack and equipment.  In the back of his mind Kadizzle is still contemplating a trip back to hillbilly land.  Well time for more coffee and a check to see if the sun is up in Virginia. With the live cams on youtube Kadizzle can see if the sun has come up back East.  It may not come up, after all we elected Trump, so anything is possible.  Bulletin, good news the sun is coming up in Ashland, Virginia, we are OK.  

World Famous Horseshoe Curve Cam - Virtual Railfan LIVE

Watch this live feed. Maybe a train will go by . You will be amazed to see train loads of Chinese junk going to Walmart. The amount of crap we throw in the dump in our country is amazing.

Getting Older, and perhaps smarter

Mrs Kadizzle has been seriously caught up watching the Ken Burns Vietnam chronicle on PBS.  So many years later, and after so many friends were ground up the truth is laid out.  The whole thing was a massive fraud and mistake.  We never learn.   As you age you find out so many truths that were not known when you were young.  A lot of rotten stuff comes out that people pulled.  As people approach the goal post they are inclined to be honest, what do they have to lose?  What really happened, who really cheated, and that is how he made the money.  History has a way of percolating the truth to the top. It doesn't always work, but as an old man Kadizzle sees things with clarity that were in the fog as he grew old.  If more people would realize that " Know the truth, and the truth will set you free", then the world would be a better place.  Old people should have an obligation to tell the truth and what really happened.  There is one good exception.  When the truth does nothing but hurt someone, keep the secret.  On the other hand when light is shed on reality it usually is a good thing for humanity.  Scandals can open peoples eyes.  The priest abusing children, the stump preachers ripping off old ladies. If the ones helping these scoundrels would let light shine on the sins we could all learn.

Kadizzle was with an old politician awhile back.  The fellow told Kadizzle about some of the dishonest maneuvering of some of the old players, and some of the ones still playing. The old politician has noting to lose and Kadizzle gained some understanding about who is willing to compromise. Compromising is not always bad, but a deal with the devil rarely turns out good.  Currently in North Dakota we have Heitkamp, Hoeven, and Cramer making deals with the devil. Only time will tell, but will the time come when the deals are exposed?

History is something you learn from, but like fake news, there is fake history.  It is up to people with function brains to sort it out.

Boredom storms hitting the plains.

Well why not have a dream?  How about we buy a diesel trawler and putt around the Northwest.  In the last two years Kadizzle has been out there twice.  There is some trickery going on. Both times the weather was supreme.  That is how one gets tricked into a place and then goes there for nothing but rain and cold.

With strong opposition from Mrs Kadizzle another trip consideration is a fall hillbilly tour.  Mrs Kadizzle has a trip into the Grand Canyon for herself and her girlfriends planned. That means Kadizzle and Stroupini should be entitled to a hillbilly homecoming.

The big battle is boredom.  Sitting around North Dakota with a poor pheasant crop is not too exciting. One could work on house projects, but what fun is that.  One can get bored fighting Republicans and Fundies.  So who knows perhaps a coin toss is all that is needed. Soon blast off time will be here for the Southwest. 

White Supremacist

Cheech asked Kadizzle what was going on in this picture. This is what happened. Kadizzle was on the remeadigus making the rounds at the Crazy clubs.  Over at Shiny's club things were fairly normal. Stoupini and Kadizzle tossed around the idea of making a trip back to West Virginia to visit the hillbillies.  Then Kadizzle went over to Rita's Crazy club.  While talking to Rita a White supremacist came in the door.  We spoke for awhile about his hero The Donald.  Of course the supremacist was enthused about The Donald. He explained how The Donald was coming down hard on the welfare cheats, and getting the wall ready.

White supremacist like most Trump supporters will believe just about anything.  The poor fellow said he felt something crawling on his back.  Kadizzle said maybe he had a monkey on his back. Then Kadizzle offered to check and see what was on his back.  Kadizzle found a very large spider on him. Kadizzle told him there was a "Black lives Matter" spider on his back.  Kadizzle held up a mirror so he cold see it.  The fellow fainted and Kadizzle grabbed him before he fell to the floor.  While he was out Kadizzle flung the spider back to Rita and she tossed it in the other room.  Supremacist finally came back around.  The Supremacist asked what happened to the spider.  Kadizzle played dumb and said "What spider?".  " The one on my back".   Your delusional Kadizzle explained, you voted for Trump, and you will believe anything.  You need to quit watching Fox, and read The New York Times.  As he was shaking we got him some coffee.  He seemed to be better. He had come in to Rita's to have his Confederate Flag repaired for a rally.  Forget the flag repair he told Rita,  I am going to quit watching Fox News.

Insanity

Sorry to write about Trump, but cannot resist the urge.  Last night with lack of any entertainment Kadizzle watched the man in Alabama.  The level of his insanity is alarming.  The man is in love with himself.  When he is speaking in front of one of his Klan meetings you get what you would expect from a Wizard.  Trump tells the little children " There will candy, lots of candy, candy like you have never seen before".  The low IQ crowd lights with delight.  Listening to him is like hearing an adult talk to children about Santa Clause, monsters, and religion.  The saddest part is watching the crowd buy into his mental illness.  John McCain was mean to me, but I will let him play on our baseball team.  The news media is saying mean things about me, be you are my friends and you know it is not true, fake news.  Who, who can listen to this man or watch his crazy motions and not realize what they are seeing? "Fire the Son of a Bitch", that all of a sudden came out of the presidents mouth when he was whipping up the Hoopleheads.  Trump said owners need to fire players who do not respect the flag.  Trump loves to throw the candy.  Guns are candy to Hoopleheads.  So Trump every five minutes tells the Hoopleheads how he is protecting their guns.  Next to guns you can always get an erection from a redneck with some flag talk, so flag, flag, gun, gun, is half of Trumps presentation. As you watch he fawning idiots it is scary.  The dolts in the crowd chant  "lock her up".  The clown masters tell the dolts the need to talk to his attorney general.  This is equivilant to saying " He is as crazy as I am and can help you".   Trump is simply BFC.  The first word is Bug and the last word is Crazy.  The middle word is F***ing.  The man is simply and purely mentally ill, yet like Hitler people love the insanity.

Life is not stranger than you think

Albert Einstein once said " Life is not stranger than you think, life is stranger than you can think".  Albert was right.  Who would have thought we have a delusional nut case like the Donald for president.  Would anyone have imagined the conflict that might come from two crazy people, one in North Korea, and one in our own White House?

On a personal level look how life's events have unfolded.  How did you end up sitting in North Dakota?  Could you have ever imagined that you would go from your front porch in Wheeling, West Virginia to your backyard in Hazen, North Dakota?  A lot of strange twist and turns have taken place in 68 years.  Many people turned out far differently than one would have expected. People you knew who excelled in school turned out to be duds.  Several of the duds you knew turned out to be excellent business people and created fortunes from a vegetable stand.  Kadizzle grew up with a lot of privileged kids.  The children of the fortunate with many opportunities turned out to fail at a rate Kadizzle never would have predicted.  If one thing in life is predictable, it is that life is unpredictable.

Something always comes from nowhere and the world changes.  Strange connections take place and life turns.  Age is magic in some ways.  If you are fortunate enough to live long you get to see the end of a lot of movies.  Life is just a series of movies you are watching. We got to see how the cold war ended. We got to see how it went for Ben Laden.  Many people were pulled from the game before they got to see so much of history.  Mrs Kadizzle has been caught up watching the Ken Burns series on PBS about he Vietnam war.  A lot of truth is now public about how that mess actually took place. The people watching know things so many dead people don't. 

One thing history has taught over, and over is the ease with which people can be taken into an insane, hopeless, fake cause.  Sadly so many of us do not look back at Hitler, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, and the whole cadre of mad men that have shaped the world.  Instead we get taken in over and over by the same false promises, the same bluster, the same cons.

The strangest phenomenon of all is the abundance on Earth.  There is enough food for everyone, there is enough material to provide decent housing for everyone,  the means are available to eliminate so much suffering, yet we do not. Instead we build tanks, walls, missiles, and bombs.  We let a very small portion of the planet live lavishly while children starve.  Nothing has changed in thousands of years.  There were tribes herding cattle in Africa two thousand years ago.  Every one in the tribe had enough to eat, a warm place to sleep and their only enemy was a lion.  Today trainloads of pure unadulterated crap are shipped from China.  As we bring boat loads of stuffed animals from China we have children living in slums, roads crumbling, and some silly rich guy telling us he is going to make America great by lying every day.

Simple minded dingers

Some people evolve, some people don't.  Perhaps humans attracted mates long ago by making loud noises, but is that still viable?  In our little town the simple minded like to drive about town making loud noises with their vehicles. One wonders if this was similar to ancient tribes where people danced and beat on drums. Somehow the current generation of dolts feels a loud noise means you are a masculine man looking for a mate.  This is all well and good until Kadizzle tries to go to sleep with the window open, or sit on the back porch and enjoy a glass of wine.  Almost always a simple minded dolt with his noise machine will destroy the tranquility.  On the lake some of the dolts have loud boats designed to be heard for  miles. Of course the local gendarmes do absolutely nothing to silence the dolts.  Apparently the simple minded never tire of making the engines roar.  Now everyone of us probably put some baseball cards on our bike and let them make noise on the spokes. This was fine for a six year old, but when a guy fifty has to roar his mean motorcycle he has a brain deficit that needs attention.  Some of the dolts have taken stupidity to a new level.  Not only do the certified dolts emit noise they have modified their dolt mobiles to emit a huge cloud of black smoke. In the dolt tribe the larger your exhaust pipe the bigger your penis.  So the dolts competing for simple minded dolt women put two huge smoke stacks behind the cab of their doltmobile.  Next the drive around blasting noise and pollution.

On the noise front Kadizzle has a solution for the dolts. Kadizzle can sell the dolts a CD. The CD has loud engine noises recorded. The dolt merely puts on headphones and plugs into his CD player. Now the dolt can hear his obnoxious noise, but no one else has to listen.

Superstitious Pigeons

Can a pigeon be superstitious? Well it seems possible. Yesterday Honest Omar gave Kadizzle a reading assignment. Omar and Kadizzle have always wondered how people come to believe absurdities.  In his book Michael Shermer gives the answer a good shot. The Believing Brain tries to explain how people don't have much trouble connecting things that are not connected. Isn't that what religion is all about. God made it rain, god caused the hurricane, and god helped my team win the supper bowl

A pitcher in a baseball game wins on the day he does not shave, so he concludes not shaving and winning are related. The mind wants a quick simple answer, so does the pigeon. The pigeon spins around in its cage and food appears. The pigeon concludes there is a connection.  There is not. The food just randomly appears, but the pigeon is fooled.  All of this perfectly explains Trump voters.  They connect dots that are not connected.  Obama was born in Kenya. 

How does the brain work? How do we make decisions?  People rarely sit back and ponder exactly how they arrive at a conclusion. One would want to think about how we think, but one rarely does. The brain is pretty easy to trick.  Magicians, Republicans, and con artist make a living tricking the simple minded. 

The author explains how he was unborn again.  At one point the author was a bible thumper going door to door selling Jesus.  The author ultimately had science run into religion. Science made the dots connect with data and logic.  In the end the logical mind had to go with science. 

One question the author addressed was is religion harmful.  Yes, the author gave an example of a little girl killed as part of a religious cleansing. This was minor compared to all the hate and wars that have been brought on by the curse of religion.  Remember religion endorsed slavery.  In conclusion people will always go for the discount thinking of religion, Republicanism, and trickle down economics.  Real thinking takes a little effort. You have to question things, you have to look things up, you have to do research.  It is far easier just to join the make America great club.  It is so simple just to believe a bunch of lies from preachers and Trumpsters.  Why not take the easy route?

The Good Ship is on the hard

After a long day, and a lot of time trying to tie a knot under water the good ship is again on shore and in the process of being readied for the winter.  With his famous addled mind Kadizzle forgot to get all the sewage out of the holding tank.  So this pleasant job will have to be done in an awkward fashion.  Mrs Kadizzle cannot conceptualize a person forgetting something.  Laying in bed discussing the matter Mrs Kadizzle was getting on his excellencies nerves.  Mr Kadizzle uses the same nuclear missile every time to remind Mrs Kadizzle she is not infallible.  A couple years back Mrs Kadizzle backed our recently purchased car into a young man's car.  Now anyone can make a mistake, but Mrs Kadizzle did it in a special way.  Mr Kadizzle knew the possibility existed that someone would back into the renters car, so gave the renter very specific instructions where to park the car.  Mrs Kadizzle over rode Mr Kadizzles instructions and told the renter how to park in the ideal place where she could back into his car.

Mr Kadizzle bought the Toyota because it has several good safety features. First, it has a backup camera, so you can see what is behind you. Failure number one for Mrs Kadizzle.  Second it has a beeping alarm to warn you if you are going to back into something.  Failure number two for Mrs. Kadizzle.  Add in the third element whereby Mr Kadizzle had the renter park in a safe place.  When Mrs Kadizzle did the damage there were three safety systems working to prevent the disaster. Mrs Kadizzle defeated all three.  If Mrs Kadizzle happens to read this you will hear an explosion in the surrounding area.

Mr Kadizzle spent his entire life trying to prevent accidents.  In the course of his career as a safety director many stories went across the desk about people who defeated safety systems.  Kadizzle can remember the dragline operator who stuffed a rag in the alarm horn that was to tell him he was about to create a mechanical disaster.  A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

"Killing The Blues" Robert Plant & Alison Kraus

Trump and the Chicken man

There is an old story back in the hills about a man that went out in his yard every morning and acted like a chicken.  His act bothered the neighbor woman and one day the neighbor confronted the man's wife about the bizarre behavior of her husband.  The wife of the chicken man explained that her husband wasn't hurting anyone, and said “besides they could use the eggs”.

The man’s wife was an enabler.  In North Dakota Trump has his enablers, Hoeven, Cramer, and Hietkemp.  Sure Trump is not quite right, but he does serve a purpose for our congressional delegation.  Trump gives our representatives an in with his base.  Trump’s base believes he can lay eggs, you just have to be patient.

Is Trump harmless?  Not much gets done while we wait for the eggs.  Trump’s unwillingness to address  climate change is helping to melt the planet, and his unpredictability has caused chaos in the world.  Enjoy the omelet when it comes.  Just remember how an omelet is made, a lot of broken eggs stirred randomly with other things thrown together.

Very Sad

Bill Moyers does and interview with one of the 27 psychiatrist that wrote about the mental illness of Donald Trump. Kadizzle just read the interview. Anyone who doubts Donald Trump has some serious mental illness needs to read the article. The writers of the book wrote the book because they felt they had a professional obligation to warn the country.  "The Dangerous case of Donald Trump" is the title of the book.  Simply reading Moyers interview should be enough to scare you.

The dangerous part of Trump's mental problem is the problem gets worse as the adulation from his following of dolts reinforces his delusions.  Supposedly sane people who think they can change him play along with his lies.  In North Dakota the mini psychopath Kevin Cramer is the perfect example. Cramer wants to help with the wall.  In North Dakota you have a radio station that broadcast to idiots for hours on end lies, and Rush Limbaugh delusions.  Respectable companies that should boycott the station do not.  That is a contradiction, they are not respectable companies.  A lot of people cuddled up with Hitler, it did not turn out well.

How to Punch a Nazi

What does it take?

More than likely if you are reading this you have been on the planet for well over fifty years.  In those years you have seen a lot of people.  Even the dumbest person reading this has learned to recognize when " That boy aint right".   People make every excuse or rationalization for Trump imaginable, but the simple truth is the man is mentally ill.  So many people are working so hard to imagine there is some logic or cleverness at work in a mind that has rotted to the core.

In our small society of Mr and Mrs Kadizzle we have a saying  " Even a blind hog will root".  Even a blind hog can find an acorn. That does not mean the hog can see.  It means the hog stumbled across and acorn. Trump is a classic bling hog.

There is no consistency to Trump, except he will be inconsistent.  His supporters struggle to explain how they stick with him. The hardest job his supporters have is covering his lies and his flip flops.  What does it take before people will admit they made a terrible mistake.  Kadizzle always thinks of the people in Germany getting fire bombed.  Imagine the horrific scene of a German city turned into and oven for the population. Imagine the German people thinking about the man who was going to "Make Germany great again"?  Are we really that stupid, are we really this ignorant of history? Yup, all we do is watch Fox News, and listen to Rush.  When will the cities burn?

Solomon Burke-"Diamond in Your Mind" from "Don't Give Up on Me"

I shook the hand of the president and the pope in Rome
I've been to parties where I've had to be flown
They said everything was sacred, nothing was profane
And money was something that you throw off the back of trains

Oh always keep a diamond in your mind
You gotta always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
You gotta always keep a diamond in your mind

Steam of the gravy with little fried pearls
Floating like a necklace on a beautiful girl
Johan says thanks to the food and land
And oh so ever grateful for God's on my hands

Oh always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
You gotta always keep a diamond in your mind

She's got the milk of human kindness and the fat of the lamb
Scared like a baby, well she drives like a man
She lives outside of Natchez where she operates a crane
She's like a wrecking ball no longer connected to the chain

Oh Zerelda Samuel said she almost never prayed
Said she lost her right arm, blown off in a Pinkerton raid
Then they lashed her to a windmill with old 3-fingered Dave
Now she's 102 drinking mint juleps in the shade

Everybody, always keep a diamond in your mind
You gotta always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
Your gotta always keep a diamond in your mind

Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
Your gotta always keep a diamond in your mind

Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander
Wherever you may roam
Your gotta always keep a diamond in your mind

Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind

Minutes from the Crazy Club

Shiny is back from the west coast. She had a wonderful time and Stroupini was delighted to give up his job watching her dog Rennee.  Shiny gave her report on the good life she lived beside the Pacific in Oregon.  It was her firs real vacation in may years.  Shiny lives on the edge, but has some rich friends. Having rich friends is about as good as being rich. You get to use all the rich goodies, but don't have to take care of them.

Stoupini finally wandered into the meeting which was poorly attended.  However, it was a great meeting.  Kadizzle rigged up the sound system to play songs from his phone.  It was a great sing, sing.  Two versions of " You gotta have Jesus" were played and the sing along ensued.  The theme of the music for the day was very depressing.  There is not enough wine to keep you from the bottom of the glass, and Keep me in your heart for awhile were sung in unison.  Also Leonard Cohen's song " You got me singing" was rehearsed.

Across the alley from the Crazy Club is the little pocket park Kadizzle built with friends years ago. Bordering on the alley is a grape arbor.  The grapes are ripe and sweet.  Kadizzle has been feeding like a yellow jacket on the grapes every day.  With purple lips he rides the streets of Hazen and carries out his duties on the remeidigus.  At last Rita has a helper at her sewing emporium.  A nice young lady is helping Rita patch all the clothes in town.  If you ever get to Hazen go to Rita's sewing shop.  No place is more carefully made into a mess than the sewing shop.  Imagine if you went into a thrift store with two cases of dynamite.  You would set off the dynamite amid the clothing racks. After the explosion you would have rags and detritus everywhere.  That is Rita's shop.

The Glass Castle

It seems like a thousand years ago, but once upon a time Kadizzle was plunked down on a different planet. That planet was southern West Virginia.  At the age of about 22 Kadizzle set off from civilization to the planet coal.  It was a different world.  Only someone who has been there can know.  Strangely a young person from Kadizzle's current town was recently plunked down in the same place. The young woman was a teacher in Welch, West Virginia.  Welch has recently become known because the book The Glass Castle took place there.  Kadizzle was in Southern West Virginia's coal fields to teach the coal miners how to get the coal from the ground without being killed in the process.  Coal miners are special. Miners have been abused and oppressed for as long as it took the coal to form.  Depressing is the word,  nothing is as depressing as southern West Virginia. Poverty leaks from the ground, and so does smoke.  Once on the way to a coal mine Kadizzle drove through a little mining town where acrid coal smoke leaked up through the cracks in the pavement.  Under the town was a mine that had been on fire for years.  The place looked like a scene from hell, but the people did not seem to notice.  Not noticing was a way of life.  Miners lived in shacks, and bankers helped the car dealers rob them.  Dirt with coal dust came down everywhere.  The entire experience was like going back to medieval times.

For the first time in a hundred years Mrs Kadizzle and Mr. Kadizzle trudged off to the local theater to see the movie that emerged from the book.  Kadizzle was curious if the movie would actually show scenes from Welch.  The real Welch did appear in the movie, and they managed to make it depressing as it was.  The movie was not that much fun, it was too reminiscent of how things really are back there.

At 22 one thing Kadizzle needed like a drug addict was female companionship. The search was serious and endless.  Like a detective Kadizzle sought a nice young lady.  This was not an easy task, but took some strange turns.  Someone said Kadizzle should get to know Minnow.  Kadizzle was warned how to conduct a meeting with Minnow.  Minnow lived in a shack above the railroad tracks.   It was winter and it was cold.  The idea was to have Minnow put old Kadizzle on the trail of a girlfriend.  Minnow had no real heat in her shack.  When Kadizzle walked in through the kitchen he saw all kinds of food on the table.  The table was the refrigerator.  No need to put the food into a cooler the kitchen could not have been much above freezing.  The correct way to visit Minnow was to get in bed with her.  The idea had nothing to do with sex, but was the only way you could stay warm while talking.  Minnow was a pretty husky young woman and the idea of bedding down with her did not have much appeal.  Kadizzle stood in front of some sort of fire in the bed room and shifted from one foot to the other to stay warm.  Somewhere in those hills there had to be some college educated women who needed Kadizzle.  The search was fruitless, and Kadizzle finally had to insist to his coal company that he must be moved back to civilization.  The story down in the coal fields has many twist and turns, but the coffee is getting cold and it is time for another cup.

Waddling Lumpers

Two nights, two parties, lots of food, good food.  The waddling lumpers bellied up to the food bonanza.  Now, full disclosure, Kadizzle is a waddling lumper.  Go anywhere in this country and the lumpers are everywhere.  A nation with so much food we dispense it every few hundred feet.  The lumpers can always reach down and get some food.  Then of course food trucks chase the lumpers around and feed them.  Is it the lumpers fault, of course not.

Good lumpers do not walk, they take the car to the grocery store and bring back the food.  The really professional lumpers cook the food, and then post  a picture of the meal on facebook.  This of course makes all the other lumpers hungry.  Now a good lumper is two ax handles across the ass and will dress out at 250lbs.

The opioid addiction is a problem, but pales in comparison to the sugar addiction. Kadizzle has a good old friend who is a lumper and has been trying to commit food suicide for years. In his recliner he sits with one hand on the remote control. On his belly is usually a plate with some concoction.  A flea or a bed bug would have to pack a meal for a week just to go from one side of his enormous fatulance to the other.  The poor guy cannot walk over twenty five feet without becoming exhausted.  If he does walk the twenty five feet he goes out on the porch to smoke a cigarette.  His heart should be a coveted piece of meat for any scientist. How his heart has managed to pump blood through a four hundred fifty pound body being deprived of oxygen for so many years is in the realm of magic.

Of course Kadizzle does not want to be a lumper, but there are voices in the refrigerator of cold goodies crying out to be in a warm belly.  Noises come from the cupboard, sad cookies lonely and wanting company.  Listen closely and the cookies say " You can eat just one, just one will not hurt".  One becomes two and soon the whole box has disappeared.

Sometimes getting fat is an economic necessity. Kadizzle got the mail yesterday.  A food devil sent a coupon that entitled Kadizzle to get a free six inch Subway sandwich if he just bought a big drink of sugar juice.  It was a bargain.  The silly coupon said you had to text message Subway to get the prize.  Kadizzle did as instructed, and low and behold the coupons appeared on the phone.  What? There was a timer on the coupon. Kadizzle had four minutes to rush to Subway and get fat.  What a blessing Kadizzle lives almost next door to the Subway.  After jumping in the car Kadizzle rushed over.  In a panic the Subway lady emptying the garbage outside assured Kadizzle he could get the bargain gut bomb.  All turned out well.  Sitting blissfully eating the healthy sandwich Kadizzle thought about how he could restrain himself the rest of the day.  Of course it was all a lie.  One more lumper waddled out to the car and went about his search for will power.

Seeing a human

Last nigh Kadizzle attended a celebration for a friend.  In advance Kadizzle knew there would be a man there that had written a public condemnation of Kadizzle and his politics. Kadizzle was not looking forward to the close encounter. In fact Kadizzle was going to end up in a crowd of people that was about 95% composed of people who disagreed with his fundamental political beliefs.  To be a black man at a Klan rally was the feeling.

The letter fellow kindly engaged Kadizzle in a conversation, and we both got a chance to see each other as humans that lived lives, lost loved ones, and had some common beliefs.  It turned out we were both talkers.  So each of us now, knows that there is more good in the other than we suspected. The whole thing makes Kadizzle think of how fractured out society has become.  We have divided into clans, tribes, and fortresses.

Simply talking is therapeutic. Look how many situations have been defused simply by creating a new understanding of the other person. Can you get smarter as you get older? It seems like a real possibility. Some people never seem to get old enough to get any smarter, but hopefully life and history will eventually teach us all a better way.

New Body

The other day Kadizzle wandered over to see how the neighbor was doing, and check the level in the neighbors cookie jar. Neighbor said he was doing well but would be happy to get his new body.  In heaven you will be issued a new body.  Imagine a body like you had when you were 25, not a body that is pretty worn down by almost 70 years.  No more reading glasses, no more walking stick in the woods, no more feet that hurt, back that is sore, and new spots showing up everywhere.

Will they issue a new brain? Will the new brain have patience? Will the new brain behave better than the old one?  How about a new mouth that does not talk so much and say the wrong things?

In heaven there will be a lot fewer excuses.  No more " I am tired" or confused, or sore, or don't have the energy.

So as we go forward we wait for the clock to be turned back.

Hidden Treasure

Click on the picture to enlarge.  Six mornings waking up in a land like this. North Dakota has some incredible places, but few know of them or use them. Instead we promote fiberglass cows, fish, and the things you can find anywhere.

My ship came in.

After six days on the lake my ship came in.  To start the day old Kadizzled dropped his reading glassed in the lake.  Early in the cool morning Kadizzle stripped down and dove with googles into the water.  What a victory on the first dive Kadizzle had the glasses. With little thought the glasses were plopped on the bow of the boat.  Mrs Kadizzle immediately notices a lens was gone and the frame was broken. The sweet victory was short lived.  A good wind carried us back to the dock.

Home in the little berg Kadizzle checked the retirement fund.  The Trump bump brought the other ship in on Wall street.  How can a country have the most incompetent, insane president ever and still have a booming stock market? We love delusions, but the money still spends.

Fall on the lake is always nice. The sail was over one hundred eighty miles and we never used the mainsail. With the Jib alone we covered the ground.  The cooks made every meal a delight and the two old men enjoyed the booze, and the culinary delights.

Give him a chance

Imagine hiring a person to work for you.  Every day your employee comes to work and lies to you. He advocates grabbing the women in the office by the crotch. When he is supposed to be working he is often golfing. Your employee has bankrupted several of his own businesses, yet he tells you he will make your company great. You find out he got the job by lying on his application. Now you wonder if you should fire him, but all the people he gives free donuts say, give him a chance.  You feel like you have given him a chance, but he has insulted just about everyone in the office.  A lot of your good people have quit because they are embarrassed to work with him and cover up his lies.  Yet the donut eaters keep telling you, give him a chance.  So far after many months the new guy has accomplished nothing.  He promised so much. He said he would get the parking lot paved and have the company next door pay for it. On it goes things don’t get any better, yet you feel you should just give him a chance. The other companies that used to rely on you and your service are beginning to wonder what kind of businessman you are.  The image your new employee creates is hurting your product, but you have a hard time admitting you made a big mistake, so give him a chance.

Sitting in the garage

As on many days Kadizzle set out to make the rounds.  Shiny is on vacation, Stroupini is watching Shiny's dog.  The proprietor is manning the Crazy club.  Kadizzle thought he better go check on Skavietch at his garage.  Poor old Skavietch had his wife pass away a few years back.  He was enamored with his wife and just cannot get over her passing.  Walking through his home without his wife in it makes him sad, so Skavietch moved out into the garage.  In the garage he set up a table, a refrigerator with beer, and of course a television. Already dying from cancer old Skavietch sits there, smokes, drinks a beer and lets life go on.  When Kadizzle came in the garage door the first thing he notice was that it appeared someone beat the hell out of Skavietch. Inquiring into the devestation Skavietch told Kadizzle a BS story about what happened, then the truth came.  In a fit of coughing from the fungus in his lungs Skavietch passed out and fell into the bathroom.  He came to with no idea of where he was or what happened.  Of course being Skavietch he did not go to the hospital.  He was out cold to the extent his bladder let loose.  He did accomplish one thing.  What ever his head hit it knocked the switch to his brain enough to get him to realize he needs to quit smoking.  At the drug store he is going to get some pills to quit smoking.

After a round of reminiscing and telling the same stories over Skavietch gave Kadizzle some fresh sweet corn right out of the garden.

Yesterday Kadizzle put the good ship back into shape. So the boat will be ready Thursday to head west and wrap up the sailing season.

I pity the country

The good llife

Kadizzle loves his two little girls, Evie, and Sylvie.  Sylvie pictured above has lived the dream life so far. An only child with two parents that adore her, does it get any better. With both Erin and Fran working Sylvie has spent a lot of time with nannies. The good news is most of them were wonderful. First it was her aunt who loved her and taught her like she was her own. Next she had her own art teacher that planned many days full of projects.  So far Sylvie has had an education like few children. The big goal is to raise an educated person that is not spoiled, cares for others, and enjoys the world. So far things are looking good.  As Sylvie enters third grade she can look back on so many trips, adventures, and educational experiences. It has all paid off. Sylvie is a writer, an artist, an actor, a gymnast, and full of energy, perhaps too much.  Best of all Sylvie is following the family tradition of being a great outdoor person. Erin said Sylvie played by herself in a mountain stream for ten hours.

As a child Kadizzle remembers his love for the West Virginia mountains and hills. Giving a child the gift of enjoying the outdoors is a wonderful thing, and Sylvie has the gift.  Hiking with the little energy bundle is fun. She does not whine.  Coming off the mountain to keep her going she insisted her dad tell her stories. Fran did a good job and reviewed all sorts of things for the imp.

Nine, Nine children, what were they thinking?

Two people got married.  Children came in a flood.  Kadizzle was number seven of nine.  In twelve years my mother produced nine children.  A tribe was created.  There is no shortage of stories.  Remember any event, and you get nine versions.  After 68 years seven of the nine still breath air.  Heart attacks have been popular.  Younger brother went on to the great beyond at 49 as his heart gave out.  Oldest and second from the start had a heart attack that came within inches of getting him.  The big Kahuna sister had her episode with the heart.  Mother died at 60 when her heart went bad. Number four went out on the couch in the middle of the night and never woke up.  Another heart failure. Kadizzle sits here still ticking strongly.

A family of nine has it all.  We have some genuine crazies, some marginal.  We have one down and out. When the dust settles both our parents would probably be amazed how well most of the gang turned out economically. It would be fair to say eight out of nine crossed the line into good prosperity.  A lot of college degrees came out of the flock. Two sisters completed law school. One sister got her PHD from a famous school. All but one of the nine attended college. The one that missed college took his turn being an alcoholic, then gave that up to start a very successful business.  One lessen everyone learned was, " Don't have nine children".  No one had more than two.  Think about it had we followed our parents there would be 81 grand children.

Someone should have written down all the trials and tribulations. The history would have made a good book. All of us were raised back in the hills of West Virginia.  Everyone like to think of West Virginia as a bunch of hill billies, but that is far from accurate. We grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeling was a very sophisticated city.  In 1894 it was the wealthiest city in the United States.  That wealth lingered for a long time, and Wheeling was not a city of miners shacks. Wheeling was a city of marble mansions and a large flock of the Bill Gates type. Wheeling was a steel town, but also the home town of many companies that went on to join the Dow Jones top companies.

Wheeling was the jumping off point for people going west. As St. Louis took over Wheeling gradually sank.  When he steel mills shut down it was pretty much game over. Right after World War two my grandfather was the mayor of the town. At that time Wheeling was cooking right along with a population of about 80,000.  Steel mills, coal mines, heavy machine works, casting, a thriving glass industry, and being the western terminus of the B&O made Wheeling a hub of prosperity.  Wheeling hosted WWVA.  WWVA was the second radio station in the country.  Watch any old movie and when you see people sitting around the radio you will hear the radio station identify itself as WWVA.  The radio station reached deep into Canada and across the U.S.  People came to Wheeling to gamble illegally, to enjoy the whore houses, and the horse race track on Wheeling Island.

The Interstate was the ruination of West Virginia. Prior to the interstate it was a struggle to get through West Virginia, now you just buzz by and don't spend a dime. West Virginia's saddest legacy is the people bought into the Republican Party.  In the old days West Virginia was about as union and democratic as you could get.  That was back in the prosperous days.  Today West Virginia has succumbed to the right wing rhetoric of Fox News.  Now all the people in the hills are being fed lies by Trump that the coal industry will come back.  It ain't going to happen, but it is fun dream.  Just like the lottery ticket the fool buys, the Republicans thrive on selling false dreams so it goes.  So out here on the prairie Kadizzle sits thinking about those folks in the hills who are cashing their welfare checks waiting for The Donald to make them great again.  Enjoy that welfare cheese, and keep on believing.

Sovereign came back a winner

As the crew gathered at the good ship it was discovered our steed was lame.  The hydraulic backstay had a leak and was useless.  The backstay is the system that supports the mast from the stern of the boat.  Mrs Kadizzle was in a bit of panic and did not think the boat could be sailed in that condition, but after some I dare say ingenious rigging the ship was good to go.  As the race began it looked hopeless and Kadizzle was cursing the monkeys at the weather office in Bismarck.  Everyone sat waiting for a gust of wind.  Nothing, absolutely nothing.  The temptation was to call off the race, but finally around one  the wind slowly came up.  It turned out to be a nice racing breeze.  As usual there was a lot of confusion at the start.  Three horn sequences are supposed to be blown to signify when the start is. Well they left out one set.  Non the less the good ship got a good start. Sovereign took off like a bullet and won the first race with a wide margin.

The Wolsky family with a racing father, and two racing sons has give Kadizzle grief because we win every year. Papa Wolsky claimed he set up the race with one buoy set in shallow water that the Sovereign could not get through. This was not true, but the Wolsky gang did have a trick up their sleeve.  On the second race the North buoy was not there.  The state park crew thought there would be only one race so after the first race they took the buoy down.  Josh Wolsky told the park crew to set the buoy in a different place.  This created a unique situation for the Sovereign.  The race was already in progress as the park crew tried to set the buoy.  So the Sovereign was steaming toward a buoy that was not there.  It appeared the park crew stopped to drop the buoy in the water so Sovereign headed toward them.  This meant an extra tack and that cost time.  Moving toward the apparent location of the buoy we had to round the park crew started moving.  Never has Kadizzle been in a race with markers that moved.  Sovereign was not foiled, we followed the park crew and rounded the buoy they still had in their boat.  Being first around the buoy we headed right back at the rest of the fleet coming right at us.  As god would have it Sovereign was on a starboard tack. Sailboat racing give the boat on starboard tack the right of way.  The evil in Kadizzle came out.  Kadizzle realized he could force a lot of boats off course.  The two boats of the Wolskey fleet were in perfect position to be jostled.  Kadizzle was able to force "Hellow Kitty" off course costing them some precious time.  We could not get to Pappa Wolskey but he was not a problem with a very heavy boat.

Sovereign won the second race also.  As explained earlier the rules have been set up so if we win we do not get the trophy.  This is actually good because it gives  others incentive to participate.  Sovereign was entitled to the second place trophy which was a nice painting of a sailing ship. The Sovereign crew donated the second place trophy to the third place winner.  The day turned out to be a lot of fun and people watching on shore seemed to enjoy the insanity.  Rarely do you see a race where they move the buoy, the first place winner gets the second place trophy, the second place winner gets the first place trophy, and the third place winner gets the second place Trophy, so the real winner goes home with nothing but a smile. A good time had by all.

Race Day

The big race it today.  Kadizzle called the National Weather Service at 5:30 this morning for the wind forecast.  Rarely do they get it right on race day.  Apparently they have a cage full of monkeys that throw darts.  One dart hit a wind direction, and another hits the speed. The report is complete. Now if the monkeys did a good job the wind will pickup around noon. To avoid the wind we will try to start and finish the race before the wind comes up.  That seems to be the pattern.

Kadizzle thought he might print out rules for the crew.

1. Losing is not an option
2. The captain must be obeyed
3.  Everyone on the boat is the captain
4.  Pull any line you would like whenever you want.
5.  If the helmsman tells you something ignore it if it doesn't suit your needs.
6.  Disagree on all decisions.
7.  Blame all failures on anyone but yourself.
8.  Make a list of reasons for failure.
9.  If we win take personal credit.
10. If we lose blame it on anything but our performance.
11. Have fun at any cost.

So if all goes well we meet Ruth and Rodger at 8, head across to the marina on the north side.  If history is any prediction the wind will be nonexistent.  The last two regattas had a decent wind for the start that died by the second buoy.  Please wind Gods don't do that again.

Last year Stroupini was on the crew. We were in the process of hoisting the mainsail. Kadizzle had a strong feeling Stroupini would screw up a one car funeral. Kadizzle told Stroupini to raise the main halyard just a little so Kadizzle could hook it to the Mainsail.  Of course Stroupini pulled on the halyard like he was trying to hang someone. The halyard jerked out of Kadizzle's hand and went up the mast too far to reach.  With the race about to start we had to hoist Stroupini up the mast to retrieve the halyard.  Doing this as we motored toward the start line was no easy task, but we made it.

A lot of the people who have not participated in sailboat races do not understand the importance of the start.  Sailboats start races while moving. The boats jockey for position waiting for the gun to be fired which signals you can cross the line.  In order to fight for position it is normal to force other boats out of the way according to the rules. This means at times you must come extremely close to the other boat, often within a few feet.  To the uninitiated it seems intimidating, but that is the fun of it.  Politeness in yielding right of way usually means you are going to lose. The boat on starboard tack has the right of way.  If you can force the other boat to tack it slows him down.

How do the Bee's do it?

For the second time Kadizzle had a collision with a bee.  The last time the flying Kadizzle on the motorcycle ran into a bee was just three weeks ago.  Your going down the road at 55 mph and suddenly you feel a sting. Same thing yesterday going 35 mph.  It happens so fast. The only feasible explanation Kadizzle can muster is that he is running into the back of the bee.  After all that is where the stinger is.  The inside of my right arm is sore this morning from the sting.  The solution seems to be wear a jacket.

Made the rounds yesterday on the remeadigus.  Stopped at the Crazy Club.  Shiny is on vacation so the proprietor has to run the joint for a few days.  As Kadizzle chatted up the owner Stroupini stopped in.  Stroupini has taken on an odd job.  The Sheriff appointed him guardian for a lady with mental problems. The lady would make an excellent member of the club.  However, she is being detained in the big crazy club in Jamestown where the professionals are kept.  Seems he lady tried to run over a policeman. Not a good idea.  Stroupini is trying to sort out her financial affairs and do what he can to get the woman's life in order.

Over at Rita's crazy club we discussed recruitment.  Rita lost two of her prize nut cases and needs some new members.  Our crazy club was considering a cookout in the Pocket Park.  After we did the budget and found we had no money for real cookies Shiny cut out a picture of cookies and put it beside the coffee.  That gave us the idea to put a picture of cheeseburgers on the grill. Anyone who asked for one and ate it would be considered for membership.

Back at the ranch we are catching up on the clothes washing, folding, and putting away from the trip. The grass has been cut and hauled away.  Now the time has come to pay the bills. To avoid exchange rate fees in Canada we used a lot of different credit cards.  Figuring out how to pay all the blood suckers will be a task for today.  Both our offspring are experiencing the twin frustrations of raising a child and making a living.  Now they get a chance to see how their parents lived.   Unable to sleep Kadizzle got up at 4:30.  No real news, perhaps the Trumpster will fire out an insane tweet today.  The Republicans are up the creek in Texas without a paddle.  Their own rednecks are wet and need help.  This looks like they may have to change their song.  No more money for the wall, no more demeaning big government.  Now the government is supposed to fix the mess climate change created in Texas.  Of course there is no such thing as climate change induced by man.  Ted Cruz bitched about the federal government helping out New York when the storm hit there.  Poor old Ted along with the rest of the greed dogs will be enjoying meals of crow for some time.  Mother nature has dope slapped the Republican better than anyone could have dreamed.  Like it or not they now have to show compassion for something other than tax breaks.

Another big battle continued yesterday.  The ASUS computer started to smoke and died while Kadizzle lay in bed surfing the intergoogle.  Computers can die like anything else, but they should not emit smoke when they die.  It would be nice if a big puff of smoke comes out some orifice on Kadizzle when he dies, but not from the computer.  The battle begins with ASUS.  For a computer company they seem very confused.  Call number one went like this, " We will get back to you in 24 hours".  Never heard from them.  Second third and fourth call about the same.  Each time they said the safety department would call.  Six days later the safety department set up a time to call.  The call was set for eleven. No call, so Kadizzle called them.  OK we will call you within an hour. No call.  After days of frustration they finally called and Kadizzle convinced them they needed to do something.  So the computer gets shipped back today.

We are living in an age where people have bombs in their pockets, and in their lap. Imagine a computer catching fire on a plane.  A friend did not have to imagine it, her plane made an emergency landing because a lap top caught fire. Modern devices try to pack a lot of energy into a small space.  When that energy is mismanaged a fire often results.  People with E-cigarettes have their pants catch fire.  Phones melt, and so do computers.  What if you walk out of the room and come back to find the room on fire because your laptop caught fire? Not good.  As we go to electric cars we may have cars that melt.  It has already happened with the Tesla.  The stuff batteries are made of burns unlike a lot of other things. You are dealing with some exotic metals that water cannot put out.  Airplanes now scare me more.  Some laptop in the cargo hold may decide to burst into flames, not good.  Kadizzle has been called a flaming idiot, but he does not want to become one with a laptop in his hands.

Second Place

The Kadizzles are back home with the grass needing cut.  A long smokey drive across Washington, Montana, and North Dakota. The planet is melting and no one notices.  Kadizzzle has seen the dead reefs in Belize, The forest on fire in the Northwest, and the insane floods in Texas, yet the magical Republicans deny there is a problem.

Off subject already.  The race, the sailboat race is scheduled for Saturday. Kadizzle has put his team together. There will be a nice trophy of pure silver.  Now the strange part, the Kadizzle team has been prohibited from winning.  Last year before the race Kadizzle was told that " If you come in first you will get the second place trophy".   The problem is the good ship won in past years by an astounding margin.  This was the result of a fast boat, and a good captain.  Well not really, we had good starts and more important good luck.  Now the puzzling part.  If the second place winner gets the first place trophy, it seems that it would be easy to drop back to second place. Maybe not.  When sailboats race and they are of different make and model the boats are scored by a Performance Handicap Racing system.  This means a fast boat must win by a margin.  For example we might have to beat all the other boats by twenty minutes.  So if you deliberately came in second you would have to carefully cross the finish line by some exact margin.  Maybe we could wait at the finish line and let the second place boat cross.  That would not guarantee us second in this strange system because we would have to beat boat number three by a specific margin.  Trying to figure out how to come in second becomes very complicated. Add to the this the fact that they might deny us the trophy anyway and we have a mess on our hands.  Actually the idea is to get more people racing, so we don't really care.  As long as people have fun and learn something about sailboat racing it is mission accomplished.

One of the best ever

The Kadizzles are headed back to the prairie.  Years ago we met Darch. Darch is an esteemed international member of the Crazy Club in Hazen.  Darch came to Hazen to ride the Ma Da Hey trail this summer. A finer athlete over 70 cannot be found. Darch invited us to sail in the Broken Island chain on his 35 foot catamaran.  It was a wonderful trip and would be hard to beat. The weather was perfect,

Perhaps tomorrow I will ad some photos.  Compared to our boat the catamaran was luxurious.  Each hull had a double bunk and it's  own head with a shower.  The salon was roomy and very comfortable. The stability of a catamaran is an easy sell. No healing got to be pretty nice to live with.  The scenery, the coves, and the company were spectacular.  On our last day out we finally caught some salmon.  What  a meal. The first day out Darch pulled up his crab pot with six nice specimens.  Clams and oysters were do da to gather and we could harvest them at will.

The highlight of the trip was a dingy trip to Lucky Falls.  Unbelievable beauty, magnificent pools of crystal clear water, and  of course we had a wonderful swim. Kadizzle was so tempted to dive from a forty foot cliff into a bottomless pool, but thought better of it.  We are tired so that is all for today.