Kansas lottery: meth or burgers

I believe that Beck was doing some harsh drugs when he recorded The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton.  It's a bit messed up.  

As we were traveling home on Sunday, a bunch of us stopped at a gas station to stretch our legs, get snacks, etc.  We were loitering a bit and K & M bought some lotto tickets.  The scratch off kind.  Just for entertainment purposes I suppose.  M didn't win anything, but K won a free ticket.  Excitedly, she went back up to the cash register to redeem her glorious prize.  The check out clerk told her that she had sold a ten thousand dollar scratch off ticket to someone.  K made some small talk about it, and found out that the person went on a huge drug binge and spent it all up (not all on drugs, I believe that would kill someone).  M then made the comment 'the Kansas lottery:  meth or burgers'.  Referencing that people would blow it on drugs, food, or possibly both.  It was humorous.  It reminded me of Eddie Izzard's tea or cake or death bit.  Look it up.

But at the same time (yes, it's serious moment time), who blows that much money?  How can you just let it all go without paying shit off, or investing some of it, or putting it in, oh I don't know, a  FUCKING BANK (in retrospect, it was a small town, so why not shove it under the mattress).  I always loathe seeing people win big lottery jackpots, it isn't fair.  The fact that they are trying to solve any kind of money problems, or trying to get rich, by playing a lottery system is a sign.  Winning should come with a financial consultant.  To keep the estranged fourth cousins (twice removed, of course) from coming out of the woodwork trying to get a piece of the lazy man's monetary gains.  

Play for fun, not for gain.  

Back home

We made it back in one piece from Missouri.  It was a nice float trip.  It was beautiful on Friday, but rained that night and pretty much all day Saturday.  That made the last eight miles we canoed very long.  It was fine though.  

Only mishap for us is that we had the current run us into a clump of tree roots and A dropped her paddle into the river and it was never seen again.  It was stuck under the fallen trees.  There were several people that tipped their canoes.  No one was seriously injured, but they lost some stuff including the following:

• Sunglasses
• beer (a downer for all)
• chair
• steak (another downer, especially for K and M)
• lots of ice
• a digital camera (so there won't be too many pictures.)

But all in all, it was a good trip.  I would give the river 4 out of 5 stars (because I'm a river critic, apparently) for the main reason of difficulty.  I do enjoy just floating and getting completely shit faced, but I do like a bit of a challenge, and the river gave us one this year.  The trip, however due to the weather and the awful river camp site (rain, ticks, and mud) gets 3 out of 5 stars.  

I still feel like river water, so I'm grabbing a beer and going to take a long hot shower.  And if you are wondering, cold beer and warm shower are a fantastic combination.

mini-vacation

too early in the morning for music.  It is coffee time, not music time.

We are taking a trip to Missouri starting today.  It's a float trip.  For those who don't know what a float trip is, there are just some basic steps.

1.)find a river (with water, which you have to travel outside of Kansas for)

2.)rent some canoes

3.)proceed down the river (at a leisurely pace)

4.)proceed to get completely fucked up (!) by beer, booze, and jello shots

5.)camp by the river 

6.)repeat steps three and four

7.)return home

And that's how easy it is.  

Abandoning the past

'Hey There Delilah' by Plain White T's is playing.  The only reason I know this song exists is because A and I were riding in her car.  It came on and I mentioned that I liked it well enough.  Apparently she doesn't because it was overplayed.  I wouldn't know, I don't listen to the radio much.  

 

I was looking through some pictures that I took around Wichita last fall and two came to my attention more now then when I first took them.  The first one is of Carlton school.  It was this huge school.  Two stories, all brick, and intimidating.  Imagine being a second grader and your mom drops you off for your first day of school and here is this monstrous, almost demonic, looking building.  You'd shit a brick.  Anyway, it's gone now.  They tore it down.  And it good reason.  It was abandoned, homeless people were using for a place to sleep (which I guess is too bad they tore it down, now they need somewhere else to sleep), it was grafettied all around.  

The second picture I took was of the old McClellan building.  There are some businesses that still use the building, but for the most part it is empty.  And it is a lovely looking building.  If I owned a business, I would want it to be in a building like this one.  It just has an old time feel about it.      The point to this all is that as the urban sprawl occurs, more and more old buildings in downtown are left abandoned or practically empty.  Why would anyone want to pave over an open field, or tear down some trees, to construct new office buildings when there are some right downtown?  I know that in any big city (even though some don't consider Wichita a big city, this opinion still applies) has a hard time getting businesses to stay in the downtown area.  People don't want to drive around there and don't want to deal with all the bad things that are down there.  Drugs, homeless, the misfortunate  are all black eyes to downtown, any downtown.  But how do you deal with those situations?  They are always going to be there.  Do you just ignore them and go about your business?  

It is an unnecessary evil, urban decay, but it is also inevitable.  The majority wants to look the other way while the minority struggles with trying to save that which was condemned.  An ugly business it is.  

A dream and some bumper love

No music playing now, the baseball game is on.  I texted my brother when the game started and told him that I was so desperate to watch baseball that I was content with watching the Royals.  Sad.  

I had a dream last week that gas prices dropped down to two ninety nine a gallon...and I was happy about that.  I woke up thinking how sad is that?  When I started driving, it was ninety nine cents a gallon.  Now, it is close to four dollars.  Oh well.  But thankfully, the government is fighting that war on terror and that isn't affecting the gas prices at all (which I have alluded to in past posts [look it up]).

I have written about bumper stickers in the past, and I still stand by what I wrote.   I wrote about religion and all that fun stuff, but the one thing I didn't touch on is politics and abortion.  Two of the things in the world that I can't stand listening to people talk about.  If you support one person, that's great (don't try to change my mind), and if you have a stance on abortion, that's great as well (once again, just don't try to change my mind).  Just please, have a stance and don't blurt out public opinion.  Anyway, A got a window sticker in the mail last week which states 'Pro-Obama, Pro-Choice'.  She was a bit apprehensive about putting it on her car jokingly because, well let's be honest, we live in Kansas.  Who knows what nut job would break your windows after seeing that.  So I told her to put it on a car of someone she didn't like and wait and see what happened to that car.  

I thought it was funny.  

Work yes men

Are you in? by incubus is playing.  It makes me think of college.

Just recently, there have been three new department managers hired at the store.  It's good and all, it takes the stress off of some of us.  However, they can't think for themselves.  They take the word of the executives as gospel, and that is scary.  It turns them into yes men, but they don't know any better.  They will learn.  

Going toe to toe with your boss, and coming out on top, is a great feeling.  Especially when you were right all along.  Sure, they make the salary, but that doesn't always make them right.  Challenge upwards is a phrase that is used at work in the leadership development of the department managers.  It is good, when you use it with the right people.  That is the one thing I like about my immediate boss.  He'll allow me to bounce ideas off of him, even if he doesn't like them.  We don't always see the same picture, but we get there.  I do come home at times just steaming at the ears because he pisses me off some days, but he will also listen to me.  Occasionally.  

There are a few executives that see challenging upwards as a type of ignorance.  They see it as someone not liking their job, or them, but they don't get it.  Those of us who do question them know what we are doing and know what works in the areas where we are.  That is why we are there.  

Some executives look to these new yes men as 'model managers'.  wrong.  

Space, much needed space

'I'll tell me ma' is playing on itunes.  A song I learned listening to the pub runners at Sinclair's.  

Recently, a few people have told me about some friends they have that are very clingy.  One wants their husband to be home the instant they are, and the other couple will ditch their friends to see each other.  Listen, I'm all about spending time, and good quality time (not just time), with your spouse.  But you got to let them get out of the house.  Let them go out and have a poker night, or a night at the bar with their friends, or just go shopping (trying to get both sexes in there) with one of your friends.  Not only are they getting out of the house, but you get alone time at the house.  

Newlyweds seem to be the exception.  Mainly because they are so in love and can't get enough of each other and blah blah blah.  You have the rest of your lives to spend with each other, be social.  Don't be the person who needs to go home because your significant other calls you and tells you to be home.  Lengthen that leash people.  I just don't get that about some relationships.  

It isn't the end of the world if you don't spend every waking hour/minute/second with the person you love.  Space people.  Space.  

Dude...in two years, I will have been out of high school for ten years.  TEN YEARS!  

freaky.

bad weather update

The ipod shuffle is done.  I listened to all seven hundred plus songs.  Now I'm just listening to whatever sparks my musical interest at the moment.  For example, I'm going through my Irish playlist and listening to The Wolfe Tones.  

There was a huge streak of storms that stretched from Oklahoma all the way up to Topeka that came through last night.  There were mighty winds (up to seventy mile per hour gusts), heavy rain, and some tornado sightings (nowhere near us, don't worry).  

By the time the storm came through Wichita, the tornado watch had been reduced to a severe thunderstorm watch.  The local news station was advising people to seek shelter in the lower level of the house or in storm shelter, etc. etc.  Across the driveway is the leasing office for the apartment complex.  The basement is used as the storm shelter.  So as A and I are watching the news and seeing the people go down there, I asked:

'So what do you think?' (in reference to going down there).

'I don't know, what do you think?'  

'Meh.'

Nice.  If we ever get sucked out of our house by a tornado, it was because we were to complacent to go to a storm shelter.  

feelings

No music playing at the moment...I'm high off of the Wings winning the Stanley Cup (4th in eleven years!)

A drug me to wal mart today to spend the rest of the gift cards we got for our wedding.  We bought a new air mattress (aka, the guest bed), a new cooler, and a lantern.  The last two are for preparations for the float trip we have coming up at the end of this month.   I always feel two things when I am there:

1.)Pity for anyone who enjoys shopping there.

and 

2.)Dirty.

Banned Chucks and an imprisoned Indian

Currently playing on the digital turntable:  Candy Store Rock by Led Zeppelin.  *Quick aside note:  I only need one more record (In Through the Out Door) to have the complete Zeppelin collection on LP.  I'm quite ecstatic. * 

The other night I had a dream, nightmare really, that my boss told me I could no longer wear my Chucks (pictured left) to work.  I remember asking why and was told that they were made in sweatshops in Asia and that with the war going on, I needed to buy shoes made in America to support the country.  Now, there are two things wrong with the whole situation.  One, work is starting to creep into my dreams.  I hear people joking about how you are in trouble if you start dreaming about work.  The second, is that politics are starting to show up in my dreams.  and I hate politics.  So I woke up thinking, 'Dammit, I don't own any American made shoes."  But who does?  

Another little additive:  

I finished reading 'Prison Writings:  My Life is My Sun Dance' by Leonard Peltier. (I know the internet isn't the best for one hundred percent accurate info, but this will give the basic run down of who he is, if you don't know).  

Read it.

Love it.

Embrace it.

Free Leonard.