Bag of Randomness for Thursday, April 6, 2017

  • Here’s a picture of my father during is Army days, he’s on the right.
  • Last night’s ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ was a jam-packed one. Mr. Drummund asked the Dixie Carter character to marry him, the redheaded kid, Sam, was introduced, and they took a trip to Universal Studios where Arnold and Dudley got to meet David Hasselhoff and KITT.
  • Before I go to bed, I always walk around the house and make sure all the doors are locked. I bet there’s a good amount of folks out there in which that doesn’t even cross their minds.
  • I also tend to lock the car twice, just to make sure. I did this even before car remotes, pressing the lock button twice, and now I press the lock button twice on the car remote.
  • As a kid, I watched an ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ in which someone got into a car at night and didn’t know someone was hiding in the backseat. So even as an adult, when I enter my vehicle at night, I always take a quick look at the back seat area before getting in.
  • My father taught me to pat my wallet every now and then when out in public to make sure it’s on my person. I still do that today, probably more than needed. However, I no longer place my wallet in my back pocket but my front pocket and it’s easier to notice.
  • Without fail, I will always check the remaining amount of toilet paper on the roll before I sit down on that sanitation receptacle.
  • The kids have been playing at a neighbor’s house but mentioned they know there’s a handgun in the parents’ room where the video game system is. The kids won’t be playing there anymore until I speak to one of the parents and assured the gun is safely and securely out of reach of the kids and everything else that coincides. I respect anyone’s right to own a firearm, I just want them to be responsible, and I don’t want to go off the details the kids are telling me. You know, kids can distort facts.
  • If at all possible, you’ll never see me seated at a restaurant with my back towards the door, I perpetually scan the restaurant and who’s coming in and out.
  • My father taught me never to lean on a car because the buttons, especially the metal rivets on jeans, could scratch the paint. He also taught me to never put my feet on furniture if I was wearing shoes. For the most part, I still follow those commands, but when I don’t, I hear him cursing at me or I imagine him shaking his head.
  • Rarely do I ever let the amount of gas in the car be less than a quarter of a tank. In case there’s an emergency and I need to get somewhere in the middle of the night, I want to be assured I can get there without having to stop for gas. When there’s only a quarter tank left, that means I fill it up as soon as I can.
  • While reading from my book about the relationships amongst presidents, I was surprised to read that after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs, which was within the 100 days of the new presidency, Kennedy actually invited Nixon to the White House and sought his counsel. Think about that, he invited and sought counsel from his opponent he narrowly defeated. Kennedy, as I’m sure most of you already know, also got a lot of advice from Ike at Camp David. And by advice, I mean an ass chewing. But from that meeting admiration grew, and its’ one reason Camp David kept its name. FDR named it Shangra La, Ike changed it, and Kennedy could have changed it again, but kept the name as a thank you to Ike.
    • A piece of advice from Ike I found interesting because it helps eliminate being influenced by the last thing you hear:
      • The only way to guarantee smart decisions, Ike believed, was to bring all the responsible parties together and have them fight it out. “I do not believe in bringing them in one at a time and therefore being more impressed by the most recent one you hear,” he said later. “You must get courageous men,  men of strong views and let them debate and argue with each other.”
      • Ike’s assessment of Russia rings true today. He believed anytime we showed weakness, that was the time for them to press the U.S. hardest. But since they admired strength and cold calculated self-interest, that’s when they get cagey. And with that, I have a better understanding of why Reagan bluntly told Gorbachev to tear down that wall.
    • One thing I did admire about Kennedy regarding this failure, he took responsibility for it and apologized. I think that’s a trait helpful to presidents. And if I recall correctly, it helped Reagan when he addressed the nation about Iran/Contra.
    • Ike also said he believed success over secrecy. It seems like Trump may be taking that approach.
  • Kentucky Coal Mining Museum converts to solar power
  • Colbert widens ratings lead over Fallon
    • “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” beat “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” for the ninth consecutive week and by the biggest margin yet, according to Nielsen ratings. Colbert’s CBS show averaged 2.99 million viewers during the week of March 27, about 400,000 ahead of Fallon. NBC’s “Tonight Show” won the key demographic of viewers ages 18 to 49, but Colbert is closing that gap, too.
  • One of these kids will be doing regular segments for ’60 Minutes’ in the future – Kansas high school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials. Days later, she resigned.
    • The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials. For one, when they researched Corllins University, the private university where Robertson said she got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago, the website didn’t work. They found no evidence that it was an accredited university.
    • “Everybody kept telling them, ‘stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong,’” newspaper adviser Emily Smith told The Post. But with the encouragement of the superintendent, the students persisted.
  • I take it he’s not much into the history of the game – Yankees Prospect Clint Frazier Reportedly Asked If He Could Wear Mickey Mantle’s Number
  • David Letterman to induct Pearl Jam at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony – Neil Young was originally scheduled to pay tribute to the band, but he had to back out due to illness.
  • Britney Spears gig forces Israeli Labour party to delay leadership contest – Security cited as July election event in Tel Aviv conference centre is moved back 24 hours to avoid clash with pop star’s concert
  • Taser is being renamed and offering US police a free trial of body cameras
    • …the company announced it would be renamed after its line of police-worn body cameras, Axon, and that it would offer any interested law enforcement agency a one-year trial of its equipment. That includes a camera for every officer on the force and use of Evidence.com, the company’s website for tracking body camera videos and other media.
  • When I posted about Chuck Norris officially being recognized as a Texan by the state senate, I can’t believe I forgot to post the greatest moment in ‘Walker Texas Ranger’ history.

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, April 5, 2017

  • During the second half of the NCAA championship game on Monday night, I looked over at OtherDogGeeding and he appeared to be having a stroke. His eyes were twitching and so was his head. I placed him from the couch to the floor and he started to convulse and contort his body violently. I told WifeGeeding this is it and to say goodbye. I then drove him to the vet ER and as I rushed him inside I tripped on the curb and we both hit the ground hard. I picked him up, limped inside, and told the staff he was seizing which looked evident. They quickly took him from me, asked me two, maybe three questions, and rushed him to the back. The staff took me to a waiting room and gave me some water and had me answer a few more questions, but since we were already patients, most were already on record. About 45-minutes later a staff member came back to talk to me. I already accepted it was time to let him go, didn’t want him to suffer, and was ready to tell them I was ready to put down. However, I was gently informed he didn’t have a seizure but his eardrum ruptured which caused severe vertigo and dizziness and he was in a state of shock. Being almost entirely blind just added to it. We took him in for an ear infection almost two weeks ago but the infection got worst and caused the eardrum to rupture. It was a freaky event, and both WifeGeeding and I thought it was certainly a seizure. I’m not sure how much longer we have with him, but as for now, OtherDogGeeding had only one thing to say to death, “Not today.”
  • My one-eyed-wife has an odd infection in the eye socket which does not contain a human eye and had to see her blepharoplasty surgeon.
  • Every guy who has watched sports at one time or another wanted to broadcast a game.
  • Tony Romo will be taking over for Phil Simms as the number one color analyst for the CBS’s coverage of the NFL. Phil Simms set a very low bar and our national nightmare is now over. As for Romo, I have no idea how he’ll do, I’m just happy I no longer have to listen to Phil Simms.
  • Romo has zero experience in this field and got this position on charisma and reputation, a little bit like President Trump. But at least Trump was vetted through the election process.
  • There’s only one scenario in which I can see Tony Romo returning to the field, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned it. Cam Newton recently had surgery on a partially torn rotator cuff and may not be ready for the start of training camp. I wouldn’t be surprised if Newton doesn’t recovery well or reinjures it and Carolina giving Romo a call.
  • I’m pretty sure Romo dyes his hair.
  • To my surprise, the very in shape host of the ‘Biggest Loser’, Bob Harper, had a heart attack and was in a coma for two days. Genetics is unavoidable.
  • Last night’s ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ started with an announcement that it would be a special two-part episode and could be sensitive to children (the dangers of hitchhiking). DaughterGeeding asked me what that was about and I told her that parents should watch this episode because it could be scary or sad and kids may have lots of questions. She retorts, “Dad, I’ve read about King George, the Battle of Trenton, and I know how babies are born. I’m not scared of anything.”
  • I’ll fully admit I don’t often read press briefings from the Secretary of State, but I got a kick out of how short and to the point this one released yesterday was.
  • My first thought was of the Pro Wings shoes I never liked, or was it Winners’ Choice? – Shoe retailer Payless files for U.S. bankruptcy, to close 400 stores
  • Dallas high school students will do your taxes –
    • It’s happening at Woodrow Wilson High in east Dallas. If you live nearby, it’s one of a handful of IRS approved locations for free tax preparations. The DISD campus has partnered with the Internal Revenue Service for three years to prepare at least 100 returns annually for any taxpayer earning $54,000 or less.
  • He’s a native Oklahoman – The State Senate Made Chuck Norris An Official Texan
  • What It’s Like to be a Real-Estate Agent to DC’s Super Rich
Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, April 4, 2017

  • WifeGeeding’s 100-year-old grandmother died in the wee small hours of Monday morning. She was one of eight children. Three of her siblings are still alive, she was the oldest of the surviving children.  She was born inside her family’s house, and the house and land had since been sold and is now a cemetery. The family’s plot is where the house once stood. When she dies, she will be buried basically in the spot she was born. I’ll call that the East Texas Circle of Life.
  • They hope to have the funeral on Wednesday but interestingly enough the funeral home is booked solid.
  • Because I lost my both my parents at a relatively early age, I’m amazed that my father-in-law still at his mother at age seventy-nine.
  • A local church held an electronics recycling event as a fundraiser. The amount of relief I had dropping off a plethora of cables, power chargers, old Tivo units, computers (I kept the hard drives), video game consoles, and the like was almost thrilling. They also accepted old CDs, and it was great just to unload almost all in my collection.
  • For any of you who have also hiked up Guadalupe Peak, you might enjoy this piece from “The Smithsonian” – When Texas Was at the Bottom of the Sea – A hike to the “top of Texas,” the world’s most famous fossil reef, leads to a new sense of the sublime
  • Jerry Seinfeld is now selling miniature replicas of the old television set.
  • I’m not sure if anyone else has really noticed, but before championship games, there’s footage of players on a runway of sorts or doing some other fashionable antics. I miss the days when players or the teams were simply introduced and didn’t have to partake in some choreographed film session.
  • Trump is donating his paycheck to the National Park Service
    • “It’s straight up. Every penny that the president received from the first quarter,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer told journalists at a White House press briefing Monday.
  • This chimp threw some poop and it hit grandmother in a scooter.
  • I posted a Navy boot camp picture of my father not too long ago and someone commented that the Navy retired the flat hat back in April 1963. I just thought I’d follow up and show that I still have that hat. Here it is along with the 1940 Bluejackets Manual and flight log. I also posted a some pages of the flight log. It’s kinda crazy for me to think that one of those flights happened 72 years ago today. Dad was a gunner in the PV-1 Ventura. After the war, he joined the Ohio National Guard and then went into the Army for the Korean War.

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