It's All Goodnow

I went hiking today.  Love hiking.  Cleansing.  Peaceful.  Gets me in touch with nature.  I still get cell service.  It's great.  I'm a real outdoors kind of guy.  I even have an LL Bean backpack. So I'm blazing a trail through the well groomed trails of Austin's Green Belt and a few interesting things happened today.  Let's review - 1. It is a Sunday.  Typically I would be somewhere watching football, but today I opted out for the following reasons: a) The product just isn't that great b) I've lost a significant amount of interest in football in the past two years c) You don't get to a BMI of 28.6 by not being active on a daily basis. d) My fantasy football team decided that they were going to take a knee....during their games. 2. I walked past a guy who wasn't just wearing cologne.  He had bathed in it.  I could smell him for a solid 30 yards down the trial.  Who is he trying to impress?  The coyotes? 3.  There are coyotes where I hike.

America has a middle problem. We don't seem to have one. We have two points of view.  Or at least, we only vote on two points of view. We are a country of life or choice.  We all arm ourselves or nobody has guns. Welfare or get a job. Business killing regulation or corporate wild west.  Republican or Democrat.  You must HATE Trump or LOVE him with undying conviction.   I can sum up the US political climate like this: As long as you are wrong, I am right. How the fuck did we get here?  This is a problem that pre-dates Trump.  WE have been divided for decades if not a couple a three centuries.  Hell, in the prism of time the US is a rounding error away from a Civil War.   We have been baited into this.  Having opposition is the key to ratings.  Ratings are the key to winning elections.  But that is because we are in a system where it is one on one.  You pick a side or you are wasting your vote.  You pick a side and you cling to that side.  Don’t’ you dare turn on yo

It was a Wednesday morning in southern New Jersey.  I had just begun a road trip that I am still on.  Making my way down the East Coast of this great country I am visiting several friends that I would not otherwise be able to see. My first stop was to see an old college buddy and his family.  Nick. Nick is active duty in the Army and luckily I caught him on a week when he was on vacation.  We were able to lift, drink some beers, hang out at his pool.................and one other thing.   He was going to show me some self defense moves given that he is some sort of belt that had virtually no meaning to me in Jui Jitsu. We were on our way to the local wrestling room where he trains from time to time and I snagged a couple of bottles of water for myself.  They weren't cold, but as long as I had something to hydrate with I figured I would be all set. We arrive and it is this old gym, brick building, no AC, covered in wrestling mats.  I snap a selfie as the "before" pi

You have those days when you mind has 400 different thoughts.  Today is that day for me. 1.  Have you had one of those amazing surprises when someone reaches out to you after years of radio silence?  Had two people from my past contact me in the last couple of weeks.  One of them told me that I should blog more often and that she enjoyed my writing.  Who am I to deny a gal a good read? 2. Listen to Roy Orbison's "You Got It".  And then the YouTube channel give you some Traveling Wilburys and you realize how amazing that group was.  And how sad it is that most of them are no longer with us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6luT4NNJU 3. It takes a good holiday celebrating Mexico's defeat of the French at the battle of Puebla in 1862 for me to remember that a Corona with a fresh squeeze of lime is a delicious and refreshing beverage.  Below is the History Channel's Cinco De Mayo recap.  It doesn't talk about Corona. http://www.history.com/topics/holida

I was given a gift certificate to a major department store.   After some deliberation I have decided that it was less a "gift" of material goods and more of an experience in what can happen in Westbrook, Maine on a Saturday morning.   A month ago I purchased a pair of work pants at BIG department store name  Apparently, I am fat because the size 36 waist didn't fit.  Be that as it may, I was given a couple pair of Carhardts with a size 36 waist and I swim around in them.  Whatever works.   I am standing in line to return these hipster styled worker pants and of course there is a women returning 46 different items.  Half bought online.  Half bought in other stores.  I threw in my headphones and decided to listen to the easy sounds of Brian Fallon and take a deep breath.  The lady at the return counter was doing her best and frankly, I was at a Department store name in Westbrook, Maine on a Saturday.  What am I supposed to expect?  Much to my delight another customer s