Let Go Journal

Barack and Teddy; Men in the Arena

2011-08-16T16:46:00.003-05:00

Each day I read more and more criticism of President Barack Obama. One day its the health care bill, the next day its the budget, then unemployment, and on and on it goes. What most of these critics never mention is that President Obama entered office with 2 unfunded wars, an economic crisis (meltdown), and terribly high unemployment. He's now been in office for almost 20 months...and believe it or not....the wars have been scaled back and troop withdrawal begun, the economy is stabilized, and unemployment is the right direction - unlike it was in the last administration. Yes, the deficit is up - what do you expect with the high unemployment and unfunded wars? Really...what did you expect???

Here's what Teddy Roosevelt had to say about cynics who have nothing but criticism for even the most valiant of efforts.

It is not critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of good deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust an sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without and error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt April 23, 1910

So while a confederacy of dunces continue to rise up against the leadership of President Obama, a few experts, folks knowledgable in finance and economics realize that without the stimulus - we would be in a global recession right now.

My view of our President is that we have a brilliant, hard-working individual who has saved this country from complete economic disaster. God Bless President Obama

The Priorities of my Congressman

2011-04-29T08:33:00.006-05:00

My Congressman is James Sensenbrenner (Republican Wisconsin). Turns out Jim was born into a very wealthy family (Kimberly-Clark), grew up in an affluent neighborhood of Milwaukee (Shorewood), and graduated from an elite "private day care school". He later went on to Stanford University where he received a BA in Political Science. Kind of reminds me of my background growing up.......NOT!!! I doubt James and I have anything in common, other than we both live in Wisconsin, and unfortunately he is my representative in the U.S. House. Make me proud Jimbo!!!

Today I received Sensenbrenner's "Weekly Newsletter" dated April 28, 2011, his subject: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In a time that our nation is engaged in 3 wars, tornadoes have just killed 283 in the south, there is a nuclear meltdown in Japan, a major Tsunami recovery effort going on....Jim decides it's a great time to demonstrate his bigotry, by once again bashing the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transexual community. Don't you think he could have picked a more meaningful or timely topic like say uh......"Obama's Birth Certificate" or "The Royal Wedding" or even "How bout that Donald Trump's Hair?".

Now let me see if I can bring myself to discuss DOMA. First off I have substantial experience in DOMA!!! I have been married to somebody, or somebody else for virtually all of my adult life. In defending my first marriage, I found myself trying to defend against adultery, drug addictions, money problems, alcoholism, and bad jokes. Yep, you guessed right, I was responsible for the bad jokes, the rest of them were her issues. Not once in that 22 year struggle did any gay men attempt to lead me astray. Nor did any Lesbians appear and ask us about three-some. As far as the Bisexuals go, I have always admired them since it seemed to me they had twice as good of chance of getting a date as I did. Finally, on the transexual front, my buddy Pete and I ran into a pair of them in New Orleans. We'd been drinking hurricanes and as I recall they had long legs and very short skirts. When one of them said "hello boys", with a voice deeper than Bill Golden's....we sobered up quick and headed back home.... swerving down the sidewalk as fast as we could ....and on the double too. That's about as close as any GLBT person ever threaten me or my marriage.....however...the bad jokes....that's the straw that broke the Camel's Back.

Now we come to my second marriage. For 15 years, I have been married to the lovely Nancy Jeane Roberts a Chicago gal with a weird since of humor who doesn't mind that I am a slob and can tell some really bad jokes. Today, I find myself defending this marriage against old age, health problems, and the irresponsible behavior of our two wild miniature schnauzers. Maybe I am missing something, but somehow, the GLBT community seems to be ignoring me. Maybe it is just because I have a skinny little booty or maybe it is because I tell bad jokes. In any case, I still feel pretty safe, from attack by folks who have a different sexual preference than me.

Now let's get back to my Congressman James Sensenbrenner. Here's my suggestion to help Old Jim out.... Jimbo why don't you correct the name of your weekly publication - that is to say; give it a more appropriate name something like The Crown Prince of Kotex's WEAKLY Newletter??? I hope this helps.

All the best!

mike

Let Go and Torch Your Inbox!!!

2011-04-02T13:09:00.009-05:00

Caution: if you have less than a 1000 emails in your inbox, this is probably of little interest. However: With over 5500 emails in my inbox this week, some 1900 of them unread, coupled with the fact I can't find a thing for all the clutter. I went on the attack. Honestly, if all of those had been pieces of paper, I'd have dumped them in a ditch somewhere, used a little gasoline, and flicked a match into the whole big messy pile. Here's a picture that gives a pretty good understanding of my situation, looked like before I began to try and figure out how to deal with it. Hopefully, none of you ever get into this situation. But if you do, I learned some things that may be helpful if you decide to "torch your inbox". My first concern was the unread emails. Were any of them important, why were they unread, and how can I sort them out....without deleting something that's going to cost me. Here's how I approached the 1900 unread emails. Go to your inbox and come to your first week old unread email, why is it unread?

Is it an advertisement? I had 100's of emails from American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Grocery Stores, etc. Why, because I like to get cheap airline tickets and buy stuff o n sale. So all you have to do, is type in EddieBauer.com and hit search. What comes up is a list of all of these adevertisements I never had the time or interest to read. Worse yet, I found one from Pajamagram.com, from when I bought Mom a Christmas present two years ago. I have been receiving these every couple of weeks now for years. I deleted most of these suckers first since the sales from last August are more than likely to be over and honestly, I don't buy a whole lot of women's pjs.

Is it an "Autoreply"? These are things that say "Autoreply. Jim is out of the office and won't return until the 4th of July." These are aggravating, because it means your message isn't going to be seen until some future date and secondly you get the "stupid autoreply". A search of "autoreply" enabled me to kill several hundred unreads in one shot.

Is it a Newspaper update ?- I subscribe to several different newspapers online. Honestly, I don't have time to read all of them most of the time. But I always tell myself, I'll read that when I get around to it. Problem is, I never get a "round toit". So long, Dallas Morning News! These things come daily and somertimes more often, they add up fast.

Is it some Political Stuff ?- I figured out, if the email said "from the Whitehouse" or "from Senator So and So", that it probably was not an invitation to dinner, but more than likely a request for cash.

Does it say "Accepted / Rejected"? - if you are in business or use your email and calendar to schedule meetings and events, you get an email everytime someone accepts or rejects your invitation. One thing for sure, you don't need to keep these if the meeting has been over for a week or more. Give em the eighty-six.

Unopened Email from your Boss or Coworkers - Yikes! How can this happen? Well, about half the time or better, I have already found whatever the email says before I get the email. This being the case, why bother to open it? If it is something you already know. Is it because I am clairvoyant, Hell No! It's because they call me first and tell it to me and then the dummies feel the moral obligation to remind me in an email. Kill 'em.

Using these techniques, I whittled down the "unread to just 12 unread emails". These were important, so I saved them in a folder called "important". Now what about the other 3600 emails in my inbox that had been read, but never deleted? Here's how I approached this monster batch of emails;

Is it from a friend? A lot of my friends send me jokes, which is great, but I always kind of felt obligated to keep them since they came from my friends. Further, my friends and family share important stuff either in person or on the phone. I deleted all of these. So now, you can email me an old joke and I'll probably laugh again. But this time I'm deleting it after I read it.

Is it from a business associate? OK, now some of these can be important. What to do? Tag all of the ones that are older than 90 days, and store them under a file name or label on your email. "Archiving" works also.

Using these and several other "home-made" efforts, I was able to go from 5500 emails in my inbox to only about 150. However, as in many things "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". What you read above took me about 8 hours; and it was the pound of cure...that I had to do. Here are some ideas for preventing the problem in the first place:

Unsubscribe - to emails and newsletters that are no longer of interest to you.

Practice the 4 D method - when you check your email: 1. "Delete" any obvious junk. 2. "Do" any tasks that will take less that 5 minutes. 3. "Delegate" the task if you can. 4. "Defer" more lengthy tasks, until after you have cleared your inbox. Obviously, I didn't think this one up; it is very unlike my usual habit of using #4 exclusively.

Create a "read later" folder, for things you may be interested in but don't have time to read now.

I hope this was helpful and I hope I haven't bored you to tears with this effort. However, I am kind of amazed that I got through the mess.

All the best,

Mike

What is an Entitlement........

2011-02-14T19:42:00.008-06:00

The term "entitlement" is being bandied about a lot lately and my feeling is that in most cases it is used in the perjorative sense. The actual definition is quite a bit different than what many people seem to choose to believe. I hope this will add a bit of clarity.

According to Wikipedia an Entitlement "is a guarantee of rights or benefits based on established rights or legislation." Loosely put, this means it is a legal obligation. The Defintion goes further...

"A right itself, is an entitlement associated with a social or moral principal, such that an entitlement is a provision made in accordance with the legal framework of a society."

While this may seem complicated, I had to read it 5 times myself to understand it.....it means essentially that in a legal sense, an "entitlement" is a legally and socially binding obligation. The picture on the left is that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who pushed to get our Social Security implemented, at time when 75% of the nation's elderly lived in poverty. These, my friends are not opinions....just well documented historical facts.

Merriam Webster defines "entitlement" so similarly that I will not trouble you with restating essentially what Wikipedia says. But if you doubt me, look it up yourself. My difficulty comes with the perjorative use of the term, which suggests that an "undeserving person" feels "entitled to something" that they did little or nothing to deserve.

Let's do a little reality check, and set the partisan politics aside for a second. I, like most of you that will ever read this, have worked most of my entire life since I was 12 years old. That puts me now at 44 years of employment. All of those years, Social Security, Unemployment, and Medicare was withheld from my every paycheck. Further, now that I am once again self employed - I am hit with the full 15% self employment tax. I feel that I have been blessed from an income standpoint, and during the majority of my working career, I have exceeded the maximum amount of taxable income for these programs and therefore have made probably paid in about the same amout of money as Bill Gates of Microsoft, and very likely more than Warren Buffet.

So when you start to use the word "government entitlement", I hope that you will realize that I and my employers have paid an enormous amount of money into these systems (minimally in my case over $200,000. Plus accrued interest, I would estimate the US Government got into me for well over $500,000 over all these years. Further, Social Security, is not the cause of the Federal Deficit, the cause of the Federal Deficit is unfunded government spending. Much of it for wars....and the resulting debt of wars, and finally Veterans Benefits. Combined Pentagon spending is very near 50% of the budget. They keep in different buckets so....in some cases you can say its only 35% or so....but this does not include VA Benefits, Pensions, and the Debt spent to fight wars.

Social Security is not now, nor ever was it unfunded. Was the the Social Security money withheld from all of our paychecks misused? misappropriated? you bet it was by the very type of folks who want to cut "entitlements".

As far as I am concerned, our contributions to these government programs are just as binding of debt and obligation as any Treasury Bill that the Government may have issued to China or anywhere else. Stealing from working folks by calling their hard earned tax dollars "entitlements" is the biggest crock of shit anyone ever tried to perpetrate on the American People. I hope you will join me in getting Mad As Hell - about Politicians using the word Entitlement as a perjorative. Social Security for the people that have supported it for all of these years is a "moral obligation and legal debt", owed by the United States Goverment. The people who say otherwise are thieves and liars.

God, I am calling you out!!!

2010-12-13T18:12:00.014-06:00

If you read my posts from about a week ago, you know that I was worried about the health of our oldest Schnauzer, Princess Tita. Well as luck would have it, she died this morning, on my birthday. We have had Tita for 16 cuddly Schnauzer years - and I sure wasn't even close to ready to give her up. Absolutely, the saddest birthday I have ever had.

I realize that 16 years is really old for most dogs; arguably over 100 in "dog years". But that is the problem; The entire canine species was underdesigned...by our magnificent creator. What kind of God designs "man's best friend" to last only 20% of a man's life??? This is either sheer incompetence or damn meaness since it virtually guarantees a man (or any dog lover) a minimum of 5 heartbreaks per life time. Why would God do this? As I said earlier, God is either an incompetent designer or a Damn Mean a-hole. Let's examine the two sides of this argument.

Damn Mean God - decides that man has it too good (still hasn't gotten over that stunt Eve pulled in the Garden). He therefore decides to shorten the life of "man's best friend" so there is the constant threat of losing at least five of your best friends during a normal person's life time. I don't care what you say.....that is Damn Mean. See picture on right.....

Incompetent God - far from being mean, and far from being perfect and all knowing, God made a shit load of engineering errors. It is possible that he attended the Galaxial equivalent of Texas A&M. As such, God designs dogs first (this is actually in the Bible), and then after several days hits upon the idea of creating man in his own image. But he had already finished the dog....so he just shruggs his Aggie shoulders...and says tuff....you have to get a new best friend.

This is where it gets interesting......we know (because it is in the Bible) that God created man in his own image....therefore wouldn't it be logical that God created Man's Best Friend in the image of God's best friend??? So God, does your best friend die every so often and cause you to have a broken heart??? Or are you just an incompetent / mean prick who gave us earthlings a defective product?

No matter what....GOD.....I hope your dog dies.....just to teach you a lesson!

World's Best White Bean Chili.....

2010-12-12T10:02:00.003-06:00

It's starting to get a little cooler over most of the Northern Hemisphere now and the days are getting really short. It's the time of the year to bust out your flannel shirt, warm coat, gloves, and of course, your winter hat. Better yet....it is soup, stew, and chili season!!!! Over the last couple of years I have started seriously studying soups - probably because I am currently "letting go in the Great White North", Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Soup and Chili season is longer here...and you get more time to practice. Further, nothing quite beats a good hot bowl of soup when the weather is nippy. Over the next few posts, I'll try and share some of my best soup discoveries; if you get a chance try one and let me know what you think. Better yet, send me your favorite so I can do another experiment.

Everyone in Texas knows how to make "Texas Chili" but wait till you try this one. Bon Appetite, and all the best, ..... mike

World's Best White Bean Chili

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 medium onion chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

2 carrots chopped

1 1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1 TBSP Cavender's Greek Seasoning (this stuff is pure magic)

1 tsp of olive oil

2 cans of great northern white beans (15 1/2 oz.)

1 can 14 1/2 oz of chicken broth (you might need a little more depends on how thick you like your chili)

2 cans (4 oz.) chopped green chiles

1 cup of mushrooms chopped

1 can of niblets corn

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1 tsp of cayene pepper

1 cup sour cream (I actually use more - maybe 2 cups)

1/2 cup of whipping cream. (depending on what you do with the sour cream - can be omitted)

Saute chicken, oninon and garlic powder in olive oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add celery, and carrots to saute. In a stock pot combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Stir in sour cream and whipping cream.

This stuff will knock ur socks off. Enjoy. Let me know if you like it!

Tough Day.

2010-12-06T23:30:00.012-06:00

It could have been a good day....it held some promise...but at the end it was a disappointment - I'll share the ups and downs. First the ups....

We closed a big contract - that I have been totally devoted to for the last 6 months. It is the largest in our company history for this type of effort. It has been a see-saw battle.....and finally the deal is signed. It is the biggest deal I have closed in my career. That would seem pretty positive....right? Well its not that simple....a lot of folks think we should have not taken the contract - the economy is pretty tough....like I said...it was a see-saw thing...and winning is questionable.....quess it depends on knowing a lot about the future...and I only know about the now.

I got home....to find out that a long-time Texas hero of mine had passed, Dandy Don Meredith. I have spent many of Sunday afternoon with my Dad watching Dandy Don and our "Dallas Coach of Coaches", Tom Landry battling to achieve a standing in the NFL. I am living in Wisconsin now, and I remember the "ICE BOWL" which most folks agree was one of the NFL's greatest games......Dandy Don...was our Quarterback....playing against the legendary Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr. Great game...and the cowboys lost....which is ok..it was a great game.. But now we have lost two winners.....Vince Lombardi and Don Meredith. This is one of the few things I don't like about life.....losing people you love. I just can't quite reconcile it.

Speaking of losing....we may have an upside on the day....Princess Tita, our 15 year-old minature schauzer ...had been having seizures all week end....we thought she was a gonner also....holy smokes she has been two days without another seizure....seems to be eating normally. With luck...maybe she just had a reaction to the cleaning products that the cleaning ladies used (pinesol and lysol). There are some reports that these things can injure dogs....especially if ur dogs drink from the toilet....which ours sometimes do. Maybe...with some luck...we can keep our old dog a while longer.

It has helped me to write this down. I realize that while I have suffered some losses, I have also had some wins, and some of the losses that I was expecting have, may have, at least, been delayed.

Vince Lombardi in his most famous talk...which I know by heart at this point...said...

"Winning is not a sometimes thing. It is an all the time thing. You don't just do things right some of the time. You do things right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

Vince was right about everything he said. Unfortunately, in the big game of life....losing is real...which includes losing people and things you love. Like losing your dog....or your hero Don Meredith. And to tell you the truth....losing these will make you cry. I am crying now. But as someone else said (I can't remember who).....

"Show me a man who doesn't mind losing...and I'll show you a loser."

So though today I had a win....or 2 ...I also had some losses and am reminded of previous losses which include my Dad, Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, Coach Huddleston, and now another hero Don Meredith. So if you don't mind losing.....well there u are...

I guess the tears prove that I am not a total loser. I hate losing.

All the best...

mike

What Does the WikiLeak Mean To Us???

2010-11-30T22:52:00.005-06:00

OK...for the last two days the conventional media have been on a rampage reporting about what the "wikimedia" allegedly leaked. What should we understand for this almost "MEDIA event"
.....here's my take.....please feel free to give me yours.

What? We suddenly find that we have been supporting a corrupt dictator in Afghanistan? His brother appears to be a crook...and his minister shows up in an the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) with a suit case full of $52,000,000 US??? And he can't explain the cash? How could this happen??? On top of that ....Afghanistan is still a leading exporter of heroin. How could that happen. Seriously, if you didn't already know all of this...I can't hope to help you.

If anyone in America who read this...did not know that Hamid Karzai is a corrupt dictator, they have a lot of "make-up homework to do"...this guy is so crooked...I'd bet we will probably need to bury him with a cork screw". His ministers have been smuggling money out of the country...and this has been reported as well. Finally, his brother is a drug dealing thug. All of this has been reported (although, sparingly, by virtually all legitimate media) for over two years. Karzai was illegally elected as well...and it is reasonable to presume...that his friends (that would be the American Government) helped in this endeavor.

Quite honestly, if you didn't know all of this....I say shame on you. All that the so called "wikileaks" did was to confirm and reconfirm...what informed Americans already knew or at least suspected about Afghanistan....specifically;

Our government is trying to prop up a corrupt dictator
We are spending $182,000,000,000 (minimum) annually on this effort. (Thats Billions Folks!)
We are sacrificing American lives for this meaningless effort.

It will be a great day in this country when we

start paying attention to the small amount of honest "News" that we are provided.
start demanding more honest news
start holding ourselves and our government accountable for what the F' we do!!!!

Now let me say a word about our Congressional leaders who are arranging their schedules to debate the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy. Assume I am either a heterosexual or gay soldier and find myself on the front lines of Afghanistan. Based on recently reported information from Wikileaks, I find out that my real role here is to support a corrupt dictator, his family, and a broken down government. I have one question?

On whom should I turn my weapon? Think about it.....Our People are dieing, we are pouring US tax dollars down a rat-hole, and our government is concerned about a soldier's sexual preferences. Shame on all of us!!!

God Bless Us and return our sanity. And please stand up for truth and say "NO" to the further insanity of the Afghanistan war!!!!

Amen

Coffee Party Meeting

2010-03-27T22:08:00.015-05:00

Today, Nancy and I went down to a meeting of a group called The Coffee Party, here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Coffee Party typically meets at coffee houses, and is not all that formal of an organization, it does insist that all of its members and participants to take "The Civility Pledge" which states:

"As a member and supporter of the Coffee Party, I pledge to conduct myself in a way that is civil, honest and respectful to people with whom I disagree. I value people from different cultures, I value people with different ideas, and I value and cherish the democratic process."

I took the pledge and indeed, I do value these principles and will strive to incorporate them in my daily life and discussions with others. I do believe that we can disagree, without being disagreeable. The meeting today was most interesting, let me tell you a little about the people I met and what I learned.

The Coffee Party meeting was crowded as more than 3 times the number of people turned out that were expected. The people who attended had varying backgrounds, a Veteran's Administration worker, school teachers, sales people, public relations and you name it. This group worked to develop an agreed position on what they wanted and were very specific in stating that our elected representatives in Washington need to:

1. Be civil and respectful with people even when they disagree

2. Be cooperative and collaborative with all of their colleagues,

3. Be honest and straight forward with the American people about the facts that influenced their beliefs.

Let's take a minute and say specifically what that means in the context of today.

Civil and Respectful discussion: precludes yelling out "You Lie" at the President of the United States. It also precludes yelling out "Baby Killer" at a U.S. Senator. These types of emotional outbursts, send out a very negative message to all of the American people.

Cooperative and Collaborative; means working together with varying factions to devise solutions to issues that are in the best interest of the American People as a whole, rather than party line voting.

Finally, being honest and straight forward requires the highest level of ethics in our political discourse; refraining from repeating falsehoods, innuendo, or circulating untrue rumors for political advantage. Further, this means that information circulated via, television, radio, newsprint, or internet should be fully validated before it is passed on. Honest and straight forward also precludes the use of scare tactics.

What will happen next? I have no idea, but think this is a pleasant alternative to the "tea party'.

All the best,

Afternoon with Jesse Ventura

2010-03-21T17:29:00.011-05:00

We had a great afternoon today going out to see Jesse "the body" Ventura speak and sign books at the Mall of Americas here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There was a huge crowd. For those of you that don't know Jesse Ventura, is the former Governor of Minnesota, a former wrestling star, and an expert in Under Water Demolition from the Vietnam War. I learned that Jesse, was also a very successful football coach here in Minnesota.

Jesse has just released a new book called "American Conspiracies" it really looks like it will make a great read. I'll give you a little book report in a day or two. Anyhow, there was a big crowd there to get books signed. The Governor also spoke about his views on waterboarding, having been waterboarded in the military. You can see his exact thinking on waterboarding and Dick Cheney on the video attached to this post. He also went on to call Bush the worst president in his life time. I have to agree. Jesse felt bad that Obama was left in the worst position of any American President, with a collapsed economy and two wars going on at the same time.

Jesse was also upset about the damage the U.S. is doing to Mexico with our "alleged war on drugs". He views that the upcoming vote to legalize pot in California, is a start; and then all drugs should be legalized. Hopefully, between Jesse and Cheech and Chong - maybe we will get something done on this subject this year. While I don't use any illegal drugs, I think our policies in this area are absolutely wrong. At least we won't be causing so much death in Mexico because of the quest for drugs in our country.

Jesse is a very interesting character, and honestly....I think he may be a truly Great American. BTW, I don't think Jesse is a genius, but just like Diogenes, I am delighted to find one semi-honest man!

God Bless America...and God Bless Jesse Ventura!!!

Interview with my old buddy R. W. Nutt

2010-03-19T14:03:00.015-05:00

It has been difficult year for my right-wing friends. They lost the Senate, House, and Oval Office to the Progressives. Make no mistake about it the Democrat party isn't all that great, but with combined ignorance and incompetence of Bush/Cheney it would have been hard for the Democrats to lose. Since President Obama has taken office my right-wing nut buddies have begun lashing out at anything that moves. Here the results of some recent interviews with my old buddy R.W. Nutt. That's old RW in the picture to the right It was tough, as Mr. Nutt would mutter strange words and obscenities then begin to drool after every sentence.......kind of like some kind of right wing Turret's syndrome...I highlighted the incessant muttering in this article like this:

anyway here's how it went:

Me: How are you today Mr. Nutt?

R.W. Nutt: Fine. You kool-Aid drinkin faggots.

Me: Welcome to the prestigous LetGoJournal. We want to get your ideas on the President's Performance and the State of the Country. How would you rate the President's Performance?

R.W. Nutt: He's not my President. He's not even a US Citizen. He was born somewhere in Africa. Fair and Balanced, Kool-Aid Drinkin, Kill the Mexicans!

Me: Well, OK. But a few people disagree with you.

R.W. Nutt: Whoever disagrees with me must not read the Internet or listen to the News. Fair and balanced, illegal aliens, !@#$% communist fags !@#$%, Ditto Rush

Me: Well 52,000,000 American Voters voted for him, plus the State of Hawaii claims he was born there. Are you still sure your right.

R.W.Nutt: BHO is from Africa and he's a Muslim. Hell his middle name is Hussein? Probably, related to Saddam. Fox News. The State of Hawaii is a coverup. Kool Aid Drinkers. Kill the Mexicans! Kool Aid drinkin bastards! Lying SOBS, God Bless Ronald Reagan

Me: OK. Well then you don't believe that a majority of Americans elected the President?

R.W. Nutt: I thought I told you he's not my President and He's not really the President. Long live Ronald Regan! Kill the Mexicans! Fair and Balanced! Excellence in Broadcasting, Commie bastards

Me: Well what about the Stimulus Package?

R.W. Nutt: Stimulus my Ass! He's bailing out his buddies at the banks. MF'n, commies, dirty rotten !@#$%^, fair and balanced, you betcha Sara

Me: Excuse me, but you are aware that the so called bank bailout was passed and signed into law by President Bush? It was called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Program of 2008. It came in response to the mortgage crisis - which occurred during the Bush Administration.

R.W. Nutt: Check your facts Scooter! The whole thing is B.H. Obama screwing the tax payer. Tax and Spend Democrats. Fair and Balanced. Kool Aid Drinking. Trinkle Down! Bleeding Heart. Limbaugh. Kill the Mexicans!

Me: You are aware that the vast majority of economists believe that the stimulus package may have saved us from a global financial meltdown?

R.W. Nutt: Economists are all a bunch of gay pinko kool aid drinkin faggots. Who cares what those faggots think? Limbaugh, Socialist, Bastards, Kill the illegal mexicans.

Me: So do you think the stimulus package may have averted a major depression?

R.W. Nutt: Hell No, in fact I wish we had Jimmy Carter back....the lying bastards. Pinko Communist Socialist. Kool Aid Drinkin' Faggots. Kill the Mexicans!!!

Me: Where do you stand on gay marriage?

R.W. Nutt: I'll tell ya where I'd like to stand. I'd like to stand on the necks of those faggots and kill em all. They ruining the sanctity of marriage in our country. Cock Suckin' , Kool Aid Drinkin Faggots! God Bless the Virgin Palin! Kill the !@#$% Mexicans!!!

Me: Excuse me. Did you say "the Virgin Palin"?

R.W. Nutt: You !@#$ Right I did! That sweet little Bristol has "swore off" sex till she get's married. And Damn that Bitch, Oprah for picking on that little angel. Damn illegal aliens. Pinkos! Commies! SOB's. , Kill the Pinko Mexican Bastards, Oprah is a big fat bitch, Ditto Rush

Me: But Bristol already has a baby?

R.W. Nutt: So? You really don't get it do you? You are a Kool-Aid Drinker Aren't you? Haven't you ever heard of Abstinence! Oberman. Fair and Balanced! Fox! Ditto Rush Ditto! Kill the Mexicans! Abstinence!!! Yeah for Abstinence! Yeah for Virgins! Yeah for teen pregnancy! Yeah for single parents.

Me: I guess not. Seems to me like Bristol is kind of closing the barn door after the horse has already gone.

Me: What do you think about healthcare reform?

R.W. NUT: Socialized Medicine. Kill Grandma. Death Panels. Government Funding Abortion. Tax and Spend Liberal Democrat. Screw the Mexicans! Evil Empire!!! Ditto Rush!!!! Ditto Reagan!

Me: You realize that the US spends 16% of in GNP on healthcare...and yet ranks 41st in longevity.

R.W. Nut: There you go with statistics again, can't we just stay with my opinions? Our longevity is down because of all them minorities croaking each other. Croak you pepper bellies. Croak you jungle bunnies! Hey Pepper Bellies Croak some Spooks!!! Spooks croak some Pepper Bellies! Croak the Jews too! Kool-Aid Drinkin Faggot illegal alien bastards. God Bless Saint Rush!

Me: Well I guess we pretty well covered that topic. How about the President's record on human rights"?

R.W. Nutt: I TOLD YOU HE AIN'T MY PRESIDENT!!! Reagan, help me!

He wants to let those enemy combatants out to kill us all. He wants to give them rights!!! Limbaugh save us!!! Damn illegal Meskins! Kool-Aid drinkin, tax and spend liberal democrats!!! Their trying to cut Medicare. keep ur government hands off my medicare. you fags.

Me: What would you like to say to the previous Bush / Cheney Administration.

R.W. Nutt: I'd like to thank them for building our economy up, and for increasing housing prices so I could get a second loan on my house. I'd also like to thank them for waterboarding those stinking Arab bastards at Guantanemo Bay! Cheney, Rush, Kill the Mexican Kool Aid Drinkin, Faggot bastards. God Bless Fox News!!!! Kill the Pepperbelly illegals!

Me: Why do you constantly want to kill the Mexican imigrants?

R.W. Nutt: They come over here take American jobs. On top of that they crap in the fields on our crops and cause American people to get sick from tainted lettuce and spinach. Saint Sarah Palin, Ditto Rush, Oberlen, Fair and Balanced, You Betcha, Dirty Mexican Bastards !@#$%

Me: That's interesting how many white guys you know that are lettuce pickers who have lost their jobs? Secondly, I have never heard that the Mexican's crapped on our lettuce. Where did that come from?

R.W. Nutt: Well, I made the stuff up about crapping in the fields, but there are 50,000 white lettuce pickers out of work right now? Damn illegal Mexican immigrants, dirty, Godless Bastards, abortion rights supporting, Kool Aid drinking SOB's.

Me: 50,000 white lettuce pickers? I don't believe it. Where did you get that statistic?

R.W. Nutt: I made it up, I'll bet it will go great on the internet!!! Derrick Hedlund and Billy Timber will send it to 1000 ignorant friends of theirs and those idiots will send it out to 1000 of their friends. That's 1,000,000 idiots from just Derek and old Billy.

Me: Well I guess we pretty well covered these subjects, how bout just one more question?

R.W. Nutt: Sounds Good! Thank You Jesus for sending Ronald Reagan in your place. Kill the fn mexicans
Me: What are you so angry about?

R.W. Nutt: !@#$R%^U@!#$R , Your Mother, Kool-Aid Drinking Pinko Faggot, Ditto Rush, Ditto Reagan, Fair and Balanced Kool AID, Kiss My @#$%^&, you commie bastard, kill the fn mexicans, kill the jungle bunnies, croak all the commie bastards, kill the faggots, and God Bless America!!!

Me: That's a wrap!!!

Cowbows vs Vikings; Pregame Interview .....your chance to particpate

2010-01-13T22:40:00.015-06:00

This writing finds me in the great state of Wisconsin, and more specifically in "Title Town". That's right, you got it, your erstwhile travelling reporter is writing from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since I've been in town almost a week, I have made a couple of trips to Lambeau Field - which really got me in the NFL Spirit. So I am going to provide you, the lucky reader - an opportunity to participate in what will have to be the best pre-game interview done on Vikings - Cowboys NFC Playoff Game !

Stay tuned kiddos for instructions on how you can participate in this very special opportunity.

This frozen tundra called Lambeau Field is where my team, The Dallas Cowboys, once fought an epic battle of a game back in 1967 called "The Ice Bowl". Let me set it up for you. The Green Bay Packers had a great quarterback named Bart Starr, but he was up against Northeast Texas's own Dandy Don Meridith. Both teams had great coaches, a true Texas Gentleman named Tom Landry coached the Cowboys, while football legend Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers. The Ice Bowl is considered by many Professional Football Experts to be one of the greatest games of all time. Here's a brief recap of some of the highlights for those of you who don't remember or didn't see the game.......

At the kick-off the temperature was -13 degrees (that's not wind chill that's the temperature).

Referees did not use whistles - when the ref blew the whistle to start the game - it froze to his lips; after that they used voice and hand signals to manage the game.

The system for heating the turf at the Green Bay stadium had failed - which meant that the ground was frozen solid. It was slick and as hard as a block of concrete.

Green Bay took an early lead, scoring two touchdowns. Dallas recovered a fumble; returned it for a TD and then got a field goal to end the 1st half Green Bay 14 - Dallas 10.

Neither team scored in the third quarter. By the start of the 4th quarter, the temperature had dropped to -20 degrees.
However, Dallas scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Making the score Dallas 17 - Green Bay 14

With only seconds left on the clock, Green Bay had the ball on the Dallas 1 yard line. With 4th down and goal, Green Bay called time out.

Green Bay could have kicked a field goal which would have sent the game into overtime. Bart Starr suggested a quarterback sneak to Lombardi to win the game; according to Starr, Lombardi said "Run it and let's get the Hell out of here"

Starr ran the play; Green Bay scored, and that was the end of the 1967 NFL Championship.

Lombardi, essentially decided let's either win this; or lose it; but it is too cold to stay out here any longer! Luckily, for Green Bay, Starr's footing held and they scored but only by so little.

In preparation for this week's NFL Play Off Game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys, I'll be channelling the spirit of Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry to give their outlook on the upcoming game and other issues which you may find interesting. If you have any questions, you'd like to ask Tom or Vince, please write them down below so that I can be prepared for my interview with both of them on Friday!!!! You can right them below in the blogs site comments or send them directly to me @ mikeroberts1213@gmail.com I hope we can have lots of good questions for Coach Lombardi and for Coach Landry. I'm looking forward to hearing the views of two of the greatest coaches of all time.

All the best,

Mike

Does anyone really care about you?

2009-12-31T00:01:00.013-06:00

Did I mention that I have the flu??? Yep - but I am getting better daily - and hope to be 100% by New Years!!!

Paul McCartney asked "Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? When I'm 64? Interesting question, but how do you know if anyone really cares about you? This is can be a daunting question for some, but not for me. I'm also sure that Sir Paul's definition is falls far short of the mark. I've got nailed down tight. Ready? Huh? Here ya go, here's how you can tell if someone really cares about you.

First, lets talk Vicks Vapor Rub. Most of the folks my age have heard of or used Vick's VapoRub. VapoRub is a petroleum jelly based substance - kind of like Vaseline but it has something in it stuff stinks to high heaven (found out it is called camphor). I am wearing some now; and it smells like someone is operating a large asphalt roofing factory on my chest. Man does this stuff stink. It stinks up this entire Hilton Hotel Room we are staying in. On the otherhand, somehow, it seems to help clear up nasal congestion and make it easier to breath. What does Vicks VapoRub have to do with caring about someone? Simple -

Anyone who will help apply this foul substance called Vicks to another person's chest; obviously cares deeply for that person. It gets on your hands and it will not come off easily.

Anyone who will sleep in the same room with a person wearing Vicks VapoRub, obviously cares deeply for that person. Honestly, I'd rather sleep next to a great big pile of flaming cow chips than have this stuff on my chest......but somehow it does seem to help with cough and congestion...oooooh but it is nasty!!!!!

Tonight, Nancy rubbed this crap all over my chest. She didn't complain or anything. She knew it would help me breath and sleep better and that was all she cared about. This is how I know that Nancy truly cares about me.....Vicks Vaporub...the real test of a relationship!!! Put that in your romance magazine!

Man does this stuff stink!

All the best,

mike

Planning for Health Care Needs in Wisconsin

2009-12-30T14:28:00.007-06:00

I have the flu!!! It's been over 10 years since I have had the flu, I get a flu shot every year. Maybe it is the cold Greenbay air that got me or maybe it is just bad luck; but I have the flu. Several people, including my sister have asked me if I think it might be the SWINE flu. I'm pretty sure it is not the swine flu, because although I have been grunting like a pig; I have not had any strong urges for slop. To the right is a genuine 3-D model of an influenza virus. ------->

I have a job to do up here in Wisconsin, and I need to be well to do it; so I went to the doctor to see if they could do anything to help me out. I went to this place called Waukesha Family Practice. http://www.waukeshafamilypractice.com/ It sounded like a nice place to me, you know "family practice" and it wasn't too far from the office.

Probably, most of you don't know it but Waukesha, Wisconsin was the birthplace and childhood home of Les Paul. He went by a number of names Red Hot Red, Red Hot Rhubarb, The Wizard of Waukesha. Les Paul, is one of the inventors of the electric guitar as well as a number of other recording and sound technologies. He was very famous in the 1950's, had his own TV show with his wife Mary Ford. Gibson Guitar still produces the "Gibson Les Paul Model" which is said to account for over half of Gibson's sales. It is a beautiful guitar, and has been used by some of the greatest guitarists of all time including Eric Clapton and Peter Townsend. I always wondered how Les Paul "invented" the electric guitar. The story, at least the way I got it was this. Les disassembled his mother's phonograph and used the stylus and cartridge as his first "pick up" (amplifier). I always wondered how young Lester managed to avoid a good old "azz whoopin" for tearing up his mother's phonograph. In researching this, I found out the Lester's mother was directly related to the Blatz Brewing Family and to the Stutz Family (Stutz Bearcat Automobiles), so money was not a problem for young Lester. I could go on about Les, and I will in another edition but right now I have to deal with the flu.

So, I tramp through the snow up to the Waukesha Family Practice Building, and take the elevator up. There are only two patients waiting - so I think I may be in luck. I walk over to the window to sign-in. I say to the receptionist, "I'd like to see a doctor because I have the flu". The receptionist, says do you have an appointment? I said, "no, I was hoping someone could see me." She spins around and starts to type on the computer. "What's your name", she says. I said, "I haven't been here before". "Do you have insurance?" she says. "Yes I have insurance." "What kind?" she asks. Blue Cross - Blue Shield. She then tells me that it could take 2 hours to set me up in the system, and that I should probably come back tomorrow. This woman is manually folding invoice to be sent to patients and stuffing them in envelopes. Behind her are a solid wall of "paper medical records" the technology of the 1800's I would guess. So maybe she is right...maybe it would take her two hours to "set me up in the system".

I said really? She said, "yes you have got to give us a "heads up" before you come here." By now, I am sure this is going nowhere - my parting words

"OK, Lady, the next time I am on a business trip, 500 miles away from home, and I think I might get the flu - I'll give you a heads up." I can't believe I didn't end this conversation with....

BITCH!

Of course, that would have been "bad karma" - but JEEZ - when your whole body is aching, and your hair even hurts.....have mercccceeeeey.

All the best,

mike

Merry Christmas and Siemper Fi!

2009-12-22T21:54:00.007-06:00

Today, I ventured out to the grocery store to get some things for the soup that Nancy wanted me to make - this is a killer soup btw...it is called White Chili Soup - I 'll share the recipe after the post. But that is not what this post is about.

As I was checking out, I saw a 70+ year old gent coming into the store. He wore a green jacket and a fur covered hat. Not too unusual up here in Michigan - you need a hat - but what was unusual was the emblem on the front of this gentleman's hat. It was the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor - the emblem of the United States Marine Corps. I recognized the emblem easily, it was the same one my father proudly wore - being a veteran of both the Korean conflict and of Vietnam. (a picture of the mighty Eagle, Globe, and Anchor is on the left) The gentleman's name was John, and he and I exchanged stories..mine are only based on what I was told my Dad; John's version are based on the actual experiences of a US Marine and Veteran of the Korean Conflict.

Korea was a very tough place to be. As the U.S. engaged in this war - the Chinese engaged on the other side. When this happened - the Marines were over-run by the Chinese. My Dad and his buddy Wayne, were part of the Marines who were overrun. As this fight / battle continued into the night, Dad and Wayne ran out of ammunition for their 50 caliber browning machine gun (BAR). My Dad told me that all they had left, was his 45 caliber Colt Pistol. Dad told me that he wasn't sure if he could hit the side of the fox hole with the 45. So there they stayed all night, quietly waiting to see what their situation would be in the morning. Dad told me that when they saw daylight, there were Chinese Regulars, laying dead, knee deep all around their hill top fox-hole. Dad told me about seeing the "frozen Chosen", a reservoir on the Chosen River. As he and Wayne tried to find their way back to their battalion, he was hit in the back by enemy mortar fire. This injury haunted Dad the rest of his life; but his buddy Wayne carried him out - Dad was later sent to Japan to recover from his injuries. My middle name is "Wayne"; because of this hero who personally carried my Dad out - I understand that his last name is / was "Cook", but I have never met him. (But I would love very much to.)

John, my newly met friend at the grocery store, arrived in Korea shortly after my Dad's unit had been overrun. John was a Howitzer operator, they were ordered to "fire at will" at the rapidly advancing Chinese. John's unit dumped over 2 shiploads of munitions on the Chinese over the next few days. They knocked over 50 feet of the mountain top off - and stopped the advance of the Chinese. These guys probably provided the cover that enabled Wayne to bring my Dad, back to the MASH.

John told me more about his exploits as part of the USMC in Korea. It was a very lively discussion until he then looked me in the eyes and asked if my Dad was still alive? I choked and said, "no Sir, I lost him years back". My eyes filled with tears and so did John's.

As we tried to part, with tears in both of our eyes, John said, "thanks for talking to me", and I tried to say "Happy Holidays, Sir" it wasn't easy for either of us.

God Bless Our Veterans! They gave more than we will ever know; or will ever be able to repay!

All the best.

michael WAYNE roberts
USMC WANNAB

Letting Go..on the weather...for a while

2009-12-15T17:32:00.010-06:00

As many of you, who follow the world famous "Let Go Journal" know, Nancy and I have just returned to our World Headquarters, from beautiful Boquete, Panama. We spent two weeks there, and it was great. Of course, if you have been following the journal long enough - you know the "World headquarters" is currently located at 9972 Main Street, Whitmore Lake, Michigan (just North of Ann Arbor, Michigan). Well as many of my friends predicted - I may freeze my Texas (_l_) off this winter. That prediction is coming true faster / and harder than I might have thought. Nancy made some pictures of some folks that are not adjusting well to wintertime here in Michigan. Have you ever seen a duck try to walk on ice? If you think that is bad, you ought to see a swan try landing on it.....they hit and go for a long slide on their web feet. Below is a video of an altercation between a duck couple - here at the World Headquarters. Click on the arrow to play.

Just before we left to come back from Panama, I got word from my friend, customer and boss, Bryce Spencer, that I was needed again up North. But this time, it was not in beautiful Whitmore Lake, Mi. - in the sweet Michigan summertime. It is in Green Bay, Wisconsin in December, January, February, and March. So, many of my buddies who said I might freeze my Texas (_l_) off this winter could be right. On the other hand, being the eternal optimist; I think this may not be the case at all. In fact, Greenbay is a true winter time crystal gem; waiting to be mined!!! And if that can be done; I am the man for the job!!!

First off, I have a wonderful team and customer that I will be working with. Part of the reason I am up here at this time of the year - is that both of my customers are anxious to get started on improving their processes and profitablility - and they are shooting for a very productive 2010! I feel the same way - although I had a great 2009 - that is history - it is time to start thinking about the very bright future. I am all over this idea; like a Duck on a June Bug's (_l_). I mean I am all over it; like white on rice. I'm all over it - like a cheap suite!!!! I mean to tell ya, I am all over it like ugly on an ape!!!!! My professional advise to you has to be - "Stand back and watch for sparks!" So, I expect, my work will be fun!!!

We have already purchased our Greenbay Packer "Cheeseheads" - and are primed for the playoffs. Surely, either the Cowboys or the Packers will win the Superbowl! In all honesty, we had little hope for our current home town team, the Detroit Lions, so we are jumping sides. I have also been practicing my Lambeau Leap into bed every night! And although she sometimes complains - Nancy loves my Lambeau Leap! Especially, when I leap on her!!! Sorry fans, no picture included.

Further, we will be up near Lake Winnebago on this job. This is a huge and beautiful lake in Wisconsin. And we are looking for a lakeside chalet, and we'll find it, I am sure. This winter, Nancy and I will be practicing our skills in darts, pool, and Ice Fishing (heavy drinking); all of this to make sure we're ready for summer on Lake Winnebago! Remember, I told you to watch for sparks!!!!

I hope you all will start making plans, as soon as possible to visit us at the Chalet in Wisconsin! Please take time to practice your own Lambeau Leap before you come!!!!

All the best,

Mike

Today ....Back in Panama City, Panama!!!

2009-12-08T21:50:00.010-06:00

Today, we flew back from Boquete to Panama City, Panama. We are staying at the hotel I had originally hoped we could stay at, La Estancia. This place was an old U.S. Government outpost. As a result, the place has been protected since.....around 1911....I would guess. The place is pretty cheap...less than one-third of the cost of the Marriott where we first stayed.....but lots of travelers rate this place far higher than the Marriotts. I also prefer it.

This hotel has features that no other hotel in Panama...or most other places offer. The guys in this video actually spent most of the afternoon with us on our balcony.

FYI, the screen play in the video is based on a previous relationship I had, and is not reflective of my current love affair, with my lovely wife Nancy.

In two days we'll be back in the USA. At least for a while. More adventures are coming!

All the best,

Mike

Panama Fishing Excursion

2009-12-07T09:42:00.024-06:00

We went on a little fishing trip yesterday, out to the islands off the Pacific Coast - just a few miles west of David (Dah Veed). Our guide was Rolando Chamorro with Boquete Outdoor Adventures.
Rolando is an amazing person, but we will get to that later. However, you can find out more about Boquete Outdoor Adventures here:

http://www.boqueteoutdooradventures.com/

Rolando met us at our hotel, The Oasis, and drove us down through David and on to the small port called Pedregal. Pedregal is actually on a big river, and is pretty much surrounded / protected by Mangroves. Our Capitan was Capitan Ni Ni. This guy is amazing too! But again, I'll have to save that for later. First we gotta talk a little about fishing.

Here is Nancy reeling in her first Spanish Mackeral. These mackeral guys weigh 5 - 10 lbs (my guess) and put up a pretty good fight. Nancy hooked the fish, and hauled it in, all on her own. I was impressed, honestly, so was our guide, Rolando! We trolled the islands for about 2 hours, which was nice, relaxing, and we caught four of these beauties. They are so pretty when you see the colors on them - we released every one we caught (including a couple of times when I hooked the boat canopy). The second picture is Rolando and Nancy holding the catch.....I told you these pretty fish!

There are a lot of "vacant" and almost vacant islands out here. The area has been declared a "national park" since about 1996 I believe. The island of Parilla, which is about 30 miles around (again my guess) has only six families living on it. If you look at a map you will see some little specs. just out from David and Pedregal - one of largest of these specs is the island of Parilla, the other is Boca Brava - it actually has a hotel owned by some German folks. Parilla has no hotel, no electricity, no running water - and it is the birth place of Captain Ni Ni. Captain Ni Ni grew up here playing on the same beach where we had lunch, also nearby is the thatched roof house where Capitan Ni Ni's brother still lives. This beach (playa in Spanish) was kind of interesting, in that it had half white coral sand on the west side / and black volcanic sand on the east side. I've never seen the two that close together. On the right you'll see a picture of Nancy waking up from the boat. The boat is not all that big, but it is very comfortable particularly with the nice blue canopy to keep you in the shade. The picture on the left is looking back on the place where we had lunch. If you watch the video....you can see Capitan Ni Ni preparing a coconut on the beach with a machete and a stick. This was pretty interesting as well. The video shows El Capitan preparing a coconut for us to drink. Capitan Ni Ni has spent his whole life fishing these water and probably knows the fishing and these islands better than virtually anyone.

On the way back from fishing we stopped at a turtle farm, that is supported by Boquete Outdoor Adventures and Rolondo. It is a "shoe string operation" supported by a few local people who want to restore the native turtle population. Basically, what they are doing is gathering the turtle eggs and creating a "safe hatchery' in the sand where the turtle eggs cannot get eaten by predators. As the turtles hatch they are taken to a pool filled with ocean water (of course) and they are raised until they get to a more viable size and have less chance of being eaten. The pool is actually a placstic child's swimming pool, but there were hundreds of little turtles in there (I only got close-up pictures of a couple of them). Finally, when the turtles are about 6 weeks old they are release to the sea. There have been over 400 turtles hatched and released this year. More are being hatched and released each week. Interestingly enough, there are no government support or funds made available for this effort. Just some people who want to protect and restore the environment.

The picture on the right is kind of interesting to me. As you may have guessed it is the sand where the turtle eggs are buried. The stick marks the spot. You can tell when the baby turtles are about to come out because the sand starts to collapse as the egg shells break. These guys will be crawling out probably later today or tomorrow. You can also see some of the egg shells from previous hatches lying on the ground. This is not a "high dollar operation" but for sure they are getting the job done. And I admire what they are doing.

It seems like it some time ago in this writing, but I remember that I was going to tell you a little about our guide Rolando. Rolando is an interesting character, his Father is an engineer who works on design and construction of fish hatcheries. He has built fish farms all over Central America. Rolando grew up mostly in Panama City. He completed his university studies in Graphic Arts (he says to please his Mother), but as soon as he completed his studies he took off on his own; always pursuing "adventure". So basically, Rolando, at age 27, has become an expert fishing guide, an expert kayaking guide (salt and fresh water), and an expert hiking guide. He gets paid to go on all of these adventures and of course he loves his job and it shows.

This year Rolando finished a four day hike which crosses the northern part of Panama - from Boquete to Bocas Del Toro (in Spanish the Bull's Mouth). This hike crosses the continental divide of Panama (very mountainous) and requires 12 hours per day - of serious hiking. I think I could make it in about 8 Days if someone would carry my beer and pretzal supply. Oh, and they'd probably need to carry by back pack too. Remember the old shows on Africa where you got 1 or 2 white guys hiking and about 20 other guys carrying all their stuff? I am probably best cut out to be one of the white guys hiking.

Anyway Rolando was delight as both a guide and as a person. His exuberance for life and adventure is almost enough to make me think about hiking. I think I'll go grab a six pack now and think about hiking across Panama. All this talk about hiking has got me "worn slap out".

All the best,

Mike

American Florists....You are not needed here!!!

2009-12-06T20:48:00.016-06:00

A few of my acquaintences from the business world know that I have a couple of flower shops that we own back in Texas; my sister is the brains of the outfit, and she and our dear friend Shelly are the artistic talent that makes these two beautiful flowershops click. I hope to be out of the business by the end of this year since, I have little talent to contribute to the cause. On the other hand, I can assure all American florists, you are not needed down there in Panama.

Some of you know, Nancy (my wife; mi esposa) and I are spending a couple of weeks down in Panama. What will surprise the florists even more is....we are staying in a town called Boquete. (pronounced Bo Ket EH). Which I think must mean Boquet in English. But honestly, I am not sure how to spell boquet in any language - but I think you know what I mean - a bouquet is a pretty arrangement of various flowers.

Well anyway, lets spend a minute or two talking about beautiful Boquete, Panama. There are approximately 12,000 souls in Boquete, only about 1,000 of the souls are Americans. I think this may be a good thing. The pace of life is very slow here, almost nothing happens on time. This really fits my personality to a TEE! The temperature here doesn't vary much on a year round basis; by and large it will be between 65 - 80 degrees Farenheit daily. The temperature is pretty much constant because 1. Boquete is very close to the equator and 2. Boquete is high in the mountains along the continental divide here in Panama. Essentially, it is spring time all year round.

Here they grow what is arguably the world's finest coffee. There is a farm here (finca in spanish) that raises a variety of coffee bean called Geisha. This coffee was rated number 1 in the world for flavor a couple of years ago; it sells in some elite coffee shops for $18 US per cup; or you can buy a pound to take home for around $400. Suffice it to say that the coffee here is extraordinary and the best I have ever...or probably will ever have. If you would like to order some great coffee fresh from the hills of Panama, this is a place I can recommend highly: http://www.fincalerida.com/

Those are Finca Lerida beans growing on the right. Click to enlarge. I have met the owner and can testify to this fine coffee's taste and to John Collins' dedication to making the highest quality, environmentally friendly coffee in the World! Cheers John, or as we say down here Salud!

The flowers here are absolutely amazing. Corn Plants, which I have been wanting for my office grow wild here on the side of the road; so do bird of paradise plants and these other things that are called Heliconica, according to my sister.

If that's not enough for you get a look at these Callas......no they are not at a flower shop...they are at the local Texaco Gas Station, along with these pretty red things that Nancy is holding in the picture.

The orchids are from a not-for-profit animal shelter and they were taller than me. And there were lots of them, I tried to just focus on one - because the wind was blowing and I was getting blurry pictures; but hey...this is the best I could do.

On the fruit and vegitable side of things - Banana's seem to fall out of the sky - I think you can buy 10 bananas for about 25 cents. Coconuts are about the same. Worse yet, there are so many orange trees and oranges here - that I would bet that most of them are never eaten.....they just fall off the trees and lay there.

The only problem I can find with Boquete is that Gringos have come in and driven up the prices of land and homes. Right now an acre of land here would set you back as much as $50,000. Again, this is due to ignorant speculation, and will most likely change soon. But you can almost see how it could happen; a lot of the Gringos say that this is the Aspen Colorado of Panama. I don't believe that for a second, Aspen isn't near as nice. This is the Garden of Eden, before Adam and Eve got the boot. Check the picture to the right, this is the first place, I was ever able to find a fig leaf big enough to work for me. Yoiu can click in this picture to enlarge...but it mostly enlarges the fig leaf.

Buena Vida y All the best.

Mike

Interesting Folks here in Boquete

2009-12-03T14:00:00.013-06:00

Over the last couple of days Nancy and I have met some really interesting people here in Boquete. I decided to write a few lines about them so that you could get a sense of just how interesting they really are.

First off, allow me to introduce you to Mr. John Collins. John, is currently the managing director of La Finca, Lerida; one of Panama's most prestigous coffee plantations. In Espanole, Finca, means farm and this is one outstanding farm / farmer. That is a picture of John relaxing in his home at Finca Lerida on the right.

Finca Lerida was founded in 1917 by Tolief B. Monniche, an engineer who designed the auxillary locks for the Panama Canal. When he finished his contract, he was worn out from the years of intense work and pressure involved with designing and building the canal. Mr. Monniche, decided to take a vacation when his contract was complete, and spent his time in Boquete, Panama, where he bought the land, and buildt the farm now known as Finca Lerida. He build a fantastic home here, which still stands today, and is the home of John Collins whose family bought the farm in 1957.

John Collins was one of six children, whose father was the Ambassador to the Panama Canal during the 1950's. John was born here, and as such, has always been a citizen of Panama. He is fluent in both English and Spanish. Maybe more. When he walked in the cafe at Finca Lerida, I thought he would be an interesting character and hit him with my very best "Buenos Dias!" He responded with more Spanish than I can handle, but at least I knew he was for sure an interesting character. I invited John to join Nancy and I at our table, which he did, but not before going in back and grabbing his own mug of Cafe Lerinda's famous and fabulous product. I asked him if he came here often, and he said yes, "I live and work here."

John told us a lot about the history of the farm, from it's early beginnings under Mr. Monniche, to his lastest strategies for expanding the awareness of the high quality coffee produced here at Finca Lerida. John is currently working on a multi-year plan which will veritcally integrate the farm and its products. Currently, they are working to create the necessary equipment and processes to manufacture their own fertilizer and energy. This will eliminate the need to purchase these commodities to operate Finca Lerinda, thus making Finca Lerinda more profitable and even more environmentally sound.

John conducts tours of the farm at least twice a week. He is probably the only owner / director of a coffee plantation that conducts a personal tour - weekly. This tour goes all the way from "coffee bean" to coffee cup. It's a great tour and will expand your knowledge of coffee immensely if you have the chance.

Speaking of the environment, Finca Lerinda is approximately 900 acres in total area. However, the coffee production is only about 200 acres. The remainder of Finca Lerinda is dedicated to tropical rainforest - and has some of the best bird watching in the all of Panama, and for that matter, all of the world.

A lot of people believe that the Quetzal is the prettiest bird in the world. I realize that this is the kind of thing that starts arguments, I have friends who believe the prettiest bird in the world is the Mallard Duck, and I do admit that they are pretty, some think its a swan, some are thinking cardinals or hummingbirds....but trust me a lot of people (who have seen the Quetzal, believe it is the prettiest bird). In any case, the Quetzal is one of the 100's of bird species you can see on the Finca Lerida Coffee Plantation. Here's a picture of a Quetzal so at least you'll know what I am talking about. One more thing, John has a professional bird expert who conducts bird watching tours on the farm.

John lives in the home originally build around 1920 by Mr. Monniche. He inspected every inch of the building, inside, outside, underside, top-side, and remains convinced that the engineering of Mr. Monnniche, is the best that can be. In fact, he feels that some of his recent construction may not have achieved the same quality, and took as much as 3 times longer to complete. Still, he is happy with the outcome and the new lodges John designed and built are very nice.

I asked John a little about Panama City. He told me he likes to go down to Panama City about once a month to recharge his batteries. He says that the traffic, crowds, and noise are really obnoxious and gives his batteries a charge. He mentioned occaisionally, he likes to drag a bus driver off a bus and give him a good country arse whoopin. Apparently, this battery charge gives John what it takes to get back to Boquete and the farm, and get back in the tranquility of this fantastic place, which he calls home. Honestly, this place is so peaceful, that it just might lull you into a twenty year sweet dream. I can see how this could happen. So as John Collins says "a little aggravation is good for you."

The world could use more John Collins, not just because he is a pioneer in ecological farming, but because he makes a great product and is wonderful person to have a visit with. If you get a chance check out his web site @ http://www.fincalerida.com/. You can also email him @ info@fincalerida.com.

Better yet, if you happen to be in Boquete, Panama...drop in and see John....you'll be glad you did.

All the best,

Mike

Panama - How It Really Stacks Up - Part 1

2009-12-01T19:04:00.008-06:00

I don't want to be one to give up early, but it is starting to look like this Panama thing is a some sort of ruse!!! Everything I read / heard, which included BusinessWeek, Forbes Magazine, Smart Money, and for Heaven's sake even Home and Garden TV said that Panama was one of the Top 10 International Retirement Places. The key factors that influenced these publications (as I understood them were)

1. Low Cost of Living
2. Comfortable Climate / Life Style
3. Safety
4. Low Taxes
5. Access to Affordable Healthcare

Everyone is saying that Panama is the next Costa Rica. So far, not too many of these things are coming true; worse yet some of the ones that could be argued as true....are changing for the worse rapidly. I'll try and elaborate on what I have seen so far and you can decide for yourself.

Let's start with what is by far Panama's largest city which happens to be named Panama City, Panama;

In terms of low cost of living - it seemed that condo's were routinely offered for sale at $250,000 for 2000 sq. foot apartment. Now this might be considered a bargain in New York City.....but for most Americans it is an outrageous price. Only 18 of 381 cities in the US had a median condo price at this level.

They say you can hire a maid down here for $160 per month, so everyone has a maid. Well this may be true, but there are a few probs with this as well. First, the maid will live with you 24hrs x 7 days per week. Secondly, maids and most categories of labor here are asking for minimum wages, as they can no longer live on the wages being paid. This is in large part because we Gingos (and Western Europeans) have run the cost of living up. Relative to maids, gardners, etc. there is a story here in Panama about a man who hooked a huge fish, the fish fought very hard, but the man didn't give up. After a long battle the fisherman asked himself, "do I have the fish or does the fish have me?". So they say it is with "hired help" down here; its not clear who has who.

In the heart of Panama City, near the Presidential Palace, is Casco de Viejo. This is a very old area with some very nice architecture. However, most of it is under reconstruction. The good news is they say it will be finished in 2020. The bad news is to get there you have to drive through slums and condemned buildings with hookers on every other doorstep. I am not necessarily against legalized prostitution, but it ain't a pretty sight at $12 per hour (which according to our taxi was the going rate). I guess you get what you pay for - but this looked like more than I could stand. The driver also told us that the "girls" had to go to a clinic once a week (on Wednesday's) to be checked and certified - I don't care what the examiner's job pays - I ain't interested.

In terms of safety, we were warned by Panamanian police not to leave the 4 to 6 square block area where they patrolled, near the Presidential Palace. Even though I showed them my tattoos and told them about my experience in mixed martial arts and my college boxing career - they still advised against getting out of their sight. It was interesting to me that the preferred method of robbery here is still from behind with a knife to your throat (I read this in a travel guide). At least here in Panama they still have a strong sense of tradition!

In terms of comfort Panama City, Panama is very warm, in fact it is damn hot. If my sister were writing this, she'd say "Panama City is hotter than a three-balled tom cat!" and she'd be right! Worse yet, it is also so humid that everyone you see is "sweatin' like a bastard at the family reunion". I saw a couple of New Yorkers who had the misfortune to get an unairconditioned cab from the airport to our 4.5 star hotel. These poor boys looked like they had been rode hard, and put up wet. Not a pretty sight; but not that serious. With a cold shower and air conditioning these guys will probably stop sweating by early tomorrow morning anyway.

In terms of investment, Panama City might not be a very good choice, especially right now. There were 15 building cranes working on 50 story apartment complexes there, and none of them were moving. Most of the people, who I ever knew who would want to live in a 50 story complex, lived in New York, City. New York has Broadway, Sports, Fine Dining, Museums and every aspect of culture you could name. New Yorkers' would be pretty disappointed with Panama City. My bet is it will probably be a very long time before Americans get stupid enough to pay these prices, but with Americans you can never tell. As P.T. Barnum once said, "there's a sucker born every minute". I am sure P.T was right. However, not every sucker born has a spare $250,000 in his pocket.

Finally, the country is now having to look at changes in its tax laws to pay for all of these infrastructure improvements. I mean, when you have a goal of moving in 10's of thousands of Americans - they expect stuff - like roads, police, garbage pickup, etc. So there goes your cheap tax rates.

Don't get me wrong. We are having a great time. But everything here is not exactly as advertised. I think we will have to think twice before we plunk down a quarter of mil. for one of these joints. Northeast Texas keeps sounding better. I'll keep you posted.

All the best,

Your faithful foreign correspondent,

Mike

PS. After Nancy read this I cleaned it up a lot....so you can't really trust it anymore since I had to "sugar coat" it for Nancy.

We Don't Need No Stinking GPS

2009-11-29T23:47:00.007-06:00

Well we flew from Panama City, Panama to David, Panama today (David, is pronouned Dah Veed down here). Our goal was to make it to our hotel in Boquete, Panama before it got dark - oh well ...shucks...and doggone it - guess what we didn't make it.

The plane arrived on time in David, and there were Rent-A-Cars so this was good. I thought I was walking into the Hertz booth, but discovered I was in the Budget booth instead....who cares? what's the diffence? I got really excited that we could get a car with full insurance for less than $50 per day...on top of that....they have Nevah-Lost!!! I knew this would be a hit with Nancy.

Well, after a few contract glitches and lugging our 150 lb. circus tent bag of a suit case to the Budget Rent-a-Car place we were almost ready to go. But I couldn't get the Nevah-Lost to speak English. Damn thing kept asking questions in Espanol like; Donde Vayo Condias Amigo? I wasn't sure if it was a "born again" unit trying to save my soul or a "marketing unit" trying to get me to buy some Adidas running shoes. In any case, the local agent was able to correct that within about 15 minutes. Still the sun was going down, as I tryed to key into the system that I wanted to go to Boquete, Panama it said no locations found. The sign at the desk said that the Garmin had every road in Panama mapped, and obviously the major tourista attractions like Boquete should be in there. Nancy was getting frustrated - and decided to help me - you can imagine how well this went....(it could be possible that I forgot to thank her properly for here insight as to how to use this fine piece of equipment)...in any case luckily the Budget agent showed up and began to work on getting us to Boquete.... Well, by now its dark - and the agent explains that even though the Garmin has every street in Panama mapped - they must have omitted the entire city of Boquete. Budget took the Garmin back - gave us a half azzed map - and said Vayos Condidos Gringos! (Go with God you dumb Americanos) y Buena Suerte! (Good Luck).

So we set out in the dark, in an uncharted (at least by Garmin) part of the world, with a half azzed map. We made it through David - which is a testy little drive with some of the worst drivers and pedestirans you will ever imagine - but we missed a turn - and had it not been for Nancy making me ask directions 5 times - we probably would have made it back to Panama City by some time in January.

Asking directions is never easy for us real men, and neither is answering them. The first guy I spoke to was shocked - it could have been my appearance - I know I look like a dumb Gringo - when I said "Senor, por favor, donde es Boquete? He smiled, I think he was relieved that I wasn't going to waste a whole lot of his time - and pointed us back in the opposite way we were going. Then he started speaking in rapid fire spanish - which always loses me - but I thought I had the general idea.

We had to retrace 20 miles we had driven, but son-of-a-gun we made it to Boquete, Panama. Which as you now know, is not even on the Nevah Lost GPS System. We are now somewhere near the town of Boquete, which you can see on this jake-legged Google map. Not only that, we found our hotel in this "podunk, dog-barking all night long, two-bit joint of an "eco tourism" town. If they have a couple of cases of Cerveza or Tequila - I may be able to get some sleep. This place makes Naples, Texas look like New York City.

I think there are lessons to be learned here. Clearly these trials and tribulations are what you must go through to find true paradise. Secondly, I can understand why there are no reports of Mrs. Columbus travelling with Chris. Finally, I'm sure Christopher Columbus experienced the same things I did, and just like old Chris. C........we don't need no stinking Nevah Lost GPS!

Have Mercy.

All the best,

Mike

White House and Black Buzzards

2009-11-29T09:43:00.020-06:00

We were awaken on Saturday morning by our driver Kevin, calling in to report that he would now be available to drive us until later in the day. No problemo, Nancy and I got a new driver and continued with our plan to explore Casco Viejo, the old city of Panama.

As a matter of fact, Casco Viejo is the second oldest Panama City. The oldest one was destroyed by the Pirate Captain Henry Morgan. Henry Morgan was one of the most savage pirates of his era, he left a trail of blood thoughout the carribean as he plundered Spanish colonies and ships. The cathedral tower to the left, is just about all Henry Morgan left standing in the first Panama City.

An intereting local tale is that the people of Panama City knew Henry Morgan was coming, and took all the valuables from the church, and every where else and hid them. There was an elaborate gold altar in the Catholic Church which they dismantled and moved. What they couldn't move they covered with a black tar-like paint. Legend has it that when Henry Morgan saw the sad looking remains of the altar, that he made a large donation to the Priest, and asked that it be used to obtain a nice altar, as the one in the Cathedral was the ugliest he had ever seen.

Anyway, back to known facts. It turns out that when Henry Morgan sacked Panama City, England and Spain had a peace treaty. Morgan was sent back to England to stand trial for breaking the treaty with Spain. Morgan successfully argued that he had no knowledge of the treaty and was released (wink, wink). Not only was Morgan released, he was knighted for his services to Empire. Interesting going from savage pirate to Knight of the British Empire.

In Casco Viejo, the second Panama city there are 11 major cathedrals and the architecture is spectacular. Honestly, it looks a lot like New Orleans on steroids. All the streets are brick, there is a lot of the lovely iron work, and statuary everywhere. It is really quite a place. Here is picture of a couple of the cathedrals we saw.

The cathedral on the right has a plaza in the front with a statue of Simon Bolivar in front of it. I don't know all that much about Simon Bolivar, but he is credited with liberating much of Central America from Spanish rule. If you look carefully on the enlarged picture of Simon Bolivar, you can see a bird, and I swear I think it is a buzzard. It sure doesn't look like an Eagle. In any case this brings us to the next parts of the story.

The city of Colon, Panama originally sat on an island just outside where the Panama Canal is today. It originally had been a headquarters for the French, as they attempted to build the canal. Colon is on an island called Isla Manzanillo. Colon has always been a sketchy place but during the French era here, there were no sewers and little fresh water. Waste and dead animals went into the unpaved streets or into the ocean. The nastiness of this place prompted one historian to say, "searching for something that this town could excell at, we found it in her carrion birds, which cannot be surpassed in size or smell. Manzanillo Island may boast of the finest vultures on the planet." What does this have to do with the White House? Well there are two things; Guess what famous American Presidential candidate was born in Colon? I'll give you a couple of hints, he is still a U.S. Senator. And he look like the guy on the left. Yep, it's John McCain, the old buzzard himself. The second thing that Buzzards have to do with the "White House is below.

We walked down to the Presidential Palace. So here is a picture of the Panamanian Presidential Palace. Everyone told us it is the "White House, just like in the United States". The President of Panama has a nice view of the Panama Canal and you can see the ships cueing up there from the front of the house on the other hand....

Well, I am not so sure about that this is just like our "White House". I never remember seeing one of these roosting on the White House in the United States. This is a picture of one ugly buzzard roosting / resting on the Presidential Palace. Oh well, as the old movie said "in a country without grave diggers, vultures serve an important purpose. Click on the pic to get a real good look at this ugly sucker.

Finally, you have to adjust to the pace of life here. The entire Casco Viejo area is being restored. They expect to have the restoration completed by the year 2020. Based on the sign below, I am not sure that they will make it. If you look closely you can see that this building restoration was to be completed by August 2006 - worse yet, it is supposedly 80% sold out. As one U.S. vulture once said to another U.S. vulture, "Patience Hell! I am going to kill something!". Manana y Manana

All the best,

Mike

Panama; Here we are

2009-11-27T08:23:00.005-06:00

You know the flight from Detroit to Panama is not that bad, no where near as bad as I might have guessed. We left Detroit at 6:30 AM and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 11:00 AM; from there on to Panama; got here aroud 2:00 in the afternoon.

We were to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard Panama City by 3:00 pm. (How Gringo can you get?). There is a lovely American style mall next door complete with a Tony Romas - yep we had ribs. The ribs were better than the Tony Romas' in the U.S. I think it is because they used younger pigs, the ribs weren't as big; but they were very tender. We had more than we could eat so guess what? Nancy got a too go box for our room. Somethings never change.

The Mall has a bunch of very high end stuff; Coco Chanel; Svwarski Crystal; Lladro statuary; Tiffany's etc. Looks like we are in either New York or Paris of Panama at this point.

Panama is on the same time as U.S Eastern time. So there is no time change. The hotel is beautiful, and we used some of our Marriott Points to stay here; so it isn't costing much. If you think Panama is some kind of mosquito ridden jungle swamp; take a look out of our hotel room window. This place is growing rapidly and is extremely modern. You can see building cranes in the pictures; and the only place I have seen this many building cranes in the last ten years was in Shanghai last year. The room is clean and ice cold with air conditioning. I am posting this on the high speed internet connection in the room. So, I guess you get the picture, this place is very up-to-date.

On the other hand we are anxious to get to a more Panamanian type location. We continue to practice our Spanish; and both of us are beginning to pick up on local conversations. We have met a couple of Americans already; one retiree and one business man. They both love it here.

Today, Nancy is still having some sinus problems, so I am going to "La Pharmacia" to see what I can get to make her feel better. That will be interesting....may try and get something for myself too!

I think she will mostly rest today. I want her to get feeling good before we continue our adventure.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!

All the best,

Mike

Letting Go - Thanksgiving - Way Down South!

2009-11-25T14:46:00.010-06:00

Earlier this year, I felt it was necessary for me to come out with a fashion edition of the "Let Go Journal", so I did. In that edition, I elaborated on how the style for this year was going to be the Panama hat. I guess that must have been a spiritual insight for me because here it is, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we are packed and ready to spend the next two weeks in the Nation of Panama. Our primary goal for this visit is to try and understand the country as much as we can, and to get an idea if it is a place we might like to live.

In preparation for our Panama tour, Nancy and I have gotten the complete edition of the Rosetta Stone for Spanish, and we have been practicing daily. We have read every book we can get on the country - and tried to learn as much as we can about the culture of Panama. We are going to do our best to "fit in" and get in the "Panama Groove". Our plane leaves at 6:30 am tomorrow. Our good friend Jerry is going to oversee our current "World Headquarters" here on Whitmore Lake.

Panama seems like it has a lot to offer. Fantastic tropical rain forests run throughout the country. The world record for spotting the most species of birds in the shortest time was set there. There are an amazing number of monkeys, butterflies, and wildlife (probably more than I can explain). I am sure there are some snakes. The isthmus of Panama is a narrow strip of land that makes it possible for you to be on the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean, within a couple of hours. There is great fishing off both of the coasts, as well as diving and other water activities. The cost of living is low, by US standards. They have great health care facilities (including several branches of Johns Hopkins) and medical insurance is available for $600 per year to everyone.

Our trip will kind of take us on a triangular approach to Panama. We will begin in Panama City at 2:00 pm tomorrow and will explore the Panama Canal, the National Park at Gamboa, and the Casco Viejo - (the old city). From Panama City, we will fly to David (pronounced Dah Veed) in the Chiriqita region of the country. From there we will drive into the mountainous region in the northern and central part of Panama. Here the temperature fluctuates between 65 degrees and 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the area we are most interested in - they say it is "spring time" year round. And if you want summertime - you can drive an 1 1/2 hours down to coast - where it is 80 - 90 degrees year round. Finally, we will drive to the Bocas del Toro (The Mouth of the Bull) to sample Panama's Caribbean aspects.

So as we get ready for this new "letting go" adventure, I want to give thanks for my blessings. I am very thankful for:

My beautiful wife Nancy, who has the sense of adventure and courage to take off on this crazy adventure with me.
My Mom, who if we make it down to Panama; will have her own hacienda and will stay as long as she likes.
My Sister, who just makes me laugh - and I will never get to spend enough time with.
The opportunity to work in Michigan this year, with some great people and some challenging projects.
The ability to go on an adventure like this and visit another country.
And by the way, God Bless Jerry Woods, for looking after our Schnauzers (Tita and Rose) and for overseeing the World Headquarters while we are away.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving. As Tiny Tim once said (no not the one who said "Tip Toe Through the Tulips"), the otherone who said "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

All the best,

Mike

Wildlife - in my backyard

2009-11-19T12:03:00.025-06:00

This is a good time for me to do a quick photo documentary of some of the sights and times we have had here in Michigan over the last six months. I think in this one I will focus on some of the wildlife we have experienced around here.

Tom the Swan Killer

Probably the first thing we saw a lot of was Geese. Honestly, there are so many of them up here that they have become a nuisance. My next door neighbor, Tom, is a real (_l_) head. He doesn't like people and he doesn't like animals. He is mad at the world because he lost his job at Chrysler. Anyhow, he would see the geese on his place ...and go out and chase them in his pontoon boat. Anyway, this was probably alright because the geese were way to quick for his pontoon boat......at least until he decided since he couldn't catch the geese, that he would run over the swans. When he did this, a guy at the marina saw him and chunked a full can of Coors Light at Tom. Tom, took the "silver bullet" in the leg. Tom called the cops; the marina called the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The DNR paid a visit to Tom, you see, the Swans are a protected species. After that, Tom stopped chasing the wild life. Here is a picture a swan with a number of geese - they are next door at my neighbor Jerry's place.

Swans

The swans are really very pretty; except for when they are young. The little swans are truly "ugly ducklings. When they are young, they ride on their parents' backs and hide under their wings. I think this protects them. We had over 25 swans on the lake this year. Here's a picture of Nancy feeding them out of her hand...which is actually a little bit scary. The second picture is the adult swans with their "chicks". See below:

As I said before, the little swans aren't very attractive.

Goose, Goose, Duck!
Did I mention the ducks? The ducks are Nancy's favorites. Nancy buys corn by the bushel to feed them, and they have torn up all the grass in the yard. They are all mallards and as far as I am concerned are pretty boring relative to the other animals around here. Here are some of Nancy's ducks over by the tree in our backyard.

Blue Heron:

Here's a picture of the Blue Heron that came buy and posed for a while on our boat's bimini top. Pretty strange looking. We also had some kind of a seahawk that would dive in the water and grab a fish....but we could never get a picture of him.

Strange Amphipians?

When we first got here we kept seeing something plowing across the water. Most of the time, all you would see was its head, with a large wake behind it. Finally, we got a close up of it. It was the first muskrat either of us had ever seen. There is actually a whole den of them - they have tunnels under the sea wall. Some of you who were alive in the 70's may remember the Captain and Tenille's song "Muskrat Love". There are some weird squeaky sounds in that record which I never understood. Well it turns out that those "squeaky noises" are actual muskrat sounds. If you click the link on this page, you can hear for yourself what they sound like. Nancy made a pretty good video of them on land. Honestly, they are pretty ugly little animals. But Nancy makes sure he gets plenty of apples from the apple tree in the yard. I think you'll like the video that Nancy made of these guys. It is below.

Other Amphibians....

This guy got caught by Nancy - looks fairly ordinary to me other than the turtles up here have very pointy noses. As you can see, she brought him in the house for a full inspection. I am not sure what kind of turtle these are. I do know that Grandpa Roberts always said that if a turtle bites you, he won't let go until it thunders. Yikes! He looks a little uncomfortable in this picture.

Rodents:

At least they are not rats. With all the duck and bird food we have put out, it was bound to attract other animals. I have always loved chipmunks, but you just don't see them that often. Here's the one who came to visit us.

The big brother of the chipmunk, at least around here, is this fox squirrel. When he first showed up this squirrel was pretty skinny. But between the corn, the bread, the walnuts on the neighbor's tree, and the apples - I now believe this squirrel has become the fattest squirrel in the world. He is now fatter than any squirrel I have ever seen. And he enjoy's teasing the dogs.

What's Next:
With all of the wildlife that we have enjoyed here in Michigan, I'll bet we will have a blast in Panama - they have even more strange animals.

All the best,

Mike

Most Fun You Can Have For 2 Bucks

2009-11-13T16:35:00.006-06:00

I think it might have been W.C. Fields who was once told "You don't know what good clean fun is do you?" Fields response was, "I guess your right, what good is it?"

OK, so how much fun can you really have for $2.00? Probably more than you think, but you gotta do a little looking around.

Here in Detroit there's a bakery called Awrey's. Back around 1910 Mrs. Fletcher Awrey became famous throughout her neighborhood for delightful breads and pastries that she made in her wood-fired stove. Her business grew and grew until the wood-fired stove could no longer keep up with demand; neither could her horse-drawn delivery vehicle. Finally, they purchased a Model T Ford and started expanding throughout the Detroit area. To the right you'll see a picture of the horse drawn delivery vehicle which was replaced. The men in the picture are very likely to be Mrs. Awrey''s sons Elton and Wilbur. They joined the business along with their Dad. Today Awrey's is known as America's Bakery, supplying quality products to the Military and restaurants throughout the United States. So what is so fun about Awrey's bakery? Well the bakery makes good food....but the fun is in the Awrey's "Bird Bread".

You see every week, Awrey's boxes up their left over biscuits into large boxes that they sell for $2.00 a box. So for your two bucks, you get about 8 dozen biscuits. I guess mathematically that would work out to about 2-3 cents per biscuit. Yeah, the biscuits are a little stale - I ate one for lunch one day when I was in a hurry - and it wasn't to0 bad really - but you aren't supposed to eat them. These biscuits are for the birds!

Nancy likes to feed the ducks - and the occasional swan that comes up to the dock. I like feeding the swans - if you are brave enough, the swans will take bread out of your hand - but to be honest the ducks are boring. But for some real action.....you have gotta get the sea gulls coming in. The sea gulls come in like an army of white angels - and they are pretty smart. The best ones can catch their bread in the air; and a sea gull will dive bomb a duck in a heartbeat for a piece of bread. My neighbor and friend Jerry Woods came by, with his lovely 1o year old daughter, Madison. Luckily, I still had about half a box of Awrey's bird bread, and Nancy had the camera. So here is the video of Madison, Jerry, and I feeding the sea gulls. Click below to watch

I wonder who enjoyed the Bird Bread the most Madison or the gulls? In any case, that's a lot of fun for $2.00.

Does Michigan Have Beer Cans on the Roadside???

2009-09-03T22:43:00.005-05:00

Well, I am running well behind on my writing - but Nancy and I have been extremely busy attempting to participate in every event and opportunity we can from our world headquarters here on Whitmore Lake, Michigan.

This is a follow-up post to the previous post entitled "Does Michigan Have Beer?". If you haven't read that one, go on back and take a look. Anyway...the job for me now is trying to address the question with all this fine beer up here in Michigan, how the heck does the state of Michigan avoid the problems we always have down in Texas with Beer Cans and Beer Bottles all over the road side and in the land fills?

Well - watch this video.....yep it is the lovely Nancy at the local grocery store returning my weekly load of beer cans and bottles. She is demonstrating the recycling machine at our local grocery store. Basically, when you buy a case of beer here in Michigan, you pay an extra dimefor each can or bottle - ie. $2.40 per case. So you can buy another six pack of beer for returning a case of empties to your grocery store. What happens with this processing is that the can goes in the machine, it scans for the proper state bar code - shreds the can - and gives you a ticket for 10 cents per can for every legitimate can you feed it. Certain organizations collect these cans as donations to needy causes. Certain college students, go door to door collecting cans to supply themselves with more beer. This is the law of supply and demand at work.

College students need beer, they go door to door demanding empties (in order to help the needy, their thirsty selves).

I'll leave you with the words of Ben Franklin who said, "Beer is evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy".

God Bless Ben Franklin and God Bless Michigan.

All the best,

Mike

Did I Mention Michigan Has Beer?

2009-08-02T23:28:00.012-05:00

Does Michigan have beer?

Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

Does a bear sleep in the woods?

Does a fish have lips?

Actually, I am not sure about the last two. Anyhow, the first one is definitely TRUE! A week ago I attended one of many Michigan Brew Festivals - this one was in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It is truly something to see. I believe there were 4 Tents - with about 75 Brewers per tent - and at least 5 brews per Brewer. Quick, one of you genious friends of mine do the math on this -

4 Tents X 75 Brewers X 5 Brews = Boatload of Brew -and it was great.

Nancy and I got in early, and I was thankful for that cause there were a bunch of people there. (I thought it was great that Nancy went with me considering Nancy doesn't drink beer). In any case it was a beautiful day. The picture on the right gives you an idea of what the place looked like as it started to fill up. Lots of happy folks, including us.

I am not going to lie and tell you that I tried every beer .....I tried about 30. This is because the Michigan Brewer's Guild sells you a ticket that allows you only about 20 tastes - so I drank my 20 and then I drank about half of Nancy's: I gave the rest to a very surprised person - who was just coming into the festival.

The Brewer's Festival was held right on the river that runs through the beautiful Michigan town of Ypsilanti. There was great music with live bands, great weather, and of course GREAT Brews. I somehow feel obligated to make note of my favorite brews and give credit where credit is due!

First beer I had, was a very memorable brown Ale called "Boffo Brown" and it came from the Darkhorse Brewery in Marshall, Michigan. They craft really great beers at the Darkhorse - and I was extremely pleased with this brown ale - which in my view absolutely smokes the more famous British Brew, "New Castle Brown". You can find more about the Darkhorse Brewery here...

http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/content.asp?PageName=Index

Don't miss these guys, if you are close to Battle Creek and Marshall.

Now my all time favorite of all of the brews I had at the Michigan Brewer's Guild Festival was an Octoberfest brewed by the Redwood Lodge Brew Pub in Flint. Heaven help me.... I am a sucker for Octoberfest beers...but this one was really great.

By the way, did I mention, that the Redwood Brewery was rated as one of the top Brew Pubs in America. Believe me, I believe they may well be one of the best Brew Pubs Anywhere! And if you come visit us here in Michigan ....we're making the drive to Flint and Redwood Lodge- its probably an hour away - but I am sure it will be worth it. From what I have tasted, I know they make great BEER! Locals, we met at the festival, who had visited Redwood Lodge said it it was GREAT! Now there's a combo, great food and great brew.

Let me close with one more picture, here is a cute 20 something that jumped in front of my camera while I was trying to get a picture of the crowd and the beer tents - I think she was something I read about in Beer Mythology "A Beer Sprite"; just flying by to make sure old men like me, are enjoying the beer and the day. You don't see these often.

All in all, this was a further reminder of the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin who said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

I hope all of you are happy!!!! I am - and it ain't just the beer.

All the best,

Mike

Look-A-Like Contest....or Back to the Future?

2009-07-27T05:53:00.017-05:00

On the right, you'll see a picture of my old buddy Big Ike Griggs.....

So we're at the grocery store Sunday afternoon and Nancy sees this odd looking fellow. She believes he looks a lot like my old buddy Big Ike Griggs. Ike has a penchant for fancy clothes and so forth.... In any case Nancy causes me to take a picture of this guy, who like Big Ike was all too happy to have his picture made. See picture on right of the alleged "Big Ike Look-A-Like". This gentleman was quite kind, and affable. Chatting with him I found out that he had just turned 80 years old. He was with his daughter at the grocery store - who looked to be about 30 to me. Amazing. Here's a picture of the guy at the grocery store......

I Honestly don't think there is too much resemblance do you? On the other hand when I got back to the house and started putting this together, I noticed a certain similarity between this character and someone who I am even closer too than Big Ike. See below......

Could this be a preview of my future......??????

Mike Roberts @ 54 years vs. Mike Roberts @ 80 years...

NO Way! I'd have to lose too much weight, and I'll never live that long or look that good.

All the best,

Mike

Letting Go - Here's what can happen

2009-07-05T20:57:00.008-05:00

OK, I am way behind on updating this blog, and I want to apologize. When I got "let go" last year, I had a mental problem, - and have been unable to get worried about anything. We have just kept trucking along .....and it has kind of worked itself out pretty well.

Many of you may not realize that Nancy and I have been busy relocating ourselves to our newest "Letting Go" location - Whitmore Lake, Michigan!!!! Yep we live here now! And when I use the term "live" - I mean LIVE!!!!!

For starters, here's a picture of our new digs. It is relatively small - only about 1200 sq. feet inside - on the other hand it has some interesting amenities.

As you may notice, there are actually two major driveways - 2 if by land - but more importantly, one if by sea!!!! Yes, we have our own boat, and yes we are on a lovely 700 acre lake in Michigan, and yes you are invited!!!!

Other amenities include: THE FISHING is GREAT - and we have our own boat - which we have christened: The Good Ship "Leggo and LET Loose!" We are only about a block away from the bait shop and the liquor store (I consider these both bait shops - just depends on which fish you want to catch). I am an easy lunker on either bait!

Here's a pic of me trying to act as Captain of the good ship "LEGGO and LET LOOSE". As you can probably tell, I am struggling to keep the ship (and myself) under control - luckily we have lots of personal flotation devices aboard, full safety equipment - plus a few pain killers in case anyone was to get hurt or just wanted to relax. By the way - that is my Michigan "Campaign Hat" - it is from the "Blue Tractor Brewery" in Ann Arbor - where the continue to crank out great Michigan Brew. My Lord Have Mercy, they make fine beers here - maybe the cars are dicey - but you can be on some great brews.

Now here's the bad part, Mom came up here and she is a fishing fool. I mean to say Mom is a "Piker", here is a pic of Mom after she just caught a large pike off the dock.....
Mom, didn't like the "Northern Pike" because it has very large teeth - I took it off the hook with a glove. However, Mom hooked another one today - about a four pounder - but it chewed through the line. Mom did not seem happy about that. Oh, me, yes, I was looking for gloves.

Did I mention that Mom still has no scheduled departure date?

In a nut shell, Nancy and I only have a 6 month gig up here - unless something changes....but if something changes - we are in a great spot here - and if it changes some other way - we'll find another great spot! Hope you are all as well as we are. Make ur reservations for "Camp Mikey" Michigan early - the guest list is filling up fast.

All the best,

Mike

How Much Am I Worth???

2009-06-09T17:08:00.005-05:00

Well, this week finds me here on the job in beautiful southern Michigan. I am working with two customers and one of them asked me..."how much is it worth for us to have you to work with for the next six months?" I know, most of you are thinking, 6 months with Mike Roberts - that would be "priceless". The only problem here is that a few of you are thinking it would be a valuable experience to work with me for 6 months, and the rest of you are thinking - what would you have to pay to excape from being around me for 6 months. Either way, the answer could be "priceless". So how should I answer this question? Here's a couple of essays on how I would answer the question......

1. I personally believe that one measure of the value of an individual is the quantifiable results that are produced by the work you do. For example, I expect the project I am leading now to result in a minimum cost savings of $250,000 annually, and I expect the project to be completed in less than 6 months. In that case, I guess you could argue that my value is $500,000 per year less the costs of getting the process in place. If this were right, and the savings extended over a multi-year period, my efforts, discounted to present value, could well be over $1 million.

2. I try, on every assignment I get (especially now that I am getting older) to provide training to the younger people I work with, so that they could use some of the same techniques I use in the future. If 5 of the 20 people I am working closely with eventually use these techniques successfully - what is that worth? I don't want to claim any credit for it, but I like to think I helped. It makes me feel good. My view - no charge - but it has been worth something to more than one person...lol. If nothing else, my "mentees" learned some important mistakes to avoid. How much could it be worth not to make the same mistakes Mike Roberts did.....I guarantee you...that would be "priceless".

3. Using simpler thinking, I sold my consulting practice to another company - I was absolutely tired of travelling every week. My record year in business for myself I paid income tax on $750,000 - so is this what I am worth? I don't think so - I don't want to do that again - I was divorced the next year. Worst of all, between the divorce and the tax man - I worked like a dog for nothing. So my view, is even though I "earned" $750,000 - I'd never do that again - so I must be worth something less than that number.

4. Still simpler - after my professional consulting experience - I went to work at the International Paper Company in Memphis, TN. for less than 1/3 of my consulting income. But, I didn't have to travel (too much) and had a nice simple life as a corporate jr. exec. Not bad. Is that what I am worth? I am not sure - Corporate BS is really not for me and my head was starting to hurt.

5. Now, I am in Michigan. Working with my friends. The weather is beautiful. Nancy will be up here soon. We are getting a summer cabin, with a hope of enjoying weekends together and with old friends and new friends. This is where it gets tough to figure out......

When you get to thinking about it that way it make me wonder; "HOW MUCH Do You Think I Should HAVE TO PAY THEM -TO LET ME WORK HERE?"

All the best,

mike

Summer Wardrobe Edition...Starting from the Top!

2009-05-15T22:11:00.035-05:00

Often times, I get inquiries from subscribers from near and far about what the properly dressed gentleman should be wearing this season. Most of the time, I just say, "How the Hell would I know and why are you asking me?" On the other hand, watching some of the comings and goings of recent male fashions, I have decided I should take my rightful place as a male fashion trend setter. I've had enough of other people making fools of themselves with poor taste in fashion - its high time for me to come out and take the lead on this subject.... I'll start at the top.

Starting at the top, no gentleman can be fully dressed without the proper chapeau, fedora, or to make it simple for you are less aware of gentleman's fashions....you need a good hat. There are a number of options here but there are some basic requirements. For summer time fashion, a hat must;

be cool in the hot summer sun

make a bold statement about the gentleman's personality, and

look cool and sophisticated for the ladies.

Obviously, comfort in the summer is a priority and this rules out all the fine felt fedoras, Stetsons, and my favorite the Kangol Wool Beret. While these can set a fine tone on winter occasions, they could easily cause a heat stroke in the hot Texas summer sun. Hell, they might even cause a heat stroke in the Michigan summer. I am ruling these out - fashion should never completely over rule safety and comfort in attire.

Now in terms of summer head wear a lot of my buddies go with the basic baseball cap. To be honest, these things have "BUBBA" written all over them. I mean, what kind of fashion statement does it really make when you're out there sporting your bright green cap with yellow letters that advertises John Deere Tractors. It may be true that "Nothing Runs Like a Deere", but nothing will run off a sophisticated babe faster than one of these John Deere Caps. The last statement is not true, dipping Copenhagen Stuff will run women off faster than you can say "Let Go!". (The last two statements are not always true, if you are from Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, or some parts of Northeast Texas.) Still basically, unless you plan to have a date at the local farm supply - leave these things at home. See picture at right, Glenn Goodnight in his "courtin clothes".

This brings to mind a couple of thoughts about Alabama. Huntsville, Alabama is said to have the most PHD's per capita of any city in the world. This is in large part because of the significant Redstone Arsenal and other governmental scientific efforts that surround the area. Furthermore, Alabama - has been the site of numerous developments that have helped mankind for decades. The first toothbrush, was actually invented in a little town called Arab, Alabama. Had it been developed anywhere else, it would have been named the teethbrush.

Still thinking of Alabama....(their state slogan is "Thank God For Mississippi", "otherwise we'd be on the bottom of everything)".....Tragedy has struck the state of Alabama in recent times. As most of you know the governor's Mansion caught fire and burned to the ground a month or so ago...fortunately, they were able to save the rest of the trailer park.

Sadly, this all comes at a time when Alabama was stuggling to overcome the effects of Hurricane Rita - which struck near Gulf Shores, Alabama causing over $20 million dollars in improvements.

Excuse me, but once again I have digressed. Our subject was proper gentlemanly attire for the summer season, and we were focused on starting at the top with proper head wear. We've covered comfort...and we've at least listed some of the do's and don'ts in terms of style. Why don't I just give it to you straight.....the must have head wear for stylish gentlemen and ladies this summer will be Panama Hats! Damn right, Panama Hats!

Before you rush out and try to buy a nice Panama - it would help to have an understanding of the history and significance of the Panama Hat. First off, for those of you who are geographically challenged, Panama, is a country in Central America. In fact, here's a you a little test - where is the Panama Canal located??? You got it....Panama. NOW let's make it a little tougher.... Where does the Panama Hat come from......_________. You got it...WRONG....the Panama hat actually comes from Ecuador. Yeah...that was a trick question.

So if the Panama hat actually comes from Ecuador - how come we call it a Panama hat? Well actually there are three primary reasons;

First, like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, these hats were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas and Europe. For some products, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of domestic origin stuck, hence “Panama hats.

Secondly, during the building of the Panama Canal, U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt and other international dignitaries were photographed sporting these fine hats as they inspected the progress being made on creating the Panama Canal. This spread the Panama's reputation globally.

Finally, "Panama Hat" just has a nice ring to it that Equadoriaquito Hat.

So there you have it...that's how these beautiful hats got their name.

Here's a picture or two of some of the many notables wearing Panama hats this year.....

Sean Connery

Bonnie Prince Charley

celebrities at the KY Derby

But before you rush out and buy just any old hat that looks like it might be a "Panama" to start your summer wardrobe, here's a few tips from the fashionista Old Uncle Mikey on getting a quality panama.....

The primary criteria in evaluating the quality of a Panama quality is by the density of the weave. A low quality weave would be "100 fibers per square inch", while a superfino or ultra fino weave might have up to "1400 fibers per square inch." According to a study done in 2007, there are less than 15 living craftsman in Ecuador who can create the super - ultrafino weaves. These babies may not be around long. (see picture at right....my Texas buddy Big Ike Sporting a high dollar superfino Panama at the Kentucky Derby) As you can see, Ike is not from Alabama.

So here's my first fashion advice for summer.

Run out and get yourselves the best Panama you can...while you can.

Send me a picture of you, your significant other, your friends wearing a stylish Panama

I'll post them here...on the prestigious "Let Go Journal"

I'll send you an invite to my Panama Hat party on Labor Day 2009.

Of course, you know I'll be going in style and I'll be hoping to see all of you.

All the best,

Mike

Look Out Michigan...We're Moving In!!!!

2009-05-14T19:52:00.003-05:00

Big news this week here at the office of the prestious Let Go Journal. Effective next week, we'll be operating from a new headquarters near Detroit Michigan!!! Yep, that's right, Ole Mikey is heading for Mo Town, and to tell you the truth - I can't wait to get there.

I'll be working as a consultant to my old friends at xpedx, Sheridan Books, and possibly Ford Motor Company and I could not; I repeat "COULD NOT" be more excited. I want to thank the good folks at xpedx, for having the confidence to bring me in, expecially during these tough economic times. For those of you who know me and have worked with me in past, I think you know I try on every assignment to do a GREAT JOB, this time I am more determined than ever to make my clients successful. I especially want to thank Bryce Spencer and Dennis Walsh for their confidence in me, and for working so diligently to help me get a contract. As I said before, spending money in this economy is a real leap of faith; and I swear I am going to pull out all the stops to do a great job and make money for my friends and customers.

A side benefit of this opportunity, is the Michigan Summers. Bob Seeger, a cornerstone of Rock and Roll and a native son of Detroit, sang about Michigan summers.....referring to them as the Sweet Sweet Summer Times. After having the opportunity to work there last summer, you know Bob was right! I am currently trying to figure out how to get my motorcycle up there. I think I'll just have it shipped.

I've got a few little issues left to take care of here at the Memphis office; but I think Nance and I can handle them. We put the house up for sale at rock bottom (barely above foreclosure) prices. And Nance has got the joint looking great; If any house sells at all in Cordova, TN. it will be 969 Lycomedes. The price doesn't bother me at all, this is about getting on with the next chapter of our lives - and right now the house could be an anchor if you let it. Other than that, we are going to have my Mom take care of the Schnauzers for a while, while we get settled. We've got to find an apartment - or some kind of place to live - but we are excited about that too.

All in all, we are starting a new chapter of Letting Go. I can't wait to get back to work with my buddies in Michigan!!! The Journey Mobile is packed and will be rolling tomorrow and all weekend on its way to Michigan!!!!

All the best,

Mike

Financial Planning - Part I

2009-05-12T12:06:00.007-05:00

Recently, I have received numerous complaints from regular subscribers to the prestigous "Let Go Journal" about the lack of new articles. Several have even threatened to cancel their subscriptions. My editorial skills have been somewhat stifled by interuptions for financial planning, real estate adventures, and getting my summer wardrobe laid out. I'll explain these in order. Once you understand, the complexities of the first two issues, you will understand why I have been so remiss in writing and started to focus more on my summer wardrobe.

Let's go ahead and start with financial planning. Knowing that I am a Certifed Public Accountant, many of you may have expected that I have a well thought out financial plan for retirement. Actually, this is not the case. My plan has been to work and try to save some money. So basically, when you retire from IP they send you to a really good financial planner. So here's how that goes.....

Financial Planner: So, Mike, what are your long term financial goals?

Me: My long term financial goal has always been for my last check to bounce.

Financial Planner: Seriously, Mike, what are your goals?

Me: I was serious, but if I need to add more detail, I'd like to have food to eat everyday, a roof over my head, and enough spare change for beer.

Financial Planner: OK, Mike let's approach this another way. How much was your annual income at International Paper?

Me: It was a pretty big number - I think. $xxx

Financial Planner: OK, good. Now we're getting some where. You'll need 60% of that to live on when you retire.

Me: How'd you get that number? I think I'll only need 30% of that.

Financial Planner: Laughing.....I got my number based on statistical information, how did you get your ridiculous number?

Me: First, when I was making that big salary at IP, the government took about 35% of it in social security and taxes. 100% - 35% = 65%. So for starters, I was only getting 65% of the money that I worked for anyhow. Secondly, to work at IP, I have had to own two houses, one down in Texas and one up here....that cost me another 20% of my salary. So now I am down to 45%. Finally, I have been putting savings away of 20 % of my salary for the last 10 years. That takes me down to 25%. I guess, that my figure was wrong. I really only need 25% of my income that I had at IP. If I go ahead and pay off my car - I'd only need 20%.

Financial Planner: Most financial planning experts say you need a minimum of $2,000,000 in the bank to retire.

Me: How did they get that number? I don't know anybody who is retired that has that kind of money.

Financial Planner: Mr. Roberts, are you trying to be difficult?

Me: No, I am trying to understand. How do most people retire if they don't have the $2 million?

Financial Planner: Some of them have to work till they croak. Some of them only have social security. Some of them have to live with their children.

Me: Yikes, I don't have any children. I guess, mi casa es bajo el puente.

Financial Planner: What does that mean?

Me: I learned it from some of my Mexican friends; it is Spanish, it means "my house is under the bridge."

Financial Planner: Damn, Mexicans - you know the illegal immigrants are part of the problem with health care.

Me: I'd advise you sir, to lay off talking about my friends; unless you'd like to see how good your dental coverage is.

Financial Planner: Ok, let's change the subject. Now about Medical Coverage.

Me: OK. I guess we finished the first part?

Financial Planner: Let's just say, we'll come back to that. What about medical insurance?

Me: Well, I have got Cobra right now.

Financial Planner: That will only last 6 months, then you'll need affordable medical insurance.

Me: That would be nice.

Financial Planner: Do either of you have any pre-existing conditions?

Me: Well, I don't. But Nancy has a vascular problem.

Financial Planner: Sorry to hear that, Nancy will be uninsurable.

Me: How come?

Financial Planner: She is too high of risk, and the insurance companies don't want to have to pay for all of the surgeries and medical care she may require.

Me: How convenient, they offer insurance to me and I don't really need it - Nancy really needs it and can't get it. Maybe this is why some people say there is a health care crisis.

Financial Planner: Well, you should be thankful we don't have socialized medicine like up in Canada. You have to wait weeks for treatment.

Me: You're right, by God. We don't have to wait here for treatment, since we know we aren't going to be able to get it or afford it. Maybe someone will realize that all Americans need affordable health care.

Financial Planner: For now I'll try and get you on a group policy. Let's move on and talke about long term care.

Me: OK, what about it?

Financial Planner: Well if, heaven forbid, you have a stroke or something like that, LTC would cover you for up to two years.

Me: Heaven forbid is right!!! So I get to go to a nursing home and drool on myself and crap my adult diapers for a couple of years. And you're company would be kind enough to pay for it. What happen's after that?

Financial Planner: Well then, maybe Medicare or Medicare would take over.

Me: Nice. So I can keep on drooling on myself and crapping in my diaper - and the government gets to pay for it. That's somewhat satisfying, don't you think.

Financial: Probably. Mike, we all get old and we have to prepare for it.

Me: I think Nancy and I are going over to Bass Pro and complete our financial planning.

Financial Planner: Bass Pro doesn't do financial planning.

Me: I think they have everything we need to cover us - at least on Medical Coverage and Long Term Care - you know "we all have to prepare for when we get old" and I think Bass Pro is our best bet".

Financial Planner: How do you figure that....

Me: They sell very nice Colt Pistols; I think 45 caliber should do the trick. We'll get an extra box of shells. All together - we might spend $1000. Then when we get too old and sick, we'll just bust out our Colt 45 and finish the job. By the way, the people at Bass Pro are a lot happier and enthusiatic about life than you Mr. Financial Planner. Let's go Nance, maybe we'll pick out a nice fishing boat while we are there.

Financial Planer: Well at least you'll want to check out our "Last Will and Testament Services" and our burial policies.

Me: and the horse you rode in on!!!

Coming soon, summer wardrobe edition.

All the best,

mike

Surprises in the Mail Box!!! Pornography?

2009-04-22T12:42:00.012-05:00

As I have said before, having a common name like "Mike Roberts" has some advantages that those of you with more unusual and sophisticated names would not know. When, I was growing up in Naples, Texas (population 1500) there were two Mike Roberts' in town. Of course one was me, in the seventh grade at the time; the other was actually Michael F. Roberts, aged about 23 at the time. One of the greatest things I remember about the other Mike Roberts was that he had a subscription to the hottest magazine around in the 1960's; you guessed it Playboy Magazine.

On occaision, the Rural Mail Carrier would get things mixed up and I would be the lucky recipient of this month's edition of Playboy. Man this was a big deal. You knew it was something special because it came wrapped so that you couldn't actually see what was inside. After I got the first one, I tried to be first to the mailbox everyday. These things were very hard for us to get back then, there was only one place in town that you could even buy them. Obviously, these were considered "dirty" magazines and that is why they came wrapped the way they did. Now that I think about it, I never said thanks to Michael F. So, here it is, thanks Michael F. Roberts for accidently sharing your Playboy subscription with me.

Today, I got a strange package wrapped in black in the mail. Nancy brought it in, and I couldn't help but thinking that there might be someone else here in Cordova, TN named Mike Roberts. In my opinion, the Playboy Magazine's of the 1960's were an art form compared to some of the smut you see today - even on Television. I wondered what sort of perversion would come in a black bag these days? Here's a picture of this strange mail piece I got today. Kind of suspicious looking wouldn't you say?

As has always been my habit (since the seventh grade) I opened the package very carefully. Didn't want to damage any of the potentially "important contents".

Friends you won't believe the filth that this package contained. At the risk of embarrassing many of my colleagues - I am putting a picture of just the cover of this smut here on the pages of the prestigous Let Go Journal. And here you have it.....

I kept the image small here on the journal so as not to embarrass those of you who work for "the company". That's right - the dirty magazine I received this month is the International Paper annual report. The only "indecent exposure" in this document was the financial exposure that those of us shareholders experienced as we rode this pig down from $40 a share down to it's current level of $8. You know what.......I appreciate why Chairman and CEO John Faraci wanted this sent out in a black bag - it is truly embarrassing. Not that IP's performance was bad this year - it's usually bad - IP has performed poorly for two decades. The embarrassement is if your collegues, friends and neighbors were to find out that you were stupid enough to invest in this company. Thanks for your consideration and the black bag Mr. Faraci.

Honestly, I wish I had gotten this month's Playboy instead.

All the best,

Mike Roberts

Free Beer and Nickle Kisses!

2009-04-20T14:28:00.012-05:00

These days it seems like if one political party was giving away "free beer and selling kisses for a nickle, I am sure that someone from the opposite "side of the aisle" would be arguing for "free kisses and selling the beer for a nickle. Working to reach consensus or agreement on anything just seems to be passe. The media contribute mightily to these arguments, by offering "news", that is actually entertainment and rife with "opinion" rather than facts. This country could really use a true news station like the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Today, I got an email entitled "The Real Scoop". I am not going to dignify this writing by even posting it on my blog, but the gist of it is "Obama, screwed up the way he handled the recent situation with the hostage situation and the pirates in the Indian Ocean." The email alleges that the President took too long to act.

So, we have a daring sea rescue, where the Navy executed it's job to perfection, the President appears to have given the correct order - and somebody wants to say "Obama got it wrong - he was too slow". I am surprised that someone hasn't come out and said the Navy should have "used different caliber of weaponry" - so that it would have been more environmentally friendly.

These days it seems that someone has got something crappy to say about everything anyone tries to do. Even when we should be celebrating, some cynic, who probably has a pathetic outlook on life - has to find something negative to say. Here's a little reminder of what a real American, Theodore Roosevelt had to say about these types almost exactly 99 years ago!

"The Man In The Arena"
Speech at the Sorbonne Paris, France
April 23, 1910

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

I'll bet old Teddy, would grab some of today's pundits by the scruff of the neck if he heard the kind of bi-partisan muckraking, mudslinging, obstructionist crap that is thrown out by the media and many Americans today. Honestly, much of what we see today is disrespectful and uncivil. You really should read most of the speech which I excerpted in its entirety you can find it here:

http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html

I could never have said it as well as Teddy did in his Man in the Arena speech but having thought today about what Theodore Roosevelt said, I am going to try and be less critical and take a more positive attitude about things. I guess, I'll probably quit watching any of the news on TV for a start.

All the best,

Mike

Letting Go - Lowe's Hardware and Credit

2009-04-16T11:57:00.010-05:00

Here on my desk are all 32 pages of my credit report from Experian. There is really only one blemish on this credit report...... it is from Lowe's - the hardware store.

I got my first credit card when I was sixteen - that's about 38 years ago. My Dad, believed in the importance of establishing a "good credit rating". For all of these 38 years since - I have paid every bill I owed - and probably 99.99% of them on time. I've paid mortgages, student loans, credit card bills, medical bills, dental bills, car loans, boat loans, motorcycle loans, paid Gambling Debts, paid off loans for other people.....I've paid them all! But still I have a blemish on my credit because of Lowe's. Now that is Lowe.

Worse yet - it isn't even for very much money - about $300. You know in Texas - we have a saying that says if you're going bankrupt - GO BIG! No use in going down over $300 - might as well be for $3 million. What a damn shame - blemished credit over only $300? Damn, that is Lowe.

How did this happen???

Well back in December - somebody stole the mail at our local post office. This included, the check which Nancy had mailed to Lowe's for the full amount of $300 and something $. The tricky part here is....how do you know if someone stole the mail from the post office. The answer is you don't - until you find out that all of your bills - that you mailed - never got to the people you sent them too. Finally, you go to the post office - and they say -" uh yeah - somebody stole the mail!" We even have a letter saying that someone stole the mail - from the Local Post Office. Stealing the damn mail - that is lowe.

Anyhow - Lowe's sent us another bill in January - on 22nd. It had a penalty for non-payment. Well that's OK, I guess. Lowe's actually called Nancy on the 28th of January - and Nancy paid the bill right then and there - over the phone. Ah, but alas, the damage was done. Lowe's ever vigilant credit department - reported us as 60 days overdue. That is damn Lowe.

During the last 18 months we have spent well over $15,000 with Lowes - primarily remodeling "down stairs". Each month - we paid the full amount of the bill. Eight of those 18 months the balance at the end of the month was zero! None of this mattered - we have been reported to the credit agencies - and what otherwise - should be a near perfect credit rating - has a blemish.

What does one do when one's credit has been blemished? First, you waste a couple of hours trying to figure out what happened. Then you talk to Lowe's credit card people - who have you figured for a lying dead beat from the start. Then you write a letter to the CEO with this picture attached. Then you take a few more minutes and post this entire incident to the always well read "Let Go Journal" so that everyone can see what a risk you take when you open an account with Lowe's.

Wanna bet if I can get Lower than Lowe's??? In the word's of Admiral John Paul Jones "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!"

R.O.B.E.R.T.S and Reefer Madness

2009-04-08T10:36:00.011-05:00

As I mentioned in one of last week's blogs - I usually only get called R.O.B.E.R.T.S!, when I have really screwed something up or taking something farther than I should. But what the hell, as my old Uncle Ronnie always said, "anything that is worth doing, is worth overdoing!".

So in the tradition of overdoing it.... I had my first job out of college working at Texas Instruments in Dallas. What an exciting time! The first hand held calculators had not been out long and T.I. had developed the LED wrist watch. I wasn't making all that much money, as a new college grad, but I was working in one of the most exciting industries you could name...."Semi conductors; making computers out of sand." Keep in mind that in Texas the correct pronunciation is "SEM-EYE-Cun-Ducterz".

To help buy a house that I wanted; I took a second job as a security guard. This job was in a pretty rough part of South Dallas, paid minimum wage, and you could work just about as many hours as you could stand - including weekends. Being a guard on nights and weekends didn't require much skill - keep your eyes open - walk the rounds - and call for help if anything actually happens. There were two great fringe benefits with working this job - aside from the little bit of extra money. First - it gave me a lot of quiet time to study for the CPA exam. I'd sit there on those long nights and weekends with my accounting books - and study for hours at a time. Looking back on it, this was the only way I ever would have passed the CPA exam - when there is nothing to do but stare at an accounting book - eventually some of it will soak in.

The second great benefit of being a security guard was you got a really great looking uniform. I mean the whole get-up; Officer's Hat, Badge, Big Black Belt, Epaulets on the Shoulders of your shirt, and military looking pants with a stripe down the outer seam. Honestly, you had to get really close to read that the badge said "security" and not Dallas Texas Police Department. See the picture on the right - I was lean and mean and didn't look a whole lot different than the guy in the picture. With this uniform / costume - I looked the spitting image of a Dallas cop! Even as I was driving to work, I could point at people who passed me or cut me off - and it would scare the crap out of em! Probably, thought I was an off-duty officer. If I had only had a DPD Patrol Car, I could have really had some fun.

My buddy Dave McGrady lived down the block from me in the same apartment complex I did. As I mentioned in one of the last posts - David had gotten pretty involved with marijuana smoking. In fact, David had started growing a really big marijuana plant in his apartment. The thing had gotten to be about 4 feet tall, and looked pretty healthy from what I could tell. For those of you who may not have seen marijuana growing, it is really a pretty nice looking green plant. So anyway.....

Saturday morning, I am getting dressed to go to the security job and spend the day being a guard and CPA student - when Dave calls just to chat. Dave worked in the audit department for Pepsico - and travelled about 80% of the time. He'd just gotten back from another exciting trip to Beloit, Wisconsin (Pepsi owned Wilson Sporting Goods at the time and their was a factory in Beloit that made footballs - I think). Anyway, so Dave is filling me in on how his week was and I asked Carol (my wife at the time) if she'd like to talk to Dave. They began chatting and I headed for the door.

I went running down the street and upstairs to David's apartment. I could hear him inside still talking to Carol. I knocked on the door pretty hard and in as stern of voice as I could said "Police - Open UP! I lowered my police officer cap over my face, as David's room mate Linda looked out. I could hear her say, David, I think it is the police. For the next three minutes, it sounded if a cattle stampede was going on in Dave's apartment. You could here footsteps going back and forth and a whole lot noise going on. If I had been a real cop, I'd have been "real suspicious". Anyway I banged on the door again - just to give them a good scare.

When the door did finally open up, there stood my buddy Dave, wearing a pair of purple boxer shorts and a "wife beater" t-shirt. His eyes were as big as saucers and his face was pale. I had kept my hat down so you couldn't see too much of my face.....Dave just stood there frozen. Finally, I said "Dave, are you alright?" (See purple boxers on right - still etched in my mind)

Dave finally screamed "R.O.B.E.R.T.S!, I am going to kill you". But before he killed me he went back in the apartment, left the door wide open, sat down on the sofa and just covered his head. I followed him in and sat down on the sofa with him. It was quiet for a few minutes, so I asked Dave, where was the Marijuana Plant. He said I'll show you - and he called me a name that rhymes with "other trucker". Anyhow, Dave took me back to his bedroom closet. At first I didn't see anything but Dave's dirty laundry. Unfortunately, that is where Dave had hid the plant.....crushed down under his dirty clothes. Sadly, the plant was ruined. (See picture on right - dirty laundry and the death of fine green plant)

This is probably the meanest joke I have ever played on anyone. But maybe it worked out for the best. Dave quit smoking, quit smoking pot, quit growing pot, and went on a health kick! Started running marathons. I guess the last three sentances were pure B.S., I think this incident scarred David for life. I'm just glad that he didn't go ahead and throw my Joker-Ass-Self off the balcony that day.

I've had a hard time thinking about how to end this story. So here I go - David McGrady, where ever you are - I am truly sorry for this "prank" that went too far. Further, I promise, David, that I won't ever do anything like this to you again. I truly hope you can forgive me.

On the other hand - the rest of you had better watch out! You never know when I might go overboard again!

All the best,

Mike

Religion, Alcohol, and New Products

2009-04-05T14:02:00.010-05:00

Although the above topics may seem a little odd for some of you, I am going to share with you some observations from my weekly pilgramage to the liquor store. But first,

Most of you are probably aware that;

Catholics have never really acknowledged Judaism as a proper religion. This is not so bad, since Catholics don't acknowledge Baptists as a proper religion either. The worst part of this whole deal is that Baptists won't even acknowledge fellow Babtists when they meet in a Liquor Store.

That's a little off my primary subject, but I thought I should throw it in anyhow. So here we go with the new discovery stuff. While I was making my weekly pilgramage (Saturdays) to the local liquor store. I notice a new product there that has a lot of potential for spicing all kinds of things up, "Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka". As I see it.... this product offers all kinds of potential.....here are some basic ideas.....

1. Serve up a fresh pitcher of Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka and see what Granny may tell you that she left out before.

2. Serve up a 20 gallon cooler of Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka at the next Baptist picnic and see what happens.

3. Serve up a 20 gallon cooler of Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka at the next Roberts' Family reunion, and take bets on who will need the first ambulance.

4. Use the name "Sweet T" and become rap recording artist and make a lot of money with no talent. You could also become the spokesperson for Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka.

Which idea do you like best? Or better yet submit your own ideas ......the possiblities are endless.

Have a Great Week,

Mike

Bad Combo - Marijuana and El Fenix

2009-04-05T12:41:00.018-05:00

Most of you know that I don't smoke pot. HOLD IT! Stop The Presses... the previous statement is not true. Actually many of you, if not most of you, may actually suspect that I have been smoking pot for years. Honestly, I don't smoke pot and am reasonably happy to pee in the cup when called on, just to prove it. But, and this is the important part - I don't smoke pot because I am against it - actually I am a big believer that marijuana has potential medical use, can be very relaxing, and should be a legal herb that anyone can grow in their backyard. The only reason I don't smoke pot is that I can't smoke it without getting completely stupid.

Back in the day, when I would attempt to smoke pot the same thing would happen every time - I laugh till tears were running down my face, fall down (sometimes in public places), and eat like a starved hog, until I can't even swallow one more bite. Imagine the problem this causes when you bring me into the All-You-Can-Eat Mexican Resturant in Dallas "El Fenix". For those of you who have not been there, El Fenix on Web Chapel Road in North Dallas, operated cafeteria style. For about $2.99 you could get all the Tex-Mex you could eat. My buddy, David McGrady introduced me to this place and when we went there we measured our success by how many "full plates" of Tex-Mex we ate that night. A "full plate" as we measured it, had to be completely covered on the bottom of the plate and stacked above the rim of the plate to count. Couple this fine Tex-Mex feast with a couple of frosty mugs of Cerveza - and you were all set. So as to set the record straight ....I believe that Dave holds the record with 4 and 1/2 "full plates". We were dangerous anytime we went there.

One particular evening, David and I loaded up our little bong-pipe (with the big bowl) and got ourselves loaded before we went to El Fenix. By the way - the name of our bong was "Bubble E. Tokes". David and I were partners in this fine piece of equipment - we each paid half for it, both of us were just out of college - and we didn't have much money. The picture on the right is similar to the pipe David and I had.....only I think our was better. I think we paid $20 bucks for it and it had a double circulating cooler pipe.....so that the smoke wouldn't burn your throat. As Bongs go, Mr. Bubble E. Tokes was top of the line. Dave and I barely knew how to use it, but we would put wine and ice cubes in the bottom to make it even "better". This was a real ritual.

Somehow, after we fired up "Mr. Bubble E.", Dave was able to drive us to the El Fenix Tex-Mex place in Dallas. I can remember stumbling through the parking lot and seeing the 12 foot hand-carved Spanish Oak Doors of El Fenix. But I was already getting shakey. Once again, everything seemed just toooooo funny. The picture to the right is one of the Dallas, El Fenix resturants - but not the one Dave and I were at this nite. In any case, there was about a 20 foot hallway, you walked down and on the other side of it was the long cafeteria line, with steam trays full of tacos, enchiladas, beans and rice, chalupas, you name it. As always, the nice Mexican Ladies were at the line prepared to serve you anything you wanted. They spoke little english, and if you wanted something...you just kind of nodded at them and said yes or si'.

Here's where my difficulties started. All at once, I glanced at the Mexican ladies in the serving line, and they seemed to transform themselves into my grade school and middle school teachers........worse yet, I could tell that they knew I had been smoking pot. I also knew for sure I was going to the principal's office next.....and I simply couldn't bare to go down the cafeteria line with Ms. Canant, Ms. Mooreland, Ms. Maxine, Ms. Maydell, Ms. Davis, Ms. Cole and Ms. Loretta Griffin all giving me the eye. I started laughing so hard, I fell down in the corner of the resturant. (See picture on left of a cafeteria line..I am down in the far corner). Now everyone was really staring.....which made my problem with laughing even worse. Luckily for me, David was able to pick me up off the floor of the resturant and get me to a table. He brought me a glass of water - I was still laughing.

David went back and brought us both a "full plate" of good El Fenix Tex Mex food - and we had our usual feast and fiesta. Dave helped me get back to the car and drove us home.

So as Ringo sang in the "no no song"....

"No, No, No, No, I don't smoke it no more,

I'm tired of waking up on floor."

No thank you please,

A Beer is fine for me.

All the best,

Mike

R.O.B.E.R.T.S.

2009-04-02T22:27:00.005-05:00

Most of the time, my friends just call me Mike. Short, simple, fairly easy to remember. Kind of a friendly name I like to think. Kind of like "old buddy Mike". My Grandma Dean used to call me "Mikey Me Boy" with kind of an Irish lilt. I always liked the name, particularly the fact that it was easy to spell...the easy spelling helped me through my early years of grammar school.

On the other hand, when I screw something up ROYAL, which I have done on occasion, these same friends and family members... will, without doubt, scream "ROBERTS!". They don't usually spell it out, but they kind of yell it out - which has always left a lasting impression on me. When you analyze what I have done to cause some of these "ROBERTS!!!!! responses, often times you will see there is a good reason for it. I am going to break these down into several examples, to avoid what could be one of my longest pieces.....there have been numerous occaisions where "ROBERTS" was yelled - many of them deservedly so.

The first time I remember hearing "ROBERTS' screamed at me was in the first grade, and it was kind of a double barrell scream at that. My buddy, Roy Johnson, and I were on the teeter-totter (see-saw) on the play ground when the meanest girl in the first grade came along and started to attack Roy.

Roy had kind of a rough start in life, he was the youngest of 5 of about the meanest brothers I could ever imagine. At one point, before Roy entered first grade, one of his brothers jammed a stick into his neck - and it messed up his vocal cords somehow. Anyway Roy had a very raspy voice to begin with. His hair was white - and I mean white - almost everybody called him cotton because of his hair. I figured his hair turned that way from having to deal with his older brothers who, honestly were meaner than a nest of rattlesnakes. So anyway, it is Roy and me on the teeter-totter, when Brenda Mills (meanest girl in the first grade) started attacking Roy.

Brenda was grabbing at Roy's arms when he is on the upside of the see-saw; but when I let him down she is kicking Roy in the legs with her cowgirl boots. All the time Roy is yelling in his hoarse voice "hep me, hep me, hep" . I didn't know what to do. If I raised Roy up, she was grabbing at him, if I let him down she was kicking him with the boots. All the time Roy is yelling with his poor hoarse voice "hep me, hep me, hep".

Finally, I get Roy where he is up (I am down on the see-saw) so she can't kick him anymore. But she grabs Roy's arm and pulls him over so that he is hanging upside down by his legs on the see-saw. Roy is still yelling "hep me, hep me, hep".

What else could I do? I am sure you'd of done the same. I jumped off my end of the see-saw to help save Roy from Brenda's savage attack. When I did, Roy dropped like a rock - head first on the ground. Luckily, I hadn't killed him....he yelled out in that hoarse voice "ROBERTS", and at that time realized what I had done. Dropped my buddy head first to the ground from several feet in the air. Luckily, Roy was tough and it didn't kill him.

Unfortunately, the first grade teacher Mrs. Brown saw part of the incident, and got the idea that I had planned this out to drop poor Roy in the dirt. She screamed "ROBERTS, you and Johnson" get inside.

Long and short of it....I let Roy down. And we both got a butt whoopin.

I still hate to hear that word...that way... "ROBERTS". But honestly, if I keep on living...I'll probably have to hear it some more.

God Bless You Roy Johnson...wherever you are.

All the best,

Mike

(R.O.B.E.R.T.S.!)

March Madness and Basketball Jones

2009-03-22T16:55:00.007-05:00

Well, March Madness is here again. I'll never forget how I first got addicted to this insanity. Click the title up above to hear and see the original Cheech and Chong version of " Basketball Jones".

Anyway, about, 30 something years ago - Me and "Big Al" Jurkonis drove up from Texarkana to Dallas. We sent the wives shopping and we plopped down at a place on Greenville, Ave., called the Filling Station. Hopefully, the Filling Station is still there - it was a gas station which had been converted into a great Burger Resturant - many years back. They had a big screen TV, cold beer, and great junk food - burgers, potato skins, fries, cheese fries, you name it. It was a great day - the kind you wish would never end.... and there are never enough of those.

Big Al, and I sat there all day enjoying the games and festivities. Honestly, it was the first time I had ever watched the "sweet sixteen". One great game right after another. I don't think anybody played the brackets back then....but they may have- I would guess it would be 1981 or 1982. You know, back in the previous century.

Hope your brackets are working for you and enjoy the March Madness Season. Oh and uh, Go Memphis Tigers!

All the best,

Mike

What is Fair??? Re-writing the rules.

2009-03-17T21:27:00.012-05:00

Warning! Warning! I got fed up with hearing about AIG bonuses this week and what is "Fair". I have gotten so upset with the media and other people's definition of "Fair", that I have created my own simple, and sure-fire definition of what "Fair" really means. Read on and understand Texas Truth!

On the bright side; at least this lying, cheating, stealing A-Hole will be spending the rest of his sorry life in prison. I hope he gets the cell mate he deserves. My buddy, Chris McAfee, was right...this guy deserves Sharia Law and Justice...unless we can come up with something more sinister for Bernie, under Texas law.

A long time ago, I had to adjust my understanding of what the word "Fair" means. Kind of like when Bill Clinton asked, "Well it depends on the meaning of what the meaning of "is" is? Philosophical questions like these can be confusing for many of us. In fact, they could be down right misleading and disingenuous. So, with a goal of adding clarity to "life its ownself", I have simplified the definition of "fair" for you. If you use any other definition of the word "Fair" you do so at your own risk, and you may be sorely disappointed.

As of this writing, it is precisely 131 days until "Fair" will be available to all Americans. Yep, they have "Fair" every year in Texas - at least that's what they call it. And I love the Fair, you can see the championship livestock, look at the newest automobiles, see blue-ribbon winning arts and crafts from around the Great State of Texas. And that's before you even get to the Midway at the Fair, with all the carnival rides, sideshows and games? Why you can step right up and win that little lady a cupie doll. Unfortunately, as far as I know, that is as "Fair" as it gets.

Here are some of the dangers of using other definitions of "Fair".
Is it "Fair" that:

AIG Exec's get bonuses?
That I have to pay for other people's bad mortgages?
That UAW workers won't take pay cuts?
That UAW exec's won't take pay cuts?
That we pay a greater % of our GDP for healthcare than any nation and have less benefits?
That Big Pharma spends more on advertising than research?
That we pay more for prescription meds. than Canadians or Mexicans?
That lobbyist's essentially buy our politicians?

You see this is a dangerous subject; so I think we should all forget about this and go to the only real fair - September 25th in Dallas. Let me know if you're interested, it'll make your life better than some of the other "fairs" and "unfairs".

All the best,

mike

Did I mention the Texas - Oklahoma Games is there - the Red River Shoot Out? It is always Fair unless OK wins.

Vegitechture - How Much is Your Utility Bill?

2009-03-15T22:12:00.005-05:00

Let's cut to the chase here....whatever that may mean.... How much do you think the heating and cooling bill for these places might be??? Certainly, less than yours and mine, I'd bet. As we in the U.S. of A, bumble, and stumble, and fumble around, for energy independence, a cleaner environment, and an economic recovery...isn't it amazing what nature herself can do, with little or no interference from Humanoids. No Republican, or Democratic Party....just a little common sense and a need for a place to sleep. Necessity....the mother of invention. Nature, the mother of everything else. Let me know if you get it....I'll understand if you don't. Take time to explore this website it is called ...

http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/

All the best,

Mike

Grow Your Own Sponges

2009-03-11T15:12:00.009-05:00

This post needs some explanation, unfortunately. A few weeks ago, I wrote about advertising to sell sponge seeds as an April Fool's Joke. Well, you know you have told a bad joke when no one gets it and you have to explain it. Such is the case with the "sponge seed" blog - no one got it - so now I have to go and make it worse by explaining it.

A lot of people are amazed that you can actually grow the popular Luffa Sponge in your own garden. You see the popular luffa sponge that you may have in your bath or shower, is actually a member of the gourd family, closely related to squash and cucumbers. The Luffa, as we know it, is native to South America and Southeast Asia where the long growing season allow the Luffas to proliferate.

Luffa seeds are shaped quite a bit like a pumpkin seed, and are normally a blackish gray color (see picture on the right). Most growers agree that is best to soak the seeds overnight before planting in a small peat cup. For best results, plant 3 seeds per peat cup – after the plants produce their first leaves, you should thin out the weaker plants and keep just one strong plant. Luffas require a long growing season, and are not tolerant of frost – so it is best to start them indoors in early spring – and transplant them when there is no longer a great of frost. These plants prefer full sun.

Luffa’s bloom virtually all summer with bright yellow flowers. As it turns out the Luffa plant, produces male and female flowers. The male flowers eventually fall off, but the female flowers remain attached to the gourd. Pretty exciting stuff, huh. By the way, when you plant your luffas outdoors, you’ll need a good trellis of some sort. If the gourds are allowed to lay directly on the ground they will become discolored and most people prefer a clean looking “sponge”. A chain link or wood fence can work just fine of you can use a couple of 4” inch square posts and string wire between them for the runners. In any case be sure your trellis is sturdy because the vines can grow over 20 feet long and the gourds themselves are heavy.

Here is a picture of an almost mature Luffa aegyptica also called Luffa cylindrical. These gourds require 4-5 months growing season, so here in East Texas we could expect to harvest in the August / September time frame. These members of the gourd family grow fast (as much as 1 -2 inches per day) and a single plant may produce as many as 25 luffa gourds. Agriculture experts have estimated that a single acre planted with Luffa could produce as many as 25,000 sponge gourds. That’s a whole lot of back scrubbin! If you figure that a luffa sponge can sell for $2.00 - $8.00 each, the luffa could have potential as a cash crop.

A variety of methods have been used to remove the outer skin of the gourd once it has reached maturity. The best I have seen, is to wait until the gourd has begun to turn brown, but has not totally dried. At this stage, the gourd skin can simply be peeled off in one fell swoop with your fingers. However, if you wait until the gourd is too dry – the skin will become brittle and you will have to take it off piece by piece. Green luffa sponge gourds can be “peeled” with a knife. In any case, you will want to rinse the gourds out thoroughly, they have a milky interior which will be full of seeds. A luffa gourd will often have as many as thirty seeds. Be sure and save the seeds from your best gourds for next year.

Some people use a mild chlorine bleach mixture, to get a whiter looking luffa sponge but this is a matter of personal preference. Bleaching will reduce the useful life of the sponge – but can arguably make a “better looking” sponge. The choice is up to you.

Once you’ve grown and harvested your own Luffa Sponges the choice is up to you – how you want to use them. Some people use them in the kitchen to clean pots, pans and Tupperware. They make great back scrubbers. You can put soap in them and make Luffa Soap. You can tie ropes, or use them in their natural state. Luffas make great gifts – rubber duckey sold separately.

By the way if you want some luffa seeds - write me. I've got a pound of em. All the best, mike

If it feels good - Do It!!!

2009-03-09T13:37:00.005-05:00

Since no one " got " my last blog - I have made one which requires no explanation. Turn your speakers on and "Just Push Play".

Happy Monday - All the best!

Mike

April Fool's Planning for Profits This Year

2009-03-05T16:48:00.017-06:00

You know last year for April Fool's Day we ran a number of ads in the local paper advertising "Spaghetti Seeds" for sale. This was based on a hoax pulled in the 1950's by the BBC. Basically, it goes like this ...

In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." The picture on the right shows an Italian maiden, harvesting the record spaghetti crop.

Believe it or not, we got quite a few calls and visits at both flowershops - from people wanting to buy spaghetti seeds. In fact, we got so many calls that my sister, DeAnna, said she would kill me if I ran those adds again. Oh well, fun is fun - and business is business. The picture on the right is my wicked sister, DeAnna. No, she is not the one on the bottom, she is at the back and bares a striking resemblence to old you-know-who. By the way, the Big Bull in the picture is wearing a white hat - and the other one is the mascot at my old high school.

Anyhow, since I have been banned from bogus ads in regard to Spaghetti Seeds, I am trying to think ahead about a plan for this year's April Fool's Day. Here's what I am thinking of now....how bout instead of spaghetti seeds - Luffa Sponge Seeds? I could even expand my advertising to use pictures like this one....a genuine luffa sponge... like the one on the right. Additionally, I think I might fool even more people by showing evidence (like the BBC) of Sponges growing on a vine.....lol. I could probably throw some stuff in about how they were highly suited to growing in Northeast Texas. The picture on the right, is actually that of a "Ridged Gourd"...which if you use your imagination you could think might could be made into a luffa. What do you think?

One of my key concerns is how to make money on this project. Last year, we got a lot of phone calls but we didn't really get any sales from the effort. In order to promote this kind of thing, it really should be profitable.

So, that is where I need to call on you, the readers of the Let Go Journal to help me out. Please be kind enough to submit your ideas for improving April Fool's Day profitability in the comments section below and let me know how you feel about the idea...will it work? And how can we use this to make an extra buck on April Fool's Day.

All the best - your early April Fool,

Mike

Salsa Time - More Culture for You

2009-03-02T08:10:00.007-06:00

Many of you know that I have always been a fan of Salsa. So this morning I started off the day with some Salsa. See picture to the right - this is not Nancy and I doing the Salsa - it is some other people doing the salsa, the same way Nancy and I would have done it about thirty years ago.

Some of you might not know that the name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting (in American Spanish) a spicy flavor. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin. Honestly, I am a bigger fan of the sauce than I am of the dance. Which brings us to today's real subject, Salsa Michigan Family Style.

A few weeks ago my buddy in Michigan, Bryce Spencer sent me a jar of special home made salsa. It is called The Spencer Family Salsa. That's a picture of the jar to the right, and although the picture isn't very good - you can see a picture of a young man in front of a 30's - 40's automobile. This year's Spencer Family Salsa was dedicated to Bryce's late father-in-law and salsa making partner, Dick Esch. That's his picture on the label. Pretty cool family tradition if you ask me.

I asked Bryce how they eat Salsa up north in Michigan - because I really wasn't sure it was the same as we do down here. Quite often, in Texas, Salsa can be used to spice up beans and peas, and other normally ordinary foods. Bryce told me that he liked to use the Frito-Lay Scoops. Well anyway this morning I decided to give the Spencer Family Salsa a test.

I didn't have any "scoops", besides who wants Frito-Lay Scoops for breakfast? So, I whipped up some Huevos Rancheros and toast to go with the Salsa. On opening the jar, you can smell pungent fragrance of jalapeno peppers. Bryce had warned me that this stuff was hot, and the fragrance pretty much gave you a warning. I put two tablespoons of Salsa on the eggs, which turned out to be just about right. The sauce was just the way I like it, hot and tangy. Great batch of Salsa.

I suppose I am biased on the flavor of this Salsa, because it was home made by the Spencer Family. The friendship and love they cooked into it are unmistakable; and I am going to enjoy every last drop. Thanks Bryce.

All the best,

Mike

The Exorcist and Jimmy Sanders

2009-02-26T12:28:00.014-06:00

Facebook is really great, thanks to facebook I found my old buddy Jimmy Sanders. Jimmy is the first guy I met when I went to college - at East Texas State University (aka, Easy T). Jimmy and I were great tennis partners in school. Jimmy reminded me of this ugly incident.

While we were in college Jimmy came by the house to invite us to go see a new movie called The Exorcist. Jimmy said it was real scary and that people had been fainting while watching it at the theaters in Dallas. To me, a scary movie was something like Dracula, Frankenstein, or the Wolfman. So, I said great let's go to Dallas and see it.

Little did I know how my Baptist upbringing had so ill-prepared me to confront Satan as depicted in The Exorcist. As far as my training went, Satan, was a real sharp dressed guy, who was always trying to get you to commit a sin. He did this in various ways, usually by tempting you with something cool (money, women, booze, cars, etc). Satan never bellowed, turned green, spun his head around, or threw up green pea soup on you - at least not where I went to church.

That movie scared the Hell out of me. On the way home, I said every single prayer I could think of. And I didn't sleep well for several nights after that.

I didn't know anything about Catholicism but my college Spanish teacher was a former Nun in the Church. So I set up a meeting to see her in regard to the Exorcist and exorcism in general. This turned out to be another bad move on my part. She explained to me how she had been at The Alexian Brothers Medical Center in St. Louis where a boy had been possessed by the Devil. She told how you could here the kid screaming all over the campus. She also said that a priest went in and his Bible turned to ash. This was not what I was hoping to hear. Turns out there is quite a bit of documentation on the St. Louis exorcism. Yikes!!!

One night I had an awful dream. Carol and I were out water skiing. She fell on her skis and went under the water. When she came up out of the water, she was crying and said that Satan had tried to "get her" when she was under the water. I told her to "tell that son of a bitch to leave you alone and come see me". Another bad move - now I had Satan really pissed off at me. Luckily, I woke up pretty soon.

If all of this weren't enough, one night two tom cats got in a fight under the trailer house we lived in. If you have never heard tom cats fighting in a trailer park, let me tell you, they sound just like Old Beelzebub Himself! Scared the shit out of me again.

Finally, in desperation, I went to see a priest, with a goal of joining the priesthood. He explained that I could not become a priest because I was married - shows you just how much I know about the Catholic Faith. But he explained to me that "Demonic Possession" rarely occurs, and when it does, it is normally of young innocent people - not idiots like myself. So with my "lack of innocence as protection" I kind of got over the fear of Demonic Possession.

All of this happened in 1973, which is 36 years ago now. Fortunately, Satan has not caught up with me yet. But as an added precaution, when I got remarried, I married a nice Catholic Girl - who worked at the Alexian Brothers Medical Center for over 20 years. You just can't take chances when you're fighting Satan.

One more thing......
You know what happens when you don't pay your exorcist?
You get repossessed.

All the best,
Mike

As far as I know, everything in this post is absolutely true. If you don't believe me you can ask Jimmy Sanders or my wife, Nancy Roberts.

Michelangelo & the Importance of Clean Socks

2009-02-23T10:21:00.014-06:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have been away from my blog lately. This is in large part because I was in Northeast Texas last week, where the internet, for many, is still another 20 years away. I am not sure, but my guess would be that less than 1 household in 10 would have access to high speed internet. We have high speed internet at both flower shops - but it is in constant use - and there is little time for goofing-off. In any case, I know many of you have missed the cultural experience of reading the Let Go Journal for a few days, which is why today, I invite you to join me in exploring the relationships and nuances of Michelangelo and Clean Socks.

I had only been in Northeast Texas one day, when I realized I had forgotten to pack my socks. This has happened before, so I wasn't too surprised. The simple solution, just wear yesterday's socks again. This does not usually create a problem. On the other hand, over-doing this can create significant problems.

Consider the case of the original "renaissance man", Michelangelo. It is said that while painting the Sistine Chapel, that he rarely changed any of his clothes - least of all his socks. As a result, they wound up having to actually cut the socks off of his feet - with skin coming off along with the socks in some cases. As you can imagine, this had to hurt a bit. See picture of Michelangelo, to the right - grimacing as his socks are being removed. You know that had to hurt. Worse yet, I'll bet Michelangelo's feet itched like hell! Another thing I have often wondered about is "who got the job of cutting the socks off of Michelangelo's feet?"

As far as I can tell, Michelangelo was pretty much a loner - not married and didn't have anyone to help him with the problems of not having clean socks. Fortunately, for me, I have Nancy, and after three days of wearing the same pair of socks, I spied a pair of her socks laying on the floor, and put them on. Yes, Nancy had worn them the day before, but that still leaves them two days cleaner than mine. Her feet are a little small, but they worked pretty well anyhow. So, I went ahead and wore Nancy's socks for a day or two.

So you ask, "Mike, why didn't you go buy some socks?" The answer is I really don't know. I surely would have bought some new socks if I had known how much my feet would start itching like hell, after about 5 days. I scratched my feet until, like poor old Michelangelo, the skin came off in places. Luckily, as I said before, I have Nancy. She went to the store and got me some stuff to kill "Athlete's Foot Fungus", plus a whole package of new clean socks.

Now after several days of treatment, with "Tough Acting, Tinactin", my feet are starting to recover. Clearly there is a simple lesson that can be learned from this. In the future, when I forget to pack clean socks - I'm going to sneak into Nancy's suit case and steal her clean socks, before I get a bad case of Athelete's Foot. Too bad Michelangelo didn't have Nancy.

All the best,

mike

Stimulus: Up the Creek without a Paddle

2009-02-09T21:56:00.014-06:00

Like most Americans, I have been nervously watching the U.S. Congress and Senate try and "make the sausage" that we American's will call a "stimulous bill". Irrespective of your political beliefs, the facts are these;

Whatever the "stimulous bill" is, not a single Republican in Congress voted for it.

Whatever the "stimulous bill" is, only 3 Republican Senators support it.

(Once again if you can't see the picture on the right (IP'ers) Click on the title of this article or the picture and you will be transported there. don't we love censorship?)

No matter how you score it, that is not bi-partisan support. Right now, as we used to say in Texas, we are "Up Shit Creek, Without a Paddle." Moreover, we don't seem to have people in elected office who are ready to work together to get us some paddles and help us paddle out of here! What this demonstrates is that no matter what the American people want, our legislators are not willing to work together to get it for us. While the stimulus package may be approved, I don't think it is what most American's have hoped and prayed for. I'd like to give you my take on some of the issues. Am I biased? You're damn right I am, I am biased to turning this country around from the current dismal situation we are currently in.

The key point that McCain and the Republican Party seem to want to make is that we need more "Tax Cuts" to stimulate the economy. I normally agree with tax cuts, of all kinds, but this time I think we may need to ask a few more questions. So let's get down to brass tacks, and let the chips fall where they may:

Republicans:

Tax Cuts for whom? My income (and related tax) has been cut to zero by my company. How are income tax cuts going to help me, or the other 13 Million Americans who are out of work?
Tax Cuts for Business? My company lost $450 million in the last quarter. (and we did better than a lot of companies). How do you expect tax cuts to help us / them?
If you are sincere about tax cuts - who gets them?.... those who are the multi-millionaire buddies of mine, who are only subject to the alternate minimum tax already?
What tax cuts are you proposing for us, the Joe Six Packs out here? Obama's plan says we will reduce taxes on those of us earning less than $200,000 a year by $1000 per married family. Republicans, who are you aiming to help, how will you help them? Please bare in mind that a lot of us - have been just about "trickled down" to death.
Is this the best job you can do as a Bipartisan minority? We do not need obstructionist behavior - that is not what we voted for. We need an American Legislature that works together. Get with the program.

Democrats:

Why, on a bill that is designed to stimulate the economy, why does Senator Inouye of Hawaii find it necessary to attach a payment to Filipino World War II for 100's of millions of dollars? Yes, I know about FDR's promise to the Filipino volunteers, but that is not the purpose of this bill. Put your point across in the proper forum, Senator and get these folks paid. But it is not part of a stimulus bill. Wake up! and of course Aloha, Senator. There are a number of other examples, but I thought this was one of the most flagrant.
Same for all of you that stuck unrelated programs to the stimulous bill. What a great opportunity you gave the Republicans to say their little chant..."Tax and Spend Democrats". They learned this chant from Ronald Reagan, back when I was a young man....why do you keep giving them ammunition? Wake UP!
Pelosi / Reid, is this the best job you can do in creating bipartisan support during a national crisis? If it is shame on you. Wake UP!
Democrats, all, you do not have a strong mandate. Yes, we voted for Obama's promise of change. We did not vote for you to continue bickering with the Republicans. Honestly, we are sick of both the Republicans and the Democrats bickering and not getting your jobs done.
At this pressing time in US history, we do not need "Democrat show boating", flaunting their temporary majority. We need bipartisan efforts to make a better America. Get with the Program. You have a majority right now, but get ready to lose it if you don't behave better.

Failure to cooperate constitutes failing to work in the best interest of the American people; failing to find the common ground, is failure on the part of both political parities. Currently, both parties are disgusting in their partisanship. Our country needs help now, from loyal Americans, on "both sides of the aisle", of all colors, and all groups, to come and work together to pull us out of the ditch we are in.

In terms of bipartisanship, if you don't "get it", no matter what your party affiliation; you ain't no friend of mine or the American people. We need everyone working together. I, for one, am looking for the Shit Creek Paddle Store, cause that is what we need....some paddles and some people willing to start pulling together. I know its out there,and we'll find it with leadership. Then we'll all take up our paddles and we will start to get out of here, paddling sometimes left, and sometimes right. Legislators, show us some leadership, lest we have to just do it ourselves.

All the best,

mike

What's Your New Plan B???

2009-02-08T04:51:00.012-06:00

WHAT IS YOUR NEW PLAN B?:

You know, a lot of us are having to make some adjustments. Unfortunately, for many, these adjustments are not easy. On the other hand, I'm still believing that there is a bright side to these adjustments, and I remain determined to find the bright side.

Big Al, once told me that he was thinking that he would wait until he was around 55, and then if nothing was going "great shakes" he might just slack off and teach school. Well guess what, Big Al and I talked last week, and nothing is going "great shakes" for either of us, and it looks like we may have to work longer than we expected. I'm not totally sure about Big Al, but my perspective has changed some lately - and there may be a need for a new Plan B.

In case anyone hasn't realized it yet, "Dream Jobs" at this point in the game, may be just that, "a dream". Honestly, its a jungle out here. Right now, it is estimated that there are over 11 million Americans who are unemployed. Other estimates say that another 2 million or more may be unemployed in 2009. A lot of incredibly competent people in any number of fields, are finding themselves unemployed. Many of these folks have accepted jobs that cause them to believe that they are "underemployed". In other words, they have taken jobs that pay less and are lower on the "food chain" than the positions they held previously. I think the key to this whole situation is how you look at it.

Let's say, that I continued with Big Al's Plan B, and became a school teacher. (If I did this, I would hope to do it at my old High School in Texas, Paul H. Pewitt High School.) I'll bet you my salary would be reduced from it's current level by at least 75% -80%. On the otherhand, I think the importance of what I would be working on would probably increase by about 200%. If you look at it the right way - I'd be coming out at least 120% better off than I am now. Further, by the time you count the additional time with friends and family that I would have in Northeast Texas, I think I could make an argument that I would be 300% better off. You know, plan B's starting to sound good to me. But that's just me.

I am reminded of the story of a guy who is walking down the street near a construction site. He sees a man laboring with a hammer and some bricks. He asks the man what he is doing. "The man turns and replies with a scowl "Can't you see, I am trying to clean up these nasty old bricks?" As this fellow continues walking down the street, he sees another man performing essentially the same task as the first one and he asks again, "What are you doing?" This man turns and smiles and says, "I am preparing these bricks so that they can be used to make a beautiful temple for the Lord." So I guess, how you feel about your work depends on how you look at it.

As far as all this goes, I'll bet you that I can load up some friends and family on that Greyhound bus and have more fun than anybody ever had driving around in a Jaguar anyday.

All the best,

mike

Searching for an honest man

2009-02-06T09:34:00.012-06:00

Diogenes, was a beggar who made his home in the streets of Athens. He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. (If you can't see the picture on the right, double click the title)

I don't mean to be cynical, but perhaps the modern equivalent of Diogenes is our Presient, Barack Obama, trying to sort through the lobbyists, tax dodgers, and other criminals of Washington DC. trying to find members for his cabinet. From the looks of things, our President may need a better lamp. Say goodnight, Tom Daschle.

Interview with the Spirit of Karl Marx

2009-02-03T04:39:00.008-06:00

Lately, I have been hearing that fat blowhard, Rush Limbaugh, lipping-off about how he wants Obama to fail, and how it would be terrible if we “socialized” healthcare, banking, and automobile manufacturing. According to fat-ass Rush, socialization of these institutions would lead to the complete downfall of our country. Although, I’ve been called rude, anti-social, and darn mean – it occurred to me that I really didn’t know that much about “socialism”. Generally, in terms of philosophical issues like these, I find it best to get my information “straight from the horses’ mouth”. (You can’t always trust everyone to be as fair and unbiased as Fox News.) That is why Sunday afternoon I channeled the Spirit of Karl Marx to the Let Go Journal (LGJ) office here in Cordova, to discuss the pro’s and con’s of “Socialism” and how it relates to our current economic problems in the automobile and banking industries.

LGJ: As background, for you readers who, like me, never spent much time thinking about the “true meaning of socialism”, let me give you a little background on our special guest, Karl Marx.

Karl Marx was born in Prussia May 5, 1818. He became well known as a philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, and revolutionary. He is best known for his books, “The Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital”. He is often creditied as the "Founder of Communism". Karl left this planet on March 14, 1883, but has been kind enough to return here for this exclusive interview with the Let Go Journal.

LGJ: “Let me get this ball rolling here”, I said. “Professor Marx, welcome, and thanks for popping in tonight. Nancy and I are delighted to have you as our guest.” Nancy, would you mind getting the professor some coffee?”

Karl: No, thank-you Mrs. Roberts. But I would enjoy to have a beer with you, Mr. Roberts.

LGJ: Professor Marx, please call Mike,

Karl: Very well then, Mike and you may call me Karl.

LGJ: Great, Karl. There’s my beer fridge right there just help yourself.

Karl: Thanks – I haven’t had a good Budweiser in almost 200 years.

LGJ: Glad to oblige.

LGJ: Karl, let’s get down to business if we may. First off, Karl, in your view “what is socialism and how do you define it.”

Note: Karl’s English was good, though he spoke with a heavy German accent as he popped the top on his Budweiser and began to explain socialism

Karl: “I started to develop the definition of modern socialism in the late nineteenth-century (around 1850) as “a working class political and intellectual movement of that time. We were very much critical of the effects of industrialization and private ownership on the proletariat. Socialism……”

LGJ: “Excuse me, sorry to interupt Karl. I am trying to get all this down for the Let Go Journal, I Now what is this word you use here “proletariat”."

Karl: “No Problem, Mike.” “The proletariat is just a way of saying "working class people", you know the average guy, what you call… the Joe Six Packs.” For centuries, Karl continued “Joe Six Packs” has been getting SKA-ROO-WED to death by the bourgeoisie.”

LGJ: (I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the way Karl says "screwed" sounds like” SKA-ROO-WED”) Excuse me Karl, did you just say SKA-ROO-WWED by the what?
“what was that Karl, a ….“Bushwazee”? I asked. “Sounds like something to do with George W. Bush to me.”

Karl: (Laughing) “You are not that far off, Mike” The bourgeoisie, is the upper classs of society, you know the ones who owns everything, never work, and always wind up SKA-ROO-WED Joe Six Pack to death. George Bush would be a pretty good example. Come from a very wealthy and influential family. Dodged the Vietnam war. Stayed drunk over half his life, and then becomes the President of your country. Parties in the White House for 8 years, makes a beeeeg mess, leaves all the Joe Six Packs SKA-ROO-WWED Beeeg Time!

LGJ: “OK. So Karl, you see this as sort of a class struggle between the wealthy, which you call the Bushwazee, and the ordinary working guy, Joe Six Pack, which you call the proletariat? And the Bushwazee is always SKA-ROO-ING Joe Six Pack. Is that about it, Karl?” I asked.

Karl Marx: “Yah, dats pretty much it. So, to stop Joe Six Packs from getting SKA-ROO-WED all the time by the Bushwazee, we decided that the government should own everything. That way we could pass out the goodies more evenly to everybody”. I always believed that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution and would represent the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.”

LGJ: “So, you wanted the Joe Six Pack’s of this world to rise up and kick ass on the George Bush types. Then take the wealth of the nation and put it in a big pot and divide it up more evenly."

Karl: “Well that was the general idea, Mike. But it never works. You see, no matter where we move the “wealth, or as we call it the means of production, the Bushwazee come and take it from the Joe Six Packs. We give “wealth to the government”, Bushwazee take over the government”. We give wealth to Joe Six Packs, Bushwazee, come and take wealth. Doesn’t matter”.

LGJ: You mean socialism doesn’t work, Karl? How come?

Karl: “Nope Socialism never works – the problem is two beeeg problems. Number One Beeg Problem: Joe Six Packs is too dumb. Number Two Beeg Problem: Bushwazee is too smart. Never works”

LGJ: Damn, that is truly bad news. So are you saying that the Big Fat-Ass Blowhard Rush Limbaugh is right and that we shouldn’t bail out the banks and the automotive companies?

Karl: “Absolutely, think about it, Mike. This is the beegest danger of a Beeg Fat-Assed Blowhard like Rush Limbaugh. Just when you think he can’t get any more stupid – he has spark of brilliance And Rush has this one nailed.

LGJ: Tell me more Karl.

Karl: You see the rich people have already stolen all of the money out of the car companies and banks. They spent it on nice offices, corporate jets, beeg salaries, huge bonuses, and other amenities, while they ran the companies into the ground. Now they want to get loans and bailouts from Joe Six Packs so they can start all over again. Worse, yet, Joe Six Packs is so dumb – he thinks if he doesn’t bail them out – “he’ll lose his freakin job”.

LGJ: If we bail out that banks and auto companies will that really lead to the downfall of our country, like Rush Limbaugh says?

Karl: (Laughing) No, it won’t lead to the downfall of the country. What will happen is all of the Joe Six Packs gonna mortage you children and grandchildren’s future, to bail out the Bushwazee! Then your children and grandchildren can continue to be slaves to the Bushwazee. My ideas on socialism were great…..but you can’t make it work with Shit-for -Brains, Joe Six Packs on your side.

LGJ: Dang, Karl, I think you are absolutely right. And it’s truly depressing. Have another beer – let’s go watch the Superbowl. I'll give you Arizona and 10 what do ya say?

All the best,
mike

Think Big, One Byte At a Time

2009-02-01T06:00:00.012-06:00

Well, my old PC here at the house is just about to give up the ghost. I probably could get it fixed, and get another year or two out of it - but I am not sure how much sense that would really make. I went down to the Best Buy Store and looked at their offerings and really couldn't decide what I wanted. So instead I bought a new external hard drive.

Holy Catz!!! For the princely sum of $119, I got a drive with 1 Terabyte of Storage. What the heck is a "Terabyte" you ask? Me too, I had to look it up. To the right you'll see what I call Mike's Little Big Byte Table. Turns out that a Terabyte is 1000 to the 4th power bytes. Or said another way, a terabye equal's 1000 Million Bytes. For Little Nancy, Big Ike, and my sister DeAnna, who have on occaision, struggled with higher mathematics A Terabyte is a "shitload of bytes".

OK, you ask, "how much is a Shitload of bytes, Mike can you please be a little more specific?" Yes I can! Here are some specifics:

1. I took all the data that I had accumulated in the past 7 years on my old computer and put it on the Terabyte Hard Drive. I dumped all of the pictures, music, spreadsheets, listing of all of my friends, and the entire Let Go Journal onto the new drive. Still over 98% of the Bytes are remain available on the new drive. To be really specific, the drive has 982,416,056,320 bytes still available for use.

2. As of May 8, 2008 the Library of Congress held only 82.6 Terabytes of Data. So as you can see, I am catching up quickly with some of the larger institutions.

3 Ancestry.com claims to have 600 Terabytes of geneaology data. This includes the U.S. census data from 1790 - 1930. Wow, I'll bet that's a good read. Can't be sure how it will come out, I am only up to the year 1811 at this point.

4. All internet traffic in 1993, was around 100 Terabytes a year. Right now it is around 150 Terabytes.....a second. I wonder how much data that is in a day? Let's see, 24 hours X 60 minutes X 60 seconds = 86,400 seconds per day. So 86,400 seconds X 150 Terabytes = 12,960,000 Terabytes per day. See, that ain't so much, less than 13 Billion Terabytes daily. I think I better stop before I hurt myself.

5. I remember when Big Al, (my boss in the Rockwell days) and I got started with our Apple 2E computer, we had 64 kilobytes to work with - we eventually expanded to 128 kilobytes. In those days we built the entire annual plan for Rockwell with 128 bytes. Of course, we put in a lot of overtime in those days.

In summary, my suspicion is that 1 Terabyte will hold every single thing that I will know, and there will still be a lot of space left over. In fact, everything I know now, plus everything I might learn, + everything I forgot, + everything I ever even suspected could be stored on this drive, and still it would be like storing a BB in A Boxcar. Finally, if I culled all "my knowledge and wisdom" down a little bit, and just stored the things that I am sure of, they would fit easily on one page of paper. Let me know if you need some space, I think I have plenty.

All the best,

The Gambler vs. The Business Man

2009-01-29T21:45:00.003-06:00

Just about everybody, whether they like it or not, will remember Kenny Roger's best known song, "The Gambler". They will remember the song as much as anything, by the chorus;

You gotta know when to hold em,
Know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.

You never count your money,
While you're sittin at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin,
When the dealin's done.

I got to thinking about this as I read that over 80,000 more people were "let go" this week. Someone has to decide who gets to stay and who gets to go; which is the pretty much the business end of "knowin what to throw away and knowin what to keep." Kenny makes it sound easy, all you have to do is "read people's faces" and "know what their cards are by the way they held their eyes." That's pretty easy, just read their faces and decide. Some of these decisions are pretty easy others...well they can get tougher as you go.

Here's some examples of the easy decisions;
1. The guy who loads the truck and delivers product to your remaining customers. KEEPER
2. The guy or gal who makes the products for your customers. KEEPER
3. The person who takes customer orders for your products. KEEPER

I like these type of decisions for a couple of reasons; first, I like keeping people around, and these people who clearly and directly serve the customer - are the ones who nobody should ever try and do without. They are in many ways the backbone of the business, and the backbone of America. On the other hand, if business get's slow enough, even some of these will have to go.

Now let's try a tough decision;
A "continuous improvement project manager" who during the six months has improved cash flow for the business by over $1,000,000 and reduced actual expense by $150,000? Keep or Toss? Hold or Fold? Here is some additional information to help you make the decision:

Was saving $1 million in cash flow necessary? Not really.
Would the savings have occurred without the project manager? Probably not.
What is the annual return of this individual. Approx. 20 -1
Who will know if this individual is not there? No one of any import.

Your decision? If you said "toss or fold" you got it right. If you think the example I am writing about is me, you are also correct. Why does it make sense for my company to let me go? Simple, my efforts and results are reasonably hard to quantify, and no one will know that I am not there to produce these results in 2009 or thereafter.

One of the things that even I never figured out how to analyze is "the work that should be done, but is not done." More simply said, what is the cost of not doing something? Most people won't know or realize if the strategic plan is not updated, or if it the strat plan in place is not realistic. No one will ever know how much money could have, would have, or should have been saved in excess inventory was eliminated, excess warehouses closed, non-value-added activities eliminated, and customer processes streamlined. Honestly, since these things are not measured - no one knows what they are worth - not even me. This makes it easy to eliminate some positions and not others.

Am I bitter? I hope not, I consider myself a reasonably capable Poker Player, Business Man, and Entrepreneur. As such, I know that people fold the wrong hands and keep the wrong hands all the time, they hire and fire the wrong and right people all the time, and they buy and sell business at the right and wrong time. They / we do it all the time. That's part of what makes Poker such a great game. It's also part of life, which is another really great game. It's also why professional poker players, almost never show their cards when their opponent folds. It's best to keep everybody guessing.

All the best,

Mike

One more thought, I'll bet if Kenny's song had been about the Businessman instead of the gambler, it wouldn't have sold many records.

Criteria for a Dream Job

2009-01-23T13:04:00.011-06:00

Over the last several weeks, I've been thinking about Dream Jobs and how to correctly define them. A number of my readers have sent me ideas on dream jobs, and I think it is time to lay down some criteria for defining what a dream job is.

The first company that got me thinking about a dream job, was when I saw an opening for Controller / CFO at S&S Cycle in La Crosse, Wisconsin. For those of you that do not know, S&S Cycle makes motorcycle engines and other components for custom bike builders, like Orange County Choppers, West Coast Choppers, Arlen Ness, etc. The company is 3rd generation family owned, founded by George and Marjorie Smith back in 1958. So what makes me think this a "dream job"?

1. I have been a motorcycle enthusiast since my early teens. I love just about every type of motorcycle every made. I love to look at, ride, and dream about bikes.

2. I am passionate about manufacturing; particularly U.S. manufacturing. I wish we had more products that could be made "cost effectively" in the U.S. And the situation with the U.S. automakers troubles me quite a bit.

3. Obviously, a company like S&S Cycle, will have a lot of machining going on. Machining is one of my favorite types of manufacturing. One of the best jobs I ever had was running the machining division of a major company.

4. I am certain that I have the skills to jump into a role like this and help the company grow and make more money. This is very important to me: I cannot be happy in a job unless I feel that I can make a full contribution. I have often said, that I would rather have an 80 hour a week job than a 20 hour a week job.

5. The fact that the company is privately held is also a good thing. That suggests that the company is far less bureaucratic that most corporations have to be. When I have worked with family-owned business in the past - the objective often were something like "how do we ensure that our grandchildren can come to work and make money here". That simplifies things a lot when you compare it to the thinking at many corporations which often is "what will we tell the board and stockholders this quarter?" Speaking of family owned the picture to the right here is artist Stefanie Azier-Sattler's impression of the founder George Smith. The picture was commissioned by S&S to commemorate their 50th anniversary in 2008. How cool is that? Click here to see more of her work. http://www.chromedimpressions.com/commissions.htm

6. The one last thing I would need to know to qualify this position at S&S Cycle as a dream job would be to meet the management team. With every job and every company it is important that you can feel a part of the team. Getting the "right chemistry" is critical to making a great contribution on a dream job.

So let me try and sum it up. To me a dream job needs to be

making products or providing services that you are passionate about,
in an industry that you love,
with processes you know and understand.
a position that enables you to make a significant contribution to the organization,
working with a team of like minded individuals to create the best company imaginable.

Will I ever work for S&S Cycle? Who knows? I am sure there are a lot of capable professionals, just like me, who would crawl on broken glass from Milwaukee to La Crosse for the opportunity. So the competition should be really tough. That is as it should be, when you have a great company like S&S - you have to be able to get great people to keep it great. Will I ever work for S&S Cycle? I don't know, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

And if I don't make the team at S&S Cycle, I am going to keep trying till I find something with all of the qualities of S&S.

All the best,

Mike

What A Great Week for America!!!!

2009-01-21T22:06:00.009-06:00

I never thought I would live to see this happen. This week in America has been extraordinary. This is truly a special time in our American history.

After years of being put down, ridiculed, and abused; they finally elected one of "us" to the highest office in the nation. Growing up in the south, I experienced the discrimination, I felt the pain. As a child of the sixties, I witnessed the protests and the suffering. During the seventies, I lived through the pains of de-segregation. But praise be to God, they finally elected one of "us"!

My black friends have asked me, in kind of a hesitating way.....Mike.... aren't you really a whitey? The honest answer is yes, I am a whitey and I am also prone to bad sunburn in the summer. I have asked God personally, to ensure that in my next life I am taller, and have a darker complexion so that I can go out to the beach in the summer without getting fried.

Many of my white friends have asked me, also, in a kind of hestitating way.....Mike ....are you from a "mixed family"? My answer is "yes we were pretty mixed up like most families are but No, I was born a very poor white boy child, to very "white" parents. But I was born to be "cool". And I am still cool and getting cooler." And so is our new President, Mr. Barack Obama!!!!! Cool is Cool. We finally got a "cool" president". I believe that we got a good guy up front and reppin for us now. We're gonna be alright. I believe! Please Pray for our new President, Barack Hussein Obama, his family, and his administration.

Can I please get an "AMEN"?

God Bless America.

All the best,

mike

Help... Please Come by and Come Buy!!!

2009-01-21T17:04:00.009-06:00

The changes around this joint are amazing. Here's a picture of our home 969 Lycomedes Cove in lovely suburban Cordova, TN.

1. You can now actually park a car in the garage!

2. There is only one bookshelf left in my office -some 1200 books have been shuttled elsewhere.

3. There is not a dirty pan in the kitchen.

4. No empty beer cans in my office.

5. No messy sink in my bathroom. I have to clean it every time I clean my face or hands.

6. Every toilet seat is down, and every toilet lid is closed. (this is very dangerous in at nite)

7. There is not a cob web in the house.

8. There are vacuum lines on the carpet everyday. (I put them there myself)

9. There are no stacks of mail or newspapers, anywhere.

10. I can't always find my shaving kit in the morning.

11. Hell, I have even washed off all the oil stains off the driveway from my old junk cars.

12. I routinely find myself in the backyard picking up Schnauzer poop.

I am living in a bubble. My term for this is the FSBO Bubble. Yep, you got it, the For Sale By Owner Bubble. We never know when someone will come by (or more hopefully when someone will come buy). So we are stuck in this perpetual cleaning, straightening mode. A good example of how extreme things have gotten is in the picture to the right. No, that is not a snap shot of a swanky blues club - that's what is left of my old office. It still works for me as a headquarters, and I did manage to keep my beer fridge; but other than that, most of good junk has been wiped out by the FSBO Bubble.

Here's a shot of our breakfast nook - Please don't get the idea that I come down in a pair of silk pajamas and have breakfast with Nancy here. We can't cook breakfast because it will mess up the kitchen and the breakfast nook. I'm going to remember this the next time I have to go and look for a new place to live. Things always look good, till you move in and have to live in a place.

We hosted an "Open House" last weekend. It was colder than a Brass Monkey. Guess what? For two days we didn't do anything, for fear of messing the house up and only one person came by - and it was our neighbor. I think I may need to do more work on my marketing efforts. Anyhow....

I need to get somebody to come by and come buy. Lettin Go of this house may be a little tougher than I thought. A big schlob like me can't last too long in a FSBO bubble.

All the best,
mike

Dream Jobs - Help from my friends

2009-01-19T01:37:00.008-06:00

As you might recall from one of my previous posts "Dream Jobs; Can They Be Real?"

I have been suggesting that there are dream jobs out there, if we just take the time to define them and then go search them out. It's a good idea to have friends try and help you find dream jobs. Luckily for me, my friends are keeping their eyes wide open for that perfect job for "old mikey". One suggestion came in from my buddy Paul Hunter and the another one came from my buddy Big Ike Griggs in Austin, Texas. Both jobs provided lots of fresh air and offered a change of pace from my stuffy old job at International Paper.

My buddy, Paul Hunter from Australia sent me this lead. http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,24901025-5014090,00.html

The job here is to live on Hamilton Island (just off the coast of Australia, on the barrier reef), scuba dive, clean the pool, collect the mail, live in luxury 3 bedroom house - job paid $150,000 per year. The offer went on to say that no experience was required. There really was only one catch with the job; when the Tourism Bureau of Queensland published ads for the job, there were so many responses it crashed the server. So as you can see the competition for some of these dream jobs can be pretty tough.

These days, the competition for any job seems pretty tough. Something like 3 million American's are out of work. Obama's plan is supposed to save us. That's why I think my timing is good. My job at IP officially runs out on March 2nd, which gives the Barack a few weeks on the job, before he has to come up with a plan to bail me out. But that's another story...for another time. Back to my friends helping me find dream jobs.

Now here's the other Dream Job I mentioned. So far its the only real prospect I have; working for my buddy Big Ike Griggs at Texas Slab Co. Big Ike says even though things have been a little slow in the concrete slab bidness lately; he could put me to work anyhow as a heavy equipment operator. I told Ike I didn't know how to operate heavy equipment. He assured me that it has always been the policy of the Texas Slab Company to provide every new employee with complete training and their own shovel. (See photo on right, Grandpappy Griggs demonstrating proper use of heavy equipment circa 1880.) He also, said that if I could make it through the first day; he'd furnish a pair of gloves. The only catch with this job was that the gloves had to be turned in every Friday. Seems there had been some problems with employees not coming back on Mondays - and taking the gloves. Big Ike says "its hard to get good help these days".

Obviously, not all dream jobs are created equal. Still it is good to have friends helping me to find my dream job.

All the best,

mike

40 Acres and a Mule???

2009-01-12T19:14:00.019-06:00

I was in the office to visit my “still current manager”, John V. Sims. Honestly, if any of you ever get a chance to meet John – you will find that he is a top-flight guy. John is an outstanding man, a graduate of the Naval Academy, and even though as he knows, I am not normally a fan of military academy grads – I am a huge fan of JVS. How many of you can say that you’re a huge fan of the guy who “let you go”? Well, in any case, I can – John is a great guy to work with or for; a great family man, a great American, and a guy that I am damn proud to know. John and I had a very productive meeting in which we talked about not only the future direction of the company; but even took time to discuss the future direction of yours truly, old Mike Roberts. John was extremely helpful in helping me gussy-up my resume – as I get ready to go into the future, “whatever it may be”.

Most of the time when we John and I meet, we share a cup of “Joe” (a cup of Joe is coffee, for those of you young sprouts). The phrase “cup of Joe” comes from Josephus Daniels, who when he was Secretary of the Navy, had all the booze taken off U.S Naval Vessels. Because of this,coffee became the strongest drink allowed aboard ship. And hence the phrase, “how bout a cup of Joe”. That would be a picture of Josephus just to right on your browser. Both John and I like coffee, and my greatgrandfather and grandfather both retired Navy. Dad kind of fouled things up by getting involved in a branch of the Navy, the United States Marine Corps. Still, John and I get along great.

Anyway, after our meeting I visited a few of my other buddies in the office, and found myself with my buddy Chris McAfee and my boss, John Sims on the elevator going down for lunch at the same time. I said to Chris looking at John, “Chris, right over there is my Abraham Lincoln. That is the man that set me free from my chains here at IP.”

We all laughed, – IP is anything but a slave driving outfit. The reality of my situation, is that I am a round peg, who was trying to fit in a square box for a long time. John and I both understand this – and that is why I feel so much better now that I am out exploring opportunities. On the other-hand;

This discussion of Abe Lincoln and emancipation kind of gave me a different perspective. Try this one out, imagine how the slaves must have felt when the “Emancipation Proclamation” was issued? I’ll bet they were not a lot different from me. The first response is “Thank God I am out of this mess.” But the second response could easily be “Oh My God, what am I going to do now?” I can’t speak for those freed in 1865, but in my case the 40 acres offered me is “the whole world to choose from” but looking at it another way, “I am the mule and the mule operator” and me and the mule have to decide which way to go and what to plow. And whatever, me and the mule come up with – we gotta "learn to live with it or live without it” as my dear old pappy used to say.

And its not just where and what to plow; but what seeds to plant, and how to get seeds and pay for them? So am I free? Yes, I am free to choose what’s next and free to achieve the rewards or accept the consequences for my choices. Honestly, I think there maybe a lot of misunderstanding of "freedom" in this country. A famous Texas Blues Singer, Janice Joplin, sang these words (but fellow Texan Kris Krisopherson wrote them) "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose", but that is a negative way to look at life. A better way to phrase it is "Freedom is just another word for lots of things to choose, and everything to gain".

Here's hoping that all of your choices lead to happy consequences and....

Thanks a lot Abraham and John; you too Kris and Janice,

All the best,
Mike

Luck City Limits

2009-01-11T23:51:00.008-06:00

Willie Nelson created and lives in a town called “Luck, Texas”. Basically, from Willie’s point of view it was “ either you’re in Luck, or you’re out of out of Luck.” And many times it is that way, but on the other hand the “Luck City Limits Boundaries” are subject to move at any time. I saw this happen a few weeks back.

I was in town this week for the Omaha, Texas Christmas Parade, which was held on Sunday, December 10th, 2008. Anyhow, so on the Monday following this wonderful parade, I was killing a little time and heading over to my Sister’s Flower Shop in Daingerfield. Somehow, I wound up following a real estate sign which lead me down some strange roads in Northeast Texas. These roads kept getting narrower, and narrower. From 2 lane black-top….all the way down to one lane dirt road. The area was looking very swampy….lots of mud off the road, looked like you get stuck in a bog anytime you fell off or drove off the road. The road got more and more narrow, and it was just about at its most narrow junction when I thought that I saw something out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was that it was a dead deer. My second thought was that it was a dead dog. My final guess was that it was one or the other or both.

I had to stop the truck and go back to see what I thought I had saw. As I backed the truck up the road, I saw what I thought I had seen….a dog, lying by the side of the road – shivering – starving; and honestly – waiting to die.You could see every bone in his body – you could see that he had escaped from a chain and rope around his neck, by starving himself down; until he could escape the leash. He couldn’t even run, Hell, he couldn’t even walk and didn’t even growl. I thought about the possibilities of rabies and then kind of decided “ what the heck”? I slipped my arms up under his front and back legs: he was just a bag of bones and completely weak. He had been without any food for a long while, he didn’t have many choices. So he allowed me to load him into the back of my truck. As is so often true in my case, I did not have a plan, but I knew anything I could come up with was better than dieing of starvation in cold muddy ditch. Me and this desperate mutt took the roads on down to my Sister’s Flower Shop. On the way there, I came up with a good name for him ---Outta Luck Chuck.

We got to the flowershop and I went in the back door and said "DeAnna, I have a major problem”. She said,“Mike, I have heard this shit before” – don’t joke with me. I said, “I am not joking, look in the truck. ” (One of the problems of being a joker, is even when you aren't joking - everyone still things you are) When I opened the rear door, DeAnna saw the abandoned dog; I asked her what I should do with it and with tears in her eyes, she said “Shoot it, I am not getting stuck with another dog!”

I explained that I was not asking her to take the dog, I was only asking her what should I do next with this stray dog. She said, “go get him some food, and I will make him a bed.” That just one of the many things I love about my sister, DeAnna; when sometimes things seem unclear to me about what the long term plan should be, she just knuckles down on what needs to be done right now. So me and Outta Luck Chuck – headed down to the local grocery store and got a large sack of dog food, and a couple of cans of Alpo.

On returning to the shop – I found that my sister had made a bed for Chuck in the back with a cardboard box and old towels. She had also set out a fresh bucket of water and a bowl for the food that I would get for Chuck. Speaking of food – I opened the bag of “Purina Beneful” poured it in the bowl and put a little bit of the Alpo on top. It didn’t take Chuck long to get started. Chuck, may have been weak – but he wasn’t too weak to wag his tail. I don’t think I have ever seen a dog so happy to have a bit of food.

Life was getting a little better for Chuck – in less than an hour from the time I found him – his station in life had improved from “unknown starving dog on the side of the road” to “Dog with a new name, a dry bed, a bowl of food, and a bucket of fresh water”. After he ate a bit, Chuck started roaming around in back of the shop and made his way over to the gas station next door. I was worried that he might get hit by a car – but when I thought about it – I realized that at least if he did get hit by a car he would have had one good meal before he died.

Finally, Chuck wandered back to the front of the flower shop – and I couldn’t leave him there – he was so pitiful he would scare off any potential customers. About then Linda, who works at the shop after she gets off from her regular job at the school called her husband Monte. Monte came by and took one look at Chuck – loaded him up in his truck and took him home.So that’s the story – from starving on the side of the road without much of a hope – to having a nice home, dry bed, food, and a loving family all in one day. Like Willie says, you’re either “in Luck or Outta Luck” but remember the Luck City Limits are subject to change at any time.

P.S.I got an update on Outta Luck Chuck last week, he is doing well, you can’t count all of his ribs anymore, and he has a new name, BD. BD, of course is the abbreviation for “brown dog”; by I have also changed his name – I think I'll just call him Lucky.

To All Followers, Friends, and Whatever

2009-01-08T23:28:00.002-06:00

If you are not a regular here, I welcome you to look at some of the random thoughts I have sent into cyber-space. For those of your who are more regular....I must say that.... I appreciate all of your comments.....I know that a lot of you take time to at least look at this journal....which is what it is...sort of a journal of random thoughts that I have...

So thanks again for just coming here....and thanks for being a friend of mine...and thanks for your comments. I wish all of you all the best...

Mike

Dream Jobs - Could they be Real???

2009-01-08T16:38:00.004-06:00

My buddy, Paul Starks wrote me a nice note a few days ago. Paul left International Paper to join the Caterpillar group. Man, is that a great company, and Paul is a great guy. I am sure he belongs there. Paul asked me "What are you doing next?" And as most of you may have guessed, the answer is "I don't have a clue."

However......I have been thinking; and I'd like for you to think with me. Have you ever contemplated your dream job? The best job in the world for you that really "feeds ur needs?" To be honest, I have never thought about the "dream job" too much, because I was more focused on what i believed to be a more practical matter called "making a living". On the other hand, what if dream jobs do exist? And what if we fail to explore the possibilities? I say, shame on me, shame on you, and shame on all of us if we don't try and find them. Let me give you an example.

To the right of this you'll see a picture of Megan's Bay in St. Thomas. Gorgeous beach. Beautiful weather. Wonderful people. I was there this year, and pulled into the local bar to have a drink and enjoy the scenery. The bartender was a guy named John. John, was clearly from the Midwest U.S. and so I asked him, turned out he was from Nebraska. John graduated from the University of Nebraska and immediately left on vacation to St. Thomas. He had two bags with him, when he left from Lincoln. John got busy, asking around and landed a job tending bar here on Megan's beach. He's been here for almost a decade. John, has now accumulated a couple of cars, a boat, but still lives in an apartment here on the island.

And everything is not so good according to John. You see when I visited John, his girlfriend had just left and gone back to the "states". John felt sad about this. Somehow, I didn't get it. I asked John, "Can you give me your requirements?" He said, "requirements for what?". I said, for a new girlfriend, " I can start lining up new candidates for you right away, the beach is full of good candidates". Swear to God, I saw at least 100 good candidates!

Works out that John, was still recovering from some kind of "heartbreak", but I think you get my point. "How bad would it be to be a bar tender at one of the world's most beautiful beaches?" How hard would it be to find a replacement "girl friend" in St. Thomas. If I were John, I might change girl friends more often than I change shirts. Only joking, Nancy, Ouch! By the way, I am sending this blog to John, in case he wants to leave his position - I would happily suffer with its inconveniences - at least for a while.

Maybe for some of you bar tending on Megan's Bay in St. Thomas might not be your dream job - but whatever your dream job is you have to do what John did - you have to go after it; stick your neck out a little and try. As my old buddy, Kevin Hinz once told me, if we don't at least try, our chances are 100% for failure. Kevin, is right - we can't afford to take that chance - we might get lucky.

The way I see it; I've got some time to define and find my "dream job", I'll have to get pretty hungry before I settle for less. I say, "Let's go!"

All the best,

My First Landslide

2009-01-06T03:44:00.006-06:00

Since, my previous post was on the "landslide results from my picture poll" I was reminded of another landslide I particpated in back '75. Here ya go...

Back in 1975 the Republican Party managed to have an exciting new candidate in the race for the nomination for President his name was Ronald Reagan. After all of the problems of the Nixon Administration, including the Vietnam War and Watergate – Reagan brought a refreshing view of America. He made us believe that America was still a great country and that we could take part in making it even better.

I was a junior in college at East Texas State University, and this was my first opportunity to vote. My brother-in-law, Michael Eugene Falls, was a staunch supporter of Reagan and so was I. So when the primary election rolled into Morris County – I drove from Commerce, Texas and Mike Falls drove in from Texarkana and we cast our 2 votes for Reagan.

It was the following week when my home town paper, The Naples Texas Monitor, published the results of the election – and guess what? Reagan had carried Morris County by a landslide; four votes for Reagan and only two votes for Gerald Ford. Mike Falls and I were the swing voters!!!

Well, as you know, Gerald Ford won the Republican Nomination that year and Jimmy Carter won the Presidential Election. But in Morris County, two votes by two very young men made a small difference. Hell, it would have been a "dead heat" if we hadn't of voted.

Four years later, it would be a different story, when Ronald Reagan would go on to win the Presidential election by a real landslide. He was a great American and a great President. In fact, I believe that the World is a better place because of Ronald Reagan.

God Bless Ronald Reagan. And whatever you do – vote – especially if there are only 6 other voters.

Sincerely,

Michael W. Roberts
Cordova, Tennessee

P.S. This story was previously printed in my home town paper, The Naples Monitor. I am pretty sure that there are records that will document this story. As all of the readers of the Naples, Texas Monitor know, the Monitor never lies and neither do I.

Happy New Year ! It's a Landslide

2009-01-04T17:28:00.008-06:00

Well, with lesss than two hours to go, it appears to be a landslide in my previous post on which guy looks happier. 80 Percent of registered voters agreed that my IP picture really looked like a guy who had a corn cob shoved up his (_l_). Scroll Up to see the IP Photo.

In many ways this is unfortunate, to find out that for the last 6 years I have been walking around, looking like I had a corn cob shoved up my (_l_); however at least now that I have discovered this, I can take corrective action. Beginning, next week - this blog will be sporting the "new old look" instead of "the corn cob up the arse" look!

Thanks for your input...and all the best and Happy New Year to all of You!
mike

Old Looking - New Look

2008-12-28T19:27:00.005-06:00

OK, so here is the an updated picture of me. Yep, I am the one with the white beard. I felt that I needed to post this, as a fair warning to those of you who haven't seen me in a while.

When I wear my complete "letting go" outfit, which includes the black beret, wayfarer sunglasses, and the beard; I can sneak up on my own Mama without her having any idea who it is.

The picture which is on this blog - the one on the right - is my IP Corporate picture. I ask you which one looks happier? The guy on the right or the guy on the left.
Although, I think they are both happy - this cat is sure looking old.

All the best,

Chicken Stew for My Soul....

2008-12-28T02:53:00.003-06:00

I made another great soup tonight - but it is way more than just a soup....

I make a great chicken stew and that's the end of that discussion. It is probably one of the best chicken stew's that you will ever enjoy. I learned to make this stew from my mother-in-law, Dorothy Falls. Some would argue that Dorothy is really my ex-mother-in-law, but I say no, Dorothy and I never agreed to a divorce. Her daughter and I did agree to a divorce, but that was a separate decision. I don't think Dorothy and I ever will. She is still my "mama in law".

Dorothy, made a great chicken soup and I always enjoyed it. I asked her to teach me how to make it and she said it's easy; "you just empty out your pantry." I will not share the recipe, exactly with you, but I can share with you the real contents of the pantry.

For the people you love empty out your pantry; Empty out all of the

Love that you have
Sprinkle in generous doses of forgiveness, because we all make mistakes
Dump in a large dose of patience; because some are slow to learn
Sweeten bitter times with a hug and a kiss.

I learned these things from Dorothy Falls. You can see me for some great chicken stew. If you want to meet a great person, you can find her in Omaha, Texas - at the nursing home.

Happy New Year,

Throwing Heat

2008-12-22T15:29:00.010-06:00

I was visiting with my old friend Nolan Ryan a week or so ago, and Nolan was pretty upset. For those of you who are not up on Texas Sports History or baseball; Ryan is one of baseball's greatest all time hero's. He holds pitching records for the most career strikeouts and most no hitters. Nolan and his wife live down in Georgetown, Texas and Nolan is a part owner in a minor league team called the Roundrock Express.

I asked Nolan what was bugging him- he said he had been watching the six o'clock news the night before and was really upset with the incident where an Iraqi Journalist had thrown two shoes at President George Bush. Nolan said "I mean this thing is a national disgrace and a damn shame. The way he threw both of his shoes at the president. If it weren't so darn close to Christmas, I'd hop a plane over to Iraq and handle this personally."

When I asked Nolan, what he thought needed to be done about the Iraqi Journalist, Nolan said "awwwww, Mike, I don't think he's that bad, he's got a good arm and he gets good heat when he throws the shoe, but for accuracy he needs to use a little more wrist. I mean to tell you he threw a shoe and missed by a foot!! With just a little more wrist action he could hit George on the nose every time! I"m thinking of starting a pitching clinic to help train other journalists. Seems like the least I can do as an American". Click here to watch Nolan bean Robin Ventura

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v34JlUtgho

Now you know why Nolan Ryan has always been one of my Texas hero's. By the way, if you think it would be fun to thow some shoe's at our lame duck president click here;

http://www.aksalser.com/game.htm

All the best,

Do You Believe In the Logical Man?

2008-12-10T07:59:00.005-06:00

Ok, well now that I have bored everyone to tears with stories of High School, business, and my family - I think I had better step it up a bit or I might lose a follower or two. And when you only have few followers...this is serious. In an effort not to run off the few remaining friends I have....let us turn our thoughts to art and philsophy.....

To the right you will see the famous bronze and marble creation of the famous artist, Rodin, "The Thinker". I wonder what he is thinking? This looks like a fun topic...As a matter of fact, what do you think he is thinking?

Here's a starter...."where did I leave my damn pants?"

Please comment on your observations of this important work of art. You can use the comment button below...or you can wait until I call and insult you.

All the best - Mike

Pewitt School Integration

2008-12-08T14:42:00.006-06:00

The following is a piece I wrote for last year's Pewitt High School Sociology Class. The class assignment, which I found very interesting, was to research and document the integration of the school. An enterprising young lady named Tara Hooper contacted me and asked me about helping her with the project. Tara turns out to be a niece of one of the hero's in the story, Richard Hooper.

Since integration happened "on my watch", I got to play the role of historian. It's great to be the "historian" - you get to call em like you see em. Hope you enjoy. Warning!!!! I got a little bit long winded on this one; even for me.

The History of Desegregation at Pewitt School
A White Guy’s Perspective
By Mike Roberts

Although I never thought of it this way, I suppose you could say that I actively participated in the integration of the Paul H. Pewitt Schools as I was involved in the very beginning and muddled though it with all of black and white children for the next 8 years. Honestly, I am proud to have been part of this era of Pewitt history because although there was a lot of anxiety and some problems, a lot of good things were accomplished that had been needed for a long time. I also feel that I am a better person for having been through it. Here’s my story, a view of these years from the perspective of a white guy. I hope in your efforts to document this era, I will be able to hear or read the perspective from others who went through this transformation with me.

The 1960’s were a time of unrest for all of American society. On the black and white television we watched the black and white tensions build in the form of civil rights marches, bus strikes, and sanitation worker strikes. We were witness to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. We saw reactionary groups forming like the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panther Party. But to me, this seemed to be happening somewhere else in America; I didn’t understand that it had anything much to do with Morris County Texas.

In the Beginning: Freedom of Choice
The first I really heard about this integration idea was in the fourth grade. Our teachers began telling us near the end of the school year that blacks would be coming to our school. This was done through something called “Freedom of Choice”. Under the “Freedom of Choice” system, blacks could decide to attend the white school if they chose to. I guess under this program, whites could have chosen to go to the black school if they wanted but no one did. Our teachers instructed us that if any black kids were in our class next year – that we should be nice to them. We shouldn’t pick on them, call them names or anything like that. Basically, just treat them like you would anyone else. That’s about all the preparation I remember that we got for the first round of integration. I didn’t give this too much thought since I didn’t really think it would happen.

Well what do you know, it was the first day of 5th grade and when I got to class there were already two black kids sitting at their desks. This seemed strange to me, but no one said anything about it. I think it made all of the kids uncomfortable. If I remember right, the black girl was Debra Turner and the black boy was Gary Sanders. Both of them seemed nice. They were quiet and hardly said anything. I don’t know exactly how Debra and Gary felt, but I bet that they were very uncomfortable; surrounded by white kids and white teachers they had to feel alone. I never knew anyone to be mean or unkind to them, but they did seem to be ignored. I think that we did not know what to say to them and they didn’t know what to say to us, so we just went along the first year – not saying anything, just doing the school work and going home. I felt sorry for them. I doubt that they wanted to be there in the middle of all of us whities, but their parents saw the need for them to be there. And while I believe that in the long run their parents were right, it had to be hard on them being the first to pioneer this “integration thing”.

After the first year or two of “Freedom of Choice”, a few more black kids started to come to school at Pewitt not too many but more. It seemed to me that this made the environment more comfortable for everyone. Little by little we began to talk and have fun going to school and playing sports.

The Battle of the Bands
During this time frame 1966 - 1967, The Pewitt band, of which I was a member in the seventh grade had dwindled down to nothing. We had a new band instructor, named John Bird who was trying to rebuild the band after years of neglect. The band was very small, I believe that we had about 25 members, and marched four by six. We had learned the march music, fight song and a few popular songs for football season and we could perform these reasonably well.

On the other hand, Carver High had one heck of a band. I don’t know their band leader’s name but he was an innovator and the school had a lot of pride in that band. In the 1960’s a band out of Memphis, Tennessee called the Barkay’s had a number 1 hit called “Soulfinger”. This song had a driving beat and featured a fabulous horn section with trumpets, saxes, and trombones. The Carver High School band director had lovingly transcribed this song for his band and man, could they play it!

Lucky for us, we rarely played together at football games or anything like that, but we did play and march at the Naples and Omaha Christmas Parades and that was about it. Getting us ready for the Christmas Parade, Mr. Bird had come up with all new Christmas music. We had about two weeks to learn this stuff and I think the music was pretty good – if only we could have learned to play it.

For the Naples Christmas Parade both bands marched and played their way down Highway 67 accompanied by various beauty queens, cheerleaders, antique cars, and floats. At the back of the parade was Santa riding on the Naples Volunteer Fire Department and tossing candy to the crowd standing beside the road. We marched most of the way through downtown Naples, ending up in the area which is now a parking lot by the old Naples Fire Station.

As the crowd congregated both bands played. Our Pewitt band stumbled and fumbled through its new music – we stunk. As soon as we finished the Carver band fired up playing Soulfinger. I swear to this day that I cannot distinguish between the recording of that song, and the way the Carver Band sounded on that parking lot. The long and short of this encounter was the Carver Band blew the Pewitt Band right off the parking lot. It was humiliating. Race had nothing to do with it – but talent and practice sure did.

Real Integration: The End of Freedom of Choice
Real integration began with the end of “Freedom of Choice” which was somehow no longer legal. The schools were required by law to fully integrate. This happened at the start of my 9th Grade year. Pewitt would become the high school and Carver would beame the elementary school for both black and white.

This was a significant change, and we first encountered it on the football field, because football practice starts a few weeks before school classes. Coach Fielding Huddleston was the High School coach, but the freshman coach was Mr. Robinson. Suddenly half or our team was black and half of our team was black. Coach Huddleston had already built a great football team at Pewitt, but now he had twice as much, or more, to work with.

From my perspective this was a heck of a change. I went from being the fastest kid on the team, to being only the fastest white kid on the team, about fourth or fifth fastest overall. Still it made for a really great team. The integration of the football team, as far as I could tell went very well, even though in the next 3 years it probably caused me to spend quite a bit of time on the bench. As freshman, we had Ricky Richards at quarterback with Alonso Gardner and Jimmy Shirey at the running back positions. Alonso was as quick as a cat and Jimmy could throw a fine block and was also a good runner. During our freshman year our team went undefeated in district play. The same would be true of our senior year together – these new black and white Brahmas were undefeated in district play and made it all the way to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the team from Rockwall, Texas.

During this same period of time, in the Hooks, Texas, the Hornets also had been integrated and had a running back named Billy Simms who would later go on to win the Heisman Trophy and play pro ball. In thinking about this now, I realize I’d would have never had the chance to tackle a Heisman Trophy winner had it not been for the integration of the schools. Billy would have gone to an all black school, and I’d have gone to an all white school, and I would have only read about him when he became a star at Oklahoma.

Integration in the Pewitt Classroom:
Integration in the classroom probably did not go quite as smoothly as integration in football. Everyone was concerned about how things were going to work out, and when I say everyone I mean the school administration, the teachers, the black students, the white students and of course the parents. But all in all, it probably went better than most of us would have ever expected.

Some Stupid Stuff
The first year a few stupid things happened and unfortunately I would wind up personally involved. The first stupid thing happened the second or third day of school in the freshman agriculture class. It would be the start of the Great Fan Grab War.

When I got to Ag class that day, the black guys were on one side of the room and the white guys were on the other side of the room and there was a large aisle between the classroom tables. It was late summer, and for those of you who don’t remember the good old days, the school was not completely air-conditioned. There was a single fan in the Ag class and it was blowing right down the middle of the aisle, not pointed at either group. I honestly don’t remember who did it first but either one of the black guys or one of the white guys went and moved the fan so that it was on his group. While this was probably a joke (and a kind of funny one at that), one of the guys went and got the fan and put it on the other group. I started watching this and it was entertaining, each black guy would take a turn moving the fan over to their side of the room, and then a white guy would go and get the fan and set it to blow on his side of the room.

This had happened several times when suddenly I felt that it must be my turn to go and get the fan. Unfortunately, for me, Kerry King had decided that he would not only take the fan to his side of the room, but he had also decided he was going to keep it there. I grabbed the fan and started trying to drag it over to the “white” side of the room, with Kerry hanging on to the fan. I was making some progress in sliding Kerry and the fan to the “white” side when Howard Traylor also felt the spirit to participate in fan fight. Howard shoved Kerry out of the way and about this time the fist fight began. Howard hit me a couple of times in the head and gave me a couple of black eyes. I got him a time or two in the head and gave him a bloody nose. The fight had pretty much ended when Mr. Granberry, the Ag Instructor came to the room and asked who had been fighting. It didn’t require Sherlock Holmes to notice me with a couple of shiners and Howard with blood still trickling out of his nose to figure out who had been fighting. Oh well, “win’em and wear ‘em” my Pappy always said.

Traylor and I were escorted out of the room by Mr. Granberry and Mr. Tomberlain,. Since this was the first inter-racial fist fight at the school, Mr. Brian was called in to oversee the situation. I imagine they were concerned that this sort of thing might get worse. Principal A.T. Brian showed up asked what happened and then proceeded to administer the required punishment of five licks with the paddle to my behind. Trust me, Mr. Brian could swing a pretty mean paddle and my butt stung from it. Howard refused to be paddled and so Mr. Brian sent him home. I told Mr. Brian that I thought it was unfair, not because I got paddled and Howard didn’t, but because I thought I should get to go home also. Mr. Brian let me go home.

A couple of days later Howard Traylor and I came back to school and Howard had to take his butt whoopin’ then. While this seems a little strange now, I was called in to watch Howard get his paddling – the same way he had watched me get paddled. I guess this was to be an example of equal treatment (equally bad). Well I watched, but it wasn’t that much fun – those paddles stung and I didn’t really need to be reminded of how they felt. Howard Traylor later told me that he had put on several extra pairs of underwear before coming to school that day. I’d have done the same thing if I had been him.

Later, I would realize that I had no idea what that fight was really about. I do know a couple of things it was not about. It darn sure was not over a fan that only blew hot air around in the first place. Secondly, it was not about any hard feelings I had for Howard Traylor or anybody else in the room. Whatever it was about, Kerry King, Howard Traylor, and I got through it. I’d love to get the chance to sit down with Kerry and Howard and have a laugh over it now. I moved away and haven’t seen them since High School.

The Great Orange War
When it comes to stupid stuff that happened during the first year of integration, it’s hard to top the Great Orange War. The Orange war happened in the winter months as I recall, it was cold and wet outside. My buddies and I were having lunch in the cafeteria and seated at the 50 foot long tables with metal folding chairs that we had in that era. I am sure the school has adopted a different table arrangement these days – but then they took these wooden folding tables and placed them end to end so that a section of tables had to be at least forty feet long. Chairs were on both sides of the tables and when kids put their trays on each side it left a nice little alley down the center of the table. I can’t remember what the entire menu in the cafeteria was on this day, but I do remember the desert. It was a nice round orange. I like oranges but I hate to have to peel them. The stuff gets all over your hands and the juice is sticky. I decided not to eat my orange, and since I was finished eating I took the orange and rolled it down the alley in the center of the table toward some of my buddies. Everyone thought this was funny and someone way down the way rolled the orange back to me. Well soon the orange is making the rounds back and forth and up and down the table. Very entertaining and it probably could have stayed that way if Robert Elrod had not decided to demonstrate his skill at speed orange rolling. Robert drew back and let that orange rip – it was going 90 miles an hour down the center of the table and it got by all of us. After this high velocity orange went past us, it proceeded down the table to where some black girls were sitting. The orange hit the edge of one of their trays - Flew about a foot in the air - and landed right in this black girl’s mashed potatoes. Oh that reminds me, I now remember what the vegetable of the day was, mashed potatoes. SPLUT!!!! Potatoes and gravy went all over her nice sweater and things got very quiet at our end of the table. None of us had any idea what to do about this terrible, unplanned accident. I expected another butt whoopin’ for starting the orange war.

Fortunately, I guess, one of the teachers heard the commotion and set about helping the girl clean up the mess and got her a whole new tray of food. We thought maybe the incident was over, so we finished up the meal and headed to lab class to goof around until class started. The weather was too bad to go outside. Richard Hooper (a real Native American – Cherokee, I think) and I were goofing around and some other guys were in the room as well. All of the sudden a black guy (I can’t remember the name, but he was an upper classman) comes in the room and points at one of the white guys. Outside the room is the girl whose sweater we had messed up. The girl shakes her head no. But we can’t see her. Then the black guy points at Richard – now I see her nod her head “yes” and this guy slugs Richard right in the face. Oh well, here we go again. I next found myself standing on a lab table getting ready to pounce on this black guy who had just knocked my friend to the floor, when a voice boomed at the door – “what’s going on in here?” Busted again. As I recall, Richard went home to take care of his wounds (he had a terrible looking shiner), I went down to Mr. Brian’s office and got another “butt whoopin”, and I think the black guy got expelled for a couple of days. This was the end of the Great Orange War. It didn’t last very long – all told maybe 30 minutes including the butt whoopin.

If you think about the stupid stuff that went on during the first year of integration, you can see pretty quickly that there really wasn’t that much to it. Kids will be kids no matter what color they are. Kids will roll oranges, kids will pick on one another, and again kids will be kids. The tensions that we felt at that time went past kid stuff though, there was a lot of fear and anxiety in the air. Because of this tension, ordinary stuff that kids do caused serious concern because it was between black and white kids.

Getting to Normal – Real Intergration
Once we got the rough edges behind us that first year, I think that things went very well. We had great football teams, a great band, and a lot of fun going to school together. I suspect that we learned a lot also, thanks to the excellent faculty that the school had. We also learned a lot from each other. I used the term real integration to make a point, real integration is not going to school with different people who are a different color than you because the government says you have to. Real integration is working, playing, laughing, learning and really caring about all the people around you. When you can do this as a person you are truly integrated and I believe that you will get a lot more out of life. If we could do it as a society it would be very special. We made some progress toward understanding this as my high school years passed and I would like to give you some examples.

The Student Council
A man that some of you know as Dr. James Patrick Griffin, MD is a white doctor in Naples today. But then he was just my buddy Jimmy, a good student and an average athlete. Kenneth Hannah (Kenny) was probably my best black friend. Jimmy, Kenny and I ran for student council on one ticket, and were chosen by our classmates to lead the student council our senior year (1972-1973). We had fun at this. One of the first things we did as a student council was to launch a campaign to clean up the campus. We got some 55 gallon barrels and assembled a group to paint them up nice for trash barrels. We put out a school newsletter a couple of times, which I think we sold for a dime a copy. And we put together some money for a dance at the school. Blacks and whites worked together on these projects.

Homecoming
I believe that during this time we elected our first black homecoming queen. As I remember This was not easy, the blacks tended to vote as a block for the black girl and the whites did the same. However, what nobody realized, was that there were several us who didn’t care too much for one of the white nominees and we switched sides and helped elect the black girl. There were just as many blacks as whites, but when a few of us jumped ship, it tipped the scale.

Getting Ready for the Next Steps
High School ends for everybody sometime (I think). And at this point you have to start thinking ahead. Are you going to college? Where can you get a job? Anybody want to join the military? For many of us our choices didn’t seem that good.
The Vietnam was was going on at this time and I had already had an older friend killed in action. Nobody really understood why we were in that war, and nobody could figure out how we could win it, or how to get out of it. It was a mess. So the military was not a very good choice then. I suspect that many of you today may have the same feelings about the Iraq war.

College, now there was an interesting idea. Unfortunately, many of us came from low-income families and the prospects didn’t look good for college. I went ahead and took the college entrance exams anyway. I knew I didn’t have the money to go, but what the heck, I was pretty good at taking tests and a lot of my friends were going. So we took the test together, I believe it was given at the Armory in Mt. Pleasant. One guy who took it with us was a black guy named Nathan Collins. Nathan was one of the best students in school and I believe that he was the valedictorian of his class. He was definitely in the top ten. So we took the test and I was never more amazed.

My first amazement was my own score, I had top scores in math and science portions of the exam. My English score brought my average down a bit, but overall my score’s were good enough to get me into almost any school in the nation, and so were my classmate’s Jimmy Griffin’s, Ross Canant’s and Chet Coker.

I was amazed at how well I and my fellow classmates had done on the exam. All that math and algebra that Mrs. Griffin and Mr. Ranes had pushed us to learn, all that science from Mr. Nance and Professor Mitchell had pushed us to learn, and all that the other Pewitt Teachers had done – had made us all very competitive academically. Most of us good go anywhere and compete academically with anyone from any big or rich school.

The lone exception amongst my friends was Nathan Collins who had scored below the national average. As you probably guessed by now or already knew, Nathan was black. I knew Nathan Collins very well, he sat next to me in Professor Mitchell’s physics class. Nathan was the top student there and in virtually every class. To sum it up he was a smart guy, and very nice guy as well. I asked Nathan how his score could be so low? Nathan said to me, “I think it is pretty simple, I must be below average”. It truly hurt me to even hear Nathan say this, and I know that score had hurt him badly. There was never anything average about Nathan; he was at the top in everything. It would be years before people began to understand that somehow racial bias had crept into those standardized tests. This story does have a happy ending though, I know that Nathan finished college and believe that he also became a medical doctor. I’ll bet if Nathan is a doctor, he a darn good one. Nathan was good at everything he did, except for that test.

The Future:
One thing I have been wrong about was the future of race relations. I had thought that my generation had paid the dues and paved the road to eliminate racism. Unfortunately, I now realize that our contribution was not near enough. There is still prejudice in this country and it is just as wrong now as it ever was. It seems a shame that all of the tension and struggles that my generation and the generations before me (black and white) went through to try and make things better…..just haven’t been enough.

I’m 51 years old now Tara, and what I have learned about desegregation and integration is this. Integration is not about people of different races living together, going to school together and ignoring one another. Real integration is working, playing, laughing, learning, loving and really caring about all the people around you.

I think the best quote I could give you on this would be this one:

Let there be peace on earth; and let it begin with me.

The integration of Pewitt School while I was there helped me to learn this. I hope I have been of some help to you and your classmates. Thanks for asking me to participate, Tara.

All the Best Tara, to you and your classmates,

Mike Roberts
Pewitt High Senior Class 1973

You Don't Have to be a Weather Man...but maybe you do..

2008-12-07T22:47:00.006-06:00

As I remember it, the catch phrase of the Weatherman Underground was '' you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing".

However in the case of Fortune 100 Executives, maybe they could use a thermometer (rectal I am sure) for evaluating their companies and their performance. Here are a few key questions that one might use in determining the qualifications of some Fortune 100 execs:

How smart do you have to be when you show up to beg for money, to not show up in a Corporate Jet? Isn't the fact that this happened, an indictment of these Execs?
How long can you expect the corporation to pay your multi-million $ salary while the stock holders lose money every year?
Why do you wait until even the UAW offers concenssions on its contract to even evaluate your cost of doing business?
Who's calling the shots anyway - do you need the United States Congress - a body of Lawyers to tell you to sell the corporate jets/cut costs/and get meaningful products on the market?

As we all know, these guys are asleep at the switch, and it is not just GM CEO, Rick Wagner. This is a common US corporate problem. It is the exact reason why Toyota, Hyundai, Sony, and others have run circles around US corporations for years. The leadership of many of these U.S. corporations are "LAME", and they have extremely weak boards. These "alleged" board leaders need to:

1. Remove the execs.

2. Resign.

Most of them have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are only self interested and incompetent.

Car companies aside, if you look at North American Paper Companies it is intersting to see that how on one day that a major analyst anounces that the demand for paper is down by over 15% and a few days later, that two paper company execs announce that they will close a couple of mills and reduce production. How smart do you have to be, to make these rear view mirror decisions? Just wait till the market watchers tell you how to run your business. Further, why would any stockholder pay you a multi-million dollar annual salary for this type of rear-view mirror mangement?

I expect it will only be days, before the International Paper Company announces the sale of their 3 jets and hanger facility at the Memphis Airport. But more than likely, we will wait until some "Stock Analyst Wank" tells us to. Who's running the company anyhow?

Like I said, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. On the otherhand .... if you are a Fortune 100 exec - a weatherman could be helpful. Hope the weather changes....

All the best,

mike

From the back of the unemployment line

2008-12-06T22:35:00.014-06:00

Today the "labor department" released statistics that said 530,000 more people lost their jobs this month. This brought the total for the last 3 months to 1,250,000. How does one stand out amongst 1,250,000 other non-working Americans? This is how my dear old pappy did it in 1955.

I really don't like writing stories like these, they are too revealing and honestly not very funny. On the other-hand, this is a true story about me and my family that almost no one knows (even my sister). If anything, it shows why I will never give up and am so stubborn. My Dad, faced obstacles 10x what I ever will, and he never complained. For me to complain, would violate everything Dad stood for. I personally don't like this story, but it is true and probably needs explained. Here we go....

The View from the Back…………
Of the Unemployment Line

Long about 1955, a disabled Marine Corp Veteran stood at the end of the unemployment line in San Diego, California. He had just about given up hope on finding a job and carried a loaded 38 Special tucked in his belt and under the old jacket that he wore. The gun was there because this young Marine had planned to rob a liquor store; with a goal of stealing enough money to send his 1-year-old son to Northeast Texas on a Greyhound bus. He decided to try one more time to find a job, before committing a dangerous crime.

Along with the 38 Special tucked in his belt, he held his one year old son in his left arm at the end of that long unemployment line. The baby was sick and crying, and nerves were coming unraveled, both for the disabled Marine and the other folks ahead of him in the line. Just as things were about to snap in the young vet’s head, a man from the San Diego unemployment office walked up and said, “Private, can you drive a truck?” The young vet said, “yes sir!” and was told to report to the San Diego Box and Spring Company, for a job immediately as a truck driver. He took the baby back to his sister’s house, and reported for work at San Diego Box and Spring.

A year or two later, with his war wounds still haunting and hurting him, this same young Marine Vet, came back to East Texas with his bride and his son. Work was scarce in Northeast Texas, so he picked cotton, even with the mortar wounds and shrapnel still in his back. Many nights the pain was so great he laid flat on the hard wood floor, sweating and hoping for some relief. Next morning, he went out to the fields again to try and make a living for his family. I don’t know if he ever knew it, but he did a damn fine job.

You see, that young wounded Marine was a guy named Roy Glenn Roberts, and he was and still is my father. Probably because of all the pain and hardship my dear old Daddy had to bare, he had a major stroke when he was only 48; and died when he was only 60. But he left my Mom, and me, and my sister, DeAnna, with a huge legacy. Not in terms of wealth, money, or anything like that. He left us with a sense of pride, hard work, and determination. Moreover, he left all of us with a complete unwillingness to quit or give up. And for that, I am eternally thankful.

I hope I can show you a little bit of Dad’s determination in me; from the back of the unemployment line.

All the best,

Mike

By the way, today is Laura Zander Cole's birthday. Please join me in wishing her many happy returns. You can reach LZ here LauraACole@comcast.net

All the best to the Cole Family - especially Laura,

from
mike

This Just In!!!!

2008-11-30T09:15:00.000-06:00

Tiger "Let Go" by GM in Cost Cutting Move

Peter Baker, NYT Sports Editor

In a move that came as no surprise to the Business World and the Professional Golf Media, Tiger Woods was released from his multi-year contract with General Motors. See picture at right, "Tiger Tells GM What To Do With Their Renedevous"

When interviewed about his release, Tiger explained, "I had seen this move coming for some time, and had talked about it with my old golf buddy, Mike Roberts down in Memphis. We knew that when International Paper let Mike go, I would probably be next on the list of high profile, highly paid professionals who would be cut by the Fortune 100."

Asked what he would be doing in his spare time, Tiger said he hoped to get some "fill-in" work with Roberts in writing the now famous blog, The Let Go Journal. He also stated that, "while Mike is a great writer and a brilliant entreprenuer, I think I could help him some with his Golf game."

When contacted by telephone for comment, Mike Roberts, managing editor of the Let Go Journal, told the New York Times "Yeah, Tiger and I go way back, and we'll find something here at the Journal for him to do. I told Tiger, life doesn't owe us a living - but a Lear and a Limo wouldn't be bad. I think Tiger and I will getting along just fine without GM or IP."