Watch as the Minnesota Vikings make one good play against the Eagles...then Fail.  The Eagles fan at the end has the last laugh now.  



(with my friends Rob, Matt, and Shawn--January 4, 2009)

So, Barack Obama is our new president.  The country has spoken, loudly.  The liberal viewpoints of our nation would not be quieted.   And that's just fine.  We live in a democracy and I will say always, the greatest nation on Earth.  And our country allows us to speak, allows us to chose those who will lead.  Whether I am on this side or that side, the process is one for all of us to share and participate in.  And more of us participated in that process yesterday than ever before.  That makes me happy and optimistic. 

Yet, I am so very confused.  As a conservative, I differ from my party platform on two points.  First, I am not opposed to abortion in some instances.  My own reasons here.  Second, I am whole heartedly opposed to the limits placed on loving couples who happen to be of the same sex.  Gay marriage, civil union, whatever you want to call it, it doesn't matter. 

Last night, President-elect Obama stated words of healing and union in his speech to our nation....

"if there is anyone out there, who still doubts that anything is possible..."

Well, now ask those loving couples in California, Arizona, and Florida if they continue to doubt that anything is possible. 

Proposition 8: Right to same-sex marriage

Amends the California constitution to specify that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. 

Yes:   5,163,908  (52%)

No:    4,760,336  (48%)

Florida

Amendment 2: Marriage protection

Amends the Florida constitution to protect marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent shall be valid or recognized. 

Yes:  4,674,626 (62%)
No:  2,855,423  (38%)

Amends the Arizona Constitution to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in the state.

Yes: 1,039,792  (56%)
No:  801,315   (44%)

There are many who still have doubts.  How heart breaking. 

How to win......

1.  go there.
2.  don't win.
3.  avoid po-po.
4.  go again.
5.  stalk.
6.  WIN


Number ONE:


Number TWO:



Number THREE:
 

Number FOUR:
 

Number FIVE:

 

Number SIX:
 

Holy shit man......  this just in......   so, local Minneapolis radio station has this rockin promotion going on right now, giving away free gas to listeners.  The way to win is by listening for the location and time where the 93x van/vehicle will be and driving around that area with your 93x bumper stickers prominently displayed.   They pick your license plate, read it off on air, you call in, you win.  Thursday, I go.   They are not only giving away one years supply of free gas, but also 100 pairs of tickets for the Kid Rock concert to the first 100 cars/people showing up at a Jimmy Johns restaurant in one of our lovely suburbs.   So I go...and boy was it a madhouse!!  Hundreds showed up....cops felt the need to patrol the lot....it was crazy fun!  I get the tickets no prob...(don't really super like Kid Rock but....fun), but....don't get the gas.  As a matter of fact, the plate they did read off was a dude I was chattin with, wishing good luck..etc. And the dude never called in!!!!  Dunno what happened, but sol dude. 

The next day, Friday (yesterday) I try again.  This time, another suburb..but, $500 free gas with meet and greets to the big Kid Rock concert next Saturday.  No meeting anywhere, just cruisin up and down the particular street they identified and crossing fingers you run into the 93x van.  I found him fast..as did a handful of other cars.  Before too long a little line of 93x bumper-stickered vehicles were dutifully following the 93x van in hopes of being the one picked.  I leave the cruise after about 40 minutes...had to work.   At 4pm, they call off the plate...and....and...and.....IT'S MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, the moral of the story is this....I am told so many times how 'lucky' I am...I win alot of radio prizes, fun shit...but, my whole belief is that luck is 99% perseverance.   

Meet some great guys during the Thursday madhouse....shout out to Zach and Jesse!!   Dudes.....I FUCKING WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Good news, but, unfortunately I won't be using the tickets we got from Thursday so I won't be seein ya's at the show.  

Pictures to follow soon............................ 

School is back in session.  On my bike, I travel there daily, past the city, past the people, and past the 35W bridge collapse site.  It still lies there, tangled, sad.

Lying there, motionless, lifeless.  It seems so calm......


A witness to the tragedy cannot escape....


Bent and broken, twisted in perverse and unnatural angles....




Identification still lying with its corpse....


Arms still attempting to wave us in.....


To nothing....


Broken legs.....



Crushed ribs.....



Severed arteries and veins.....



Dismemberment.  The autopsy begins....




A good friend still stands by, refusing to leave.....


The remains will all be donated, cement, steel, all to be recycled and used in new projects.....new life elsewhere.....ashes to be spread throughout Minnesota.......

And its broken heart....

Does this dude look like Brandon Flowers (frontman from the Killers)?????





The "real" Brandon from Google search.....


And finally,  my pics of Brandon from MPLS concert in 2007....





OK, just a thought.  I’ve seen this dude on campus and don’t wanna become a stalker.............

The Anderson Brothers drove their bicycles around our small town.  Of course we always made fun of them because they were old men and neither had ever married.  They lived together; didn't bother no one. 

Everyone knew who they were, and didn't bother them.  They liked that.  They kept up their deceased parents home, which sat kiddie corner to the home they had purchased and habitated.  It was very easy to keep an eye on the old house, not that it was urgently necessary to do so.

We still made fun of them.  Never out loud, never mean or vile, we just thought it was funny and peculiar that they never married and lived together.

What did they talk about to each other?  They certainly didn't talk to anybody else.  Two quiet old men, not alot to say to the world or about it, for that matter.  Maybe in what they didn't say, is what they really spoke the loudest.  The world wasn't very comfortable it seemed, to the Anderson Brothers. 

They liked each other though, because they knew each other for so long.  And when you know someone that long you can pretty much say anything to them, or not. 

When they rode around the town they rode on old bikes even.  They rigged up the metal shelf on the back tire, and attached an old milk crate to it to haul whatever purchase they made that day. 

Funny I remember them going to auctions.  They liked auctions.  I wonder why.  They never really did anything with the auction finds, like those ones who scavenge for lost treasures to take in for the highest appraisals.  But not the Anderson Brothers. 

Sometimes it was an old mower that needed repair.  The Anderson lawns were emaculate, and very tidy.  The houses were tidy.

We broke in one day, to the Anderson parents old home.  We lived right across the street and soon enough the temptation was overwhelming for a group of bored teens.  I'm not even sure if the doors were locked.  The place was as it always was it seemed.  A bit dusty, but not intolerable.  A bit musty smelling, but not overly.  It was tidy but dim. 

I took the metal elephant cigarette dispenser.  It seemed old and almost exotic.  The top of the elephant opened up to house small hand rolled cigarettes.  I knew this because my modern day Marlboro's didn't fit the storage area.  With the crank of the elephant's tail, a trap door in the elephants belly opened up and dispensed a cigarette.  I didn't take it to any appraisal house, my treasure.

I'm not sure if the Anderson Brothers ever knew that we broke in.  If they did, they certainly didn't do anything about it.  They continued on in the same daily routine as always, while we watched for any sign of discovery.  No signs ever came. 

The Anderson Brothers just lived on, not saying much.  I think they knew.  But the Anderson Brothers didn't bother no one, and no one bothered them. 

The only known physiological purpose for tears is to lubricate, and wash debris out of one's polluted eyeballs.  Then why do we cry when saddened?  Is there some dissipated ick of sadness that hangs in the air, clouding our eyeballs so that tears must fall and cleanse?  Do we create a matter-bound body of lingering sad?  I do not know the answer or reason, but I known why I cry today.  Saying goodbye to my friend...

http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k18/lev011/?action=view&current=DSCN1280.flv