Hard to believe, the year is almost gone. I can’t even remember what happened yesterday as it went so fast. The government (dems and gop) are still fighting with the only ones losing being us, everything costs more these days, especially our health care (thanks Obamacare!) and Christmas will be here before you know it. I’m going to stay away from all the bad things economically that are on the horizon, but know they are there!

Instead, let’s look at the latest money grab from our leaders, check this out.

Ameritown was a huge success with the oldest looking sharp and doing a great job. Meanwhile the misses was helping in the medical center, how apropo.  I was up north of town for work and made it home finally about 2pm. After school the oldest went to his friends and mom and the youngest went to d.i. That’s about it, not much going on except busy busy busy.

It’s almost 7am and mom is getting ready to rush the oldest to school for soccer while the youngest went back to bed. I’d normally take him but I need to try to pick up a new running back for my fantasy football team and the computers unlock at 7am sharp.

It’s cold outside, about 25 degrees. It’s supposed to warm up to the 60’s and stay that way for the week. Mom’s ready to take the oldest to school in her pajama’s, my down coat and clogs. Only she can look cute dressed like that!

Well time to run as it’s almost 7am. Have a great day and be an individual, do something you always wanted to do but never did. God Bless

Today is Ameritown at school. The entire 5th grade participates and every student has a job. The oldest is, I believe, the head accountant for the town. He wanted to be the banker but his talent for math and numbers landed him the accountant job instead. Looks like they put the kids with the best math skills in that position rather than the banker position. The misses is one of 14 parent volunteers for the entire day. Then right after school she heads to one of the youngest kids houses to help with D.I. (Destination Imagination) until sometime after 4pm.

Meanwhile I’ll be working as it’s getting down to crunch time for me to get about 1 million dollars worth of orders before the end of the year.

The house looks great, especially the trimmings around the doors. My favorite is the multi colored lights in the big tree that are just kind of thrown all over the place.

The oldest went to Jen’s party yesterday afternoon and they brought him home around 5pm. They had a blast as Jen received an Ipad for her birthday that they played with a bunch. Some World, 10 year olds getting $500 Ipads.

Ok now that you’ve had a break, here’s an article for thought, it’s pretty interesting if you think about it.

People Controlled By A System Which Eliminates Thinking

November 25, 2012

While unknowingly controlled by the system, these people don’t even know what they don’t know. It is unfortunate, sad, and frightening, in that our future as a species is changing as a result of a system which is eliminating the need for sensible ‘thinking’, or to even ‘think’ at all.

Jeff Rense recently summed it up nicely when he said, These people are so manipulated and so controlled now, that they are no longer individual people. They are a mass. They are a hive. They are a flock. They are a group. They are controlled. They are homogenized.

They are so homogenized, they look alike, they talk alike, they act alike, they watch the same things, they eat the same junk food, they die the same deaths, they suffer the same toxicity… physically, mentally, emotionally.

They have the same emptiness inside. Look in their eyes…

A failed species. They’ve quit, these people. The whole entitlement culture is a virus which has taken charge of the majority. They want. They no longer want to work. They are given, and then almost immediately become addicted to receiving. They love it.

Have they failed? Or have they been captured, put in mental and spiritual internment camps… Even though they are still allegedly free, they are captives of the system, a media dominated system, an education dominated system (if you can call it that any more) that is so insidious, so clever, so thorough, that they are no longer people. They have been re-configured. We are being mutated as a species on the earth.

At one time, people had their own opinions, they had views on things, they were open to discuss with other people… Today you can’t do that. Today no one’s interested in talking about anything of any importance… because it has nothing to do with what is important in life today like basketball, football, and sports… so they look at you like you’ve got three heads when you start talking to them about anything that requires thinking.

It’s rather frightening. We know where it’s going… remember the film, “Time Machine”?

The world was filled with people who all looked alike, no one knew anything about anything, …the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to the future, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival.

Is this the place of the future?

If you think about this, it’s pretty much spot on. We all are conditioned to think Cadillac’s, clothes from Polo and Rolex’s are signs of wealth that we should all want while Hyundai’s and clothes from Kmart are signs of not being very successful. We’ve been conditioned to think that owning things are what is most important in life. Like it or not, we are a very materialistic society. What’s more scary is how we have all been brainwashed by media in general. I often think back to when I was a kid and visiting my grandparents. It seems they had a different more active, and yes harder, but more rewarding life. Do you remember probably when you were younger, finishing a big job or task and how good you felt? When was the last time you felt that way? When did you really feel satisfied  like you completed a hard days work that made a difference to you and others? Now we just all get on the computer or phone, with little face to face contact, and do some job where we can’t see any real results. Everything these days is just an excel file or a number. I remember when my dad as a banker, made decisions on who to loan money to based on his relationship with that person. He took the time to know the person personally and made his decision based his knowledge and feelings on whether or not the customer was a good risk. Now all banking has been reduced to formulas. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you don’t fit into a certain criteria, forget about getting a loan. Just try to get a home or business loan today if you don’t have a specific credit score. It’s all out of whack, I wonder how my dad would do business today, I’ll bet he would still look at the individual rather than some set of numbers.

So today, go out and be an individual, do what you want to do, not what society or the media tells you you should do. It doesn’t have to be dramatic, just start thinking out of the box. You and the World will be better off for it, trust me.

God Bless and Go Bronco’s!

And it’s not even done! That’s right, our house is already attracting lookie loo’s that drive by, stop and/or back up, then look for a few minutes and drive on. The misses now has red bows that are lit up hanging from each of the 3 upstairs windows along with little red trees around the house and of course as I said the other day, white led trimmed lights from the roof. We also have colored lights wrapping the big tree and icicle lights hanging from the branches but wait, she’s not done yet! More to come, not a lot, but more. Oh yea, you should see the garland around the doors, also wrapped in lights and then adorned with red tree branches we cut from the side of the road on the way home from Aspen with pinecones weaved in.

Now to the day, here’s a comment from Grandma Annette, thanks for participating.

Yesterday we managed to get white icicle lights up on the front of the house along with more lights in the big tree in the front yard. Lots more to do which I’m sure will be wrapped up today. Inside the misses finished the tree, (she has a specific place for each ornament) and has new garland up on the mantle. She has a few new things in store for the decorations above the front door as well, stay tuned, we’ll have to send pictures as she ought to be doing store windows on Madison Avenue!

The boys played hard, especially the youngest guy, mostly at the neighbors. I managed to stay mostly away from work yesterday except for checking a few emails. Our dinner invite last night was postponed as their son has a fever and we decided we didn’t want to chance it. As it turns out, the oldest now has a sore throat too.

This morning the news has a study that says we are getting dumber as we evolve as a specie’s. To me this really isn’t much of a surprise. Think about it, if you lived hundreds of years ago, you had to be physically fit and mentally sharp just to survive. They say the “use it or lose it” theory is fact when it comes to your brain. If you accept this as fact, we’re raising a whole generation of idiots that are glued to useless banter on the tv. God help us and future generations.

Yesterday in Colorado was the single largest day for background checks to buy a gun in the history of the state. The agency that does the checks had to beef up its staff to handle all the people wanting to buy a gun. We had over 4000 people purchase a firearm on black friday. Now I’m all for this as it’s a proven that the states that have the highest percentage of firearm ownership are also the lowest in crime. This you cannot dispute as it is a fact. Think about it, Montana and other western states where gun ownership is the highest have the lowest crime rate while places like Chicago Illinois have the highest crime and murder rate in the country. You see, criminals are less likely to commit a crime if they think their victim might be armed, and that’s a fact.

Back to our family, the youngest has a party and sleep over tonight and tomorrow the oldest is going to Jen’s birthday party. It’ll be a busy weekend for both boys. I think the misses head is getting a bit better but we’re not out of the woods yet.

It’s almost 6am and in closing I have to say, not a single one of you posted on what your thankful for. This is really disappointing, I thought for sure that at least some of you would contribute. Maybe you we’re all consumed with black friday and haven’t read the post yet or are still sleeping from too much turkey. In any case, we hope you gave thanks in some way for what you have in your life, even if you don’t want to share with the rest of us.

So, take care, have a great weekend and God Bless. Also today is Small Business Saturday, meaning go shop at a small business.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with Grandma over at 2:30 for the big meal. Before that there was lots of playing, running last minute errands and other things needed, plus a little football.

The newspaper yesterday morning must have weighed 10 pounds with all the black friday ads included. In the Sears flyer they had 50 inch flat screen tv’s for $299 which is about $800 off. Just for kicks we decided to drive over there for the 8pm opening. The misses guessed 75 people would be in line, I said 200. When we arrived, each door had a good sized line with probably over 2000 people total. The doors soon opened and people were sort of running in to get where they want. We came through the back entrance where the tools are and headed over to electronics. When we arrived there, there were hundreds of people in a line from coming in that side of the store. It didn’t take long before one guy in particular was yelling at all of us, more than 100 strong, telling us we can’t come through the store this way and had to go out and get in line. Of course nobody listened and the misses and I instantly knew this had the potential to turn into a really bad situation fast. All it would take would be one guy, like that guy yelling, to throw a punch, or pull a knife or a gun. The misses and I made eye contact and knew right away, we had to get out of there. Now first off, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, but I’ll bet that no one there had over a 9th grade education. It wasn’t a good crowd. You could see the potential for violence escalating every second, so I grabbed the oldest and Mom had the youngest and we headed out as fast as we came in. The youngest said he never wanted to go back there again as it was flat out scary.

On top of it, the store’s ad said they could have as few as 4 of the advertised tv’s meaning there would be a bunch of unhappy people very soon.

On the way home we decided to drive by the scourge of the earth, Walmart, to see what kind of crowds were there. We were not going in, just going to see the crowds. Turns out they too were already open and the parking lot was chaos. We quickly drove through and headed home.

So this was our first and last time ever going to any kind of black friday event. It makes you wonder what are these peoples priorities, are they just buying to buy? Do they really think they’ll get that much better of a deal at midnight? Don’t they know the stores use a few loss leaders to get you in hoping you then buy the other regular price items. They had a study on the news saying many things in these sales have been less expensive earlier in the year, oh well, I guess it’s all in the perception.

So today, without a new 50 inch $299 tv, we will be putting up Christmas lights, playing some football and eating some turkey. Our bird was a little dry in the breast but overall not bad. We’re on a mission to find some giant pinecones for the misses. Turns out they really only grow in Oregon on sugar pine trees. Hope I don’t have to drive up there!

Tonight we’re supposed to go to some friends who have kids in school with our kids. We skipped all 3 invites yesterday and decided to just stay home. It’s tough to go out after the big meal. I’m trying to stay completely away from work until Monday as we all need a freakin break. It was great to have my Mom over as we can’t seem to get her here much.

No articles on the dangers of our World or society today, I’m giving you all a break from your continuing education but don’t be lulled into sleep, the issues are still out there. Hope everyone has a great day, take care, stay safe and God Bless.

First off, here’s a couple of comments from yesterday, both from down the street!

1. Blondie says:

   November 21, 2012 at 7:46 pm

   Not to sound “upity” but I think you meant blow this popcicle stand! LOL
   Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads this Blog:)

   Reply
2. Tom says:

   November 22, 2012 at 1:17 am

   Noticed you didn’t get your lights up! Slacker, you have until Friday night! Ha ha.
   Must be busy, cause your usually almost finished by now!

   Now I’m not one to correct, but I think the saying, as I remember it, is “blow this popcorn stand”. I hadn’t heard “popsicle stand” before, maybe it’s a gender or geographic thing. As far as my lights, well Uncle T is right, I just haven’t had the time. I was going to try to get them done yesterday but had to take the youngest to the doctor, go grocery shopping ($306! WOW is food expensive!) get the youngest a hair cut and that took us right up to dark which now comes about 5pm.

   We have three football games on tv today, which I’m thankful for as football is a nice diversion from all the pressures of life. But I wanted to ask all of you to comment on what you’re thankful for. For us as a family, there’s the obvious, our health, a roof over our heads, food on the table and all of you. But if you dig deeper and think about it, what do you come up with? I think too many people focus on what they don’t have, rather than what they do have. I’m not just talking materialistic things either. You might focus on not being able to lose those few extra pounds rather than how healthy you are and so on. So, let’s hear it, what do you have to say. I’ll take Peyton Manning off the table right now as everyone in Denver is thankful for him!

   By the way, Peyton is feeding over 10,000 people today through his various foundations. He’s not only a great quarterback, he’s a great guy. Go Bronco’s!

   Today my mom is coming over at 2 or so. We decided (or I did) to get a turkey anyhow. I did get a pre cooked one from Whole Foods and hopefully it’s foolproof. I did this mainly for the kids as Thanksgiving is supposed to be turkey and all the trimmings. After all, we’re not Chinese or anything. We’ll also have mashed potato’s and gravy, green beans, stuffing, assorted salads (like my mom’s famous cucumber salad) and pecan and cherry pie with home made whipped cream. Put that together with lots of football and you have a traditional Thanksgiving.

   Uncle T and Aunt B are having, I think, her parents over. This morning I think we’re going on a walk with a bunch of people and then going to one of our friends houses for coffee and pastries. Then we’ve been invited to stop into another friends house in Genesse and then dessert at more friends this evening downtown. No pressure, just lots of invites.

   It’s almost 5:30 and I’m headed to the gym. Everyone is still sleeping. It’s good to be home from Aspen. As I said yesterday, we enjoy Steamboat much much more than Aspen. It was so pretentious that it makes Paris look like a little mid western town. (no slam on Paris as it’s one of our favorite city’s on earth!) Anyhow, it’s great to be back home with the dogs and our own bed.

   In closing, take care, have a great day and God Bless. Let’s hear from all of you on what you’re thankful for, it shouldn’t be that difficult to come up with something. Hope your turkey turns our great and don’t eat too much as there’s always tomorrow and leftovers, which are really the best part anyhow!

    

Ok, we had a successful day business wise and the kids played hard in the park but, we decided Aspen is just not our cup of tea. The restaurants are good, in fact great, as are most of the stores, but there’s just something about the place that doesn’t fit. I think it’s the people. No one was rude but everyone appears pretty upity. Anyhow it’s just not us, we’re much more of a Steamboat family.

So it’s almost 7am, I’ve showered and the misses is out and getting ready and soonn we’ll head down to our free breakfast and then as they say, blow this popcorn stand. We should be home before noon and today I think I’ll put up the Christmas lights and play some football or lacrosse with the boys. I have some work to do but don’t feel much like working, just like spending time with the boys and trying to make the misses happy, which I think means white led Christmas lights.

So there you have it, time to leave the land of the rich and famous, thank God, and God Bless you all too!

After a half a dozen or more stops at various accounts, we made it to our hotel by about 3pm. The boys headed straight for the pool for some much needed excercise. Around 4, we headed out to exchange some jeans the misses bought last week. Then it was off to Monday Night football dinner at Matsushista, the famous sushi restaurant that has $5 specials on Mondays. We were told tom get there early so we did and were second in line which was lucky as it filled up fast. After that we stopped into Finnbar where we had dessert and then it was back to our room by 7:30. I think all of us but the oldest were asleep by 8.

Today I have a few stops today after breakfast and then the boys will play in the park. Tonight we have a dinner at 5pm and that’s about it.

It’s nice here, about 50 degrees in the day and 20 at night. There’s no snow but the ski areas have managed to groom a run or two with snow making machines for Thursdays openings. We do need snow though.

The kids are getting restless so time to go. have a great day and God Bless.

We won! Yea! It was a good game in that we won but as the misses said, it was kind of lack luster but our defense was great. I think we only gave up something like 46 yards in the first half. Anyhow the important thing is that we are 7 and 3 and our closest division rival is 4 and 6.

We arrived around 12:30 to the parking lot and the girls put together a great spread of meats, cheeses, olives, peppers, chocolate covered almonds and more. After grazing for an hour or so we headed in for the game. Even though the game was back and forth, the four of us had a blast.

We slept in as it’s after 7am now and we’re going to try to hit the road for Aspen by 9:30. I have about six stops on the way up that’ll take 5 minutes each so we should be there by a little after 1. Then I’ll head into town to work a bit more while the kids will hit the pool. I’m not sure where we will eat tonight but tomorrow we’re at L’Hosteria. Anyhow it’ll be good to get out of town for a day or so and I’m sure the kids will have fun.

Now onto our dysfunctional society. They just showed people on the news camping out for a week or more to be the first in line to get into Best Buy on black friday. What are these people thinking? The girl they interviewed said she took vacation days to sleep in front of the store for 2 weeks. From listening to her talk, she should take her money and go back to school!

We have lots of invitations for places to stop in on Thanksgiving. One in Genesse, one here in the morning at some friends house and one at 6:30 Thanksgiving night downtown. I think we’re going downtown after our big meal. The misses is making game hens as I think I told you a few days ago as she says she can’t cook a turkey and doesn’t like it anyhow. Personally I like the side dishes the best like mashed potato’s and gravy, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Turkey sandwiches are great too, better than the actual turkey dinner itself. Maybe I’ll order one up already cooked if I can find a good place.

Well, we have two hours to pack, load up the car, shower, and have my Monday morning conference call and then hit the road, so time to go. Hope all’s well, be safe this week and take care. God Bless and whatever you do, don’t go sleep out in front of a store to buy us anything, just send a check!