• Something needs done.  Do it.
• Ideas are not more important than their implementation.
• Analysis is no substitute for execution.
• Think.  Act.  Repeat.
• Let your efforts pull your audience in, not shove them down a path you designate.

This was originally posted back in 2005.  I was fortunate to find it by using the “Wayback Machine” (Internet Archive @ www.archive.org), since I’ve managed to lose most of my content prior to about 2007…

Sadly both friends from this post have passed on.  I miss them a lot and I think this story will give you a feel for the kind of fun and friendship we had.

Original post: July 19, 2005:

I should have known when my friend Bob went down on the ice of the hillside that trouble awaited us.

We were helping our friend Steve move some items from his in-laws-to-be, to the home he and his new wife would be occupying. Mainly, we were there to transplant a spare refrigerator from the basement to it’s new residence a short distance away.

The first clue trouble was ahead should have been the fact that it was January. The next should have been the glare of ice on the lawn leading down to the back entrance of the house. Did you know that when snow melts then freezes again, the result can be slippery? Three reasonably intelligent adult males and that fact somehow didn’t set off any alarm bells.

As we made our way down the hill and around the back, Bob took a pretty hard fall, sliding toward the side of the house. Steve and I were having our own troubles staying upright when we finally made it into the safety of the basement. Despite the fact the ceiling height was about 5 feet and we all banged our foreheads multiple times, we still needed to get the refrigerator back to the vehicle. The theory was, after our adventures getting to the basement, we should strap the ‘fridge to a hand truck and try to take a slightly different route back to the U-Haul (or whatever the vehicle of choice was, I can’t quite recall) so as to avoid the skating rink on the hillside. Even though there was still snow on the ground in line with the path we were planning, it seemed like a safer bet to have it under foot than the other form of frozen water. It *sounded* like a good plan at the time…

Steve chose to steer the appliance from behind while Bob and I guided the thing from the front. That part was going OK, and we were making slow but steady progress until we got to a little rise in the lawn that required a bit of heaving on Steve’s part and a fair bit of shoving on Bob’s and my part.

At this point, you need to know that Steve had elected to wear treadless deck shoes for our little moving adventure and you also need to know that neither Bob nor I knew this.

While Steve was heaving to help pull the ‘fridge up the little rise, his shoes’ lack of tread became an issue…and both his feet slipped out from under him. Remember, he had the hand truck and appliance tipped toward him while he was backing up the little rise. When pressure overcame friction, the whole shebang landed on top of him. After a second or so of surprise, I lost my composure. If I had a camera and had been cruel enough to think of it, I would have snapped a picture or two. It was like something from a Saturday morning cartoon. Here was a refrigerator laying in the snow, two arms extending from the sides at the top and two legs sticking out of the bottom…and Steve yelling for us to get the thing off of him. He didn’t sound like he had been hurt and frankly, I was laughing so hard that when Bob and I got the load off of him, I had to sit down in the snow to regain my self control. Thankfully, the hand truck and the mushy ground had helped to prevent any injuries to poor Steve.

I’m not sure what the moral of the story is here, but I can tell you that snow, deck shoes and refrigerators are not a good combination in the middle of January, particularly when you add three supposedly intelligent males to the mix.

I’m finally returning to the blog…at least a little.  It was time for my annual clean up and refresh of the site.  Let me know what you think.

“Let me get this straight.  We’re going to be gifted with a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.

What the hell could possibly go wrong?”

- Unattributed

My brother-in-law had to have a double heart catheterization yesterday.  He has to have at least one a year since his heart transplant.  Besides spending more than 15 hours there,  he was allowed to leave the hospital only after:

- I signed a discharge form, since he had been mildly sedated during the procedure.
- The nurse read an extremely long list of “do’s” and “don’ts” to him.
- He and I acknowledged the list.

…which took some 15 minutes or so.  My brother-in-law and I then headed down the elevator and then toward the garage.  The same nurse came running up, breathless, to recite a forgotten part of her script before we got out of the building.  We left the 5th floor, crossed a large lobby and walked down a long hallway before she caught up to us.

Why?  Because hospitals and doctors, nurses, aids, janitors, etc. are sued every day for every form of supposed infraction.  Who pays for these lawsuits?  Of course in the end, we all do.  However, those “greedy” insurance companies are first in line to pay,  not that I’m a big fan of insurance companies.  There are certainly many things that need fixed in that industry, but it’s hard to lay the blame for this insane desire of our elected officials to control your health care completely at their feet.

I won’t go into the rigamarole he had to go through **while he was in the O.R.** the last time he had one of these, all in the name of helping prevent lawsuits… (think recorded disclaimers, ad-infinitum)

Wanna help control health care costs?  Spend some effort focusing on the insane number of lawsuits that are filed each second of every day.  Will that “fix” health care in America all by itself?  No.  But imagine what a difference it could make.

The President, while attempting to help save the Mass. Senate seat from a loss to (gasp!) the Republican candidate, yesterday said of Scott Brown that “It’s hard to suggest he’s going to be significantly independent from the Republican agenda,”

He was kidding right?

Of course it’s obvious that he and his Congressional cronies have absolutely no agenda, right? Sorry contestant, that would be incorrect!

Isn’t this the President who while campaigning for office, promised at least 8 separate times that the entire so-called “Health Care” debate would be made completely transparent, available to the public by outlets such as C-Span, CNN, etc.?  How’s that been working out?  Does this complete veiling of that process suggest an agenda-free Congress and Administration?  Not even close.  I won’t even get started on the stunts that have been made so public, where the Democratically-controlled House and Senate have pulled dirty trick after dirty trick to exclude any real Republican input into the process.

The hypocrisy of our Socialist POTUS and Congress is un-paralleled and this desperation move simply continues to cement that as fact.  I believe the public has begun to see these hypocrites for what they are and I’m truly hoping that they demonstrate it on Tuesday.

If anyone has an agenda, it’s without a doubt the President and his buddies over in the Capitol.  Focusing attention on someone else to distract from your own crimes doesn’t change that fact that you committed ‘em.

Amidst my grousing about our political situation, there’s still much to be thankful and happy for.

So…

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas and remember the reason for the season.  It isn’t about gifts, or Santa, or the need for a holiday to boost the economy.  It’s about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and the eternal gift He brought to the world for all generations.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

if you think that Congress even remotely represents the people who put them there?  I just pray that the American public remembers the complete lack of interest these bozos have in our interests, and VOTES THEM OUT as soon as humanly possible.

Honestly, have you ever seen such a total disregard for the will of the people?  (Rhetorical question follows) What happened to “BY the people, FOR the people…” ?  Clearly these jokers don’t give a crap about what you and I want.

As far as the political timelines go, November 2010 can’t come soon enough…followed by the 2012 voting season…

Emphasizing a point or two from my previous post, a friend provided some very informative links:

• “We are no longer a nation of laws…”
• “Harry Reid slips in a bombshell…”

In a nutshell, these criminals are so acutely aware that what they’re doing is illegal and unwanted, they inserted language into the Obamacare bill that ensures their handiwork won’t be changed in the future.  I shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow it still takes my breath away…

Arent’cha glad to have this gang of thieves looking out for your best interests?

Thanks to Sean for the links!

You’ve just successfully:

• Ignored the *vast* (did I mention *vast*?) majority of tax-paying American citizens.
• Passed a bill that was largely unknown in detail (to both sides of the aisle) until released late Saturday night.
• Forced passage of a bill *neither* side likes. Reasons differ, but the fact remains…
• Passed a bill with myriad un-Constitutional provisions.
• Passed a bill whose financial scope is unprecedented, while claiming that it will eliminate the already-enormous deficit.
• Passed a bill that even the Congressional Budget Office claims is outrageously overpriced and over-hyped.
• Squelched *every* Conservative attempt at amendment.
• Voted to create the single largest Socialist construct in American history.
• Lied about and obscured what you were doing to the American public every step of the way.
• Voted to leave a legacy of deficit spending and unprecedented government control to our children and their children…
• Forced me to help pay for abortions, which I vehemently oppose.

Great job, Congress.  ’Don’t know what we’d do without ye… Oh wait, I do know what we’d do without you. We’d live free of the kind of intrusive, controlling, deceiving crap you daily force on the American public, who foolishly put you into power.

Great job, Congress.  May God continue to bless a nation so intent on ignoring Him.