Today is tax day and I have to pay again this year – so much for the talk about Indians not paying taxes. Gas is fast approaching $4 a gallon with no end in sight. Geez, who’s making the money off us consumers? The oil companies, the Arabs, or is it all a ploy for big business to make more money off the American public again? I heard on the news that people are staying home and only driving to work to save money, which makes sense but that ain’t no fun after a while. I like being home though, it is my comfort zone for sure. Groceries are a big ticket item too. With all these sky-rocketing cost, somebody is making some money somewhere. The bad thing is the old people will have to decide: do I eat or do I fill my prescription for medicine I dearly need. It’s bad enough that nobody wants to mess with the old folks and now life will only get harder for them. It isn’t just old people though, the young people have to bear this current high overhead too. It’s too bad there isn’t a leader somewhere with a backbone to say “enough.”
On a lighter note, this week I will have been married for 40 years. Now let's put that into perspective, that is with the same woman, not 10 with one, 15 with another, and so on, but with the same woman. I personally think she deserves some kind of shiny medal from somebody, but we don’t do that in Indian Country, so I will have to take her to some fine food place and get her some right pretty flowers and maybe indulge in some mindless gambling somewhere in the hopes of breaking even. Seriously, I didn’t really think about this until recently and it is a big thing for an Indian to be married that long. Some people don’t even live that long. My cousin said “she put up with you that long.” Yes, she did. She even stuck by me when I got sick and had operations a few times. We aren’t perfect, but hell who is? Another friend said “pray together, stay together.” We have done that. Maybe that is a reason. We had some great memories from our daughters and their children that we are content with that alone. She put up with me for 40 years, but I think I did my part – I worked all those years except for brief times between jobs, I mowed her yard, tended her garden and was her chauffer for years, so I deserve my side of the bed. But, let’s be clear here: she was better for me than I was for her. And as Forrest Gump said, "that's all I'm going to say about that."
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Jayhawks, lawyers and politicians!
The dismantling of the Jayhawks has begun. The Morris twins are forgoing their senior years for the big bucks of the NBA, where they will drive the big cars, wear fine jewelry, have a wad of big bills that allow them to have a woman on each arm, another in the apartment and several more on speed-dial, but that ain’t nothing because they already had all that in Lawrence, so it must be the prospect of playing the LaBron James of the world that lured them away. I guess Selby is close behind, but he never really did anything at KU to be a lottery pick and second round draft choices don’t command anything, so good luck Josh in Europe.
Over in the “real world,” they sentenced several people in the Jayhawk ticket fiasco to well over 46 months in prison and they have to repay millions back to KU, but a lawyer in Topeka got drunk and killed some innocent guy walking down the road and he only got 42 months in a plea agreement. Who would know the legal system and how to manipulate it better than a four-time DUI convicted lawyer? This is Jayhawk Country! You can get more jail-time for selling tickets to your buddies than lawyers get for killing people. Of course, those ticket people didn’t know how to push the right button, but they will learn how it is in the local prison system.
But in the real, real world out East (D.C.politics), they are having a real pissing contest. One day they are shutting down the federal government, the next they fight over the debt ceiling and tomorrow they will fight over some dog fight in Atlanta. The reason for the fight is somebody is trying to gain some traction for the next presidential race and if they can make the other side look bad enough they just might win. Again, the Democrats hate the Republicans, the Republicans hate the Democrats and the devil hates us all.
I know these are some serious issues that I laid on your plate today, but maybe I’m still recovering from my operation or maybe its cause my riding mower is in the shop and I have to get out and push the mower tonight, which drives me to dark writing, but isn’t it fun living in the U.S. of A.?
Over in the “real world,” they sentenced several people in the Jayhawk ticket fiasco to well over 46 months in prison and they have to repay millions back to KU, but a lawyer in Topeka got drunk and killed some innocent guy walking down the road and he only got 42 months in a plea agreement. Who would know the legal system and how to manipulate it better than a four-time DUI convicted lawyer? This is Jayhawk Country! You can get more jail-time for selling tickets to your buddies than lawyers get for killing people. Of course, those ticket people didn’t know how to push the right button, but they will learn how it is in the local prison system.
But in the real, real world out East (D.C.politics), they are having a real pissing contest. One day they are shutting down the federal government, the next they fight over the debt ceiling and tomorrow they will fight over some dog fight in Atlanta. The reason for the fight is somebody is trying to gain some traction for the next presidential race and if they can make the other side look bad enough they just might win. Again, the Democrats hate the Republicans, the Republicans hate the Democrats and the devil hates us all.
I know these are some serious issues that I laid on your plate today, but maybe I’m still recovering from my operation or maybe its cause my riding mower is in the shop and I have to get out and push the mower tonight, which drives me to dark writing, but isn’t it fun living in the U.S. of A.?
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday Update!
I've been on the path to recovery, so I haven't posted anything as of late. Before this operation, I was having nightmares or maybe I was being delusional or maybe it was something demented in the recesses of my mind, but I had this recurring thing of rejoining my brother Larry. I would wake up from one of these episodes and thought damn, I havent' reached that rejoining stage just yet. I miss my brother a bunch, but I thought I had adjusted. After he died, I had nightmares and in time some of the pain left, but evidently, some of that stuff still lingers -maybe it's all deeply ingrained in the psyche and comes roaring back at times, kinda like the weather we had at the end of March. I always said I hope the Indians on the other side play some golf, then I can get back on the course with him again.
But getting back to the issue at hand, I had this operation on Thursday of last week. Normally, this removing a gallbladder takes about an hour and another hour or so in recovery then they cart you out the door to be on your merry way. It didn't quite go that easy. They had some problems and tore a cystic duct and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get it right. When I came out of that operating room, I don't recall experiencing such pain and they nurse said I was "combative" and it took a while for the morphine and pain pills to kick in, in fact, I had to stay a night in the hospital to get me right. Being naive, I told my wife when I get this procedure done, we would burn it to the casino afterwards, but that notion didn't pan out. The pain lingered for days afterwards so don't let anybody tell you these procedures or operations are simple because you never know what will happen when you go under. I've had some operations before and I always hated the idea of being totally out and depending on somebody else to get it right.
When I came home, I stayed home. I sat in my favorite chair and toughed it out. I said the pain can't last forever and it didn't. There oughta be easier ways to get a day off from work. Each day, I get stronger and I appreciate my family for giving a damn about me during this time, after all this is the definition of family, help each other when you can. I know one thing for sure, it better be a convincing argument to have another operation cause I ain't going to do it unless it's absolutely necessary to the point where I have to crawl into that hospital and say help me.
But getting back to the issue at hand, I had this operation on Thursday of last week. Normally, this removing a gallbladder takes about an hour and another hour or so in recovery then they cart you out the door to be on your merry way. It didn't quite go that easy. They had some problems and tore a cystic duct and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes to get it right. When I came out of that operating room, I don't recall experiencing such pain and they nurse said I was "combative" and it took a while for the morphine and pain pills to kick in, in fact, I had to stay a night in the hospital to get me right. Being naive, I told my wife when I get this procedure done, we would burn it to the casino afterwards, but that notion didn't pan out. The pain lingered for days afterwards so don't let anybody tell you these procedures or operations are simple because you never know what will happen when you go under. I've had some operations before and I always hated the idea of being totally out and depending on somebody else to get it right.
When I came home, I stayed home. I sat in my favorite chair and toughed it out. I said the pain can't last forever and it didn't. There oughta be easier ways to get a day off from work. Each day, I get stronger and I appreciate my family for giving a damn about me during this time, after all this is the definition of family, help each other when you can. I know one thing for sure, it better be a convincing argument to have another operation cause I ain't going to do it unless it's absolutely necessary to the point where I have to crawl into that hospital and say help me.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
KU Basketball one more time and other events!
We finished up our 4-day Spring Dance and everything went well. It seems to go by too fast. A lot of people don't understand and run our religion down, but it is our way and we don't much care what people say. I had to go to er after the first day. I guess in my advancing years some of the body parts don't want to cooperate with the program, so I have to have a gallstone thing done this week. As I've said in the past, if I knew I was going to live this long, hell I would have taken better care of myself.
During our Dance, the Kansas Jayhawks went down in flaming defeat, if you can call missing a slug of free-throws and 3-pointers flaming. They played during our ceremonies so we missed out on the crucification. My grandson forgot to record it, but that was just mean't to be. 35-3 is not a shabby record but we expected a tad bit more, us spoiled rotten Jayhawk fans. What are we going to do now? Who wants to watch the Kansas City Royals. We sure ain't going to watch VCU or Kentucky. I enjoyed this season so much. I look forward to every game and I had this routine and I stuck to it. I might have fallen asleep a few times during routs, but that too could be from age. We build ourselves up to a lather and it didn't pan out, but we will move on cause what choice do we have? Luckily the grass is growing so I can break out the old mower and do some grass-cutting and my garden planting awaits.
Locally the state guys are at it again. This one yahoo said Kansas needs to shoot those Mexicans from helicopters like they do feral pigs. He probably would like to off us Indians too but they haven't said that just yet. I'm not a light skinned Indian so I'm in trouble if I'm in Southeast Kansas or Phoenix Arizona, damn I survived many a bar-room fight but I might die from a Republican bullet. I thought somebody had a dream that everybody would walk hand in hand. Oh, they was talking about whites and blacks and that didn't include Mexicans and darker skinned Indians.
During our Dance, the Kansas Jayhawks went down in flaming defeat, if you can call missing a slug of free-throws and 3-pointers flaming. They played during our ceremonies so we missed out on the crucification. My grandson forgot to record it, but that was just mean't to be. 35-3 is not a shabby record but we expected a tad bit more, us spoiled rotten Jayhawk fans. What are we going to do now? Who wants to watch the Kansas City Royals. We sure ain't going to watch VCU or Kentucky. I enjoyed this season so much. I look forward to every game and I had this routine and I stuck to it. I might have fallen asleep a few times during routs, but that too could be from age. We build ourselves up to a lather and it didn't pan out, but we will move on cause what choice do we have? Luckily the grass is growing so I can break out the old mower and do some grass-cutting and my garden planting awaits.
Locally the state guys are at it again. This one yahoo said Kansas needs to shoot those Mexicans from helicopters like they do feral pigs. He probably would like to off us Indians too but they haven't said that just yet. I'm not a light skinned Indian so I'm in trouble if I'm in Southeast Kansas or Phoenix Arizona, damn I survived many a bar-room fight but I might die from a Republican bullet. I thought somebody had a dream that everybody would walk hand in hand. Oh, they was talking about whites and blacks and that didn't include Mexicans and darker skinned Indians.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The here and now!
If you haven’t heard by now, our Jayhawks have kicked the first round jinx out the door and have overcome some jitters in winning their first two games of the NCAA basketball tournament. I sat in my chair getting pretty animated, said a few choice words at times and analyzed the action so I can report it here. The Hawks are finding ways to win, and the old formula of pounding the ball inside to the Morris twins seems to work best and on occasion Taylor attacks the basketball and even if he misses, the twins will slam home a miss. The newspapers are projecting the twins to be lottery picks in the next NBA draft and if they leave it will leave cupboard bare for next year, but we will worry about that on a later date.
The three-point shots of Morningstar and Reed have cooled as of late, but they will hit when it counts. I like what I’ve seen so far. A 34-2 record isn’t shabby in anybody’s book. On a side-note, I hate listening to some of the ESPN announcers. Some of the local fans have turned them off altogether and listen to the local radio station. I might have to try that. I didn’t get into bracket gambling because I don’t want to jinx the Hawks. Last year I almost won the one here at the office but that last shot rimmed off so I ended up with nothing, but also the Hawks went down in the second round. We fans can get superstitious too. They made the announcemnet that Bill Self and Roy Williams will play in a Charity skins event on May 15th here on our golf course. It might be a good time to offer Bill some advice.
The next game is scheduled for San Antonio this Friday. I have religious obligations so I can’t be there (like I really could) but I may have to sneak out of church services if it is in the evening. I’m sure the man who knows everything is a KU fan too, in fact, I’m sure of it. If somehow we did lose out earlier than expected, we won’t sit around and cry about it, we will reload and go for the glory again next year, but we want the glory this year.
The three-point shots of Morningstar and Reed have cooled as of late, but they will hit when it counts. I like what I’ve seen so far. A 34-2 record isn’t shabby in anybody’s book. On a side-note, I hate listening to some of the ESPN announcers. Some of the local fans have turned them off altogether and listen to the local radio station. I might have to try that. I didn’t get into bracket gambling because I don’t want to jinx the Hawks. Last year I almost won the one here at the office but that last shot rimmed off so I ended up with nothing, but also the Hawks went down in the second round. We fans can get superstitious too. They made the announcemnet that Bill Self and Roy Williams will play in a Charity skins event on May 15th here on our golf course. It might be a good time to offer Bill some advice.
The next game is scheduled for San Antonio this Friday. I have religious obligations so I can’t be there (like I really could) but I may have to sneak out of church services if it is in the evening. I’m sure the man who knows everything is a KU fan too, in fact, I’m sure of it. If somehow we did lose out earlier than expected, we won’t sit around and cry about it, we will reload and go for the glory again next year, but we want the glory this year.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Calm before the Storm
What is fairly obvious in Division I basketball, especially after watching early league tournament results is you better be ready to play or you will be gone. Locally, K-State took it on the chin, as did Pitt. KU luckily escaped an upset in the first round; Ohio State needed an overtime to win; North Carolina came back from 16 down and won by one. Of course, this won’t affect invitations to the Big Dance which brings up a point I made awhile back –what is the purpose of the league tournaments? I would much prefer to cut right to the chase. In the Big Dance, you lose, you will be gone – a time to hit the road, pack the high-dollar bags and head back to the university dorm and all the pretty groupies there will console the losers, but the winners will go on to bigger and better things and eventually get the prom queen.
I enjoy watching KU play and count the hours till they play again. I think this is a surprising season for some, but around here we expect 30+ wins and making it to top five of the national rankings . One ESPN announcer said Bill Self teams are tremendous and when they fall apart in the tournament all you can say is “what happened.” We hope it isn’t the case this year and it shouldn't happen if they show up to play their a-game, which includes pounding the ball inside and take the 3-point shot when it's there, try and hit the free-throws and good things will happen. I will remain a die-hard KU fan until the bitter end. I drove by the campus one time. I didn't go to school there. I graduated from the local U - Washburn, but I've followed KU sports since the Bobby Douglass, Donnie Shanklin, John Riggins and later the Nolan Cromwell years and just about every basketball team since the Coach Owens days. If it makes any difference, I also like the KU blue colors and I always hated the color purple and not because of Oprah either.
To get back to the present, call me lazy, if you must, but I took a day of leave for the first Big 12 tournament game of KU and did some work around the house and stayed glued to that tube for the duration of the game and used some foul language at times, but you can do that in the privacy of your own home. The Supreme Court hasn't outlawed that yet. The justices are fairly lenient in some areas because they will allow you to picket the funerals of fallen soldiers. I suppose in their legal Republican eyes, they are interpretating the law the right way.
Oh, those protesters are living right down the road from our reservation. On occasion, we drive by their pickets and they are pretty graphic. One time many years ago, my nephew told the main guy in this group as they stopped at a light: "I saw you on tv last night." The guy told this young boy "f...you, you little faggot." So this highlights his mentality and this guy is suppose to be a preacher. Kansas isn't famous for him alone though. We've had some doozies here in Kansas beside those clowns, we had this one Attorney General who wanted to ban drinking on planes flying over Kansas. Another a.g. had the hots for the Indian tribes and did everything he could to legally spite the tribes. It was during this period that one guy said they have a sign on the Kansas border: Welcome to Kansas, Welcome to the past. And our local Kansas legislators will not be out-done. The have tried to limit or have outlawed strippers, smoking in public, allowed the sale of hard liquor in grocery stores, and almost put some mentally disabled people out on the street. I guess they are protecting the public in this way. I calling it forcing their beliefs on everybody else. These powers on one hand, allow these jokers to protest funerals and turn righteous in the next moment and passed all kind of moral legislation.
Who know what's next, maybe, just maybe they won't come into our homes and stop the cussin over basketball games because that is fun to some, but maybe not to all. So, enjoy it while you can. You never know what righteous country club Republicans will do next!
I enjoy watching KU play and count the hours till they play again. I think this is a surprising season for some, but around here we expect 30+ wins and making it to top five of the national rankings . One ESPN announcer said Bill Self teams are tremendous and when they fall apart in the tournament all you can say is “what happened.” We hope it isn’t the case this year and it shouldn't happen if they show up to play their a-game, which includes pounding the ball inside and take the 3-point shot when it's there, try and hit the free-throws and good things will happen. I will remain a die-hard KU fan until the bitter end. I drove by the campus one time. I didn't go to school there. I graduated from the local U - Washburn, but I've followed KU sports since the Bobby Douglass, Donnie Shanklin, John Riggins and later the Nolan Cromwell years and just about every basketball team since the Coach Owens days. If it makes any difference, I also like the KU blue colors and I always hated the color purple and not because of Oprah either.
To get back to the present, call me lazy, if you must, but I took a day of leave for the first Big 12 tournament game of KU and did some work around the house and stayed glued to that tube for the duration of the game and used some foul language at times, but you can do that in the privacy of your own home. The Supreme Court hasn't outlawed that yet. The justices are fairly lenient in some areas because they will allow you to picket the funerals of fallen soldiers. I suppose in their legal Republican eyes, they are interpretating the law the right way.
Oh, those protesters are living right down the road from our reservation. On occasion, we drive by their pickets and they are pretty graphic. One time many years ago, my nephew told the main guy in this group as they stopped at a light: "I saw you on tv last night." The guy told this young boy "f...you, you little faggot." So this highlights his mentality and this guy is suppose to be a preacher. Kansas isn't famous for him alone though. We've had some doozies here in Kansas beside those clowns, we had this one Attorney General who wanted to ban drinking on planes flying over Kansas. Another a.g. had the hots for the Indian tribes and did everything he could to legally spite the tribes. It was during this period that one guy said they have a sign on the Kansas border: Welcome to Kansas, Welcome to the past. And our local Kansas legislators will not be out-done. The have tried to limit or have outlawed strippers, smoking in public, allowed the sale of hard liquor in grocery stores, and almost put some mentally disabled people out on the street. I guess they are protecting the public in this way. I calling it forcing their beliefs on everybody else. These powers on one hand, allow these jokers to protest funerals and turn righteous in the next moment and passed all kind of moral legislation.
Who know what's next, maybe, just maybe they won't come into our homes and stop the cussin over basketball games because that is fun to some, but maybe not to all. So, enjoy it while you can. You never know what righteous country club Republicans will do next!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Phoenix, Gas prices and Winning Shots!
By choice, I’ve boycotted the fine city of Phoenix and won’t go there unless it is absolutely necessary, mainly because of the immigration stance they have taken. If I did go there, hell, I might get deported to Mexico cause I have the same type of features (shades of Born in East L.A.), but now this nonsense is getting close to home. Those whiter-than-me state legislators are pushing for the same type of laws here. If I’m stopped here (racial profiling), then I have to show a tribal ID and damn just think if I don’t have one on me, would I be shipped off to Mexico or some far-off land? What would I do there? I can’t talk Mexican, and I weigh too much to climb the big fence they have erected between the United States and Mexico, so I guess the only thing I could do is improvise and sit around and smoke dope or join the local cartel to make enough money to support my family back home.
It just seems to me, these politician people oughta be trying to fix the messed-up state budget, and at last count, it stood at $500 million. And did I mention this is is a Republican state? It has been for long, long time so they can’t blame Democrats for the huge deficit. It’s bad enough they are attacking the strippers and taking their living away from them. They make all these wise decisions in the newly renovated state capitol building (could this be the source of some of the deficit? At last check it was $172.5 million in expenditures so far and counting?) and now they want to target the dark-skinned ones in this state. Damn, what’s next? Will they put all the people at KNI out on the street?
At the gas pumps, our local station is charging $3.47 a gallon and in California it is well over $4.25 a gallon. It’s not all political unrest in the Middle East, some experts say the consumption by Americans is also a factor. Experts say gas is going up because the economy is getting better and the unemployment rate is going down. Oh, let me put this on pause for a second! The people are going back to work here in the US of A, so the best thing for big business is to raise the prices at the gas pumps. Help me, somebody, anybody, figure this out. Luckily I don’t’ have the energy to drive or fly to watch KU play in the Big Dance, so the gas isn’t a factor for me at the moment. But, it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not because KU is getting the scissors ready. Maybe poor old Charlie Sheen might have the time to watch a few games since Warner Brothers fired him yesterday
On a more serious note, the following story highlights the highs and lows of life: It is just plain awful about what happened to 16-year old Wes Leonard of Femville, Michigan. He hits the winning shot in a basketball game that kept the team undefeated for the season and a few seconds into the team celebration, the young man died of heart failure. This isn’t a desired outcome for any of our children and my prayers go out to this family in Michigan. The young man will keep hitting those winning shots in the afterlife.
It just seems to me, these politician people oughta be trying to fix the messed-up state budget, and at last count, it stood at $500 million. And did I mention this is is a Republican state? It has been for long, long time so they can’t blame Democrats for the huge deficit. It’s bad enough they are attacking the strippers and taking their living away from them. They make all these wise decisions in the newly renovated state capitol building (could this be the source of some of the deficit? At last check it was $172.5 million in expenditures so far and counting?) and now they want to target the dark-skinned ones in this state. Damn, what’s next? Will they put all the people at KNI out on the street?
At the gas pumps, our local station is charging $3.47 a gallon and in California it is well over $4.25 a gallon. It’s not all political unrest in the Middle East, some experts say the consumption by Americans is also a factor. Experts say gas is going up because the economy is getting better and the unemployment rate is going down. Oh, let me put this on pause for a second! The people are going back to work here in the US of A, so the best thing for big business is to raise the prices at the gas pumps. Help me, somebody, anybody, figure this out. Luckily I don’t’ have the energy to drive or fly to watch KU play in the Big Dance, so the gas isn’t a factor for me at the moment. But, it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not because KU is getting the scissors ready. Maybe poor old Charlie Sheen might have the time to watch a few games since Warner Brothers fired him yesterday
On a more serious note, the following story highlights the highs and lows of life: It is just plain awful about what happened to 16-year old Wes Leonard of Femville, Michigan. He hits the winning shot in a basketball game that kept the team undefeated for the season and a few seconds into the team celebration, the young man died of heart failure. This isn’t a desired outcome for any of our children and my prayers go out to this family in Michigan. The young man will keep hitting those winning shots in the afterlife.
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