Forget the headline..today’s entry really has nothing to do with comments on Sunday’s football games..well, nothing other than the Vikings managed to make me yell at the TV again as they tried their very best to give away a 14 point lead. But they didn’t and the Colts beat New England last night so all is well in my little NFL world.
I check the news entries on Keloland.com every day. There were a few this morning that caught my eye which I thought warranted a few additional observations.
“South Dakota Senator John Thune says he’s hopeful VeraSun energy will emerge a stronger company after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I think the future of ethanol is very bright, I think we’re experiencing a speed bump in the road that will correct itself over time.”
Now, I like John Thune but to say that the bankruptcy of Sioux Falls-based VeraSun, the nation’s second largest ethanol producer which is 2 Billion dollars in debt, might be a good thing in the long run..seems like a bit of a stretch. This “speed bump” sounds more like a brick wall. But what do I know? I’m stuck having to buy into my financial planner’s advice to hang-on..stay the course..in hopes that our meager investments will one-day rebound and thrive again. Like Thune’s “speed bump” he’s also fond of using euphemisms like a “hiccup” in the stock market instead of a crash; “course correction” instead of recession.
“Holy severed bat heads” Batman, the prince of &^%$#@’n darkness was in Yankton last week! Heavy metal rock legend, Ozzy Osbourne..who once bit off a bat’s head on stage was right there in river city with his wife and kids shooting footage for their new variety show, which has a working title of "The Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous." I must admit that I was a fan of the MTV reality show called “The Osbournes” which featured the controversial lead singer for Black Sabbath as the bumbling, mumbling husband and father he really is. It was hilarious.
After reading Shawn Neisteadt’s story on calculating our carbon footprint, I decided to find out how bad of polluters Linda and I are. I knew I was in trouble when one of the first questions asked was what kind of car we drive. Even though our big old Lincoln gets pretty good mileage it, along with the amount of driving we do, was apparently bad enough to give us a final reading of 7.5…or about the national average.
Now that gasoline prices are down around two bucks a gallon again (which many predicted would never..ever..happen) I wonder how it might affect people’s enthusiasm for going green or firing up their SUV’s that have been parked all summer.
I see that a federal prosecutor will be on duty Tuesday in South Dakota to take any reports of election fraud or voting rights abuses. Gee, I don’t think anything like that has been an issue in my precinct. About the only violation I’ve ever noticed are people accidentally driving into the parking lot of our polling place on the road marked Exit instead of Entrance.
Once inside, I always look forward to the friendly hellos from the nice old folks..all volunteers..sitting there checking off names, passing out ballots…and asking if we’d like a piece of candy from a dish on the table.
As I emerge from those few moments in the voting booth, there’s always a feeling that rushes over me about how lucky I am..how lucky we ALL are..to take part in this process and what a privilege it is to be an American.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience that feeling for yourself Tuesday.