I WANTED TO BE ENTERTAINED

Photo taken half way up Mt. Kearsarge this past week

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It has been a week since the Super Bowl. For years now I've watched out of habit and sought to find entertainment in the commercials. The game(s) have been “ho hum” at best and quite often I find other busy chores to get me through the event. Because the game goes well into my bed time, I opt out mid-way knowing I can read about it the next day. If I ever had a horse in any Super Bowl race, everyone of them have let me down.

But this year, it was the game. GREAT game and I really did not have a horse in the race. 

I am a Lady Gaga fan because I like her voice. I like her music. (and yes I have watched this a few times with sound up) Her flamboyant dress and performances are not as bad as early years and I am entertained (an opinion).

So, I too looked forward to her half time show this year. Says she has been planning this since she was four years old. Never before in memory have I watched a half-time show. Bare breasts, shaking asses and tongues hanging in my face are far removed from my entertainment interests. But, I like Gaga. I think she was well aware of her 13 minute window to the world. Moms, dads and children could have watched this year's performance together. What a concept!!

And I admit here, I wanted to believe. Especially when she opened with God Bless America: patriotic music, and wearing a harness with wires attached. The drones painted the American Flag in the background and she jumped. Yep, jumped off the top of the football dome into center stage. 

Then, as she was falling, on the guided wires to the stage, my inside sensors went off. But I WAS damned if they were right and I turned them off. She was falling. But on they came again. And the moment passed as her performance continued. I liked it. The music, the performance, the dance (and I dislike most of today's dance), the choreography and her touch with the cast and crowd. I wanted it to be what I saw. I wanted to be entertained!!

IT WAS AN ILLUSION. YEP AN ILLUSION. And my gut told me something was missing. The jump out of sight and then her falling mid air. Looked awesome, accompanied by music and the cheer of the crowd. Hook, line and sinker if not for the gut telling me to watch out. “Something was not as shown to the audience.”

Still, I was entertained and cannot deny that. I did believe and that over rode my gut by 90%. And now, days later I learned it was an illusion even to see a video of her rising to the roof on wires as her opening singing was live streaming to the world, pre-recorded. All anyone in the stadium had to do was look up. My only regret is that I did not just simply enjoy the entertainment along with trusting my gut. But, in the end, well done!!  And another good lesson for paying attention to my gut feelings, too. If the NFL had anything working for them these days, they would book her for LII. We could enjoy another half time show and the kids could watch.

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Hermon and Spooky 
Working their bed in front of the winter wood stove.

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FANS

I laughed to myself this morning. I have learned that Patriot Fans are very serious. Do not step on their team, players and walk so tenderly when offering comments about the team outside of the greatness they are.

I walked into a local small store last week before the big game and joked that I had heard that Tom Brady just broke his arm. You could have heard a pin drop in the whole entire store. I knew some of the folks working there and thought a little joke would be fun. But I was the only one laughing in the store and had to immediately tell them it was a joke. I kept laughing but none of them did.

With all of the hate these days that folks put up with, to the point of violence on someone who wears a “Make America Better Again”, I would thoroughly enjoy watching a snowflake tell a Patriots Fan to take off their Patriots hat because it offends them. Or to take off the numbered 87 team jersey shirt because they feel unsafe.   Front row seat preferred. And for added content, do it in front of a mob of Patriot Fans. Ooooooooooooooooo---tingles!!

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ORDERING A PIZZA: PEPPERONI, BLACK OLIVE AND XCHEESE

I have a local pizza joint put in the "contacts" list in my new phone. Gave it a name and told "Jane", the girl in my phone, to call. She did, said the correct pizza joint name. A guy answered, I ordered and said I would be there in fifteen minutes. 

I arrived and proud of using voice technology, while driving hands-off, to order a pizza. I'm gettin it!!

The gentleman behind the counter said he did not have that pizza ready to go because he did not get the order. Questioned who I called and offered that maybe I had called his brother's pizza joint a few towns away. 

Nope, I had the correct number in my phone and it was up to Jane to do her job. 

 

Somewhere still, there sits a pepperoni, black olive with extra cheese pizza waiting for pick up. 

What can ever possibly go wrong? 

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CALM BEFORE MID WEEK STORM #2

Just started to snow here and we are on a storm line prediction of 5" - 10" to 18." The bride has left for town for an important event and meeting. Cannot/would not stay home on this particular day. So, we put a few plan(s)A,B and C to get her home and up the steep switchback driveway. Snowfall predicted to be 1-2 inches per hour during her return. A hard hitting, short term storm. Tomorrow wind chill below zero all day.

These are the days that we prep for year around. Bug out bag(s) and in-home readiness. Small pot of clam chowder on, tractor and snow blower fine-tuned, woodbox full with wood stove in the burn zone. All dog business done for the morning, vehicles topped off yesterday, flashlights with batteries set out, phones charged, ham radio on local simplex monitor. Cell phone texting plan and check in. Hand held radios with fresh batteries all. What else?

Now this Sunday morning and just getting ready to publish, feet of snow forecasted. My romance with winter this year is officially over.

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Close friends shared this photo of Mt. Washington from their trip north last weekend. Lenticular clouds often form over/near mountain tops. A visible sign of bad winds always. Pilots taught to give them a wide birth. 

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NH CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY PASSES STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES    GOVERNOR WILL SIGN  

Not a peep from our local television on the evening news. Soooo true to form and agenda. 

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IS WAR ON THE HORIZON?

I know not how else to get into this as I wrap up this week. This wears on me. I listen to some news, try to listen between the lines and come to understanding of the constant drums for violence.  Push is coming to shove while keeping in mind that the aggressor sets the rules.

I came across the following in The Woodpile Report this past week. A  good write up on the recent Berkeley riots.

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• "The anarchists are by far the most dangerous of these groups. They are organized like militias. They actively train and practice their operations. They have discipline and zero tolerance for weakness. They have a number of former military personnel providing expertise to enhance security, logistics and martial arts capabilities. The majority are physical fit, military-age males. They are primarily white with few minority members. Their leadership tends to be either former military, a proven leader from the occupy movement or a highly educated alpha-male........."  

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1968 was an historical year of rioting in this country. Violence and protests. But I missed all of that with a year's tour of duty flying in Germany. I was border-qualified to fly the German/Czechoslovakian border. We flew daily to monitor the border and watch them watch us fly the border on their radar. We were sport for them as their radar guns followed us along the border.

In August of that year, Russian invaded Czechoslovakia.  

I remember that word came down to our unit, to get our spouses and families ready to leave German immediately. Government personnel were packing to do the same. There was a real time threat of the Russian tanks in Prague heading to the border and enter Germany. An act of war!!

We were sent to fly the border and monitor a crossing check point from Czechoslovakia into Germany. We had landed and were notified Russian tanks were on the road heading to that checkpoint. We took to the air to watch and report. Nothing else we could do. 

I remember watching a long row of tanks running right up to the crossing arm of that checkpoint and then stopping. Stalemate. They blinked and eventually pulled back. As fast as all of this was coming into play, it ebbed and the tanks withdrew.  

I realize now how far removed I was from the enormity of that moment. I had no idea of world politics in play, although as a border-qualified pilot, we were well instructed that any border crossing error, during our flights, meant an international incident.  

 

I so hope that I am wrong and all of this is just an old man spinning worry. But like the dog when her hackles go up,  I feel something is brewing.

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Have a safe week and as always, heads up when you are out and about.