My Beef (one of a handful)

A sports radio talk show out of Detroit used to have a weekly segment for fans to call in and give their 'beef' with anything that's on their mind.

Some links below from their "What's your beef?" segment:

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/whats-my-beef-week-7/

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/whats-my-beef-week-18/

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/whats-my-beef-week-21/

My latest beef is with canisters with powdered drink solutions in them. The views below are when I opened each. Both aren't even 3/4 full. Fill it to the brim please!

Some other recent beefs revolving in my large melon:

People that film concerts with their cell phones. You're there, watch the show as the video will be forgotten next week (and will have my voice yelling at you in the background instead of the band playing). Watching the show here and now will be much more rewarding.

Spam e-mails. I wonder who is the creator of these and where they are sending them from. Is it their primary job? What pleasure do they get corrupting someone's computer that they don't know?  I am naive to think that everyone ignores them but with idiocracy alive and well, I'll bet there are some who treat them as legitimate e-mails and click away on the links.

Social media addicts with filtered pictures (and social media in general). First of all, get some real friends outside of your computer screen and the filtered picture isn't going to help when people see you in person. "Why do you look different?" will be the topic of conversation when they do.

In the spirit of the NFL draft this weekend in the D, mock drafts eight months ahead of the actual draft. I know it gets the "clicks" that online publications love to get but most aren't even close. I recall a few years back in a "way too early" mock draft, the "experts" were calling Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson a first round pick, possibly top 10. He didn't even get drafted.

While on the topic of sports, I'm all for college players not being held hostage at a school when things don't work out for whatever reason but the transfer portal has become a joke. A little less than 2% of college players will suit up in the NFL (I looked it up) so Player A who transfers after he didn't get enough playing time in the spring game goes to another school, probably dropping out in the middle of the current semester, losing any course credit there and probably not going to class at the new school until the summer, possibly the fall. Those 98 percentiles are going to eventually have to get a non-NFL job and those 12 credits accumulated over four years aren't going to help the process. 

It's all about me but the pre-season college football magazines that come out in the upcoming weeks that I love to read are now going to have put disclaimers on their reviews, such as "prediction is based on Player A and Player B still playing for the team in the fall."

Trail Head

Rehab With a View

Father Time brought me in for another round of rehab as the hips I've learned have arthritis and my  prostate body part has me heading to the john a handful of times each night (I didn't think it was possible to pee that much). While the prostate is being handled with some pills, physical therapy called for the hips, again. I had physical therapy on them about a decade ago and was usually able to get by with some stretching since but they've had their own heartbeat at night lately with the throbbing so off to the local therapist I went. 

Physical therapy around here is handled at the local hospital which resides on a hill overlooking Lake Michigan. The physical therapy equipment is what you'd see in any other location with the rubber balls, stretch bands, mini-stairs and a handful of beds but what a view! While the therapist is pushing you to do one more set of excruciating exercises, you look out at endless blue waters in one window and the Elberta Dunes in another. A good example of pain and pleasure.

Trail Head

Way Back Machine - throwing marbles

The way back machine takes us back to the 70’s this week to the time when marbles, specifically marble throwing, was the thing to do at Spring Mills Elementary school. There was no social media. Yay!!!! I don’t believe anyone partakes in the activity anymore and not sure who started it but it had its day in the sun for me in between slaughter ball/war and kick ball games. I’m going off my pea brain memory on how it all came down and even if we were playing the official rules but here is what I recall.

You had your basic, small size marble with some labeled “cat’s eyes” that were clear and had some form of object in them. The small marbles were more or less the peasants in the marble world, the pennies in a sea of coins. I can’t remember what we called the larger marbles but they were the envy of any marble collection. Lastly, there were ‘steelies’ which weren’t really marbles; they were ball bearings from someone’s dad who worked at a tool & die-type factory but in high demand within the marble throwing world.

I don’t know if everyone played this way but the premise of our version of marbles was one person threw their marble out there (can’t remember who had to throw first) and if the other person hit the other marble with theirs in the air, the marble that was hit was theirs. It was key to make sure your initial throw had some force behind it as if you missed, the other person got to shoot at your marble from wherever your attempt landed.  If it was a large marble versus a small marble, the small marble had to hit the large marble more than once (the large marble owner would place the count needed) for ownership of said large marble. One kid had a HUGE steelie (larger than a large marble) and would ask for something like 20 hits for ownership of it. The thing was so big that if you hit it a couple of times, your marble would shatter and the game was over for the little guy.

I recall being pretty good, not great, at the craft as I had my share of large marbles but no huge steelies. I think my collection is buried deep within a city dump somewhere today but a fun time it was.

Trail Head

More Idiocracy - Advertising Overkill

Referenced on here before, the 2006 movie Idiocracy, the story of how the world several years from now will be, is again proving true. This time in the form of advertising. One scene has a character in the movie watching the show, "Ow! My Balls" as the 150 inch television screen is surrounded by a ads.

Advertising was my major in college and thankfully not the profession my career evolved into as I have to use my Atari abilities from the 80's these days viewing anything online with so many ads thrown at me to shoot down with my joystick/mouse. I understand the rationale as the bills need to be paid but wish there was a better way. At least in newspapers (the paper kind), the ads weren't jumping out blaring a horribly bad jingle with nothing of importance to me. You read the articles within the paper and turned to the next page when a full page of car ads was presented. I enjoy reading the newspaper (the paper kind) at the local diner for breakfast but recently went to purchase one and the Detroit daily version (non-Sunday) cost $3.50. With that, sadly newspapers are becoming the dinosaurs of the millennium.

If newspapers/magazines (and the people working for them) could speak, I think their primary statement would be, "Ow, my balls!"

Trail Head

Breakwall Fishing and bathroom protests

Pictured in the attached are not tourists looking for that social media picture to share with their internet friends or protesters to the new beach bathroom being proposed (https://www.recordpatriot.com/news/article/northern-michigan-town-faces-beach-bathroom-18693930.php) but fisherman looking for the big one off of the big lake breakwall. A virgin to the process, I gave it a try yesterday without success but witnessed a few conquests by others and got a few tips observing. I hope to have some breakwall fish views to share in the future; along with what will probably still be bathroom protests.

Trail Head

The Luckiest Guy in the World

There was recently a documentary on television about a former NBA player who was portrayed as the luckiest guy in the world. As a sports junkie, I had to give a view and came to the conclusion that yours truly might be even luckier.

First and foremost, I was fortunate to be born in America and not some third-world country. We have no say in the matter of where we are born so I don't put any ill will towards others from different upbringings/locations/nationalities, unless they are stupid/do stupid things. They didn't ask for it; this is the life they were dealt and I got lucky for the most part.

I was brought up by loving parents who taught me the right and wrong of life. If a spanking/slap in the head was completed, it was justified as I did some stupid things along with being a crybaby in my youth.

I have been blessed with a great group of friends. Not Internet friends. REAL friends, most of whom I've known since the teen years. And sorry, as the Seinfeld bit goes, I'm not taking applications right now for any new ones. Good with what I have.

My adolescent years were spent in a town where the local police (in most cases) more or less would shoo you away like a stray dog when you were doing wrong.

I have a big head, literally, as I knew it was large looking in the mirror each day and can't get a ball cap to fit me (one size does not fit all).  I got my picture taken at the Secretary of State the other day for my drivers license and that screen they show you of what your license picture will look like REALLY shows the enormity of said head. Wow. But big head aside, I somehow have managed to date some pretty cool (a few wackos), attractive ladies over the years. My 45-15 dream is still out there in living with a girlfriend/wife for 45 days with a 15 day break/separation after the 45 days; and repeating the process. I know you're out there 45-15 girl.

I have been rewarded with good hand/eye coordination. I've mentioned it on here before but my kickball prowess got me through having to attend three elementary schools with family moves.

I've thankfully been employed for the last 34 years, even with a few major screwups early on in my career. Part of the job going in was looking for consumers who were behind on their car payments. I had a Porsche taken from a driveway one time as it was behind but it turned out it wasn't the correct Porsche. What are the odds that someone would have two Porsche vehicles? Slim, but it happened. We returned the wrong Porsche to the consumer and ended up taking the correct one a few months later. Another faux pas early in my career was when they installed an automated calling system in our office. There was no dialing involved as the system would do the dialing and direct an answering party to one of the collectors. The collector would speak to the person (most times an answering machine) and click an icon on the screen to hang up and queue the next answering party. I left a message on an answering machine, clicked on the hang up button (I thought), and made some not so flattering comments to myself about the delinquent party. It turns out the click of the hang up button did not take so my not so flattering comments made it on the consumer's answering machine. I crapped my pants when I heard the answering machine beep advising the message was complete in my headset. The automated calling system pilot was soon scrapped. In both instances, I kept my job so to the youth out there, we are all going to screw up one time or another. Get over it.

As bad as covid was, it allowed me to move to the most beautiful, simple place a few years ago. 

They say cats have nine lives, I think I've been through five so far as I've had some close calls over the years.

Lastly, I'm probably going to lose my memory in about a decade but while I fretted about it in my 20's, I've accepted it as regardless what happens (hoping for the hair loss scientists to put their focus on memory loss instead), I've been pretty darn lucky.

Trail Head

Super Bowl fish - missing the Lions and a boat plug

The calendar says Super Bowl Sunday which means fishing in some fashion in the morning leading up to what should have been a Detroit celebration of the Lions making their first Super Bowl. The former happened but the latter unfortunately was not to be this year. What a celebration it would have been.

As far as fishing, folks were ice fishing in town four weeks ago but all the ice is now gone. With no ice, I was ready to make the maiden voyage on the row boat I recently purchased. Bestsie Bay is a quarter mile down the road so to the lake I went with said boat. The boat was at the dock and I was loading it with the tackle, poles, etc... when I noticed a couple of things. One, water was slowly gathering in the back of the boat and two, I forgot that the boat needed a plug. Uggg. Another life lesson learned. With that, the maiden voyage for the row boat would have to happen another day and my kayak would be my water vessel today. 

There were three other boats with the same idea I had. The temperature was about 32 but the winds were down so it was actually pretty comfortable. I went with the bobber/sinker/night crawler combination on my two poles but no fish to report for me or others I came upon.

Lions in 2025? Hopefully so.

Trail Head