Dream Weaver

This year has been a weird one so far for this large melon; particularly my dreams. They've became so funky that I started putting a sheet of paper on my bed table to jot them down for recall. Surprising I haven't had the one in awhile where I missed all my college classes and the semester was ending. I've had that one in years past but it hasn't made an appearance this year. The meaning of dreams have been analyzed to death and I have no theories; they are just weird.

With that, I give you my list to date:

- I'm shopping for clothes in an airport. Not just the shirts that advertise the state you're in. I'm shopping for every piece of clothing.

- I'm mountain biking up a hill thousands of feet in the air.

- A repeat performance in a few dreams but can't find my car.

- I lost my shoes and walk up a very long spiral staircase looking for them.

- My bicycle is stolen at a check point.  I have no idea what the check point is for but it's a check point.

- I'm crawling through a small hole in a house and everybody has a letter jacket on when I make it outside the hole.

- I'm with friends at a family's house that none of us know.

- I'm shore fishing with strangers on a hill.

- I'm at a school for some reason and I look down a very deep hole where people are calling for help.

- I'm taking a shower in the middle of church and a person I don't know approaches me and says "I know what you did."

- I am sitting at a work desk that has too many people at it. I don't know any of the people at the desk.

- I park my truck on a street, walk to a family's house I don't know. After leaving the house, I can't remember where I left my truck.

- It's raining inside a house I don't recognize and water is leaking everywhere from the ceiling.

- I walked many miles to see friends. The directions I have make it even farther. When finally arriving, I discover that the friends had a bet how long it would take me.

- I'm looking to repossess the former president's (the MAGA idiot) two cars.

- I have a file in my hip that the doctor's ask if they can remove to alleviate the pain.

- I'm at a party, don't know anybody and have no way to get home. I end up taking a shower with my clothes on and sunglasses.

- I'm at a football game, don't know anybody and everybody keeps changing seats.

- My dad pops up everywhere I'm at as strangers transport him to my locations. He doesn't say anything but is always there.

Again, no sense to them but bizarre. 

Sleep tight (a saying I still don't understand).

Trail Head

Trailer Time (revisiting my last trailer experience)

My spring project was finalized this week and got a chance to see if this mechanically declined individual didn't screw up assembling a trailer with some boat roller modifications. Thanks to YouTube for the assembly instructions as the trailer had quite a few parts to assemble in addition to brake light installation. While it took me a little longer than the individuals online making it look so easy, I think I did okay. Now it was time to see if it would tow a boat. I was optimistic the trailer would be fine, however, my last time trailering anything didn't work out so well. 

Queue the Way Back Machine to the summer of 1990 (1989?) when yours truly was working one of the many post college jobs until finding my footing in my current career that is going on its 34th year. I worked for an auto rental company. Their niche against the competition was that they would deliver the rental car to you. How was this done with only one employee doing the delivery you may ask. The person delivering the vehicle would  drive the car being rented and tow a very, very small car behind. Something like a Geo Metro as I recall. So one very hot afternoon, yours truly was on his way to delivering a rental going down I-696 right about when rush hour was kicking in. All was well until traffic about 10 cars ahead of me came to a sudden halt for whatever reason. I put the brakes on as everyone else was doing so no issues for anyone in a single car, however, with the Geo Metro in tow for me, when I hit the brakes, the vehicle in tow swung around the car I was driving, went on its side and pulled my vehicle on its side as well. I made the traffic report that day along with a careless driving offense getting attached to my driving record. I remember asking the police officer as I climbed out the window if any other vehicles were impacted. "No, it was just you." Needless to say, that job didn't last long.

Fast forward to yesterday and while my nuts clenched a bit going around some hilly turns, I'm happy to report the trailer successfully made it to the lake without incident. 

Trail Head

also my first boat motor experience - a little
work to do there with a bit too much tilt

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