Bicentennial Minute

Fifty years ago I was just figuring out that this life was going to be more than cartoons; year 1976. I hadn't reached year nine yet on July 4th that year but things were starting to form in my pea brain. The bicentennial year! Spirit of '76 fever was everywhere, they even made a car by the name (a bad one at that). The Tigers sucked, as did the other Detroit teams, but we had "The Bird." Besides the Bird, the one thing that stuck out for me that year was the minute long "Bicentennial Minute" segments that ran at night. My dad was a big "All in the Family" watcher and CBS ran them so I saw quite a bit of them. I couldn't tell you the difference between Thomas Jefferson and Joe Schmoe at the time but found them entertaining.

Go America!

Trail Head

A Bridge Too Far

My 50-something tune-up that I'm working through (until I have to start paying for health care out of pocket) hit a snag this past week. 

My lower front teeth were being supported for about a decade or so by the surrounding teeth, no bone support whatsoever beneath. A bridge to support/replace the teeth was eventually going to happen and no better time than the present. 

My permanent bridge would not be ready for a month so a temporary one was put in place after the dentist popped out the culprits. Be careful I was warned on eating hard objects, bagels, anything that could pop the temporary out. I've had temporary crowns in the past so knew the process.

Off I went out of the dentist office, got home, had a beverage, rolled my tongue around the bridge and out it popped! 

Back to the dentist I went, some stronger cement they said should work and off I went home again. An hour later, still no food in my system yet, rolled the tongue around the bridge and out it came again (I had to get a picture at this point).

Third time's a charm they say as they put on some super glue that will eventually need to be drilled off when the permanent comes in. Yippee.

Trail Head

temp bridge back

Skegemog 2026 - I listen to the wind

"The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli."

George Costanza

The sea (lake) was angry this weekend for the annual Lake Skegemog fish as the winds were making for some challenging results. My computer chair still has the west wind swaying as I type this. Buddy D. took the big fish for the weekend on a 4+ pound pike, just exceeding the 4 pound walleye (walleye are very rare at Skegemog) that Doke brought in the earlier session. I doubled my quota of one with a gold star to boat captain Slick who worked the winds with his trolling motor around the stumps; couldn't imagine if that trolling motor failed. A few groups brought in their five but culling was extremely rare this weekend. 

Outside of fishing, the meals continued to exceed expectations with the fancy griddles out there these days. The Duff/Weaver acoustic guitar duo entertained the masses post meal last night as we all tried to remember the words to various songs.

Great music and meals aside, I think we are close to creating a red/green light above one of the members of the posse of claims coming out of his mouth in recent years. Red light means bullshit, green is clear on said claim. Many were calling out bullshit to him this weekend.

Lastly, I did lose some valuable time in my life during about a 30 minute or so conversation/debate late one evening as my fellow fisherman were talking on the topic of what opening word they use for Wordle. Yep, we're old, but still enjoying the ride.

Trail Head

Tim V's 4 pound bass that was 2 pound

Munson for the photo bomb

Mother Cup Practice on Lake Favorite

Next weekend is the annual Mother Cup fishing battle so I had to get some practice in on Lake Favorite this morning. The lake is not actually called "Lake Favorite" but don't want word spreading too much of it's actual name as it has become my favorite. I wrote about the lake on here when I first moved to town and only gave it moderate reviews in terms of fish production, however, since then I've never left without hitting at least five keepers, a couple close to 18 inches today.

Hopefully similar production next weekend as I'm due for the weekend trophy.

Trail Head

Timmy Leaves (again)

It's been documented here that I have a propensity to do the Irish goodbye at gatherings in leaving early and not telling anyone to avoid the "you can't leave!!!!" call outs. There is more to it as I have come to the realization that it also applies to doctor visits, with justification.

Rewind about 10 years ago when I was getting some extra dental work done by a recommendation from my regular dentist. The surgeon was well respected according to my dentist but little did she know that said dentist overbooked his clients so everyone had to wait a little (lot) longer in the waiting room and/or the second waiting room. I went through the charade one time in waiting about 30 minutes for the dentist to arrive but fool me once, shame on you but you won't fool me again as I walked out the second time this occurred (DISCLAIMER: it wasn't a complete Irish goodbye as I gave my two cents to the front desk as I was leaving), reported back to my original dentist and never went back to him again. 

Fast forward to this past week when I had my hip replacement follow-up. I knew the process in having the other hip completed last year so I knew what to expect. An x-ray, a "how you doing?" and call me if there is any issues and I would be out of there in 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes came and went, then 30, then I told the nurse I had to leave and left. I got a call later from the doctor giving me a review of my x-ray and an apology. I should I have used the "it's not you, it's me" but it's kind of both as it's kind of sad that doctors have to overbook in order to meet the demand; and kind of sad that I have no patience.

Trail Head

Sunday Paper

A small dip into the way back machine today. "I'm getting too old for this" reason #143, I miss the Sunday paper; the pre-Internet version. The one that could also be used as a door stop in a hurricane it was so big. I was like a Pavlovian dog back in high school hearing that paper delivery person drive by early on Sunday morning. I could be in a cold sleep and pop up to hurry down and grab the paper before my dad claimed dibs. We sometimes would literally have a full out 40 yard sprint to the box to grab it. Being the awesome dad that he was, he usually let me have the sports section first as that was all I wanted anyway. The sports section was a novel itself with every aspect of the high school/college/pro athletic world having it's own couple of pages.  What amazed the hell out of me was there were never any grammatical/typo errors that we see today in the "news now" world we live in. 

"hou" sounds right...

I took a journalism class in college and they did a mock press conference where you had four hours (two hours?) to turn in your paper/story of what occurred. This was the pre-laptop/spell check era where 90% of the students were using typewriters. I must have read and re-read my final copy a hundred times but was too stupid to have a second person look it over. Needless to say, the paper I thought was spotless in terms of errors had so much red ink on it when I got it back from the teacher (I hated the 'professor' label), you would think they had to get a second pen as the first one ran out of ink.

Trail Head

Hip Squared

The local tire store had a special, buy one hip, get one free with every set of whitewall tires. Who could turn down that deal so I got a match for my right side a few weeks back. Looking forward to extra groping at the airport...

Trail Head