Corporate absolution?

Posted online yesterday, I saw an interview with the Board Chairman of a European financial giant. He was talking with a business reporter about the company's recent ups and downs, which included taking a hit on their ratings by S&P for investing without proper caution (and subsequently taking a bath in the markets last Fall).

I loved this particular quote (identifying information altered slightly):


Q. How quickly can [Company X] regain its earlier [AAA] rating from Standard & Poor's?

A. As far as clients are concerned, our Standard & Poor's rating is the most important thing. Last year's drop from [AAA] to [AA+] has no significant short-term effects; nevertheless, regaining the [AAA] rating is an important target for us. Internally, our capital already exceeds the requirement. However, Standard & Poor's specifications prevent any change in the current situation in the near future. Let me put it like this: the sin is not immediately followed by absolution. You have to follow the Ten Commandments for a while first.

(italics mine)

Wow. An allusion to Christian (read: Catholic) doctrine. There is an expectation of sorrow and remorse as a result of "bad behavior", even for corporations. Not to mention the need for evidence of your contrition, shown by doing some form of penance, like actually following the rules for a while. (not so easy, when you're used to "sinning" routinely, and live in a "sinning" culture.)

Remarkable. Who says Europe is a post-Christian culture?

Then again, this guy IS really old. He might have to explain that absolution/penance metaphor to his twenty-something Euro-grandkids. I'll bet they don't get it; young Americans still might.

That fresh ink smell

...mmm. I love it.

Especially when it's my new book. :)

I saw the galley proofs yesterday at the printer, and ... oooh.

J1's illustrations came through really well, and the flow of the words feels great with the timing of the page turns. Yeah, it's just softcover, saddle-stitched, but still.. it's that father-daughter collaboration we've been talking about for years, finally in print.

Vanity, vanity... there's no income in this thing, that's for sure. It's all outgo: the only benefit is that it's a "gift of self" for family and friends. Guess I've done my Christmas shopping for everybody, huh? Earlier than usual, but.. not by much. I do plan ahead. ;)

So until Scholastic picks it up and puts in it every classroom... I'll have to leave you with my favorite illustration from the book.



Ha - if only. :)

Sermonizing

Maybe I mentioned here before that I am filling in for the pastor at our evangelical church this coming Sunday, while he's on vacation. Brave fellow, that one, to turn his pulpit (or I should say.. barstool) over to a raw, unskilled pew-sitter (or I should say.. stacking-chair-sitter) like me.

Perhaps he thinks that because I'm enrolled in seminary at a quasi-reputable local institution, and because this sermon is counting as credit for a research paper in my summer school class, that I will be a safe guy to fill his spot. Hahahahaha. Little does HE know..

No, really. I'll be fine. Actually, I'm asking more questions than I am giving answers. Questions such as:

Does God change? If not His nature, then His plans? Does He adjust them to us? And if so, does that mean He is affected by us, or is He impervious to our actions, unaffected? Can we reject God’s love for us, turn our back and walk away from Him? If we can, does that mean that God’s plans can be thwarted? Are His plans contingent on us, dependent on us? Can God even BE dependent? If God wants a relationship with us that is filled with love… doesn't relationship by definition imply mutuality? And if love is to be truly mutual, doesn’t it have to be voluntary, not coerced? And voluntary means freely reciprocated, right? Because if not freely reciprocated, is it truly love between persons (an "I-you" relationship), or is it more of an "I-it" relationship (like loving a stuffed animal, who has no choice in the matter)? If love must be freely reciprocated to be mutual, must not the Beloved also have the freedom to reject the Lover and walk away? Doesn’t that entail risk? Does God take risks in loving us? Does He risk our rejection of Him? Can His love go unrequited? Can His plans for loving relationship be thwarted? If so, is God truly omnipotent?

Woah. Tough questions.

And my answer is basically... sure, no problem! Easy.

How I get there, though.. that's the hard part. ;)

Buy direct! Cut out the middleman!

You hear it from furniture manufacturers, local farmers, and on-line insurance companies. It's more efficient, with less frictional costs, and (at least in theory) is lower priced that way.

But that option is not on the table when it comes to health care reform. NPR has been following the debate and ran this little piece on it. I couldn't agree more.

Trying to preserve the current multi-party system of buyers, providers and consumers is what will keep reform from working. It's what has made the system antagonistic and inefficient in the first place. Medical providers fight with insurance companies over costs and coverage. Doctors point the finger at lawyers for raising costs due to over malpractice lawsuits. Insurance companies accuse both doctors and lawyers of raising costs. Employers blame insurers and doctors for making health insurance too expensive.

And the consumer... who essentially makes NO buying decision and has NO leverage... is on the short end of the whole thing. And they are the ones who are supposed to be served.

I work for an insurance company. I see all the gamesmanship seminars, accusations, lawsuits and vitriol being spilled on this issue, and it's all based on chasing money. Whether you're a lawyer, a doctor or an insurance exec, it's all about maximizing earnings. For my two cents, the profit motive needs to come out of the health care system altogether, and single-payer is the way to do it.

Think of how we do education in this country. We have a fairly large public system, along with some private schools. In the public system, all educational employees work for the government. The general rules come from the Federal Government, the funding comes from the State and Municipality, and diection comes from oversight by a local elected school board. Private schools have some rules to abide by, yes, but they have a lot more freedom of movement. People can choose to go there if they can afford it on top of their normal tax burden for the public schools.

You could do the same with public health care. All medical providers become employees of the government, not of hospitals or clinics. Hospitals and clinics are organized by "medical districts", with a local elected public health board giving oversight. Provider salaries are set on a scale through collective bargaining. The government certifies who can practice what. Since income is from taxes, everything is non-profit. And if people can afford to go to "private sector" doctors... they can. There will still be some oversight, but a lot more freedom (and risk).

If it works okay in education, why not in health care? And that's only one possible model.

You could talk about other models, like the one we use for public utilities (power companies, water districts, etc.) Some blend of government oversight and public trading of stock, with an elected state utility board.

We don't have to stick to the contentious, inefficient, profit-hungry system we use now. Let's get creative, Congress!

Be careful what you wish for

I haven't waded into politics much here lately, as I've been waiting to see how this new administration was going to work out. I'm sort of still waiting, I guess. I did see a poll today that the opinion of the USA has risen dramatically around the world since the inauguration. That's good. But at the same time, I see a poll that shows Obama's approval ratings falling to lower than Jimmy Carter's at the same point in his (one-term) presidency. That's not so good. They like you overseas just fine, but not so much at home? Hm.

Well, it's still early. We'll see.

But one of the things that is intriguing me right now is all the fussing in Washington over health care reform. President Obama's soaring rhetoric is making the broad case just fine, but Congress seems to be unable to put the details together. Then they get mad when Obama doesn't provide specific, ready-made solutions to every little problem.

Dudes! Hel-LO! He is the Executive Branch. He enforces the law, carries it out. Congress is the Legislative Branch; they are the law-makers. It's their job to create the legislation and sweat the details. It's Obama's job to inspire and then implement.

So, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Reid, to you I say: stop all the whining & complaining and buckle down. Make the hard decisions. Do your job. Figure it out. That's what you're there for.

I mean jeepers, Nancy & Harry: you have sizeable majorities. And in the Senate, even that coveted filibuster-proof majority. Honestly, Dems, you got everything you wanted: you got the White House and both houses of Congress, and no Republican filibuster to stand in your way. You don't really need the Republicans at all; you proved that with the economic stimulus package. You can bypass them completely to get things done. There is no opposition party to hinder, no Bush to blame anymore. Now we get to see what YOU are made of.

You have no excuses anymore. None. You got what you wished for. If you don't change the country and fix all the problems you lamented during the election, there is no one to blame now.... but you.

That's a scary prospect. So have a nice August recess, get some rest. You're gonna need it.

Tu Y Yo

Un espacio en el tiempo, un momento,
Un silencio y tu...
Con el amor, un idioma, un te quiero
Solo un ritmo, un deseo asi entre tu y yo

El cielo nos abraza con su viejo amigo el mar
Mostrándonos la vida y su fidelidad
Solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, el amor
Solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, un te amo
No hay nadie mas que solo tu
Solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, una voz

Solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, solo tu y yo, un te amo
No hay nadie mas que solo tu.
Acaricio a tu cuerpo
Celebrando su diseño si me das calor,
Paso a paso y muy lento
Nos amamos sin pensar en mas que tu y yo
La brisa y tu perfume me embrujan sin piedad
Provocando una erotica creatividad



----- as sung by Paulina Rubio

(another great little find on Amazon.mp3 - full length CD for $1.99. Love that daily deal. And these lyrics.)

momentary

.


past just memory
the present transitory
future unrevealed


.

Ecce Homo

Behold the man!

But which man?

My professional journal this week had an article in it about Economics and Human Nature. It postulated that most classical economic theory is based on the concept of homo economicus, the idea that economic actors are perfectly rational beings.

Here's a quote from a Nobel Laureate economist from the Univerisity of Chicago: "All human behavior can be viewed as involving participants who maximze their utility from a stable set of preferences and accumulate an optimal amount of information and other inputs in a variety of markets."

Oh, sure, you betcha. Dat's vat I alvays do, ja.

Well, no.

Homo Economicus would be like Mr. Spock, completely rational. The rest of us are hopelessly emotional homo sapiens (and some days barely even qualify as that.) We deal with economic decisions emotionally and irrationally. We undervalue some options and overvalue others, depending on things like: whether we are buying or selling, saving money or losing money, acting in public or in private, alone or in a group.

The article's thesis is that we are predictably irrational. :) Yup.

Statistics do show that people engage in crazy financial behaviors, and do so with surprising regularity. So economics is now moving from expecting the logical behavior of the rational, to guiding the illogical behavior of the irrational. They've discovered that there is more power in a negative message than a positive one.

If people are told that they will lose $350 a year if they don't practice energy conservation, they are more likely to conserve than if they are told they'll save $350 a year. If people are told of the increased risk of death by not practicing self-examination for cancer, they are more likely to self-examine than if told of the likelihood of longer life. People are willing to pay more to keep from having an item taken away than they are to acquire it. Fear of loss is actually more effective as a motivator than anticipating gain.

I guess the politicians and advertisers have had it right all along. President Bush had people afraid of terrorism and extremism, and President Obama is keeping us afraid of economic collapse and uninsurability. And because we are predictably irrational... it works.

concise

.


using fewer words
while retaining full meaning
lush parsimony


.

4000 words deserves a break

Finished my first draft of the sermon for 8/2 and the word count showed me at 4,100 words spread over 12 pages. No doubt this will shrink. Has to! Still, after that brain dump, I needed a break!
So I went out to share An Evening with The Old 97s. Yeah, that's how it was billed. Like it was an intimate gathering in a small club, where the artists were going to let their guard down and be real personal.

Um.. it was at First Avenue, not a place known for its intimacy,




unless you mean the loss of personal space that happens on the main floor when everyone packs in there. Except last night it was pretty spacious. The crowd was thin, and it could have been intimate.. but it was really just a normal concert.

But I did get better views of the stage than I ever have before.



I was right down front for a while. During the pre-show period, the club drops a movie screen down from the ceiling and shows random movies. And I mean really random. From 1930's cartoons, to Nazi propaganda, to this week's feature: Batman & Robin, the 60s version.




Silly as this was, and fun to watch, it was also a lovely summer evening and people were outdoors as long as possible, having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe across the street,



or hanging out on the street waiting for a band to start. So I did, too. After all, I did see Batman & Robin the first time around.. when it was a new release. ;)

And while I was out roaming around, enjoying the weather, I spotted an interesting looking metal structure on the outside of an old brick warehouse building.



Turns out it was a fire escape, but a circular staircase one. Never seen that kind of fire escape before. It was kind of cool looking.



But eventually I heard music and worked my way back in to find Murray Hammond, the bassplayer for the Old 97s, channelling A.P. Carter and the Carter family, celebrating roots music, playing some kind of contraption that looked like a tabletop accordion. Hm. Not exactly what I expected from the evening, but an interesting night just the same, and a needed break from sermonizing.

Weekends only, mutt.

Dante' the dog-faced boy made it in finally last night, after an hour+ weather delay in Houston. Continental did a great job of handling traveling pets, though. Good treatment - J1 was content.


He held on through the ups/downs and jostling, and though kind of scared and shaky at the airport, and a little disoriented going for a walk around the neighborhood, eventually he settled down. Poor dog. Long day for him.

And now he begins the process of working his way into a new household's routine (though he's been part of this one before). He likes my office.

Of course. :) Who wouldn't? It's where the music is. Good music, too. But let's remember, here, Dog... as your President often says "Let me be clear. Make no mistake." You're welcome in here evenings and weekends. But M-F, 9-5... you're outside, baby. It's the great outdoors for you, Bub.

Mint kebabs

Stephen King, the horror novelist, wrote a column for Entertainment Weekly about a year ago about the gastronomic delights of movie-theatre snack food. Who knew the guy could be so funny? His description of the "butter flavor" they drizzle on popcorn is straight out of a murder scene. Grotesque and hilarious.

Okay, I really am grasping at straws here. I just do NOT want to work on this sermon thing... I have a feeling it will convict me of a serious need to change. And who wants that, anyway? I'd rather have snacks.

Gee, how about at least making it a sundae?

instead of just a scoop of vanilla? Sure, start with a good rich and creamy vanilla base, but then fancy it up with, say... hot fudge & caramel sauces, chocolate sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry? mmmm... now you're talking. :)

So, is sex really better if it's just plain vanilla? One author says so.

I do sort of see his point. He makes a credible case.

Then again, it also lets him off the hook for creativity and stamina. ;) Lobbying for something on the merits is one thing. Settling for something because it's all you can manage is quite another. I wonder if a staff writer for Cosmopolitan would have shared this guy's view. Or would, as "Dalia" comments below the article, the author's wife!

Hm. You know, I should probably get back to working on that sermon.

theology

.


divine imagining
knowing the unknowable
or.. thinking you do


.


Trying to translate the content of this summer school class into a viable 30-minute sermon is harder than I thought. I mean, nobody actually TALKS the way a theologian writes.

But I suppose it's not unlike trying to take obscure and esoteric mathematical concepts and put them into actionable items that non-geeks can implement. I've been doing that for 20+ years, so... this shouldn't be all that different, right?

Right?

Yuk. My mind is wandering.

us vs us

This article on Christianity Today's blog caught my attention, during a week when the Episcopal Church in America is voting to approve ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. It makes the point that Evangelicals can no longer take an adversarial position against homosexuals, as if they were outside agitators hell-bent on infringing on the rights of God-fearing church folks. For the most part, they ARE "churched" folks! Interesting research here.

"Hate the sin, love the sinner" has been the Evangelical mantra for a long time on this issue. But how that works out in practice has too often been to emphasize exclusion, not engagement. The church, generally speaking, has not imitated Jesus, who willingly hung out with "tax collectors and sinners" (those considered undesirable by the religious establishment.)

Jesus did call people to leave their present lifestyles (of all sorts) and follow Him. But he didn't call them from a distance, and then check first to see if they have shaped up, before sitting down to eat with them. He mingled freely, modeled a Godly lifestyle all the while, and then took criticism for it from the religious establishment. How many of us are willing to do the same?

We'd best get started.



Oh, hey, while I think of it... here's a cool resource to summarize your Twitter feeds, those of you out there who follow hundreds of people. :)

You can tell a technology is catching on when people have to develop ways for you to cope with it. ;)

Release the hounds!

You've heard of the phenomenon known as "boomeranging"? Adult children moving back home after some financial or emotional setback? Well, apparently dogs "boomerang", too. :(

Dante', the family PWD (yes, just like the Obama's family dog, only older) will be moving back home Saturday, since his current living situation out West is no longer available. With J1 heading off to grad school in a couple of weeks, devil dog has become persona non grata at college. So... by default...

The Invisible Fence people are coming to lay the wire in the yard, because I telecommute, my office is at home, and.. no dogs at work! Grrr... But dog-breath is familiar with this drill, we've had it at a couple of other houses where he's lived. It lets him run around outside all day, and just come in at night to sleep. That's not a problem, really. It's just expensive. :(



Getting him back here from LA is the trick. Delta/Northwest is decidedly NOT pet-friendly. But, fortunately, other air carriers are.

Hope he gets here in one piece. The poor thing is 11 years old, and with the stress of flying..

just hang on, buddy. You'll be okay... and home soon.

Diggin' on Kanye

The library finally shook loose a copy of Kanye West's latest CD, 808s and Heartbreak. As long as I've been waiting, I was sure he'd come out with another one by the time I got to listen.

So I pop it in the car CD player, and... oooh. Hey.

I am not a hip-hop fan, but this I like. I'm also not a fan of the electronic manipulation of the voice, so that it sounds like a keyboard (there must be a term for that. hm. "Auto-tune"?) His arrangements were chill and hip, though, so whatever it was he did with the voice seemed right in place with the rest of the arrangements. Just.. cool.

Now, I'm not saying that this CD is like Thriller or Sgt Pepper, but dang! Dang! I'd bet that 25 years hence, when the music industry looks back on this era, this CD is going to be considered a classic.

And it's a great accompaniment for cruising the streets of the city on a warm summer evening with the windows down and sun roof open, sound cranked up in that big black Charger.

Jes' me & Kanye, smoothin' it out. mm. mm. mm.

Recruiting on Twitter??

Okay, so I have already seen businesses using Twitter to get the word out on new products, and to get fast feedback. And I've already seen enterprising methods of solicitation for certain other kinds of profit-making ventures. Some cutie shows up as your follower with a URL in the status message directing you to ... oh my goodness!

Um, thank you, but no. [clicks "block this user"]

But now, there are seminars geared toward HR on how you can use Twitter (and other sites) to find new employees. I got this business email today as an example:

"LinkedIn, Twitter & Social Networks: How to Recruit Your Next Superstars"
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

LinkedIn’s membership reaches over 35 million, Twitter’s more than 20 million. From newly minted college graduates to baby boomers – the best candidates for your positions are logged into these sites, creating personal profiles, posting their resumes and sharing their networks of colleagues and friends. How can you effectively use these sites to hire smarter, better, quicker, and cheaper? Join us for this 60-minute webinar where you will discover:

** Best practices for utilizing online social networks to find top talent
** How to create a presence on these sites & search for job candidates
** What's the best way to use Twitter & LinkedIn for effective recruiting?
** Quick and effective ways to separate A-players from the duds online
** Top mistakes recruiters make on social networks and how to avoid them


Hm. Now if you were looking for work... who would think that you could put yourself out on Twitter and maybe attract some HR person's attention? And what about your privacy settings? It is better to let more people (like recruiters) see you, or... practice strict privacy? Wouldn't it be good to know what the recruiters think characterizes an "A-player" versus a "dud"? Ha - maybe the first step is to stop following anything not solidly "mainstream" (unless, of course you actually WANT a job in the sex toy industry), and block any follower of yours who is a little, um... fringe-y?

But that takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it? ;) Who knew that your Twitter page would become a defacto part of your resume'? One's public persona is everywhere these days. Guess you either have to be willing to have all your peculiarities on display, or... show the world only a sanitized version of yourself.

Vines, labs, weeds and picnics

... all came together on the same day.

The state's association of grape growers had their annual picnic yesterday at a winery about an hour away. Nice place.



Not huge, about 7 acres in cultivation, some of which are vines too young to bear fruit. But still, they harvested some 22,000 pounds of grapes last fall in half a dozen varieties, so a big enough business to have some good equipment.




Part of the day's activity was a demo of a power weeding attachment. It was pretty slick. And a darn sight easier than doing it by hand, which was my activity after getting home. The weeds had gotten pretty bad, so out came the claw and the bushel basket. Yuk. But it gave me a chance to assess how my babies are doing. Not too bad. :)



So the weeder dealer had a little tent set up where he was showing it off. And inside the vinting building there was another vendor set up who deals in plant nutrients and sprays. He was offering a testing service for both soil and leaf samples, and will offer you a customized nutrient blend to address whatever needs the testing turns up. Not a bad idea to do that once, so I picked up some sample bags and added that to my chore list at home. Since I was out weeding anyway, why not take some samples for the lab? So off they'll go Monday!



The other activity was a vineyard tour, just walking through it with the owner and hearing him discuss the growing characteristics of the various varieties,



check out his trellising system and technique,



and have an opportunity to ask questions of someone who actually knows what they're doing. Over lunch, I got a chance to ask some experts about critter damage, Japanese Beetles, pruning, mulching, and so forth. It really was informative for an relative ignoramus like me. Turns out I'm doing most things right, but do need to correct a couple others.



One kind of cool thing... as we walked through the vineyard, looking at one variety after another, one came into view that I recognized. Hey, it's my leaf pattern! That's MY vine! Sure enough, it was Marquette, and I got to see it at both the current age of my vines and one year older. I was just amazed that I knew it by sight and could pick it out, like a kid knows their dog or a parent knows their baby. That one's mine! :) Aww...



After a nice picnic lunch and some good conversation with a 20-something couple with 12 plants in their yard, and a 40-something couple with 300 in their field, it was off to the tasting room, where some of what we walked by in the vineyard was available to try. Yum. Of course a bottle or four went home.



Definitely worth the drive, and a lovely day. Even with the weeding.

routine

.


ordinary days
normative, monotonous
equilibrium


.


I've realized lately that the poetry well has been running dry.

Lack of inspiration...

Summer vacation: the wrap

Alright, so finally I will tie up loose ends and finish with a few shots of the trip to WV and NC. I mean, it's either that or Moltmann's critical analysis of the importance of the hypostatic union to the classical theist view of God's impassibilty. I'm not doing much else these days. As my Twitter status says: "work, study, sleep. repeat."

The scenery in the Appalachians was dramatically beautiful. Living out west, I got used to mountains being either gray or brown. Back east, they're all green and lush, with mist rising from the trees. It's like rain forest or something.







The backwoodsy towns along the way had more to them than trailer parks and biscuit places. There was actual industry. Sort of. Like a washboard factory, which is still producing the things. They said about 20% of their customers still use them to do wash with. Hm.





The ladies from the Red Hat Society were pretty fascinated with the whole business, too, including a few giggles over the float used in local parades.





And of course, not everything in the local economy was arts & crafts



there was also, um... modern industry,



not so modern industry (coal mine tours),



and tourism of all sorts (including caverns.)



Plus the real reason we went: a graduating niece. :)



All in all, a memorable trip. Right up there with Route 66, I'd say.

Welcoming the neighbors

New people just moved in next door. Dinesh and Jeyanthi... something-something. :)

Newly here from India (the first of their respective families to do so), with two little boys, 6 and 2. Vegetarians, hindu perhaps (something to ask about later, maybe), she a nurse, he a banker. Pretty good English skills. No furniture.

We doorstepped them some brownies last week, they delivered in person today some... um... um... what the heck is this, anyway? Tasty, yes, but - what? Kind of like onion pieces rolled in dough and deep-fried, with a dipping sauce that is good but spicy. They said it's what they often had for "afternoon tea" back in India.

Funny the little cultural differences. Home Depot amazes them. People actually do their own work here! They cut lumber, do wiring, paint walls. Apparently labor in India is so cheap that nobody does their own work. They even hire someone to replace lightbulbs. Yikes!

We talked about accents (there and here), culture, work, technology, the neighborhood. They asked for recommendations for furniture stores (IKEA, HOM), and electricians. The two year old started fussing. Oh, look what time it is.... so good meeting you.

New neighbors. Nice.

A Slice of Americana

... Midwest style.

After poking around the back roads of Appalachia for a couple of weeks, it was kinda fun to do the same in rural Wisconsin. Sure, they sound different, but rural Americans are rural Americans, regardless of their accent. Not many are the type we'd see at the outdoor Shakespeare theatre.



And the Shakespeare crowd (who travel there from the big city), are not the type we'd see at the local tractor pull, either. But I kinda liked both. :)



The B&B that served as home base for the weekend has been a favorite for about 15 years. The atmosphere is gracious and relaxed.





This little town is the home of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, and so the arts community is strong here.

There was an exhibit in a little downtown storefront put on by students at Wright's school of design; this one was on affordable and simple shelters (which the students actually build and live in for several months.) Some were pretty cool looking.


































































And speaking of Wright, he designed a chapel for his extended family and neighbors. Normally it isn't used anymore, but for a few weeks in the summer, the family opens it up and has "programs" there on Sunday morning, which are basically just lectures with a little folk music thrown in. The family cemetery is on the property, and many of the grave markers are in Art Deco or Arts & Crafts style. Interesting.








But go a few miles West of Taliesin, and you find a distinctly non-artsy style of life. Softball, beer, and chicken dinner fundraisers, just across the field from the grain depot. :)






And since it was 4th of July weekend, naturally there was a parade. With a few local twists. Like no marching bands. They rode on the back of flatbed trailers. Odd.




We grabbed a hunk of curb right across from the parade officials and the announcer, who had set up shop in front of the car wash.



There was definitely the usual flinging of candy in front of the spectators, and a mad scramble of children to get it.



Somehow I managed to snag my share.



And the local Schwan's ice cream truck went by and we all got popsicles. :) Awww... thanks!



There was also the usual pretty girl in a convertible doing the "beauty queen wave".



And a few floats from local organizations, like a car club,



a karaoke bar,



a church...



But the vast majority of the parade entries were vintage tractors and fire department vehicles, new and old. Kinda made a guy hungry for chicken dinners at the fairground, and maybe a little beer, you know?