Donald and what's wrong with the country

I'm more than a little depressed about the coming election.
I have always disliked Donald Trump.
The "Art of the Deal" was a stupid book that inspired a generation of short pants wearing arse-holes to think they were clever businessmen for stealing candy from babies.
Here is the problem...

1. There is no one else to vote for.
2. The shrill people hate him and I find it hilarious and very disturbing at the same time.

I see Donald and Bernie as two sides of the same coin. Both are playing to angry and frustrated voters by saying the sort of things that people blurt out in bars whilst watching TV. "They outta just give everyone free college," or "I'd build a wall to keep those @#$%^& Mexicans out."

This is not what we really want/need. We want the ridiculous price of a college education to go down, we need the student loan program to not be predatory and we must have a policy to deal with political/economic/drug war refugees and put a guest worker program in place.

What I find frightening about it all is how electing a community organizer has divided this country. Grandfatherly law and order sorts of folks are angry. We have a shrill and angry mob at every little thing that does not fit the "progressive agenda" (what ever that is) Everyone hates the police. No one trust the gubment. Our dear leader encourages these divisions.

There is a cultural war going on in this country and those of us who believe in the old ways, things like God Honor Country, Absolute Values, Natural Law, rules of logic winning an argument are losing.
I had a discussion about the evils of capitalism with my work-study student yesterday. I soon discovered and then pointed out that our core values and beliefs were different. We had to stop the discussion to find a common place to begin the argument. We had different core ideology.

For subtle example, read this article in Reason Magazine. (Click Here) How do you feel about Thomas Jefferson now? Do you say he was an evil man for owning slaves who were possibly his relatives or do you say he was a person who lived according to his times and who actually freed those slaves. Was his relationship with Sally H. at best survival sex/rape, or did could a slave love her master?  Is it moral relativism to defend Jefferson in the contest of the time or is it moral relativism to condemn him now?

I've been attempting to read "The Citizen's Handbook." I don't want to pay for "Rules for Radicals," cause I don't want the SOB who wrote it to get a cent from we in royalties.
I'm tired of having social activism used against me. I have pretty much quit Facebook because I'm tired of seeing the same liberal talking points in the same five people's Facebook posts.
Good grief, these people think they are clever by sending sex toys to people they disagree with. Oh, and the name calling... Are we in fifth grade? I've got some great names to throw out but that would make me a racist...

The problem is simple but the solution is impossible. We live in an era where there is a conspiracy of like-minded people who have access to mass communication, lots of money, political understanding, a monopoly on education, (thus direct access of our children), and a will for violence. "We" are an undefined group without a clear purpose, who really just wish things would go back to the way they were in the 1950's, but without the racism.

Which brings me back to Donald. I don't like him. I'm afraid I'm being manipulated to support someone who will continue to take away our constitution and our personal freedoms.
But, I was so very happy to see the 79-year-old guy punch the activist. If Trump pays his legal fees Trump will get the nomination. I would dearly love to see the Trump rally people beat the everlovin' crap out of the Blk Lives Matter people. Not because I hate black people but rather because I truly hate these smug professional activist political tools. I remember communism. I grew up reading stories about the Chinese revolution, about political persecution in Russia. I can draw parallels between the activists of today and the young people of the Cultural Revolution who stoned their parents and teachers in the name of Mao.

Elixir

Not only does it cure my allergies but it looks really cool when I hold it up to the halogen light on the range hood. 

Wonder if I zapped it the laser pointer it would glow in a dark room and I could convince my daughter it was magical.

Forgot, she is 14 now.

Perhaps radioactive honey from Japanfancanized honey bee's, they don't sting you they just glow and emit gamma rays?

If I were smart I would build apps for agriculture

1. I now have an iPhone 6. The giant model. It is huge. It has a great screen. I like that it only has one button on the front. I like that it does not open every app on the phone and randomly call people when I forget to lock it.
I don't like that it is locked into the Apple concept of doing things. Facebook, iTunes, no usb, no removable SD card. It is skinny and beautiful but you can't use it without an armored case. It is Gigantic and won't fit in a shirt pocket.

2. iPhone may have a bigger screen but using the pitiful Blogger app is painful. With my Galaxy 5 I could take a photo, add a little text, and send it to Blogger. Not so with the iPhone. I could also more easily text pictures and links and stuff with the Galaxy 5.

3. I bought this app for $6.50. It turns my phone into a GPS guidance system for my Tractor lawnmower. Unfortunately I can't use it at work as I am not allowed to "play with my phone." This is insane due to the number of apps related to groundskeeping and the need to text and call fellow groundskeepers. It reveals one of the problems with my job. No one in my supervisory chain has the guts to make basic decisions. Oh, well.. That is what rules are for.
But I digress...

What I really wanted to post about.

My FarmerGPS program has built in support for auto boom shutoff.

Or so I thought.

At this point they are switching from a serial to USB converter to Bluetooth connections with the antenna. Of course I just spent an arm and a leg on a RS 232 type antenna. I could have spared a foot and got Bluetooth but no...

So I stumbled upon the iPhone app and the guy who also made a converter to turn your phone or tablet into a planter monitor. (Same active link as phone app, www.plantermonitor.com)

It uses a small programmable computer chip thingy to do the calculations and read the sensors. 

I'd build stuff like that if I were not borderline handicapped mentally.

I'd like a baler stroke counter that also showed strokes per minute and ground speed. An app that gave you an easy way to count truckloads or dumps. Push a button and get a time stamp kind of thing, and a good Pearson's square feed ration calculator that let you enter multiple feeds and solve for one ingredient amount.

But instead I'm a groundskeeper...

..

Making feed in the rain

My wife is out of chicken feed.
Several other people are out of chicken feed.
I am out of barley.
Well not really out, it is a matter of logistics and storage.
The bin fell over two years ago.
The fertilizer bin still has fertilizer in it and is on the only truck that runs.
I get off work at 5 and it is dark or raining or I need to plant and I don't have two hours to get the grain from the warehouse.
I am lazy...
The mixer/grinder went back to its owner and there is no point in going after it again if I barley have enough barely to grind in it. (Something sounds wrong in that sentence)
SO I got out the hammer mill and hooked it up to the MM UTS.
I have lots of peas. So the chickens are eating ground peas and flax and a little clover hay and some card board and a small chunk of 2x4 that I accidentally dropped into the hammer mill and some really nasty oats and weeds.
Not sure they will actually eat the mix.
As I was listening to the belt flying apart I pondered the distribution of wealth.
I could use a $50,000 grant to restart my sustainable nonGMO feed operation. I could really use $150,000, which would allow me to buy doughnuts.
(I don't want to admit but I'd also take $5 and a kind word perhaps a pat on the back)
These sum of money are just Chicken Feed to the gubment. Grants like this are tossed around, studies are commissioned and ignored.
Parks are built next to landfills on narrow country roads even though just across the river there is an RV Park which may be owned by the same people who want to build a park to nowhere and that is just how it is done.
A maroon lands his homebuilt helicopter on the White House lawn (which is a disgrace to the groundskeeping community I might add) and he gets charged with obstructing air traffic. Well, yes... He could have veered a half mile right or left and several thousand feet in elevation, (especially if the airliner were 50 feet off the ground) and might have hit an airliner. Yes indeed, people were at risk.
How we do hate dissent...
But I digress...

I need a new laptop and things I like about my job

A quick post...

Because it took me a half hour to get my MacBook Pro to wake from sleep this morning. I do empathize as I slept though subtle beeping of my alarm clock this morning as well.

This dadburned thing gives me fits. It locks up and doesn't go to sleep and then it won't wake from sleep. I'm afraid it may die of shaken baby syndrome at some point in the future...

Previously, it went for a year without a restart. (I think)

End of topic...

What I like about my job..

We grounders are a funny bunch of folk. It is hilarious to see a group of similar people drawn to the same job. Why are we like this?

A brief little story.

There was a power outage all last week.

Facilities Services put a fair amount of effort into keeping the library in electricity.

The library put on a power restoration party and issued a special invitation to the Facilities department.

My hispanic friend who I cannot for the life of me understand but I like him anyway, invited me to something with doughnuts and cookies. I was quite excited! Free Doughnuts! Yes!

I asked my fellow grounds workers about this elusive and mythical land of cake and doughnuts. After much consultation someone from Facilities who is in the Building and Electrical department explained that there was a party in the library but he didn't have time to attend.

Off we went in a convoy of golf carts to the library.

We all bought our work-study students in our bright safety vests and were first in line for doughnut holes.

It was great!

My previous work-study student told me that doughnut holes and doughnuts were in fact separate entities and there was no doughnut missing its core for every doughnut hole that I ate.

She also said there was no Santa Claus and Fairies and Elves were a myth.

My new work study student went and got me more doughnut holes and a cookie.

Finally, after many doughnut holes, felt guilty about not working and we left to mow lawns and cut down shrubs whose names I cannot remember.

We got somewhat absorbed in our work and discussing politics and the freaky girl who is stalking her and whose nutcase behavior has resulted in three other students not returning to school.

Suddenly it was clean up time.

We raced to the clean up area to dump the trailer and wash the mower.

We were met by the rest of the grounds crew and someone important from the Plumbing department.

They were laughing at me about my new giant iPhone and the fact that I got in trouble for using it during work when I was actually using it for work and that I bragged so much about my previous work-study student that another groundskeeper stole her from me.

The Plumbing guy started in trying to convince my current work-study girl to convert to Plumbing. (as she was dutifully emptying my trailer)

I said he didn't want her because she was lazy and never showed up for work and talked too much.

She started out really shy and a little hesitant but she actually talked back to him.

It was kind of funny to see her react. I had made a joke out of never complimenting another work-study student that I actually wanted to keep so the complaints were actually compliments and she took them that way.

She was quite happy and talkative on the way back to the main office. 

It is fun to see someone who was pretty frustrated at school and feeling sad because of a lack of friends, find a group and gain confidence.

I told her when we ran into her stalker that when she was with the grounders she was safe. We were her tribe. That other girl was a moron and she didn't need to back down. Make the other girl leave the library, we had Jesus to keep us safe. (Not to be sacrilegious but Jesus is another grounds keeper who, wait... that is not coming out right... Okay, I have to go to work. and I think the computer is dying again.)

Have a nice day!

you figure out my post in a way that brings you happiness...

Decisions on the future of my blog

So the deal is this...
I'm now the chairman of a neighborhood group which is dedicated to stopping the expansion of a park that is at the end of our road.
The park is a problem because it is at the end of our narrow road and is next to an active landfill that stinks.
The end result is that it will then become a haven for the horrible beer drinking, meth smoking, copper wiring stealing morons that have become our lower classes.
I have kept my identity a "secret" for years mostly because this blog is how I feel right now and is not meant to be taken really seriously. If I use real names then I have to be accurate and correct and worry about people getting their feelings hurt. Also, I feel sort of pretentious using my real name. The blog is not really about you thinking I'm clever, its about you getting a laugh and me letting off a little steam and getting you to laugh.
As a farmer with no aspirations of greatness I had little to lose.
Now I have a real job and my blog sometimes involves my job.
It is not much of a stretch for local folk to figure out who I am and where I work. In fact it is pretty obvious.
For example, I ride a red Triumph which I've owned for 30 years. I've lived in the same community for 30 years. I've lived in the same house for a decade on the same farm that my grandparents bought in 1943. We farm with Minneapolis-Moline and White tractors. I work at the only college that can be called local. I drive the only red gator on campus.
I was a little surprised at the response to my idea of going private or invitation only.
I apparently have a small number of very faithful readers.
I guess I should add a question box at the bottom.
Check here if you think this blog post could get me fired...

Note: For those of you who oppose putting a park on a proposed Superfund site there will be another meeting to discuss organizing an opposition. It will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at the back room of the Hotel Oregon.
I will be the lady with frizzy hair and a purple cardigan smelling faintly of Chronic. Might as well just admit who I am right now... You can trust me...

Monday Morning trash pickup is often interesting

If you were wondering, it is a rubber examination glove.

This blog may go private for a while. If you want to be a member you need to email me.