Under the mistletoe...

beltbuckle!

Is Christmas over all ready?  i want tk take this time to thank our relatives and loved ones for helping to take the monetary sting and depression out of our Christmas.

I headed home to Kansas City for Christmas on  the Friday before Christmas so we could prepare to return to Wichita to celebrate the holiday with Stacy's family.  All went well on our 24 hour adventure and we returned home from Wichita on Christmas Day as Stacy had to work the next day. 

Well, here comes Friday and Stacy's nephew and wife decide to have their baby so we head back to Wichita for some bonding time with the family.  20 hours later, we are home again as Stacy has to work Monday.

The next step of Christmas is to venture to Omaha to celebrate with the remaining member of my family.  On Friday night, before we are to leave my Mother calls to tell us my brother in law Terry and is grandson have been in a bad sledding accident and Terry is in the hospital.  So, here I sit waiting for Stacy to get home from work so we can start our next 24 hour journey for the holidays.

I'm not so sure that Terry doesn't actually have a death wish.  I consider myself somewhat of a sledding professional and I have never left the slope in an ambulance. 

We will be off in a matter of minutes now.  Hope your holidays we're cheery and bright.  I have all my gay apparel on and am ready to drive. On Prancer, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.  Is it okay for a DJ to say Ho, Ho, Ho?

That is all...Peters out!

Von Maur

Couple of Items....

I recently saw a breakdown of the wealth of the people running for President of the United States.  You've probably heard of this position.  It's the one where a group of fabulously wealthy people get together, dig up dirt from each others' past then the most popular one gets to run the country for four years.  The winner gets to run a country full of people like you and I.  The salt of the Earth.  Tell me, will you, how in the hell does a fabulously wealthy person know about being us?  When was the last time they had to stagger mailing the bills so there would be money in the bank when they hit?  When was the last time you went out for a beer and to watch a football game with someone who is fabulously wealthy?  You drink beer, he drinks a fine Californian pinot noir.  You have pizza, he has caviar and other disgusting rich people food that us po' folks haven't "developed a taste for" yet.

In my mind's eye, us normal everyday folk don't reate to the fabulously wealthy.  I'm not sure I could even hold a conversation with one of "them".  "Geez Mit, did you see the price of the bacon cheeseburger here?"  Or, "Hillary, do you really wax your chest every week?"  I'm saving up to help my wife fix her broken nail.  Why can't we just elect a common sense, every day type of guy or gal who relates to a tax that takes away something from the grocery list?  Let's get rid of congress too!  EVERY ONE OF THEM BASTARDS!!!!

Another thing that has weighed heavily on my mind are the people who own businesses who are putting up little signs with a line drawn through a gun.  Why would you discourage a person who has gone through the training and background checks that conceal and carry guys go through?  What that sign on the front of your store tells me is that criminals know you and everyone in your store is unarmmed.  If you let more trained c & c people in your store, maybe some of these wacko shootings would stop.  Get it?  Free security system.  Put it in your advertising too.  If I had the option, I'd make sure everyone was armmed.  Just a thought.

That is all....Peters out!

The Ususal Suspects

Let me start off by saying that I am and have always been a big supporter of the police.  I may not be a big supporter of police bureacracy. 

I have been following the Westroads shooting in Omaha since I grew up there and spent much of my youth either working or hanging out at the Westroads.  My father walked the Westroads nearly every morning after his heart surgery.  His friends still walk the Westroads over 25 years later.  My family still shops at the Westroads.  It left me stunned when I heard about the shootings there last week.

I watched the news events surrounding the Virginia Tech shootings and how concerns about the shooter were ignored.  My brother in law was assaulted by a fellow employee at his work, his tires have been slashed and he receives threatening voicemails and texts from the persons responsible, and the police tell him they can't do anything to get this guy off the streets.  I guess they're hands are tied until there's a body. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're read this blog from the beginning you know that I had to put up with Officer Friendly in Westwood Kansas because I drove home from work in the Plaza area.  It apparently is their job to nab as many drunk drivers as possible and use any mean available to do it.  I was pulled over several times a month for such things as "swerving, license plate light out or no signal for a lane change."  I have to wonder how many "real" drunk drivers went by while Officer Friendly was wasting my time and his. 

So here's what has rubbed me the wrong way.  In all these cases, Virginia Tech, the Westroads and even in my brother in law's case, police were notified of these people's behavior and yet nothing happened.  The Westroads shooter was turned over to Bellevue police who said he was out of their jurisdiction and turned it over to the Sarpy county sheriff who did nothing.  Concerns about the Virginia Tech shooter were virtually ignored.  I can't tell if police just aren't interested in getting these suspects off the streets or are impotent from the administrative level or what is going on. 

Maybe it's just more important or easier or whatever to just pull over motorists with burnt out license plate lights.  Do you wonder if some of these tragedies could have been prevented.  Of course, we'll never know and some situations like this may have been prevented, we just don't know.  But we do know after the fact that someone on Sarpy county Nebraska dropped the ball and 9 people are dead. 

Maybe less ticket quotas and more real police work..Let's live up to what it says on the cars, "To Serve and Protect". 

That is all....Peters out!