I suppose that this might be while watching fireworks as right now Sarah Palin is on television going on and on about resigning or saving Alaska, or really just Obama being a bad guy and how we need to support the troops. Honestly, I have no idea what she is talking about. But, there she is, talking on July 3rd.
1. My good friend Pat Peckham is off to Montana for a few weeks. I am inspired by both Montana and vacation. What was the longest true vacation you have taken? Let us not count that time you could not get a job for a year.
2. My main man Rob Mentzer and I talked after he was out in his yard doing yardwork today. Do you do that sort of thing? Do you garden? Have you been to the community garden? I grow tomatoes.
3. Does your job provide you with a business card? What do you do with them?
4. Are you aware of any large scale wi-fi hotspots within the city? For example, we have the Balloon Rally happening, is that wi-fi’d out there?
5. What kind of vacuum cleaner do you use?
6. I just read a book by Neil Strauss called “Emergency” about preparing for the end of America. Do you think we should get ready? Do you have any of that trepidation?
7. My main man Adrian is a mechanic on large trucks and engines (I think, so if I got that wrong, Adrian, I am sorry). I have spent a lot of time around the guy, and I really have a giant admiration or man crush on him for his self-sufficiency. He has travelled the world, and he can do everything. He is a skilled craftsman. Is there anything you wish you could do, in the traditional trade crafts like plumbing, pipe fitting, finish carpentry, etc?
8. Are we moving away from that sort of country, and into a nation of webmasters and baristas and reality TV shows?
9. What do you think of Shawn Duffy, former reality TV show star, taking on David Obey?
matthew
7:21 am on July 4th
Is Rob Mentzer or Adrian your main man? Can you have more than one?
Boogenstein
8:18 am on July 4th
1. I once took an 8 week jaunt around the World. 1st stop was Brunei (in Borneo) for nearly 2 weeks. That was followed by Hong Kong, Hawaii and San Francisco ending up with a couple of weeks in Baltimore before heading back to England.
2. We are growing Black Raspberries, Sweet Corn and various varieties of Peppers.
3. No, but I have them anyway. They come in handy fro getting bits of steak or chicken out from your teeth when there are no toothpicks around!
4. Got no laptop so have no need.
5. Dyson Animal. It totally sucks! Having had a Dyson for a few years, we would not even consider anything else presently available. Sometimes the best tool for the job costs a little more.
6. Not worried, life is too short.
7. I would like to know more about carpentry but if I got good at it would guys start getting weird crushes on me?
8. In this case you are right to be concerned.
9. I haven’t given any thought to it.
Dino Corvino
12:38 pm on July 4th
The classification of main man, is not one in the solo area. It is in in fact possible to have many main men.
Rob Mentzer
4:15 pm on July 6th
Matthew, it is me. I am the main man. I don’t even know who this guy Adrian is.
But I do think you can have more than one main man. Now if Dino had said “my MAINEST man,” that might have been a different thing…
1. I am terrible at taking time off. It causes me anxiety. I rarely even take a week at a time. But one week would be the answer, not counting in between semesters in grad school.
3. Put them in a box that sits on my desk and never do anything with them.
6. No way. America forevah.
John H. Fischer
4:43 pm on July 6th
1. I haven’t done a vacation in 20 years… its not worth the work load you get back to… in my Army days… I would take 3 weeks at a time and jump on MAC flights.. just go to the airbase and get on the next plane that had room for a couple of bucks and see where it took me.
2. I mow and mow and mow… mowing the rental properties takes two full 10-hour days and if I am lucky, it is every other week.
3. It doesn’t exactly provide me with a card.. I make my own… and I give them out to those who ask (though not the ones that get used as toothpicks/floss – those I dispose of)
4. Hot aware .. but I don’t seem to ever have a problem getting a signal when I really need one no matter where I am.
5. A large shop vac (trick answer, Mrs. Rent prefers to do the house work so the vacumm I use gets used in the shed, vehciles, etc)
6. Words to Live By: Prepare for the Worst – Hope for the Best
7. Although I drive a desk for a living, I am surprising good at more than one would think this D&D-Playing ueber-geek is. About my weakest area would be plumbing. I can do most basic repairs and trouble shooting… though I still need help with water heater replacement if we have to redo all the connections because the new ones don’t hook up in the same place the old ones do.
8. We are… compounding that is a move away from work. True trades-people are becoming in short supply. Traditional craftsman learn the trade completely before going on their own… now everyone tries to short cut.. I had a carpenter who didn’t know how to lay out stair stringers using a square, he went off on his own to make more money before learning that. An old-school farmer-style work ethic is becoming rare.
9. After 40 years in office, Obey will only leave the house when he decides he wants to. (One reason for term limits, because after a certain amount of time, you become unbeatable). However, anyone running as an “R” doesn’t have a very good shot. Historically, urban areas tend to vote “D” where farm and rural areas are more “R”… although the 7th district is big, the urban population base gives any Republican a disadvantage. Compound that with the apparant weakness an chaos within that party right now… and he will be just another name on the list of people who didn’t have a chance.
Rob Mentzer
8:07 pm on July 6th
Dr. Rent, you are right as a general rule, but in the 7th Obey routinely performs worse in Wausau than he does in the rural northern counties. Even Lincoln Co. Many theories about why, but there you go.
Mike Wall
8:27 pm on July 6th
It is really easy to get Obey out of office. He’s been quoted numerous times about this subject. He says he’ll leave when we get nationalized health care.
I think the right should call his bluff if they really want him gone.