Hello. The political vibe is so thick right now you can feel it all the way from the Rockies! It makes me feel creepy. Everything about it is so staged. It's a clever plot to trick all of us. Bill Clinton said really nice things about Obama last night that are the exact opposite of what he said a few months ago. Obama suddenly does have enough experience to lead our nation. Weird. And now I read today, that Friday, McCain plans to announce his VP at some rally in Ohio. One day after the big Obama speech in the football stadium. The Republicans plan on over 15,000 in attendance. These are sly people folks. Either I've never paid attention, or this political season is the most theatrical one in years. Is Francis Ford Coppola or Spielberg in the wings?

Hello, I'm back. I was out of town for a couple of days. We travelled to one of my favorite places to visit, Rochester, Minnesota. I took care of some business and enjoyed some pleasure. It is such a cool town. The Mayo Clinic brings an eclectic influence that feels like Chicago or Boston, not a Midwestern town of 100,000 people.

My blog was vandalised last weekend. It's sad isn't it. Something as "free" as blogging isn't safe from thugs. Someone felt the need to put childish graffiti on the comment "walls". I scrubbed it off and changed my comments settings. Sorry, no more anonymous comments allowed. The comments were sophisticated lines like, "you suck" and "you make me puke." I guess that is to be expected since any decent person wouldn't be splattering these things on a site anyway. If I never have to justify my life by throwing stones at someone else, I will be successful.

I've spent most of my adult life chasing my dreams. This involves taking risks. One of the risks is failure. Another risk is criticism. These are risks I'm willing to take over and over again. If the option is to spend my last hours wishing I would have tested one of my ideas, I'll take the risks. While we were walking along a sidewalk in Rochester this week, I saw a saying on the front of a little antique shop. It read, " To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing."

No thanks.

Hello, and welcome to payday. Children. People love them. People teach them. People learn from them. People use them. People abuse them. Some people spend years trying to have a child and others have children they don't deserve. Regardless of the life these little souls are given, they become adults.

I read a news item today about a woman who works in a Houston-area hospital as a surgical tech. She arrived at work the other day about 6:00 am as usual, hustled into the hospital and put in her shift. When she came out around 3:00 pm, she looked into her car with horror. She had "forgotten" that her 3-year-old son was buckled into his car seat in the back of the car. The poor little guy had gotten himself out of the car seat, made his way into the front seat to try to escape. He didn't make it. A closed up car can reach 150 degrees in 30 minutes. Forgotten?

I don't consciously remember anything until I was about 4 or 5 years old. Are we shaped by the events in our lives before that? I think we are born with certain traits and our childhood years definitely shape us. The child who has everything they could wish for versus the child who has everything he needs will have their unique sense of life as an adult. Then there is the child who doesn't have the bare essentials...different adult still. Some parents thought they were doing all the right things but ruined their children. Some parents spent their lives wishing they could do more for their children without realizing the wonderful things they were teaching their children.

Most of the people I call my friends had some kind of struggle as a child. We can learn from this.

Hello...am I here? What a weekend! Music, bourbon, new friends and old friends...a great combination. Friday night St. Elvis played the Promenade and proved that the folks going to those shows are looking for something unique. St. Elvis did a fine job. They are great musicians in a good band. Most of their selections are cover songs which didn't reach out and touch the usually appreciative crowd. The crowd still had a good time.

T. Wilson King helped make the Club recruitment party a success. His original lyrics and savvy guitar work set the right mood for the group. I love sharing the joy in live music with people who reap the same things as I do from it. It was really cool to feel the excitement in the room. Our group has a virus and we hope to spread it throughout Sioux Town.

Then there was Alice Cooper. The show was so 1970's. It brought back memories of the shows I saw at the Omaha Civic Center in the mid 70's. In fact I saw Alice back then. The big difference as I remember it is that then he killed animals, now he's progressed to women and children. It was a little disturbing, or should I say shocking. After all he considers himself a shock rocker. He may have scarred a few of the elderly in attendance. One grey-haired lady stood at the back of the theater looking like someone pooped in her oatmeal.

Stiff upper lip, ma'am. Amy Grant is coming soon, she'll exorcise the place.

Hello. Well, that week went by quick. Sometimes my mind takes on a blank stare. Too many things passing through to make sense of any of it, so the brain just crawls into the corner and drools. I have struggled for over a year to put everything in it's place. Just when things start to make sense, one event can turn everything sideways? Sometimes the events in our lives are like a house of cards, one gets out of line and they all scatter. I think a trip to another planet is in order. Time without piling on more "stuff" would be cool.

I will be stimulated by the weekend events. St. Elvis on the Promenade, then my buddy, T. Wilson King cranking out the tunes at the Club tonight. Tomorrow we are attending a gathering at the "Everyone's turning 50 Party"! Then the icing... Alice Cooper at the Orpheum on Sunday. Live music has a way of dragging my mind out of the corner.