Thoughts

When I entered college just after graduating high school in 1986, there was a new band from my neck of the woods that just spoke to me. The band was call The Rainmakers and they were from Missouri.

It wasn't just the Rainmaker's music that caught my attention but also the lyrics themselves. Many of the band's songs from their early days referenced locations and attitude that you can only understood fully if you were from Kansas or Missouri. And the "big city" they referenced most in their songs was my hometown of Kansas City. I was such an early fan that I remember this band wasn't always introduced as the Rainmakers but also as the band "formerly called Steve, Bob, and Rich".

My wife and son are struggling with my recent obsession for turntables and vinyl records. I’m slightly confused of their surprise yet I understand. They never knew me back in the old days.

They didn’t know that optimistic teenager that spent hours listening to LPs and spending additional time recording them on cassette tape for my Sony Walkman. They didn’t know that me in college while living in a Kansas University dorm where every room on 6th Floor in Ellsworth Hall had the volume on their stereo set to Level 11.

The Ramones, Beatles, Grateful Dead, Journey, Kansas, Rush, Johnny Cash, Guns n Roses, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Pink Floyd. They knew me back then and that’s good enough for me.

Modified slightly in 2023 for a repost on Medium.

Logan, my 16 year-old son, has pursued his passion to become a pilot this last year. To help pay for that he's been working part-time at local restaurants since he was 14. Today he woke up at 3:30 AM so he could be in Omaha competing with his high school's Show Choir.

I bring this up not because I'm a proud Dad (although I am) but because many of my son's friends are just like him. Hard working and committed to reaching their full potential. This next generation of kids is promising and we're going to be better off with them.

I have served as a federal employee of the United States for close to three decades. I've been a public servant under five different Presidents during this same time period. This year, there has been a lot of talk lately about the oath all federal employees take and where their loyalties must lie. Personally, I don't understand why there is even a debate of what a federal employee signs up for when making this solemn promise. From my point of view, the meaning behind the oath is pretty straight forward and without question.

Nothing is better in life than having great friends that you can be yourself with. Or in this case, not yourself.

As you get older and busy raising your family, you will find making friends is more difficult than it once was. Finding friends that you not only get along with but also your significant other gets along with...well that's a whole new level of complexity no one ever prepared me for in life. When you find those other couples, appreciate what you have because my experience tells me those are not only important but rare friends to have in your life.

My son fishing from the dock this past weekend. Over the years, these are my favorite pictures of Logan while we're camping. If you have never taken your son or daughter camping, fishing, or hiking...do it now before time slips away.

April 27, 2019. Perhaps why people that live in South Dakota drink a little too much.

I've come to the conclusion that I need shorter friends but I wouldn't trade these three for them.

These are some of my closest friends, Charlie, David and John. We've been friends since high school years. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I have found as time marches forward these type of friends in your life become more important not less.

This morning, we woke up to a record low temperature in Sioux Falls, SD with the mercury dropping down to -17°F. This beat the previous record for March 3rd of -15°F established in 1916 and tied again in 2014.

We have had colder temperatures of course, but when these cold temperatures and the snow are seen in early March...it feels like Spring is never going to reach South Dakota. Normal high temperatures for this time of year is in the mid to upper 30s with lows in the teens (above zero!).

It's a record breaking day here in Sioux Falls and in many areas.

We've checked the boxes for three of these records, will we complete the sweep? pic.twitter.com/2MedTc9uKW

I've been using MeWe for a few weeks now and while I haven't decided if I'm there to stay, there are a number of things I'm impressed with this "next-gen social network". Despite MeWe's cluttered user interface via a web browser, the actual layout of the post itself is well done.