Useless Observations

Go Utes!

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

My local university and employer of over 23 years, Utah, has a football team.utah-drum-lg

Going into this weekend they were nationally ranked #3 with a perfect 6-0 record.

They were to play a struggling USC team.

They lost, 42-24.

Some would see this as a tragedy. It is sad. I mostly feel bad for the players who put so much time and really parts of their souls into the training and practice that allows them to play at this level. But for the rest of us, it’s really just a game and it means very little.

Yes I want them to win every game. But they don’t and they won’t.

I still have to go to work on Monday. I would’ve had to go if they won too. My rent’s still due, my dinner still needs to be cooked, and my need to sleep remains.

It’s sad, but it doesn’t make any real difference in my life.

I hear there’s a game next week.

Go Utes!

 

Day 243

It All Makes Sense in Time

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

The wicked flee when no man pursueth. Proverbs 28:1

I wrote this down yesterday when I read it at the start of the movie True Grit.bible-neethling-efs1755mm-6232880-h

I understood where it fit for the movie, but the meaning escaped me in the real context. Until today.

I explained to another that I had no fear of review, I had confidence in my work and could accept an outsider’s opinion. I now understood.

Do good things and good work, and you need not hide it nor be ashamed.

Day 241

Dance

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

The last dance.

I remember going to the school dances and spending so much of it preparing to ask that one girl for the last dance.dance-12

The last dance would be a slow one; one to cherish, one to get close and create a moment. Even if for only me.

At the end of the song, the house lights came on, the girl returned to her friends, and I realized that the entire evening had become reduced to one song. And one girl.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m boohooing; I had some incredible last dances with some wonderful crushes.

Now with the wisdom of age, I understand I would’ve been better off if I had just stopped waiting for the magic moment and enjoyed all of the moments, danced the whole dance with whatever girl would grant me the honor.

And the situation still exists.

Every day is a new song at the biggest school dance of them all.

Do I want one special dance at the end? Or a lifetime of dancing to all the songs?

Seize the day, I say.

Dance.

 

Day 239

Melodic Mile Markers

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

Time can march, but it can’t dance, without notice.

On the drive home yesterday, I plugged in some CD’s that I had made some years ago for another road trip.1dc72a674b4f38617ca75bc6040a4cec

I had found a radio station out of France specializing in 80’s music. I set my desktop to record and would come back later and edit out the songs I didn’t want. It was the new way of recording the music off the radio with a cassette tape, like what I used to do back in high school. The songs on the CD even had the same abrupt start and stops like the cassette tapes did. There wasn’t any way to edit the DJ’s talking, the commercials, and the song overlaps. Editing is easier now, but not really worth the time.

The hits of the 80’s played for several hours across the desert roads of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. They kept me awake as the rest of the vehicle occupants slept. They kept me thinking.

I remember when those “classics” were “newly released titles”. The lyrics and melodies bled into thoughts of when I last or first heard them. Dances, classes, people, and drives in my parents’ 75 Oldsmobile Regency, all come back to the forefront of my thoughts almost as if they were happening right then. It’s as close to time travel as I will ever come.

At times it’s hard to pinpoint how long it has been since this or that happened. Time seems to march forward with that slow and steady pace that folds days into unrecognizable years.

Music, however, is the mile markers along the long lonesome highway that reminds you exactly where you are and where you’ve been.

 

Day 238

Riding and Thinking

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , 1 Comment

Hey Kids,

Yesterday I woke at 7.

Did the day: ate breakfast, watched the parade, packed up the car, watered the flowers on Annette’s mom’s grave, grabbed my last Texas BBQ sandwich, and then drove 21 straight hours with two one-hour meal breaks.road trip

Before I go to sleep tonight, I do have a few thoughts from the drive.

I expected to rent a Toyota. They gave me a KIA Optima. I worried. Was this just another Yugo? Were the knobs going to start falling off? How fresh were the hamsters? The car was fantastic, hope I get the occasion to drive another. Really.

Didn’t pay over $2/gallon for gas once I left Utah. I didn’t pay it again until I got back to Utah. Why? I still think buck-eighty gas is still too much to pay but it reminds me of back when we were free to travel without dipping into the grocery money. I love the environment and I hope and pray that a free, renewable energy replaces fossil fuels, but until then, what good is it to have a beautiful environment if most can’t afford to go and enjoy it.

That being said, get out to where you can. Seeing new parts of this great country makes one realize how blessed we are to be here. Never thought I would enjoy Texas as much as I did this past week until I went there. Wouldn’t have ever known without seeing and experiencing it for myself.

Love, love, love the higher speed limits! 55MPH sucked, sucks, and will always suck. (Sorry, I’m still bitter)

Time to get some sleep.

 

Day 237

Life Fulfillment

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

A salmon returns to the same water source to spawn from which it was hatched.

I read once that studies have shown that the salmon can do this by a keen sense of smell that leads them back to their native tributaries. They can detect the scent of their waters down to parts per billion.

Basically, they follow their nose home and fulfill their life’s destiny.

During my short time here in Texas, I have experienced a similar experience.

texas_map_iconAlthough I don’t have the olfactory skills and accuracy of the salmon, I can attest that there is an urge of the primordial type that stirs my soul each and every time I pass a working barbecue. And when the smoke rises into the air and permeates into my senses, the taste of the meat rests upon my tongue, and the juices become one with my body; I have found my Raison d’être.

Fortunately, it’ not as fatal for me as it is for the salmon.

Day 234

Get Your Yam On

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

Tonight’s writing comes from the lawn of the Upshur County Courtyhouse.

I’m at the Yamboree. IMG_20151015_071849_863

Yamboree, you ask?

Yup.

Just mix Yams and Jamboree and you’ve got it.

It’s the annual city festival held in Gilmer, Texas to celebrate the existence of yams. Or something like that anyway. It’s the age of the Internet. If you really want to know more, look it up.

The city square of the Gilmer has been transformed to a carnival. The smell of fried Oreos, Twinkies, and corn dogs fill the air. Kids are running wild, begging money from their parents, and the rides are filled with screaming kids as they spin, raise and rotate.

It’s crazy.

My normal reaction is to turn away from these scenes. I’m not a big crowd-type of person. But I also see something different happening here.

Groups of families get together and neighbors are shaking hands and greeting each other. There’s laughing and playing, almost enough to drown out the tacky ride music.

Members of this town look forward to this event every year. Family members travel in to be here. It’s a big deal.

Maybe the lights and loud music is a little corny and cheap. Maybe the arcade games are rigged to swindle a little money from the boyfriends showing off for their girlfriends. Maybe the food is extremely unhealthy.

But under the bright, flashing lights, traditions are being created and family bonds are being strengthened.

Go yams!

 

Day 233

Old West Lesson

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

As much as we think we know something, there’s always more to learn.

I love the old West. I don’t consider myself an expert but I know some stuff.

In fact, one of the fun thoughts I have of being on my motorcycle is thinking like I’m like one of the cowboys from back then. Open road, crossing the desert with nothing but the weather, the sound of the wind, and my own thoughts. Is it really much different?

Except of course if you take in consideration travel time being counted in hours instead of days or weeks. Then there’s the ability to stop whenever I want, get a motel, stop in a restaurant, or get a large drink for $1 at the local Mickey D’s.

OK, so it’s not exactly the same, but it’s our version of the open range today.

From the days when I was a kid, I’ve heard the names of the great western characters. And of those names, no name resonated in a young child’s imagination like the name Billy the Kid. I knew he was a bad guy but with a name like that, how could anyone not want to pretend to be him?

The truth of it all is that there is little information about, and even less pictures of, this Western Icon. In fact, until recently there was only one authenticated, original picture of Billy the Kid.

One.

In a weird twist, that one picture proved to be worth more money than this infamous, ruthless outlaw ever stole. It sold in 1985 for $2.3 million.829

Now another picture has been found and authenticated.

The photo, before authentication, was found in a pile of old photos in a junk store. It sold for $2.

No one knows how much this photo will be auctioned for, if and when it does. But it’s expected to meet if not exceed the original photo’s selling price.

The photo shows the famous outlaw playing croquette.

Apparently it was a thing then.

Who knew?

I didn’t.

 

Day 232

My Side of a Conversation with a Local

mikemjensen Road Trip, Useless Observations Tags: , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

I thought being October, Texas wouldn’t be so hot, that you all would’ve cooled off some. I mean the thermometer read 93°.

That IS cooler? But why does it feel SO hot? I’ve felt temperatures in the 90’s before but this feels not just hot, but like another layer of hot on top of it?

Humidity? What is that?

And that’s why I feel like I just got rubbed down with taffy slobber?

How do you people live here???

Day 231

Just Water Please

mikemjensen Useless Observations, Vanity Tags: , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

Have you noticed how many people just have water these days?

water-cup-sizeTonight, I noticed that every table in the restaurant had at least one person drinking from the cheap-o water cups. They easily outnumbered the soda cups. BTW- I think the little kiddy cups they give you is to shame you to the world that you were too cheap to buy the real drinks.

I believe it was earlier this year I saw on an article that 50% of people polled in the US said they were trying to stop or cut down on drinking soda. Apparently, that trend, which had rose from 33%, is continuing.

I am one of them.

A few months ago, I felt a little ill and the thought of drinking a soda turned my stomach. It was then I decided to stop killing myself with the brown poison and I’ve done it ever since. With a small exception of my A&W draft root beer fixes, you will be hard pressed to see a soda in my hand.

I’m not sure what everyone else’s motives are but I am clear on one thing for me. I save a couple of bucks every time we eat out. I save the 85¢ once or twice a day at the vending machine. I save the $1.50 2-Liter bottle purchases at the store. It has to add up eventually.

I also feel a little better now. I have less headaches, especially after I kicked the Diet Coke habit. I feel less stuffed after eating. And I feel less thirsty all the time. Water actually does satisfy the body.

I’m still fat however. But that might take giving up some actual food products.

And maybe a little exercise.

 

Day 228