Hub City Report

Monday was only a semi-jet lag day. A day of firsts. My first cold beer in a mug since leaving Taiwan, about $42 worth at $2 a pop. It was also the first day of any physical activity for me as I helped my friend build a fort-tree house for his kids. Kevlar would be proud. He eschewed the pre-cut, pre-drilled kits that only required inserting and screwing in the screws. No, he wanted old school. Old school requires that you spend more alone on tools to construct the fort-tree house than the kit itself. The icing on the do-it-really-by-yourself cake is flatlining your bank account to buy the materials so that your new toys have something to do. Old school is sinking the foundation posts a year ago and then waiting until one or more of your friends find themselves unemployed and/or on vacation to help you. My friend found both and we went at it. Actually, they had started before I arrived back in Lubbock. My assignment was to document the progress and play with the dog.

Work, and belly rubbing, progressed nicely until we were left with only one assignment for the day - the swing. Ah, the swing. Old school allows you to add those cool - and highly unsafe - features that the kits don't have: a trap door in the floor (Safe enough); sliding front door (Safe but inviting heavy ridicule - How do you answer the door? In an ascot?); a rope ladder attached to the left-most branch for kids that don't even reach to the floor of the fort, no more tree house, its' a fort (Hey, they say broken bones heal stronger than they before - Old School Book of Knowledge); and a swing supported by the yardarm sticking out of the roof on the left ( Danger high. Having already been placed and decided upon as the swing location, it just needs some support. How about placing those two 4x4s under the end of the yardarm? No, impossible. A bracket has already been bought to secure the 4x4s to the end of the yardarm, and the OSBofK does not allow returns or admissions of error. It will be interesting to see what the OSBofK has to say about lawsuits.

Obama notes from the Take Back America conference

• I think Chris Matthews has a man-crush on Obama.
• Obama wants a principle-based, united America and if you don't agree with him, then "we will beat you." At the polls, I suspect.
• He likes the unions. Boy, does he like the unions.
• He also likes trade. Not really free trade, but the kind of trade where both sides follow strict environmental standards, everyone in the world makes money on the deal and unions are in control.
• He thinks China and the US have identical manufacturing sectors and our factories (unionized) need to produce more of what China is producing for us. Good thing he's going to declare a billionty dollar minimum wage so we can afford our new Made in the USA Che T-shirts

Packaging Question : What does Mar1795 mean? It was on the front of the package of Sargento's shredded parmesan cheese that I ate.