Solar Lights, Hot Dog Roasting Sticks, and TP

I belong to a black powder shooting club that owns forty acres in Pike County, Indiana.
Recently, we discovered that a homeless man from around the area has discovered our camp and has made it his home from time to time while no one is around.

A while back, one of our members discovered him and politely asked him to leave and never come back. We then put up a trail camera to monitor the club house and road.  This weekend, we discovered that a solar light from the outhouse, all the toilet paper, a handful of hot dog roasting sticks, AND the trail cam have gone missing.  

There really is no moral to this story.  No Carpe diem lesson.  Just a story.

Which brings me around to camping this weekend.  

I usually camp in a primitive canvas tent to reenact pre-1840 history.  This weekend I broke out a new “modern” tent that purchased to someday use on an overnight with grandson.

Camping.  There are a lot of invaluable life lesson to learn from camping.  

• First, it’s great to unplug.  If social media is a cancer, nature is the remedy. 

• Camping builds and strengthens bonds — especially around a campfire.

• Nature wakens your senses (it’s a little scary, which is good for you).

• You tend to bring too much stuff, but never exactly what you need.
• So, Camping challenges you to adapt, improvise and overcome.
• Cooking with fire is primal and just damn awesome.   
• Sleeping out under the stars awakens a spiritual bond.
  

Today I’m back to civilization (or un-civil civilization) and I’m continuing my not-calling-it-a-boycott boycott of the NFL.  Instead of watching a game, I’m going to spend three hours cleaning up my camp gear and getting ready for the next adventure. 

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

What a Difference a Game Makes

 Or, to be more precise, NOT watching a NFL game.

And, to be even more precise, NOT watching three or four games.  

109 blocks later.  Some leveling here and there.  Some fixing one problem and creating two others . . . 

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn

Week Two

 “If the people don’t want to come out to the ball park, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em” — Yogi Berra

Well, it’s “Operation Zero NFL” Week Two — 17 weeks (at least) of CHOOSING to not watch the NFL.  In its place, I’ve come up with a list of activities to consciously do in place of a three hour game.

Last week we knocked out housecleaning after a weekend with grandchildren.

This week, I’m taking advantage of a glorious day to deconstruct a 30-year-old landscaping timber wall and replace it with a landscaping block wall.  Won’t get it all done in three hours, but it’s a start. 

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. — Chinese proverb

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Thanks Charles

I’m hearing more and more people saying that they are fed up with the NFL (and profession and even college sports as a whole).  And, I’m hearing the word “boycott” bantered about more frequently. 

According to my sources (yes, Wikipedia), a boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary and intentional abstention from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict some economic loss on the target, or to indicate a moral outrage, to try to compel the target to alter an objectionable behavior.

The origin of the word “boycott” dates back to the 19th century from the name of Captain Charles C. Boycott (1832–97).  During the Irish “Land War” of the late 1800s, a British Captain by the name of Charles Boycott was the land agent of an absentee landlord called Lord Erne in County Mayo, Ireland.

 

I, too, I have CHOSEN stop watching sports anymore.  No necessarily "to inflict some economic loss on the target, or to indicate a moral outrage, to try to compel the target to alter an objectionable behavior" but for a number of reason all piled up on top of each other like fighting over a fumble.  I stopped watching the NBA after Jordan and Bird.  Stopped watching MLB after the strike in the mid-90s cancelled the World Series.  And stopped watching the NFL when, well, there are just too many reasons to list.  BUT, I don’t think of it as actually boycotting anything.  I prefer to think of it as choosing to DO more meaningful things.

A typical football game is three hours long.  The NFL season is 17 weeks plus playoffs.  What can I do in three hour blocks for 17 weeks to improve my life?  Just something for me to think about this week.  You? 

Yes, I do believe in something:  My time.  Even if it means sacrificing watching sports. 

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn

Sometimes, Simple is Best

Carpe diem Life,

David Kuhn
 

Un-Social Media and A Vulgar Man

 I find it interesting that many people on un-social media call tRump the most vulgar American president ever.  He is also called a bully. 

That got me thinking about another president.  

Like many Americans, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, 36th President, is a distant memory. I was only three when he took office after the assassination  John F. Kennedy.  And for those young folks out there who think THESE times unprecedented.  I remember the assassination Bobby Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and social turmoil reported on the evening news each night.

Somehow during all that,  Johnson was essential to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, the Voting Rights Act and even the Public Broadcasting Act. How did he get so much done?  In part, it was “The Johnson Treatment.”

The ‘Treatment’ in a nutshell:

According to historian Alex Brown, “The Johnson Treatment” typically involved invading the personal space of the target – Johnson taking advantage of his substantial bulk – and attacking with a disorientating stream of flattery, threats, and persuasion that would leave the target unable to counter.

“If he did counter,” Brown writes, “Johnson would press on relentlessly. It was evocatively described as like having, a large St. Bernard licking your face and pawing you all over.”

And vulgar?

From the article "The most vulgar American president ever? It sure as #$@!%* isn't Donald Trump" National Post & Scott Van Wynsberghe

“As the world awaits the next nasty utterance from Donald Trump, one can only marvel at how history itself has ended up in (language alert!) — a “shithole.” Amid the chronic shock and horrified reactions, people have become blind to the fact that he is not (yet) the most disgusting U.S. president in living memory. That title actually belongs to a Texan Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson, a howling, flatulent tormentor of women whose cussing and racism remain breathtaking today. And if you’re offended by Trump’s level of vulgarity, you really — really — don’t want to read any further.”

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-most-vulgar-american-president-ever-it-sure-as-isnt-donald-trump

Ol’ LBJ must have been one colorful character.  Sure would be interesting to see how he’d handle THESE so-called unprecedented times.  One thing is for sure, the more things change the more they stay the same.  

"If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'"— LBJ

Here are a few other odds and ends Johnson is credited with saying:

I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.Don't Spit in the Soup, We All Gotta Eat

Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize Oh man....I could be eating a slow learner.

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

- - -

Just a little history lesson that solves nothing. But, as Lyndon B. Johnson observed:

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn