More Minnesota perpetuals:
Minnesota may have 10,000 lakes but it also has 10,000,000 pot holes. By the time the weather is ready to repair them, it's close to winter again so why bother. They'll just be as bad as last pot hole season.

Minnesota is also the land of perpetual Christmas lights. By the time the weather is conducive to taking them down, it's almost fall and they'll just be going back up in a couple of months so why bother.

Minneapolis
I think churches should be named describing some of the local flavor. For instance, any new church in south Minneapolis should be named the "Our Lady of Perpetual Road Construction Church." Any church named during the winter should be known as "The Church of Perpetual Snow Removal." In Wyoming it should be "The Church of Perpetual Wind."

Years ago a chemist friend warned me about ethanol gas for cars. He claimed it cut gas mileage far more than the price justified. Starting out from Casper with a tailwind, I averaged close to 27 mpg, filled up with regular gas and continued to enjoy over 24 mpg to South Dakota, where one's choices are ethanol or ethanol. Slowly but surely the mpg began to go down as we traveled farther east. One factor to also consider is we dropped over 2,000 feet in elevation.
Sometimes things aren't always as good as they are supposed to be.

It's amazing what strangers will tell each other. We stayed at a motel in Mitchell, SD last night. I went down to breakfast and there were two couples, one from Rapid City and the other from North Dakota. There were talking about their families and big city traffic letting each other know how much they travel. They left and I read my paper. A guy came in and since I had a Wyoming shirt on, he asked the obvious question which is am I from Wyoming. Turns out he lives in Ames, Iowa, which, of course, is a big connection for me. He was a family counselor while I was a school counselor.
We'll never see each other again but for a few minutes we bonded verbally.

Went to the annual mineral's industry chili cook-off at the Events Center yesterday. Each year mineral companies and their service companies charge $10.00 per person to sample as much chili as one can take. This year there were 46 booths and they're in competition with one another by each person sampling and returning a ballot for his/her favorite chili. The competition is fierce. They also charge $3.00 for beer and a dollar for a can of pop. I don't think a person can make it through too many booths without needing something to drink. I would say that beer sales were outnumbering pop sales by at least a two to one margin. I estimate I made it to around 20 booths. I avoid the hot chili as much as I can but every once in a while a person gets one that clears up the sinuses.
I got there around 11:45 and there were probably more than 500 people on the floor visiting the booths. It was crowded. Since I didn't sample most of them, I didn't turn in a ballot but it's a great way to get one's chili fix.

Bumper Sticker on a pick-up
"Welcome to Wyoming-now take a wolf and leave"
Aren't we friendly?

I didn't watch the national news or check the stock market from Wednesday through Friday. It was just nice to get away from it all.

Article in today's Denver Post
The Headline-"This Marriage May Not Last"
A groom was arrested twice on his wedding day. The first time for intoxication and the second time for spousal abuse.

Driving through Cheyenne today, we saw a home flying the Canadian flag. O,Canada-eh!

Red,white and blue bumper sticker on a pick-up window driven by a women:
"There's nothing more American than a cowgirl"
Seen in Colorado-not Wyoming.

SIGNS OF OLYMPIC FEVER
1. You like the snowboarding competition when in real life you loathe the knuckle draggers.
2. You begin to show even the slightest interest in curling or better yet you begin to understand the strategy and you're not from Canada or Minnesota.

Played couch potato so much this weekend watching the Olympics, I thought my self-winding watch would stop.

From a friend:
"Two reasons why it's so hard to solve a Redneck murder:
1. The DNA is all the same
2. There are no dental records

With our conservative legislature now in session, Wyoming will probably be the first state to attempt to secede from the union since the 1860's.

Bumper stickers:
Seen on a pick-up with a motorcycle in the bed-
"Skules suck"

and on another pick-up (for Stooey)-
"My dachshund is smarter than your honor student"

Went skiing yesterday. Windy, cold, overcast with flurries-but a bad day of skiing is better than a good day of a lot of other things.

Almost witnessed a catastrophe yesterday. A lady driving a suburban drove in front of a beer truck. She barely missed the truck. I was prepared to offer aid in the clean-up.
"Mmmmm beer." Homer Simpson

The annual SI Swimsuit edition arrived yesterday. A "ray of light" to brighten up winter.
Went to the mall this afternoon. There were three police cars parked at the entrance. I thought this was a bit of overkill for shoplifting but it turns out someone at "Hot Dog on a Stick" found a strange package in the hallway behind their place.

Went skiing this morning-no crowds, good snow. I did, however, meet a couple of young ladies from Louisiana who had never seen snow before let alone skied.

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." Mark Twain

Spent quite a bit of time last night and this morning replaying the Super Bowl commercials on HULU. I only watched the second half and missed the vast majority of them. Unless one has a rooting interest the ads are the best part of the Super Bowl-it certainly wasn't the WHO, the halftime show.
My favorite commercial is the African Sleepwalker, a Coca-Cola ad. I also enjoyed a couple of Budweiser and Doritos spots. Thought the Tim Tebow ad was a waste of money by someone.

From the calendar:
"You might be a Redneck if...you never show up for work the day after the Super Bowl."

Watched the second half of the Super Bowl last night. Since I had absolutely no rooting interest in the game, the highlight was the commercial where the guy walks across a game preserve in Africa to get a Coca-Cola. What excitement!

I'm sitting around in Littleton reading and watching basketball while Keri and Kathy are at a baby shower for Keri and the twins. She had on her Minnesota Twins T-shirt this morning. I'll go over and help haul the loot home later. Eric had to go fly so I'm home alone.

I had a new experience today. I went to a place called "Babies R Us." I can't believe all the new bells and whistles for the under five crowd. It's the equivalent of HD TV or IPhones. I'm glad I didn't have to contend with this stuff. We put our kids in a plastic clothes basket and drove many places.

Today was the best of times and the worst of times. I started out with a trip to the dentist for a routine check. I hate lying there with my mouth open and and a probe in my mouth with someone asking me questions or just talking. I also hate the taste of the floride.
Thankfully I left the dentist to get a haircut ("Short on the sides and back and do what you can with the top."). I always enjoy going to Tracy's because the man knows more about what's happening in Casper than anyone else I know. I always enjoy my time there although I'm paying for it while my dental insurance pays for the dentist.

I visited with a teacher friend yesterday. When I asked how things are going, Scot started talking about the problems in the district. Most of his complaints were similar to the campaign I ran when I ran for the school board in 2008. I guess I should have tried harder but I decided I wasn't to spend any money for an office that didn't pay but took up a lot of time. My campaign was more word-of-mouth. I still got a little over 47% of the vote so I thought I did pretty well.
In the year since the election I began to think that the best thing that happened to me was to get beat. Same old things are still screwed up.