18 hours in Phoenix

Noon Saturday, arrive at hotel. Lunch with friends. Hiked a nearby park mid afternoon. Watched football until 5. Changed to tux and left for benefit dinner at 6. Silent auction, lots of bids, no wins. Dinner outdoors, under the stars. great food, good company. Six colleagues, three clients. Back to hotel 10;55. Left for MSP at 6am. A great escape but should have made it last longer.

A day in the life

0300 - On the treadmill, Asia down, Europe mixed, US futures point to a flat open
0430 - shower, off to the airport
0500 - My shirt is the same color as that of the TSA police
0515 am - In the NWA World Club
0700 - On the plane. Sorry, no coffee, the first class waitress tells my with a smile
0900 - In a rental car. Sitting in the parking lot of the Shop N Save market in Des Plaines, IL. Preparing for a business meeting
1030 - I check voicemail and hear a good friend has died. I think about him for 15 minutes
1130 - At lunch with a client.... hang on.... My job is to bring them out of the valley and over to the other side.
1300 Chicago NWA World Club.
1500 My seat partner in first class works in HR at General Mills and tells me the economy is only going to get worse, much worse..... OOOOH i'm scared. She's also convinced that a bad economy is good for us, will teach us lessons. Good old American values, something about them that they just refuse to die.
1600 MSP never looked better. I think about my friend who is no longer here. Dow up 400.

The world is getting back to normal

The cubs were swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS over the weekend, complete with a little help from the Cardinals. With all the calamity in the financial markets, a victory by the cubs might have signaled that we really had something to worry about. The world is safe for one more year. Thank you Dodgers and (former St. Louis Cardinals) manager Joe Torre. Had Torre not spent time in St. Louis, he might have taken the cubs seriously and changed his game plan. Had the cubs played their last ten games of the year like the Cardinals (7-3) they would have been marching on.

The undefeated Missouri Tigers are ranked number 2 this week. Things are getting better all the time.

They're making fun of us....

My latest trip to the capitol of the United States leaves me less enamoured of democracy. Maybe we should keep it to ourselves for a few years until it is hammered back into a shape worth sharing.

This week world financial markets were perched on an abyss, steps away from grinding to a halt. United States congressman knew this but also could not resist picking up pennies in front of a steam roller and snagged pet projects for their backers in the home district. It's a game to them I think. The drug of personal glory and adulation has them hooked. They live in some alternative world where they are important people. Based on their actions, congressmen just don't like Americans much and must be laughing when the cameras are off.


It would have been nice if Congress had been able to debate a rescue program on its merits, or lack of them. Rather, they push America closer to the abyss, hold it by the shirt collar as it sways forward, and wrap us in pork and pet projects while they tell us how much they have helped us.


What congress has is a weird collective form of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. They inflict pain and suffering on the country by creating problems and then solving them, or making real problems worse. The purpose is to gain attention, recognition and personal satisfaction for themselves.

Those things that have the potential to do the most good have and equal potential to do the most harm. We need a congress that honors the citizens who do not need it.


I am ready for a good king. Now Wenceslas, that was a king

The Articulate Hobo

I met a hobo on Wednesday.

He came up to me and asked if I had lived in Minneapolis for long. I replied and he began to tell me this story of how he and his wife had just landed. Refugees from Milwaukee. She has an illness. They needed money to get a room at a YMCA shelter. He was a professional chef looking for work. His story was a concise 20 second description of his situation and his needs.

I usually pass by all those bearing a "homeless, will work for food" sign. This guy was in my face, looking me in the eye. Not downcast but optimistic. Call me a sucker for a well prepared sales presentation. Before he could finish I handed him a twenty and wished him well.

Helena, Montana - Tim's Exxon, bad coffee, mountain biking

If my Cafe Du Monde trip is among my best coffee experiences, the cup I had at Gate 2 at the Helena, Montana airport has to be the opposite. Cold, expensive, smelly, old. Otherwise a great trip. My Dad once said there's no such thing as a bad cup of coffee. He was wrong.

One of the most memorable things about this trip was my stop at Tim's Exxon at 1721 Cedar St.

Filled my tank there yesterday morning, using a credit card to pay at the pump. I did not go inside, just a quck stop to fill the rental car on my way to the airport. But that did not stop the attendant from stepping outside as I was getting into my car and saying "Thanks for coming by sir, have a good day!"

That may not seem like a big deal but it was so surprising. I don't think I've ever had that happen before at a gas station, certainly never when paying at the pump. Great way to start the day. If I lived in Helena I would never buy gas anywhere else. Looked the station up on Yahoo yellow pages and found out I was not the first person to experience the great service from these folks.

Prior day, September 11th, was my first attempt at mountain biking, also in Helena with Dave Roberts. Took a bike path uphill for about a half hour. I run every day but the steepness, the elevation and the use of muscles long dormant made me feel like the most out of shape lardass on the planet. Once at the top of the trail it was a great trail gradually downward. Expect that I pushed the bike about two thirds of the uphill portion, just could not get the coordination/rhythym/strength and balance right. Would definitely give it a try again.

Hey Sanna Ho Sanna

Can Sarah Palin heal the sick? Can Barack Obama calm the storms at sea? Can they unbreak our homes or feed the hungry? Can they forgive me for my sins?

Many find this pair worthy of adulation. For some it comes close to worship.

This parade is a reminder of the God shaped vacumn in each of us and and the silliness in trying to fill it with a human.

Labor Day Weekend 2008

When you can't decide whether to go back for another serving of chocolate cake or of cole slaw, you know you have found America's finest summer cookout.

Also - if you ever find yourself at gate A6 at the Charlotte Airport, dealing with a large african-american woman with a big smile and a streak of grey hair across her forehead.... give up. She is the worst gate attendant in the Northwest Airlines system. It's not that she doesn't know the procedures for her job, it's that rather than admit incompetence, she makes it up. Wish I could remember her name.

Orleans

I visited New Orleans this week, as I do a couple of times each year. Had some free times one evening, which I spent in Jackson Square. It was hot and muggy but with a breeze, which made the out of doors immensely bearable. Spent a nice long hour smoking a cigar and sipping a cup of cafe au lait from Cafe DuMonde. It was so nice I walked back to my hotel, got another cigar and went back for another cup and another hour of sipping coffee and strolling the french quarter. Stray cats gather in the square at sundown, as do the stray souls.

I walked by, but did not dine, at one of my favorite restaurants, Muriels. I'm not one to dine alone and as this was a solo trip I chose to make my dinner from a Lucky Dog and a diet Pepsi. Walked along the wicked end of Bourbon Street.

The rolling of the Mississippi. I have raised my children under the influence of this grand old dragon that slices America in two. I am not sure that I like the Mississippi, not in the way that I like the White River in North Arkansas or the Doe River in Tennessee. Big rivers are killers. The Kenai River is a killer. The Missouri River is a killer. Given the chance the Mississippi would swallow me, while the Doe River would gently push me to her banks.

The Mother Ship

Yesterday I went to Mass at St. Albans for Father Mike's noonday homily. Funny how phrases that you have heard all your life suddenly hit you. Today it was... "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us"

I think often about the Catholic Church. This is despite the fact, or because, I was raised a great distance theologically from Rome. In my adult life I have been continually surrounded by its influence. It is the moral anchor on social issues of my adult years, and many many theological ones.

It is unwavering.

I think about several key facts about this church. The Catholic Church claims to be the true Christian Church. It is the only major Christian denominations that does. There are more Catholics than any other Christian denomination. It is the oldest Christian denomination. Perhaps it follows that every Christian must at some point answer the question, "Why am I not a Catholic?". We have to face the claims of Rome and accept them or reject them. We cannot ignore them.

The Catholic Church prays for unity among Christians. Constantly. Protestants do not. The weirdest thing about Protestantism has to be the way it ignores this one thing that must grieve the Father, the disunity in the Church. Not only do we ignore it, many denominations are downright proud of how unlike other denominations, particularly the Catholics they are, and how wide the gulf is between this group and that. Protestants boast about a rebellion that should bring us to tears.

If I were not a Christian, this disunity and plethora of variations of Christianity would be the single biggest obstacle to my conversion.

Why am I not Catholic? I am working on the answer. I'm a baptist by heritage, but I take my children to cathedrals and I make sure they know how to spot Peter, the saint with the keys. The first Pope, I'm not sure. I always told them maybe, never told them no. Not much of a hedge, but something.

Get that saddle back

Pondering the appearance of two would-be leaders of a temporal kingdom in a self-proclaimed outpost of the heavenly one.....

If the purpose of the church is to bring glory to God and to draw people of the world closer to Christ, what role did this event play in that holy mission?













"For while it is possible for a king to wish very much to be a saint, it is not possible for a saint to wish very much to be a king. " - G. K. Chesterton

The Verdict

Latest smoking attempt a dud, based on family reaction. Beef ribs definitely a mistake, cooked too long. Inside was passable, bark was bitter. Pork ribs on the dry side. Pork shoulder was good but I think heat should have been higher at some point in the process, perhaps the early hours. In the end 20 hours at 175 was not what I thought it would be. Would like to try a roast at the same temp for 36 hours or so. Typically one of my 20 hour roasts would have about 4 hours spent in the 250+ temp range.