Pete's BLOG-Day 26,551. Fun Day Yesterday.

Today is Tuesday, July 30, 2013. My stats today: 46 minutes of walking in the State Park with son Brad = 2.5 miles for a July total of 53.9 miles. My THOUGHTS today: Son Brad and wife Lene arrived Sunday night from Denmark. Yesterday Brad and I went to the Zach Johnson Foundation Golf Classic at Elmcrest Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is the third year for the golf classic. Zach's Foundation was founded to help elementary students at two schools in Cedar Rapids be successful and excel in school. It is an experimental program to see if some new programs in elementary education are working. It is called "Kid on Course." Zach's Foundation has contributed more $2 million to these schools in the last two years. Zach invited 6 PGA pros; Kyle Stanley, Ryan Palmer, Mark Wilson, Scott Simpson, Harris English, and Cameron Trigate. 1 LPGA pro, Sara Brown. 7 former Hawk, Cyclone and UNI NFL players; Dallas Clark, Kurt Warner, Nate Kaeding, Tim Dwight, Jason Baker, Jared DeVries, Sage Rosenfels. Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist in Beijing in 2008. Former Hawk basketball player, Matt Gstens These folks signed a lot of autographs and were easy to talk to. Chuck Long looks great at age 50. Tim Dwight was probably the worst golfer along with Long. Tim Dwight shanked one that nearly hit me, it came to rest by my foot. It was a great day - so happy Brad and I went.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,549;. Ignoble Prizes Since 1991.

Today is Sunday, July 26, 2013. No Stats today - my Jule total miles is 49.9 miles. My weight today was 162.0 pounds. My THOUGHTS today comes from my bathroom book entitled, THE NEW BOOK OF LISTS (The original compendium of curious information.) The LIST entitled "21 IGNOBLE PRIZES" made me laugh. In 1991 some people started the "The Ignoble Prize Award Ceremony." The winners have all done things that are ridiculous and make people laugh, but then they kind of make them think, a little anyway. Here are a couple examples: In 1999, the MEDICINE prize went to Dr. Arvid Vatle of Stard, Norway, for collecting, classifying, and contemplating which kinds of containers his patients chose when submitting urine samples. The research paper was published in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association. In 1999, the CHEMISTRY prize went to Takeshi Makino, president of the Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, for his work on S-Check, an infidelity spray that wives can apply to their husband's underwear. Do you see what I mean when I say ridiculous - make you laugh - and then maybe make you think a little. I enjoy this kind of ridiculous stuff - makes me laugh

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,547. Bucket List = Baseball Trip

Today is Friday, July 26, 2013. Mt stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes lifting weights and 28 minutes of walking = 1.5 miles for a July total of 48.4 miles. My weight was 162.4 pounds. QUOTE from Ping Fu, cofounder and CEO of Geomagic: "When in doubt, err on the side of generosity." My THOUGHTS today are it is only 41 days until our baseball trip. When son Brad called from Denmark about 2-3 months ago he said he had something on his "BUCKET LIST" that he wanted to accomplish this fall. He said " I'm between jobs now and have some time before I start a different job so I'd like to take a baseball trip and hit as many stadiums as we can in 2 to 3 weeks. It's been on my Bucket List for year." I told him it had been on my Bucket List also and I'd be in favor. So we talked and discussed if we should take anybody else. We decided brother/uncle John would love it. So I gave John a call and he was more than enthused as it had been on his Bucket List for years also. So the 3 of us are leaving on September 1 and coming home on September 17. Here is where we're heading. 1. Milwaukee Brewers 2. Chicago Cubs 3. Cincinnatti Reds 4. Cleveland Indians 5. NY Yankees 6. Philadelphia Phillies 7. NY Mets 8. Baltimore Orioles 9. Pittsburgh Pirates 10. St Louis Cardinals 11. Kansas City Royals. John volunteered to take his car. We'll have some days with no games so we'll either travel those days or do some sightseeing. Our rules will be that each of us buys his own food and drink. We'll equally share the gas and hotel rooms. We're going to put $700.00 apiece in a kitty to use for parking and tickets. It will be a fun time

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,545. The light turned yellow.

Today is Wednesday, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes lifting weights and 39 minutes of walking = 2.1 miles for a July total of 43.8 miles. My weight was 163.4 pounds. QUOTE from Robert Brault, writer. "Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha." My THOUGHTS today have to do with an email I received entitled, "The light turned yellow." The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit the car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and place in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the cell door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue a streak at him. I noticed the 'What would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car. Isn't this so true? I feel the same way about these kind of people.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,536. Love life of rhinos.

Today is Monday, July 15, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a July total of 31 miles. My weight was 162.4 pounds. My THOUGHTS today have to do with something I read in the book entitled THE BOOK OF LISTS. It is my bathroom book and is full of interesting trivia. So I'm going to share something I learned about the mating habits of rhinos - quite interesting to say the least. Not surprising, rhino mating is a dangerous business. As the female enters her mating period, her vulva swells and she makes shrill whistling noises in the prescense of a male. He responds with deep, heaving sighs. Next, he charges her head-on, and she meets the attack. Again and again they rush each other, bellowing with anger and butting fiercely. They continue for an hour, risking serious injury. If the female finally decides the male is worthy, she presents her rear to him, he enters her with his two-foot-long penis. He remains mounted for over an hour, ejaculating every ten minutes. So now you know how rhinos make love - it is not the most romantic way I've read about. I'll do a few more love stories about other animals if there is a big demand.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,533. FBI investigations #4 and #5.

Today is Friday, July 12, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes lifting weights and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a July total of 26.5 miles. My weight was 163.6 pounds.
My THOUGHTS today are on two more surprising FBI investigations.
# 1 was Steve Jobs; #2 was Helen Keller; and #3 was Jackie Robinson.

#4 is Charlie Chaplin, the silent movie actor. The FBI started a file on Chaplin in 1922 and it grew to 2,000 pages. The FBI theorized that he was a communist sympathizer and a potential  threat to national security. When Chaplin went to London in 1952 and wanted to come back to the U.S. the U.S. Attorney General prevented him from reentering. Chaplin and his wife had had enough - he told the U.S. to go to hell and lived in Switzerland until his death 25 years later.

#5 is a real surprise. His name was Walt Disney and you'll be really surprised what he did. During the height of McCarthyism in the early 1950s Disney was an FBI informant. In other words he WORKED FOR THE FBI. He gave the FBI names of people in Hollywood whom he believed to be associated with communism. But the job had a few perks, such as being allowed to film segments about the FBI for the Mickey Mouse Club TV show at the FBI headquarters in D.C.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,532. Surprising FBI investigation #3

Today is Thursday, July 11, 2-13. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 57 minutes of walking = 3.0 miles for a July total of 24 miles. My weight was 164.0 pounds.

My THOUGHTS today are to write about 1 more FBI investigation that surprised the hell out of me.

#1 was Steve Jobs
#2 was Helen Keller

#3 is Jackie Robinson - Yes, we're talking about the black man who broke the MLB  color barrier in 1947. Why did the FBI investigate Jackie Robinson? According to Beth Dreher, the author of the article, it was for the following reasons:
After his playing days ended Robinson got involved in politics by supporting Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller and Hubert Humphrey for president. In 1966 the FBI started a file on him, chronicling his participation in the civil rights movement and his connection to a center for the International Workers Order, a communist organization, in the Harlem neighborhood of NYC.

Pete's words: I know J. Edgar Hoover did not like blacks and was deathly scared of the civil rights movement. He had been spying on Martin Luther King for years. The FBI had files on all of the civil rights leaders at that time.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,531. The FBI and some surprising investigations.

Today is Wednesday, July 10, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 46 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a July total of 21 miles. My weight was 163.0 pounds.

QUOTE from historian David McCullough: "Insight comes, more often than not, from looking at what's been on the table all along."

What I LEARNED today from the Reader's Digest. I learned that there were 5 people  investigated by the FBI - and I had no clue the FBI had done such a thing -  I was surprised and disappointed to learn that this happened. Here are 2 of them:

1. Steve Jobs: H.W. Bush had nominated Jobs to be on the President's Export Council for International trade. It stated in the FBI file that, "several individuals questioned Job's honesty, stating that he will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals. He also said he experienced with LSD as a teen; he called his use  "a positive, life-changing experience." He did not get approved.

2. Helen Keller: Keller, the first deaf and blind person to receive a bachelor's degree, attracted FBI attention for most of the early 20th century. As a socialist, critic of President Wilson, a birth control supporter, and a founding member of the ACLU, Keller was considered a radical at the time.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,530. I hate gnats.

Today is Tuesday, July 9, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a July total of 18.5 miles. My weight was 162.2 pounds.

QUOTE from Our Iowa Magazine: "You must have faith. A baby bird never learns to fly unless it first jumps out of the nest."

My THOUGHTS today have to do with gnats. I love to golf but gnats can sure take some joy out of the 9 holes I play. Gnats have never been as bad as they are this year. The Cedar Rapids Gazette had an article this morning about gnats. Here is what I learned.
 According to Iowa State entomologist, Ken Holscher, there are 2 kinds of gnats that bother us is Iowa.

The first one he described is called the "EYE GNAT." They are called "eye gnats" because they are attracted to the lachrymal fluids that keep your eyeballs lubricated. The only good thing about them is they do not bite. But they do swarm around your head exploring your cranial orifices and they do redefine the expression "in your face."  Eye gnats develop in moist soil which has been plentiful this year. And they are capable of reproducing several generation each year - so we haven't seen the end of those guys. (I don't know if I believe Professor Holscher about not biting.)

The other kind of gnat is more dangerous, especially to chickens. That gnat is called the "BUFFALO GNAT" (also called black flies.) We have seen the last of the buffalo gnat as they only reproduce once a year for 2-3 weeks in late May and early June  - then they all disappear at the same time.  But these little devils BITE. They attack humans around the head - they are attracted to carbon dioxide, which is more concentrated where we exhale. They tend to bite in the tender spots around eyes and ears.
These buffalo gnats can kill birds and chickens. The saliva injected by the biting female gnat can cause fatal anaphylactic shock in birds and chickens.

Pete"s bLOG-Day 26,527. The World's Happiest Nations

Today is Saturday, July 6, 2012. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes on the ball and 45 minutes of walking = 2.5 miles for a July total of 14.0 miles. My weight was 163.8 pounds.

QUOTE from Life's Little Instruction Book: "Never give a loved one a gift that suggests they need improvement."

My THOUGHTS today have to do with happiness in the world. I've been reading the latest TIME magazine - their main story was titled THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
I was curious as to who the world's happiness nations are. There have been several surveys done in recent years and they all pretty much agree who the nations are but not necessarily in the same order Here is one list I found.

1. Norway     2. Denmark     3. Sweden     4. Australia     5. New Zealand     6. Canada
7. Finland      8. Netherlands  9. Switzerland     10, Ireland     11. Luxembourg
12. U.S.         13. U.K.          14. Germany   15. Iceland

As you can see the continent of Europe dominates followed by the 4 nations that were discovered,  colonized and developed by European nations.

Pete's BLOG-Day 26,526. I'm tired - I'm not a younster anymore.

Today is Friday, July 5, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of lifting weights and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for a July total of 11.5 miles. My weight was 163.6 pounds.

QUOTE from LIFE'S LITTLE INSTRUCTION BOOK: "Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power, prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect."

My THOUGHTS today are that I'm tired and I'm finally realizing that I'm not in my 20s or 30s or 40s anymore. For the last couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of physical labor - like covering Carron's kitchen, hallways and bathroom with plywood - she has a 35 year old mobile home and the floor was starting to give in a few places. I asked a guy that works for the mobile home court what I should do about it and he said to cover it with plywood and then  cover the plywood with tile or linoleum or carpet. So that is what I did. Carron is laying the tile and doing a great job. It looks like a different house.

Then I've been doing a bunch of physical jobs around our house - such as digging out dead plants, cutting down overgrown shrubs, replacing five year old mulch with over 1000 pounds of red-lava rock and pea gravel in another area. Those bags weight 50 pounds and this old man can't handle them like I used to. The good thing is everything is looking great and Ruth Ann is happy and so am I.

The bottom line is this 72-year-old body feels tired and my mind can only think of taking a nap which is what I'm going to do right now.