Yesterday Lisa had a follow up from her surgery in St Louis.  I dislike driving on interstates but sometimes you have to do it.  Yesterday was awful.  Rain was coming down and the visibility was way lower than normal.  I was still able to drive a decent speed but it became obvious we were cutting it close.  The rain finally let up as we got to the river and we were able to get to the appointment on time.
On the way home we got out of St Louis but on the Illinois side the rain came down even harder than before.  Visibility was way down and of course there were still people going way to fast for conditions.  I finally got behind a semi with it's hazards on and followed it until I could get off the interstate on route 4.  The rain once again let up as we got a little south and the rest of the ride wasn't bad except for some hydroplaning and missing a turn.
Only hillbilly moment was when we were exiting the parking garage and missed the exit and had to make another run through the building.
Overall a rough trip there and back.

I was driving to the golf course a few days ago and there was a no dumping sign on both sides of a bridge.  It's a sorry state whenever you have to put signs like that up.  After I went past the bridge I happen to notice quite a bit of litter along the roadside.  Come on people quit trashing up your area.  Later on we were on the course and Kelly found several Busch Light cans in the woods by a tee box.  So there's no misunderstanding Kelly did put the cans in the proper area.  Sad thing is there is a trash can/recycle container by the cart path. 
I just don't understand the mentality that would do things like this.

I'll admit it, I didn't watch the opening ceremony nor do I care to.  It's not something I'm interested in it so I just watch the events. 
First off a huge apology to my old bocce teammate Herbster for all the crap I gave him about gymnastics.  I'm really enjoying most of the gymnastics events, even my long time least favorite floor exercise.  I'm still not a fan of the dancing aspect of it but the actual gymnastics they do I like.  I didn't see any of the rings which is another I'm not overly big on.  I only saw a little of the vault which is normally my favorite.  The uneven bars is another of my favorites but I enjoyed the high bar more than normal.  And finally I really enjoy the pommel horse especially the kid who specialized it.  He looked like someone out of the movie Revenge of the Nerds but he came in and did great. 
For those who don't know Herb was a gymnast at SIU and he specialized in the pommel horse.  He actually won the event at the NCAA's, a great accomplishment.
And to Apryl, I really liked the rugby 7's.  Nothing like the rugby I'd seen before but very exciting, especially the USA's last second bronze medal.

I underwent cataract surgery last Tuesday.  Everyone was saying the worst part was the drops.  Yes you have to put a lot of drops in your eye but that's not a problem, at least not for me.  The worst part was the waiting.  The surgery was done a Harrisburg hospital, a combination of where the eye doctors work out of and where my insurance would cover so right away was an hour plus drive both ways.
We got to the hospital and was admitted right right away.  I got to a room and got a port in and was dilated very quickly thinking this was great then it stopped.  We waited over three hours in the room before I was wheeled back.  Once back there you're put in a twilight sedation, I had to fight off sleep a few times.  Basically you hear some talking and very shortly after you're done.  No big deal, you don't feel any pain.  Lisa said I was back there about 45 minutes total but it didn't seem that long. 
The next day we had a follow up at their Marion office.  We got there and the place was packed, we waited another two hours there.  When I finally got in the nurse was not happy that they scheduled that many patients and then short staffed the nurses.  She also wasn't happy that they didn't schedule the post surgery patients first.  When the doctor finally came in I thought he rushed the visit and seemed ready for lunch.
I have a follow up visit tomorrow so we'll see how everything is with the eye.  Overall it wasn't a terrible experience just didn't like the waiting buy hey, I can see out of that eye again.
For the record Talley Eye Institute out of Evansville did the surgery and they have been doing my eyeball shots for the past few years.  Overall I'm very happy with them except the drive to Harrisburg and Marion.

I wanted the 49ers to win the Super Bowl mainly because I don't want the Chiefs to get the chance to win three in a row.  No team has won three Super Bowls in a row however my beloved Green Bay Packers have won three NFL championships in a row and they've done it twice.  The Super Bowl wasn't started until after the 1966 season.  The Packers won the NFL championship in 1965 then the first two Super Bowls.
Anyway the Super Bowl has become too much hype and entertainment and not enough about the game.  I'm not a fan of all the halftime shows.  NFL halftimes are normally 12 minutes and I say keep it at that.  Super Bowl halftimes run close to 30 minutes.  Halftime is a time to go pee then grab a drink and some snacks then back to football,.
I also could care less about the commercials.  Another time to peek and get drinks and snacks.
Make the focus about football again.

There is on series of commercials that are so bad I have to change the channel or turn the TV off.  It seems they always air around the holidays and are on hourly if now more often.  Of course I'm talking about the abused animal commercials.  I can't watch them.  I'm not sure it's real but I can't stand seeing animals treated like that.
I don't even like thinking about it so I'm done.

Is it me or have TV commercials got even stupider and more obnoxious?  On top of that you get beat to death by them.  Even commercials that are decent morph into stupidness.
One that grates on me is two women all dressed in red singing a christmas song then a cat starts playing the piano.  Ugh.  I'm not sure why that one gets me but it does.
Insurance commercials are some of the worst.  The guy that runs around with an emu, drop a piano on both of them.  The green lizard needs to be stepped on.  State Farm used to have good ones in particular the early RODGERS ones but they got stupid too.
Lawyers are the bad.  Does anyone who served at Camp Lejune not know they could be entitled to compensation.  Same with roundup and other class action lawsuits.  Each add is full of might, could, may, possibly type words, nothing definite.
I could go on and on but you get the picture.  I've saved the worst for a separate post.

The year started good with Mike and Debbie moving here for california.  A little later I got sick and couldn't shake the cough that caused a trip to the ER and a 3 day uncomfortable stay in the hospital with a herniated lung that had gone into my ribs.  This impacted the rest of the year.  I wasn't able to golf or do much of anything too physical.  It seems to have finally cleared up though.
Next up I got Covid that caused sleeping issues and a bad skin tear.  When I finally felt well enough to golf I hurt my back.  When it was finally feeling better I hurt it again lifting a recycling bin.
There were several issues that made this a bad year.  The way the year ended was the worst but I'm not going to write about that.
Hopefully 2024 is going to be better.

As I've stated in the past I'm just not a big Christmas fan.  I guess I'm kind of a combination of Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch.  This year was overwhelming more than most.  Too many things in too short a period.
It started with my trip to the store.  I usually get started a couple weeks early but somehow didn't.  When I went to the store on Thursday I got a late start and it was packed.  People everywhere plus a lot of workers pushing carts for pick up orders.  To top it off I had to get a lot of things I don't normally get and didn't know where they were.  First time ever I got so frazzled I ended up forgetting things and had to go back the next day.
Then came the worst part.  We lost our nephew Aaroneous who has had a rough way to go for way too long.  We went out to Mona and Kelly's house hoping a little family time would help console them and I think it did. 
The next day was Packer day which was the highlight of the season, at least for me.  It helped that the Packers manage to win in spite of the defense and it's coordinator.
Mona had said she couldn't do her traditional Christmas Eve thing so Mike and Debbie stepped up.  It was nice to sit around and enjoy but I was running on fumes and we left earlier than normal.  At least I think we did, it's all kind of a blur.
Of course yesterday was Christmas.  Our Christmas breakfast was running into too many conflicts so we decided to get together with my family later in the week and I think Lisa is going with chicken and dumplings in the evening instead of a morning thing.  Anyway she fixed turkey and dressing yesterday along with sweet potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie.  She also made apple salad that had gone off the menu for way too long.
Almost done with the bah humbug season.

No harm, no foul.  That's what I think about the recent controversy concerning Rochester fans putting a Rockets shirt over the Red Devil uniform on the Big Muddy Monster statue.  Would the outcry be the same if the situation was reversed or would complainers be talking about how ingenious our fans were?  Whoever put the shirt on the monster didn't remove the Red Devil jersey or steal the helmet, just a harmless show of their school spirit, nothing more.  Come on Red Devil fans you're better than to let something like this bother you.
No harm, no foul

I woke up this morning with the news that Jimmy Buffett had passed away at age 76.  I "discovered" his music in spring of my senior year in high school.  Actually Twink had heard him on the local album rock station and kept singing the lyrics to one of his song.  I finally heard the song and thought it was so good.  The song was Door Number 3 about the old tv show Let's Make a Deal.  A couple weeks later Twink heard another of his songs and once I heard it I was hooked.  That song was Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw and to an immature 18 year old it was awesome.
I went over to a record store in carbondale and bought a couple of his albums.  I discovered that he had a lot better songs than the two he'd heard such as A Pirate Looks at 40 and Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season among others.  After buying the other two albums that the store had I found out I'd actually heard one of his songs before.  Come Monday was on the charts earlier in my high school time.
He hit big shortly after with Margaritaville and then Cheeseburger in Paradise and an empire was born.  Almost 50 years later I'm still a fan and still prefer his early music that he said was Gulf and Western.  While I've never considered myself a Parrothead I do consider myself a grumpy old Parrothead.

Have you noticed how often a restaurant and the food there is described as amazing?  What happened to using great, excellent or even wonderful.  Amazing means surprise, great wonder or astonishment and can be also be used as a negative.  So when a person says something is amazing we aren't really sure is that is a good thing or a bad thing.
I'm sure the meaning will be changed in the near future but it's just too trendy for this old curmudgon.

On 4th of July the new Big Muddy Monster statue had a USA flag in it's hand.  It dawned on me that a wonderful idea would be to have a Big Mac in it's hand whenever the new mcdonald's opened.  This is in turn got me to thinking about other uses for the statue such as a slice of pepperoni when domino's opens. 
I noticed that the statue looks like he's getting ready to throw a discus and with next summer being the olympics that would be perfect use of the statue.  Maybe even have a wreath on it's head.  That got me thinking about even more uses for it.
Big Muddy Monster IPA from Big Muddy Brewing in it's hand whenever the brewfest happens. 
An Irish Red from Molly's Pint during the St Patricks festival.
A Rack of ribs from 17th St. during the BBQ cook off.
An Apple from Mileurs Orchard during the Apple Festival.
A turkey leg during Thanksgiving
A santa hat and a bundle of switches for christmas or maybe a lump of coal.
A burrito from Mi Patio for Cinco de Mayo.
A pair of eclipse glasses for the eclipse next year.
So many possibilities, feel free to add any in the comments.
Now if we could only rotate the statue and put it's middle finger up when we play carbondale in another week.

It's hard to beat a good hot dog but the curmudgeon in me thinks a hot dog should be grilled or cooked in a skillet, never boiled or microwaved yuck.  Also a dog can be wrapped in bacon and deep fried such as the ones Lisa did last night, yum.  I'm not sure I've ever had a hot dog cooked in an oven but I'm not sure why a person would do that.
Anyone over the age of 15 should not have ketchup on a hot dog.  Mustard, relish and/or BBQ sauce are all recommended.  Sliced pickles, chopped onions and the like are okay too.
I tend to get Ball Park all beef hot dogs, regular length.  The length is an on going source of contention between me and my daughter, she prefers bun length.  For some reason the times I've tried Nathan's I just didn't care for it.
And that's all I got to say about that.

So far 2023 has been a really crappy year, especially the middle part.  I got sick back in April and ended up in the hospital in early May with a herniated lung that went through my rib cages.  I have a larger than normal space between my 8th and 9th rib.  I'm not sure if that was caused by the hernia or if it happened previously or if I was born with it.  It's never given me problems before though.  The thoracic doctor said the the lung is okay now but rib injuries take a long time.
Then I hurt my calf walking down at the confluence of the rivers a couple weeks ago.  No idea what caused it.  About a week ago I turned in the kitchen and felt a pop in my back.  Luckily it's not on the same side that has given me trouble in the past.
Because of this I haven't golfed since this started and it's really curtailed my "hiking".  It also set me way behind on yard work and all the outside stuff that needs to be done before it gets too hot.  Thanks to my brother in law Mike who moved back early in the year.  He's been mowing the yard and doing a much better job than I ever do.
Almost forgot, yesterday I had a small metal side shelf fall and hit me in the leg causing a nice little skin tear.  By nice I mean shitty, by little I mean pretty big.  I get these way too often and they take way too long to heal.
Oh well, just a poor poor pitiful me post.

I don't remember Murphysboro having their fireworks scheduled for any date other than the 4th until this year.  No idea why.  It's been moved because of weather a few times.
Anyway, I'm not a big fireworks guy.  I saw a couple when I went outside for a brief moment.  The thing I really noticed is that there didn't seem to be as many "unauthorized" fireworks being shot off.  I wonder if the dry weather or the economy caused people to cut back or maybe my hearing is getting worse.  We'll see tomorrow if people were waiting for the actual 4th.
At our weekly Sunday "Packer" dinner yesterday I made ribs.  I'm usually a good rib cooker but these weren't my best.  I got behind when I couldn't get my smoker started in a timely manner then it was just a series of little things.  The ribs really needed another 30-45 minutes in the smoker to get them to the tenderness I want.  My flavor was spot on though and the ribs were edible just a little too tough.
We had another series of pop up storms so I had to move my griddle inside the garage.  Not that big a deal but a little more leg work not that the exercise was bad for me.  The cabbage I did on the griddle seemed to be really big hit. 
I've bored you enough.

We were in Harrisburg yesterday for my eyeball shot (yes they are as bad as they sound).  I noticed a sign that advertised pre hung doors.  I'd seen that many times over the years but this one got me wondering "what is a prehung door?".  Is a pre-hung door like a pre-owned car which really means used.  I couldn't imagine that much market for a used door so I finally googled it.  It just means the door has hinges and is already attached to a frame so I guess pre-hung makes sense it just sounds weird to me.  Maybe pre-framed would be better.

Apparently at our league championship on Saturday two individuals couldn't contain themselves and caused the tournament to be canceled.  From what I've been told the two had been "barking" at each other then after the game it continued to escalate and allegedly may have had a belligerent chest bump followed by a push.  From there it continued to escalate with each talking about settling it in a more physical way.  This is all hearsay from three different individuals, none who say the incident start.
Regardless, come on.  Why?  Two adults playing a game and it comes to this.  Shame on you.  There is no place in the MBC for this type of activity.  This type of activity could spoil everything for everyone else.  There's already been one person suspended for a year for this type of immaturity.
Shame on you

Monday I got sent to the ER at St Joe's.  To say the room was uncomfortable would be a massive understatement.  After several tests it was determined I had a herniated lung that was going through my rib.  Not good.  There were no available rooms at St Joe's and they finally got one at Memorial in Carbondale.  Of course I had to wait a couple hours for transport. 
I finally made it to Memorial and my room for the next three days around 12:30.  Hospital rooms as a whole are not very comfortable and this one wasn't either.  The people there were very nice and accommodating.  The food was okay except for the omelet I had was really good.  The last day I ordered a banana only to find out it was similar to applesauce, yuck.
By the time I left I really missed my recliner and my body hurt all over.  Once I got home a shower and a nap in my recliner were in order.

I've been sick for a week or so and haven't really felt like going anywhere or posting anything.  Hoprgully i'm on the dowside and getting better.

Our charcoal grill is starting to rust out so I've been causally looking at a replacement.  There are all kinds of propane ones of every shape and size but very few charcoal ones.  Have we become a nation of Hank Hills?  Personally I like the taste that charcoal adds to the meat or veggies.  We used to use propane on our boat and it just wasn't didn't taste as good as the charcoal one at home. 
I'm not anti propane, in fact I've got a propane griddle.  I just want a nice charcoal grill.

Yesterday the repair man made it to fix the washer.  I had to leave but before I did he showed me a bolt that had fallen down by the motor during production.  Rather than stop the assembly line and get it out they just put a different bolt in and kept going.  Frustrating to whoever gets the washer.
Needless to say yesterday was clothes washing day and Lisa already had some going when I got home from yet another doctors appointment. 
The weather has been really nice this week and I haven't got to golf but hopefully that will change today.

Yesterday started crappy then got worse.  It started when I went to do some laundry and our six day old washer didn't work and they can't get to it until Tuesday. 
After doing some housework I got a call Baileys dog Raji had died so I hurried over there.  Bailey and Shad were in Cape and it took a while to get a hold of them.  Raji has been a big part of our family for the past decade or so and will be missed.  Me and him always seemed to have a special bond.
The twins had a soccer game so they didn't tell them until after the game.  Brinley said she wants a puppy and Greyson said he wants to go to heaven and get Raji back.  I wish we could.
Best thing about the day is we ordered whifflesticks and wings for Whiffleboys.  They have a new bbq rub for the wings and I really liked it and will have to try it again.  The whifflesticks are good and I need to remember about them more often.

Friday Ace Hardware delivered our new washer and dryer and they managed to do it with no dents, scratches or bent legs.  On the first try even.  Wow, what's going on Lowes?
Also on Friday I called lowes about picking up the dryer and to tell them we wouldn't be home in the afternoon so naturally I get a call in the afternoon while we were at Ferne Cliff that they were on their way.  They seemed astonished we weren't home and couldn't be home in a short period.  They said they would reschedule the next day and once again I said in the morning.  So yesterday I called to make sure they would be there in the am and they said they had no record of the pickup and would schedule for Monday.  Naturally we get a call yesterday saying they would be there soon.  We both figured it would be in the middle of the grandkids party but finally did something right and got it before the party.  Now if only the charge gets off my card and we'll be done with them.
With 30-40mph wind gusts I figured the bounce house for the grandkids party would be cancelled.  Bailey got some games and stuff and we had a ton of food so everything worked out except the three kids crying.  Naturally each of the grandkids were the ones crying.

Yesterday Lowe's called and wanted to know what I wanted to do about the washer situation.  We'd talked about it and decided four tries was enough, time to move on.  The lady was confused at first saying we'd used a gift card but I think when they reordered a replacement they considered it a gift card.  We finally got it straightened out and the canceled the washer order. 
Now it's on to Ace and see if they can do better.