Japan: What's For Lunch?

June 6, 2018 -

Today we just walked around town and explored.  And I need to keep and eye out for souvenirs  for Buffy and a liquor store to purchase a certain whiskey for my brother in law.

Some of the things that surprised me in Japan was that people drive on the left hand side of the street like they do in Great Britain.  I guess I never really thought about it.  Another thing that kind of surprised me was that the people here are not as bi-lingual as I thought.  I think they know some English or they understand it a good deal.  But in speaking it, it’s very broken English.

As we explore, I see first hand just how small and cramp things can be.  Restaurant menus are small and the portions even smaller.  Speaking of restaurants, Jack and Sam were getting hungry and Sam brought us to some soup place.  You order a meal ticket out front and then present that ticket to the counter.  The menu was only in Japanese and only consisted of 2 items.  Noodle soup with pork and noodle soup with extra pork.  This place looked bad to me, but when in Japan…  I ordered the soup with extra pork and then go in.  

Enjoying a delicious lunch in Kobe, Japan?

It smelled horrible.  Tons of steam was coming out of the kitchen.  How sanitary was this place?  There were tables, but no real chairs.  You had to sit on this bench with your legs crossed (“Indian style” we called it in kindergarten, if that’s even politically correct anymore).  I wondered how Dennis was going to deal with that with his back issues.

I got my bowl of soup and sat down.  Campbells Soup does not have anything to worry from this restaurant.  While the noodles were mostly flavorless, the flavor it did have was not good.  The pork reminded me of pork I had at a fondue place in Peoria that, surprise, surprise, went out of business.  I had huge problems in trying to eat this slop with the chop sticks.  I looked over and saw Jack finishing up his bowl, drinking straight from it.  I thought about doing the same, thinking it might make it easier than using chop sticks.  I couldn’t manage it however.  I kept thinking about throwing up.

We eventually headed back to the room where Jack and Sam played video games on their phones.  Dennis and I drank beer and binge watched a program called “The 100” on Netflix.  For dinner, Jack and Sam stayed in while Dennis and I succumbed to going to McDonalds.  

To get to the nearest McDonalds, we would take the subway from the Shin-Kobe station to the Sannamyia station.  Rush hour was well over and we easily took seats on the train.  We were sitting there minding our own business when I see a young Japanese guy come in from another car and starts to talk to me.  I trouble understand what he was trying to tell me.  He finally points to a pink sticker/label on the car window.  The car was for women only.

I saw the sign and noticed it was pink.  I even wondered why that was.  But I never bothered to read it.

The whole subway ride is for one stop.  It lasts less than 2 minutes.  But we moved to the next car in time to exit off.

For whatever reason, we opted to walk back to the hotel.  We stopped at a Family Mart store.  Family Mart is a convenience store at about every intersection in Japan.  Kind of like seeing a Walgreens in downtown Chicago.  It was here that I purchased a Japanese nudie magazine just for the novelty of it.  I thought it somewhat ironic that you could purchase a pornographic magazine at a place called Family Mart.  Turns out the magazine pretty much had a R rating at best.  All the good stuff was blurred out.  I guess the Japanese are not as promiscuous as thought.  Another lesson learned.

Japan: Himeji Castle

June 5, 2018 - 

You’d think after the long day I just encountered, I’d be sleeping in the next morning.  This was not the case.  I woke up around 4:30am.  I laid around trying to get back to sleep, but finally surrendered an hour later.  Ben had to go to work at 6am.  They don’t even give him a day to deal with jet lag.  And if that is not bad, he was looking at pretty much a 12 hour day.  That has to suck.

For everyone else, we were now in a quest for food.  We walked around some but just settled for some good ol’ American McDonalds.  Sam was our guide for today and suggested getting on the train and to head to Himeji to see the Himeji castle.  He claimed that once you see this castle, we wouldn’t need to see any others.

When someone says the term castle, I usually think about the von Ludwig castle in Germany; the castle that inspired the Walt Disney castle.  This looks nothing like that.  However, it was still cool to see and walk thru.  There were many floors, or ‘keeps” as they called them.  The stairs were very steep and he had to be careful not to hit your head going up or down them.  That was more so for Jack.

Sam explained why the castle was build the way it is; mainly for defensive purposes.  There were plenty of places where rocks could be thrown down on invaders and doors when they shot arrows out.

On our way back, Sam suggested a stop at Suma to eat at his favorite hot dog place.  Making our train stop, the first establishment we see was a Mister Donut.  Yes, a Mister Donut; just like we had growing up.  In fact the logo was still the same.  Dennis mentioned he saw one when we were riding out to Himeji.  I figured it was likely a name coincidence.  Nope.  This looks to be the original chain donut shop.  Japan is sounding better and better.

We went to the hot dog place first with plans to stop at Mister Donut for dessert.  I order 2 hot dogs as Sam told me they would be small.  All portions of food and drink are small in Japan.  The waitress seems to be in some disbelief that I want 2 hot dogs and needs to confirm it.  I somehow manage to do this.  The meal was ok.  The hot dogs are just different in Japan as they are in the US.  In both countries, you have no idea what’s in a hot dog.  In Japan, they have a thicker bun and place a lot more toppings on it.

Now on to Mister Donut.  Again, they were good, but a bit different than what were used to in the US.  I noticed the selection to be a lot less than what we had at Mister Donut.  But that was a long time ago.

We retuned to the Crowne Plaza to rest and get cleaned up to eat later.  I decided to take a nap which then turned into going to bed for the night.  I woke up about 5:30 and was too tired to even get up.  I did awake again around 10pm and figured the day was done.  I got up to take my contact lenses out and call it a night.  Jet lag was in full force.

Japan: The Arrival

June 4, 2018 -

My flight was to leave at 7:45am MDT from Denver to San Francisco.  Buffy dropped me off at Denver International (DIA) almost an hour and a half before my flight.  I really hate leaving out of DIA..  The TSA there has no clue.  On average, it is at least 45 minutes to get through security.  And whatever disinfectant they use in the rest rooms… it stinks bad.

Anyhow, as we drive in, I notice that there is not much traffic.  I might be lucking out I thought.  I get out of the car, grab my bags, say goodbyes and then was greeted by the lengthy line at the sky cabs outside the airport.  I hear that the lines are worse inside.  So I stand in line outside waiting to check my bag.  After nearly 20 minutes of waiting, word down the line was that they were only checking bags for domestic flights.  Not international.  A few others as well as myself was concerned.  I asked a United employee who was returning a number of carts about where to go.  She acted like it was a little known secret and came close to me and a couple others.  “Go to the last door down the sidewalk,” she said in a low voice so that everyone didn’t hear her.

Off I went.  I figured I could stay in the current line with no idea if they can take me, or go inside where I know they can.  I go into the last door and the only line for international I see is for the United Premier Club.  I am not a Premier member, but I get in line anyway hoping I might luck out.  Two women were in front of me bound for Cancoon.  They inquire about what line they should be in if they are flying economy.  They are told to go around the corner.  They left and of course, I needed to follow suit.  I started talking with these women who told me a similar story of what I just went through.  The line was long, but moving at a very rapid pace.  I might make it just yet.

I get to the end of the line to the kiosk to check my bag.  I punch in my name/flight info and I am told I am past the 60 minute deadline to check bags for international flight.  I was to see an agent.  I’m eventually let to wait in another line.  Fortunately, it was not long.  Behind me however, the line was growing fast and with very upset people; some hot with anger to a women who broke down in tears.  

Talking with others and overhearing the comments, their stories were similar to mine.  One comment in particular was that the reason DIA was so overwhelmed was that it was the first summer travel day.  That may be.  My thought was DIA/United likely realized this.  Yet when you looked around at the empty counter desks and lack of staffing, the term “mismanagement” came to mind.  I know I wouldn’t want to be a United customer service rep that morning.

I finally get to an agent and didn’t even have to tell him my story.  He knew things were all messed up.  He re-routed me direct from Denver to Tokyo and then a connection to Osaka.  The overall re-arrangement would get me to Japan 3 hours later than originally planned.  Maintaining a positive attitude, I told myself things could be far worst.  However, I didn’t have a seat assignment and I know was traveling to a country, culture and language I know very little about.

I arrived at the gate after a 30 minute effort getting through security.  This is a speed record for me at DIA.  I asked the agent about my seat assignment as the flight was nearing.  I was third in line and they would be calling my name before long.  Forty minutes later, I re-inquired about my seat assignment.  Oh yeah, they are working on it and they’ll call my name in about 5-10 minutes.  I knew I better stay on top of these people.  Eleven minutes later, after they’ve been boarding for some time, I again ask about my seat assignment.  “Oh, here it is,” the agent says with some surprise in her voice.  I noticed about 3 other boarding passes laying there, no doubt for others waiting.

Sure enough, seat 17E… right in the middle.  I did luck out on that though.  I was right behind first class and there were no seats in front of me.  So I could get out very easily.  And the two guys I was sitting next to were pretty cool.  We all ordered beer and it was kind of like talking with guys in a bar.  And the Stellas’ were free!!  From this point, the travel was incident free.

It was an 11 hour flight.  I managed to get some sleep.  We arrived in Tokyo where now I was going to have to figure out how to go through their customs.  This was not difficult as the signage also had English with them.  I had to go through their security again for my domestic flight to Osaka.  DIA can learn a lot here; no where near as long.  And I got to keep my shoes on.

The only real confusion I had was with the flight numbers.  I eventually figured out that my UA7997 flight number equated to a different number for the local Japanese carrier.  All is well.  I used the What’s App app to communicate with Dennis.  I was told to grab a bus from the airport to the Sannimoyia train station in Kobe.  Well, I guess I figure that out when I get there.

Arriving in Osaka without any frustrations, my bag seem to be the last to be unloaded.  Getting the bus and then cab ride to the hotel was incredibly easy to do.

It was about 7-7:30 pm and you could tell that it was almost dusk.  I was confused as I figured the sun would set pretty much the same time it does in the US.  Thinking about it, I realized that depending up where Japan is within its time zone, along withe the fact they are likely not using daylight savings time, this is probably correct.

At long last, the Crowne Plaza was in sight.  A very tall building that appeared as an oasis after my long, long day.  I went to the front desk to see if Dennis had already checked into my room.  I then get a phone call from Dennis using Ben’s phone.  “This better be good.  I’m charged $2.50/minute with this international plan,” I answered.

The call lasted less than that.  Dennis said just come up to the 29th floor.

Trying to eat with chop sticks.
Not exactly a talent of mine.

I meet them at the elevator on the 29th floor.  My first comment to them was, “Where the fuck am I?”

I dumped all my stuff off in my room and we went out to walk and get something to eat.  Ben brought us to some small little Japanese restaurant down some alley.  I thought about ordering a Diet Coke but reconsidered.  I decided on the large, Kirin beer, which was a liter in size.  Turns out I had no choice in the matter.  For whatever reason, Diet Coke is not available in Japan.  Ok, this is a major strike against this country.  How am I going to survive!?  They do have Coke Zero, so I can get by for the time being.

Everyone else opted for water.  Ben did all the ordering and I don’t even remember what all he ordered.  They bring it out and place it on a hot plate that was built into the table.  The food was actually quite good, albeit my difficulties using chop sticks.

I looked around the place and noticed a man at another table.  He was smoking a cigarette.  Something of which you don’t see all that often in the US anymore.  We all finished up and headed back to the hotel.  It was one long day.

Japan

I haven’t used Blogger for several years but thought to bring it back to chronicle my trip to Japan.  Before blogging about this adventure, I should perhaps present a backstory and introduce the cast of characters.

I know very little about Japan and its culture.  I can think of a number of places I like to visit before Japan.  In early May, Dennis asked if I’d be interested in going for a visit this June sometime.  

A friend of ours, Ben and his son Sam were planning a trip in June.  Ben is employed at a multi-national corporation which shall remain nameless, where he and his family lived in Kobe Japan for 3 and a half years.  He needed to make a return visit on business.  Dennis, Jack (and Jack is friends with Sam) and I were invited to “tag” along.  I thought this might be a great opportunity to go as we’d have a tour guide of sorts to help us get around. 

Over the years, there are those that always raved about Japan.  So, the five of us are set to visit the Land of the Rising Sun.  We made our arrangements to leave on June 3.  Everyone was to leave out of Chicago and connect in San Francisco to Japan.  Since I’m in Colorado, I was going to meet everyone else in San Francisco, and then all five of us would fly straight to Osaka from there.

Three weeks before the flight, Dennis encounters a bulging or herniated disc.  So the trip was now in jeopardy for the three of us.  While his back improved, Dennis still had pain in sitting down.  Still determined to go, he and Jack amended their arrangements up to business class.  That way Dennis could lay flat on the way out.  Meanwhile, I wasn’t that determined to spend the four-digit expense to move to business class.  But since my original seat was between Dennis & Jack, I opted to relocate next to the rest room in an aisle seat.

June 3 arrived and it was time to go!

All dates and times are Japan time/date.

This Is A Test...

... this is only a test.

And this is an edit test.

We've Moved

It's been some time since I've made any posts... at least here.

I just wanted to let the two people that regularly read this blog know that the RLO Today blog has new digs over at www.rlo.com (also known as RLOWorld). I spent a few weeks redesigning it and to put some new life into it. It sat dormant for a long time and I thought I should probably do something with it.

Along with the new and improved RLOWorld, I will host the RLO Today blog there. For now, I'll keep all the old posts from this Blogger site (it looked to be a lot of work, if even possible, to transfer all the blog posts and comments from here to there). Any future posts will be made at RLOWorld.

So we hope to see you there.

A Couple Of Political Observations

Is it me or did anyone catch how the media totally missed the fact that President Barack Obama did not attend the celebration for the 20 year anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall? November 9, 2009 marked the 20 year anniversary of an important event in recent history... the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many heads of state travelled to Germany to take part in the remembrance of the beginning of the end for Communism. This included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Even Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish anti-communist leader Lech Walesa were in attendance. But US President Barack Obama was no where to be found.

Pres. Obama claimed his agenda was just too full for him to attend. It's funny. In early October when his schedule was full, but he was able to find time to travel to Copenhagen with his wife and Oprah Winfery to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago. Not to mention, Obama has travelled abroad more during his first year in office than any other US President.  It makes one wonder where his priorities are.

The US was a major player in the Cold War.  Doesn't it look bad that the US President is absent from this important global celebration? The US had no representation in the event at all.  At the very least, he should have sent Vice President Joe Biden to represent the United States. Sure, we run the risk of him opening his mouth and making a gaffe. But we've had 8 years of that; one more time is not going to hurt anything.

The second thing that I have observed is Obama unable to make a decision regarding the war in Afghanistan. Granted, those are tough decisions to make. But that's what a US President needs to do. President Obama receives daily briefings so he should know everything that is going on. He has received opinions and advice from our generals, experts and his staff for the past several weeks. It has now come to the point where it has been made clear there are only a few options to take. Mr. Obama wants to devise another option for him to take.

Let me read between the lines here. As a typical politician, he is looking for the magical option that will make him look good politically, first and foremost. Winning a war against terrorism and reducing the risk of losing lives is second to that.

Put simply, what we need here is leadership. With leadership, you have to make a decision. Sometimes, making no decision can be more harmful than making the wrong decision. Mr. Obama, it's time to shit or get off the pot. Traveling to Asia and reestablishing ties there has its own merits. But the Afghanistan situation has been going on for months. Whatever action we take there will need time to implement. And right now you are wasting time by not making a decision.

And one last observation... anyone notice, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the current time table for all troops out of Iraq is in 2011. Wasn't that time table set by the Bush Administration? Didn't Obama say he was going to bring the troops home from Iraq first thing once in he was in office? Did he not say he was going to focus more on Afghanistan as well? Time will tell.

Correction & Amplification: Turns out, Obama did send Secretary of State Clinton to Germany for the 20th Anniversary remembrance.  However, I still think that looks pretty weak that every other country's top leader was there but the United States'.

Apple vs Microsoft

I think my favorite commercials on TV currently are the PC and Mac commercials... the one where the PC character favors Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the Mac character favors Apple founder Steve Jobs. These commercials are sometimes more entertaining for me than the actual program I'm watching.

The battle between Microsoft and Apple has probably been going on for 20 years now. Most of those years, Microsoft has been the declared winner. But only in sales and marketing. I think for the most part, the Apple Mac product was probably far superior. Unfortunately, it never gained any traction with the consumer. I always speculated that Microsoft catered to the business and corporate users while Apple catered more towards desktop publishing. This gave Microsoft and PCs an early advantage as all businesses needed "number crunching" software. However, I believe things are starting to change.

Previously, Apple was pretty much on life support while Microsoft was making money hand over fist. I had read somewhere that if you had purchased $100 worth of Microsoft stock in 1989 and held it for 10 years, it would have been worth $60,000 in 1999. But with the Internet/tech boom of the 90's, you would have done really well if you got out in 1999. Since then, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and the company was once again innovative. Since that time, the company introduced the iPod product, the iPhone and have for the most part reinvented the Mac product line.

In the summer of 2008, I was in the market for a new laptop computer. I had first considered a PC laptop, but I knew it would have come equipped with Microsoft Vista. Vista is a full blown, multi-definition of "failure," "disaster," and "headaches." And I was tired of these computers that would take 6 or 7 minutes to completely boot up, only to then run in a slow, unstable environment. I had a friend who had previously purchased a Macbook. He didn't have enough time to fully review it for me, but claimed he liked it for the brief amount of time he did have it. Well, since I mainly use a laptop for surfing the Internet, e-mail and other generic uses, I decided to take the plunge into the world of Mac.

There's a bit of a learning curve to using a Mac, that is if you've spent 25 years using Microsoft. I got home with the Macbook and it was able to log onto the Internet by plugging in a Cat 5 line into my home network. My wireless router was too old and was incompatible with the Macbook. So then, another purchase... the Apple Time Capsule. This is a 500GB backup drive with wireless router. It took no time to start up and was many times faster. And it worked well with my PCs in the house.

Over time, I preferred working on my Macbook over my PCs. This summer, I replaced my office PC with a new iMac. Works like a charm. It is so much faster and stable. It also doesn't take as much space and it is by far quieter; there's no clunky fan sounds. And better yet, in less than 45 seconds, it is fully booted up vs. my PC with took about 7 minutes.

Earlier this month, I did encounter my first problem with an Apple product. My Apple Time Capsule crapped on me. I believe the hard drive in it was fine, but the power unit quit working. As with everything else, it stops working shortly after the warranty expires. I called Apple support and was able to talk to Dave, an American citizen in California. Dave was extremely helpful. To make a long story short, Dave worked with me to find an option to exchange out the unit for a minimal price. However, I thought I might have to get some files off of that hard drive. He also help me with that, though it turned out I didn't need to. Dave is the first customer service rep that I have ever dealt with that not only returned my call, but 5 minutes after he left a message on my voice mail, called me back again in hopes I was available. Apple customer service has to be the best customer service I have ever used.

In less than 2 days, I received a new Apple Time Capsule, I put the old one in the same box, sealed it up, tore off the top sticker, which then displayed a new one that was pre-paid and I simply dropped it off to be sent back to Apple. Incredible!

I have since purchased an iMac for my home computer and it's due to arrive on Wednesday this week. I have pretty much, 99%, converted to Apple. So, goodbye Microsoft. Yea, I know Windows 7 came out last Thursday. Good for you, but I think I'll stick with Mac.

If I were to make a prediction, I will say in 10 years, if that, Apple will have gained far more market share than PCs. Millions of consumers are using iPods and iPhones and are completely satisfied with them. This is their introduction to other Apple products. If these iPods and iPhones are so good, they will probably check out their computers as well. It's only a matter of time.

Bubbles After One Year

It's been exactly 1 year to the day when we got Bubbles. One more dog and 364 days later, here's what we have. The first picture is the second day we had her. The second picture was taken this evening. Those are the same pair of boots and the same spot in the great room. The grow up so fast. She's now 88 pounds last we checked and the vet believes she'll outgrow Elliott.


Overall she's been a real good dog; and Elliott is probably even a better dog (he comes when he's called). But Bubbles can be a real stinker. Just like a little sister, she'll pick on on Elliott provoking a fight. And she can be a bit sneaky too.

Both dogs have made life interesting. Here's to many more happy years.

Say No To 2016 Olympics In Chicago

This is likely to be another boondoggle in the making. Only in gigantic proportions. I'm speaking of the possible selection of Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics. Not only would this decision allow the international community to experience Chicago and Illinois corruption up close, but will most probably end up becoming another money loser for our near-bankrupt state.

Chicago is at odds against Madrid, Tokyo and Rio De Janerio for hosting rights. It has projected a cost outlay of $4.8 billion to prepare the city to host the Olympics that year; the lowest of all the contending cities. Now I'm guessing it will cost much more. When was the last time you saw a government entity come close to projections. Once the corruption begins, the paybacks are made and palms greased, it's going to cost much, much more. And who is going to pay for all this? That's right, you and me.

Instead of the City of Chicago solely paying for all this needed infrastructure, the State of Illinois will most likely be paying for much of it. Should the Olympics prove profitable, it will be Chicago who reaps the rewards. Moreover, the taxpayers who reside in places such as Quincy, Mt Vernon or Carbondale will be paying for Olympic infrastructure. And when the games are finally being played, what benefits will the people in these fine towns see?

Supporters state that some games will be held outside of Chicago and that fans will be staying at hotels hundreds of miles from the host city. That's very probably and the outskirts of Chicago will likely see benefits of some sort. But taxpayers further downstate, like Carbondale, will not see any benefits. Why should they have to pay into this, take the risk and have absolutely no return?

And that's assuming there will be return. From what I understand, many cities that have hosted the Olympics have, overall, never realized a return on investment. It's more of the "build it and they will come" mentality.

I'm not even going to speculate how the crime element may be run out of Chicago for the Olympics and part of it relocates to Peoria.

The wheels are in motion and Chicago is already one of the finalists. We'll just have to wait and see what the International Olympic Commission decides.

Housewives Are Desperate

I started watching the television show Desperate Housewives when it first aired. It was entertaining. The original promo clips featured a naked Teri Hatcher running around the neighborhood. What American, red-blooded, heterosexual male wouldn't want to see that?

However, last season really sucked and in my opinion, the show is not worth investing the time to watch it. For whatever reason that I can't find, the producers of the show decided to "reboot" it by moving it 5 years in the future. So we are to understand it is now 2014 on Westeria Lane? There has not been much technological change from what I can tell.

One of the characters did buy a Lexus with a refrigerator, so I guess we have that to look forward to. Another character in the show was unemployed and was attempting to get back into the work force. He was having a difficult time and he believed it was because he was older. This character claimed he was asked about Twitter at a job interview and he stated he did not know what Twitter was. Ok, if it's 2014 and you don't know what Twitter is (in all likelihood, Twitter will probably be dead by then), then you don't deserve to get hired.

There were a few references to how bad the economy was in the last season. So I guess our current recession will continue for the next 5 years. There were some other continuity issues as well. One particular couple had two kids in the 5 years the show leaped over. However, these kids looked to be about 7 or 8 years old. The father of these kids was made blind from an accident a couple seasons earlier. Behold, there's now an operation to let him see again. In another gaffe, the 16-year old daughter of Teri Hatcher's character has now graduated from college, is gainfully employed making good money and is engaged to be married... all in 5 years, from high school sophomore to 20-something fiancee.

The biggest flop of the season past was Hatcher's character Susan and her husband were in a car wreck that killed a woman and her child. Susan can't deal with this turn of events in her life and demands a divorce. WTF? Where does this come from? Mike, Susan's husband finally says "sure" and signs the papers all the while she's crying, now thinking that this might be a mistake. Mike moves on and starts banging another neighbor which he later gets engaged to.

Meanwhile, the man whose wife and child were killed in the car accident plots his revenge. He buys a house in the neighborhood and starts a band with Mike and others. He buddys up with everyone. Ultimately, he wants Susan and her child to get killed at the same place and same way his family was killed. Then episode after episode last season, there was no story development whatsoever. On episode showed us some handyman who died that everyone on the street loved. The recounted stories of this guy whom we've never seen or heard of for 4 or 5 seasons. WTF? Then they did the same thing when they killed off one of the major characters. The stories went nowhere.

For the season final, Mike is off to get married with the other neighbor girl. The psycho that moved into the neighborhood just gave up on his original scheme and instead decided to kill Susan and her son by taking them camping in the woods and just shooting them. He instead was able to get them to the same location of the accident and arranges to have Mike run into them, but then he chickens out and lets them go. Mike, Susan and their son are ok, the psycho is dead and by the end of the episode, there is another flash forward where Mike and Susan are getting remarried (though they never show her, you just know it's her... saw that coming months ago).

That was completely worthless. A season of TV watching I'll never get back. I doubt I even tune in this season.

Shopping

Tonight I made a routine visit to the grocery store to pick up our usual staples. Nothing too exciting. I've lately been shopping at the Kroger's in Chillicothe. Not that I'm a loyal Kroger's shopper. Quite the contrary, I really don't care for Kroger's. But it saves a bit of time traveling to Schnuck's and better yet, the sales tax revenues will go to Chillicothe rather than Peoria. It's a safe bet that the town of Chillicothe will use those revenues far more efficiently than the city of Peoria. Let's get back to why I'm writing this post.

As I stood in the checkout lane, a manager asked the bagger if they had asked me if I wanted paper bags. Sensing that the bagger could get into some trouble because he didn't ask me and that he did not use plastic bags, I came to the rescue and said that it was ok. In fact, I even pointed out I would prefer paper bags. And that got me thinking...

There was a day, long ago, I remember when there were no paper bags. One day, sometime in the late 70's, Mom was interviewed on the local news about these new plastic bags. She gave it a good review. But after 30 years of plastic bags, is it really a good deal.

For starters, I like paper bags because you can place more goods and products into them. With plastic bags, you can put a couple boxes of cereal into them and then you're done. Another reason plastic bags suck is environmental reasons. Paper bags are biodegradable; plastic is not. Of course, paper is not the greatest. As the paper will decompose, the ink for anything printed on it will leak down into the water supply. Think about that the next time you're eating at McDonalds. What was it, 15 to 18 years ago, they replaced all the styrofoam containers for their burgers with paper wrappers. While styrofoam will last forever, it would just look unsightly sitting in a landfill along side plastic bags. Parts of this refuse might even be used by birds and squirrels in next building. But all that ink on those paper wrappers will wash down into our water supply.

So I don't know, take your pick on how you want to destroy the environment. But for me, I prefer paper bags as you get more bang for your buck!

Are Blogs On The Way Out?

During the past few months I've noticed not much going on in the way of blogs, more specifically, not many new posts being written. Not that there's a lot going on here at RLO Today.

Several blogs that I regularly read, or used to read, have become more inactive or just completely dead. A number of my friends in the Jaycees had blogs. None of them write for them anymore it seems. Other local blogs appear to be waning as well.

I wonder if blogs were just a fad that lasted a few years, or is it other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter slowly taking bloggers out of action. I'm on Facebook regularly. And the thing with Facebook is you can leave brief comments on any of your friends or your profile. Others can respond as well to your comments. And so the same can happen on blogs.

But Facebook I think is set up in a way that makes it more entertaining and convenient. You can write some short one-liner as opposed to preparing a manifesto on a blog. The same can be said about Twitter. Though I don't have a Twitter account, I just don't get the fascination of Twitter. At least Facebook allows you to post pictures and videos as well as a few other things. Twitter just allows you 140 characters of text. What can you actually say with that?

And how about MySpace? Does anyone use it still? I have always thought that it was easier to use than Facebook, but Facebook offered some different features that MySpace didn't. MySpace does now, but its probably too late and perhaps the damage is done. MySpace lasted about a year or so in popularity and now its done. Very fickle users.

I don't know if readers of blogs have declined any over time. I still wonder if blogs are facing the same problem with MySpace. Knowing society today and its short attention span, I also suspect that Twitter and Facebook too will suffer a demise such as MySpace.

The Russians Are Coming

The other night I had a dream that the Russians were after my convertible. The reason being was that they wanted to reverse engineer it and learn new technology. At one point in the dream, I was walking back to my car to get something out of it and to check on it. As I was walking to it, I was thinking to myself that if the Russians wanted this car so bad, why don't they just buy one for themselves. I mean, there no real classified technology in it. In fact, there's a car just like this sitting on the used car lot at Greene Chevrolet.

When I woke up, I realized I had yet another odd dream. "What made me dream that?" I asked myself. It occurred to me that I might be watching too many episodes of The A-Team. Hulu.com has episodes available of the A-Team. But seasons 3-5 are going down the first week of September, so I need to get them in when I can. So I guess I more or less have overdosed on The A-Team. But I love it when a plan comes together!

The weird dreams still continue and probably always will. Last night I was on an outpost on the planet Pluto, complete with warm temperatures, trees, grass and atmosphere. Who know where or what I'll be doing tonight.

Review: Green Day

I'm probably a bit late in getting this review in, but I checked out Green Day at the United Center in Chicago on July 13, 2009. (At left, Jack with the Green Day tour bus in the backdrop)

Green Day is Jack's favorite band. When I saw they were on tour promoting their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, and that they were stopping in Chicago, I thought to see if Jack would like to go see them. He wasn't sure at first. I then asked if Buffy's nephew and niece, Max and Sara, would want to go. Turned out Max was up for it, but Sara had horse camp that week. Jack as well as Dennis finally decided to go. So I bought 4 tickets. As the date got closer, Shari and her niece got tickets for the same show, only 1 section over.

So we all headed up to Chicago on Sunday, July 12 and got a couple of rooms at a hotel on Michigan Ave so we could spend some time there. That night we went up the John Hancock building to its observation deck... and at night. Cool. After that we wondered aimlessly on Chicago streets. Jack was worried about all the homeless individuals we saw after he witnessed a homeless man in his underwear. He showed concern about them and wanted to give them money. We tried to explain that many of the homeless people only appear that way and instead are scam artists trying to get money from other people. "Why would they do that?" asked Jack. Good question.

The next day, we had breakfast at a local Greek restaurant at a total bargain price of nearly $90. I could have made a better breakfast. We then wanted to check out the new skydeck at the Sears Tower. After a bus ride and witnessing a argument between an older and younger woman, we arrived at the Sears Tower, only to learn it was at least an hour and a half wait to get to the skydeck. Therefore we switched to Plan B... Navy Pier.

We spent the late morning and most the afternoon at Navy Pier, looking around, going through fun houses, feeding birds, etc. In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel, where I got a quick nap and got cleaned up for the big show.

Getting ready to leave for the United Center, you could tell Jack was getting excited about seeing Green Day. This was really his first rock concert. He had seen the Blue Man Group and the Trans Siberian Orchestra, but he was about to see a real rock group.

We arrived at the United Center to find a group of people demonstrating something. They held up tabloids to help promote their cause. Dennis walked to an older gentleman who was demonstrating and asked for one of their tabloids. It cost $1 for one of them. Turns out they were demonstrating for Communism. If they were trying to advance their cause, would they not want to offer these pamphlets for free. And charging $1, sounds like capitalism to me. When Denni' returned, he said that he'd rather argue with the old guy all night then go to the show.

We were finally seated and waited for the show to start. I pointed out to Jack all the usual concert things; warm up band, backdrop and the mosh pit. Once Green Day started playing, we all stood up to see the band. Jack was really excited now. At times he would sing along with the band and have his hands in the air.

Green Day started the show with the first few songs from their new album. They also played plenty of songs from American Idiot and older songs from the 90's such as Basket Case, Hitchin' A Ride and Time of Your Life. The coolest thing they did during the show was they picked a 12 year old out of the audience to come up to the stage and play guitar with them. This was prompted when Billie Joe Armstrong, the frontman, asked for someone who can play guitar. We were sitting in section 120, row 17, the very far right of the stage. I was too far away. But Jack insisted I raise my hand. He even tried holding my arm up.

The kid they eventually picked held a sign that said "I can play and I'm 12" along with pictures of guitars. Billie Joe brought him up, briefly tested his guitar playing skills without the guitar amped up and then gave him the go. He got to play Billie Joe's guitar and the strap was so long that he had to sit on a floor monitor to play. They went into Jesus of Suburbia off the American Idiot album, and this kid knew it and played it perfectly. At times, Billie Joe would hold the microphone up to him and let him sing a few lines... at the same time he was playing. The vocal wasn't great because he still had a 12 year old kid voice. But I was still impressed. And this kid's name was Jack. He was invited to play on the next song, but he didn't fully know it.

There were many times that Billie Joe would try to get the audience fired up by more or less chanting at them and getting them to chant back. That's ok once or twice, but after a dozen times or so, it gets old. Then they played an extended medley of Sweet Home Chicago, Shout and a few other older cover songs. They could have played a couple more of their own songs in that time.

Towards the end of the show, you could tell Jack was getting tired. It was a long day for him. Overall, I enjoyed the show, but it had a few weak points. On a scale of 10, I'd probably give it a 7 to 8. But Jack really like it and will probably always remember going to his first rock concert with his Uncle Rick.

Anniversary Of The First Moon Landing

As you know, July 20 this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. To celebrate, I'd like to post an e-mail I received in 1995 regarding this historic event. Though I've learned that this story is a work of fiction, it is still a great story. Enjoy!

On July 20, 1969, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on the moon, "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind", were televised to Earth and heard by millions. But just before he re-entered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark:

"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs. Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the "Good luck Mr. Gorsky" statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled. On July 5, 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

In 1938 when he was a kid in a small Midwest town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit a fly ball, which landed in his neighbor’s yard by the bedroom windows. His neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky.

As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Sex! You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 3

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Thursday, July 9, 2009 - Our big plans today were renting a pontoon boat and heading out on the lake. We scheduled the boat for hours, starting at 10am. The lady at the boat rental place claimed we'd need 15 minutes to do paperwork. Of course we would.

We were up at 8:30am and quickly cleaned up a bit and headed to... guess where... the Horny Toad for breakfast. I could begin this story by saying... The sea was calm this morning my friends... well, it was calm this morning and looked to be 90+ degrees later in the day. At any rate, we finished up breakfast and got to the rental place probably around 9:45; right on time. However, we had to wait for others to book their boat. Once we had our boat, it was the first time I'd ever launch while at the wheel.

The pontoon we rented was a 22 foot, 50 horsepower engine. So we were not going to go anywhere fast. Once we cleared the marina, I put it into full throttle and we went a whopping 10 mph. Impressive! The lady at the rental office gave us some ideas of where to go and where to stop for drinks, which is the direction we headed in. I took my Garmin GPS and plugged in the coordinates of the marina, just as a fall back in the event I do get lost. This way I can find our way back. It works better than leaving bread crumbs.

The rental agreement specifically stated we were forbidden to take the boat to Party Cove. Party Cove is exactly what the name implies. Full of college kids and party-goers, drunks and delinquents. I really want to go some day, but today would not be the day. Besides, with this 50 hp engine we had, I would have to have the boat for the full day.

We stopped at a place called Jolly Rogers, a pirate-themed bar and grill and had a couple of Blue Moons (they didn't have Heinenken... and it was after 11am). I did an ok job at docking and re-launching. I kind of like yachting. We headed back in after this.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the resort's pool/bar. We didn't stay as long this time around as we'd already had plenty of sun earlier in the day. We were quite entertained by the 4 women who were getting really tipsy at the bar and later ordered 4 pizzas. They were obviously on a girl's trip.

For dinner, we decided to try something else other than the Horny Toad. We cleaned up and went to an Italian place called Lil' Rizzo's. It was basically another Avanti's with a bunch of little kids in it. The food was really good though.

Afterwards, we continued to shop for dogsitting gifts and was successful this time around. We returned back to our room, where I am no posting to the travelogue-blog and listening to a really good rock band from the outdoor stage at... you guessed it... the Horny Toad. Right now they are doing an impromptu version of the Eagles' Hotel California.

We plan to head back home tomorrow. If something exciting or interesting happens tomorrow, I'll check back in. If not, it has been a good time down here at Lake of the Ozarks... wait, these guys are now doing Van Halen's Eruption... followed by Feel Your Love... this is cool. Anyway, we noticed there hasn't been a lot of people down here. We speculated that it will fill up over the weekend, which we'll be out of here then. But someone told us earlier that the economy has a lot to do with it as well. So I guess we timed out a good time to visit. You better hurry if you want to check it out for yourself.

Later.

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 2

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - I awoke today to discover I was a redneck. Yesterday, I ran out of sunblock, but thought there was enough to get by. Appearently not as parts of my neck were a bit red this morning. It didn't burn however.

We slept in. Last night we were in bed early. It was nice not having Old English Sheepdogs licking you in the face at 6am. We headed next door to the Horny Toad for breakfast probably around 10am. This is where we more or less made some plans for the day. It was decided to head south to Camdenton, MO to see the Bridal Cave.

As you drive down Rt 54 towards Lake of the Ozarks, you will see tourist signs for this and other attractions. The name appears to come from the fact that several couples have been married in this cave. It looks that with the proper lighting, many of the rock and silt structures in the cave appear as stage curtains.

After finishing breakfast, we headed out to the Bridal Cave. It looked simple enough on the map of the Lake we had. There was a big arrow pointing to it, right off of Rt 5. Unfortunately, we forgot the map, but I thought I remembered it well enough. We got on Rt 5 and drove, and drove and nothing. No signs... nothing. You know, if you're going to run a tourist trap, you need to advertise a bit to get people there.

Buffy ran into a grocery store for directions, which the lady inside didn't sound too sure where it was at. But off of her directions, it started to dawn on me as we had to take "old" Rt 5. The map I was looking at did not, at least fully, show "new" Rt 5. We came to old Rt 5 and then asked the question, left or right. We turned right. Wrong move. Turned around once the road ended and shortly there after pulled into a Quik Mart and asked more directions. This time the lady knew exactly where it was at.

We arrived just in time to catch the next trip into the cave. We learned how people used the cave as a hideout of sorts hundreds/decades of years ago. It was somewhat a tight squeeze to get through and a couple of points. The guide would point out natural formation that looked similar to an angel, jellyfish, Cousin Itt (from the Addams Family) and the Energizer Bunny. We also got to see, a sample at least, of what the early spelunkers used to explore the cave; a thin ladder and wooded foot bridge only 12 inches wide.

At the end of the cave was a mystery object we could look at in a pool of water about 20 feet deep. They are not sure exactly what it is, but believe it to be a part of a boat or raft from uncounted years ago, speculating that someone tried to build some craft to float through and out of the cave. However, the only exit out of the cave is either the way we came in or through a tiny tunnel underwater. The guide explained that only 17 people have made it out through the underwater passageway and it is extremely difficult and dangerous. For starters, the passage is too small for anyone to take scuba gear. In addition, the water is 40 degrees and hypothermia would set in roughly 10 minutes. The sand and silt is so fine on the bottom, that the smallest moves will stir it up to where one would not be able to see.

Leaving the Bridal Cave, we decided to take a different route which would take us accross a toll bridge. Two dollars and fifty cents and it still looked like an ordinary bridge. Oh well.

We stopped in Lake Ozark near the Bagnell Dam and parked the car so Buffy could shop for dogsitting gifts. She didn't find anything, but I at least picked up a T-shirt and some more sunblock. We finished up stopping at a bar and grill called Casablanca's for some good deep fried bar food and beer.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel's pool area. They have one of those pools that you can swim up to and order a drink. And by that time, it was happy hour... drinks were half price. Did we die and go to heaven?

For dinner, we were back at the Horny Toad and watch an "old man" band. This place has an outside stage and there's music every night. Tonight's band, which I didn't catch the name, was a bunch of older guys (late 50's, possibly early 60's) that played very well.

Tomorrow we have a pontoon boat reserved and we plan to do a half day on the late. Check back later.

Lake of the Ozarks - Day 1

A spontaneous getaway to find traditional summer vacation activities of sun, fun and possibly hillbillies.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - Today we headed out around 9am with the convertible for Lake of the Ozarks. Buffy and I decided to take this trip just last week and did little planning for this trip. From many summer vacations going to Missouri while growing up, I knew which route to take. Though this time around, I decided to go from Rt 24 to south IL Rt 100 through Beardstown, IL like we did over 25 years ago. Though many things have changed over that route, it still brought back some memories. We also got to drive through the small Illinois town of Marbletown. We approached the city limit sign that did not indicate any population size. Two hundred feet further on the opposite side of the highway was the other city limit sign. Makes Mayberry look like a metropolis. I suspect this route was a little longer to go, so that's probably why nowadays, we travel from Rt 24 to Rt 107.

We stopped at the Lighthouse restaurant on the banks of the Mississippi River for lunch. We usually stop here for lunch when going to Missouri to butcher hogs. That's in the winter and we can normally watch the bald eagles flying around. They weren't around today. In the restaurant, some were watching circus coverage the Michael Jackson memorial. I noticed the older people watching it, but the teenagers in the place, like me, could have cared less.

Back on the road, we followed US Rt 54 into Lake of the Ozarks. Roughly 300 miles from home so it was a good road trip for us. Now we had to find a hotel as we made no reservations anywhere. I just figured we'd pull into the Holiday Inn somewhere. But Buffy wanted to stay someplace that had it's own bar. We stopped at a scenic overlook where Beth started making a couple of calls to girlfriends who have routinely vacationed at Lake of the Ozarks. We first got a tip on Tan Tar A Resort, but that was a little too far back away from everything... and probably a little more than what I wanted to spend.

Beth's girlfriend Mary Jo then called us back and said she'd set us up someplace. Mary Jo called back again and gave us directions to a nice place and got us a deal at $99/night. We followed the directions back into Horseshoe Bend to the place she got for us. We were unsure as we quite didn't get the name of the place, but atlas, we found the correct location... the Resort & Yacht Club of Toad Cove. You read correctly... Toad Cove.

The room was very nice. Three TVs; one in the bedroom area, one in the living area and one in the bathroom. There's a kitchenette with mini-stove, microwave and coffee maker. The countertops look to be granite, though I sure its some Corion or other cheaper composite. And all for $99 a night!!

Next door is the Horny Toad Bar and Grill, which is where we had dinner. After dinner, we walked around some, had a drink then headed back to the room. We were in bed by 8:30pm and were dead tired from all the driving, sun and wind. Tomorrow is another day!

Wacko Jacko: Enough is Enough

I don't know about anyone else, but there is way too much pomp and circumstance and media attention to his passing. Today is to be his memorial service. If you didn't know better, you'd think the President of the United States had died. This past weekend, rouge nation North Korea launched not one, not two, but 5 missiles, with the intention of hitting Hawaii. You'd think that would get the top headline but no, its about Michael Jackson and what toilet paper he used. What is wrong with the American public?!

On two different occasions within a ten year period, he has been charged with child molestation. Jackson even admitted to sleep overs with children in an interview and called it "charming." And remember back in the 80's he was prancing around with Emanual Lewis. I have no doubt that in his mind he actually believes there is nothing wrong with his sleepovers. I believe Michael Jackson to be mentally ill, who has surrounded himself with greed executives and yes men that had fueled him to other strange behavior. This is a guy (and I use that term loosely here) who would otherwise be homeless, living on a park bench somewhere had he not got a break in show business.

And by the way, what was so great about the Jackson 5 anyway? And what was so ground breaking about his Thriller video? It was a longer than normal music video, using the same special effects from the movie An American Werewolf in London and a cheesy dance routine from monsters. In the last 10-15 years, he wanted a comeback album, tour... whatever. However, he appeared to be very frail, even at one point, coming into a courtroom with a cane. So he plans basically a Vegas act for London's O2 arena. From the video clips of his rehearsals, he's not doing anything too dynamic. I just don't understand all the fascination of this once black man, to a white man, to a white woman to grey alien.

So let's face it. Jackson is gone. Deal with it and move on.