Michigan State had a heartbreaking loss last night to Iowa. They felt they had won it, with 2 seconds to go ..... Iowa got a TD and won the game. It still amazes me how two teams can play head to head for three quarters, implement the PREVENT DEFENSE, and each team scores in the last couple of minutes of the game. I have always wondered what they are "preventing." Same thing in basketball.
Speaking of football, I believe that an intentional SPEAR with the helmet, especially followed by provoking, threatening gestures over the motionless body, should be followed by EJECTION from the game. It is obvious the intent of the defensive player, knock out the opponent. How is that different from Assault and Battery? The coach that tolerates it from his players should be punished also.
I must admit I have not followed the news much this week. What little I heard sounded somewhat like what we heard last week, and the week before that. I still question why a man with no military experience whatsoever, can dictate what happens on the field of battle. Why do we have generals? A man with little to no experience, happens to get elected to a high office, and that makes him qualified to make decisions pertaining to anything.
Proposed health care ..... From what I have read, the most important tool in preventing Breast Cancer is catching it early, with X-ray exams. It is important that each and every woman have an exam in the recommended time frames. BUT, the new health care proposal, as I read it, does away with that. And that makes good sense, how?
In my advanced retirement age, with little to nothing to do, and nothing pressing at all, in my mind I try to connect days to recollections of good things in the past, and relate them to today. For example. Wow, Saturday, a day off, try to get all these things done today. Wash the car, to do list, get motivated to get things done, just like I used to do. Sunday.... a day with nothing to do, rest and relax and watch some football on the TV.
Weekdays are harder. Monday, wash day, Mom always did the wash on Monday. She had a wringer washer and a two tub wash sink. Put in hot water and soap, sort the clothes, whites and colors. I forget how she timed the wash cycle, maybe she just knew when the washing was done. Then, put the wringer in position, run the clothes threw, into the first wash tub. As I recall she generally got to loads washed before changing the water.
Then, move the washer and wringer so that it was between tub one and tub two. Tub two was the finished rinse, always clean water. From there, after the second rinse, through the wringer again and into the clothes basket. (I still have that basket somewhere, I think it goes back to the 20's). Then the clothes were hung out on the line to dry. Economical, people may have to get back to that form of washing and drying, out in the sun, what a concept. If the sky got cloudy, you had to run out and get the clothes in before the rain.
We had a neighbor years ago, a General Motors Plant Manager who almost became head of General Motors. (They retired him instead, he had a habit of expecting those under him to work hard. He even had some co-patents with Charles Kettering, and had many patents under his name.) On Monday morning he could be found doing his wash, for his family of five, in his garage .... he considered it "quality time" and a good time to clear his head, and make major decisions. When we first moved out there, all of the homes had a great mound of dirt in their backyards. All the neighbors hired bulldozers to come in and level the mounds. Not him, he got a wheelbarrow and a shovel, moved the mountain himself, which he did.
I also remember one Sunday morning, he was at the top of a giant tree in his front yard, trimming the branches. Someone with GM saw him. Shortly, there was a truck or two, many workers, up in his tree doing the work, and he was on the ground watching them. Needless to say, a hard worker, no wonder he became so successful with GM.
One more indicdent. We were visiting next door at their house one evening, I think they were playing Canasta, and I was visiting with his kids. Phone rang, it was for him. We were enthralled with the conversation. He had invented, or been a part of a team that invented, hydraulic landing gear for airplanes. He was talking with the pilot, made some suggestions, pause here and there. I remember him telling the pilot, "Go ahead and land, the indicator light is not working." He was right.
Incidentally, he worked his way through college to become an Engineer, while working at Delco, a co-op high school, and eventually the University of Cincinnati. He was given a prestigious award by an Engineers Club, his acceptance: "Each of us reacts to change differently. It stimulates some and disturbs others. Change takes us from the security of the known to the uncertainty of the unknown. It lifts us out of the easy chair of complacency and spurs us to new competitive heights. There is nothing like a competitor's success to drive us to find a better product or a better way."
