Gold Medals, Complex Math and Disco Shoes

I don't know about you but here in Jersey I'm getting kind of tired of winter. It's those mid-February blues. While I enjoy the snow, there's been so much this year I'm definitely over it and ready for spring. However, having spent a lot of years in the area I'm well aware that we're about two months away from any signs of life and even further from that glorious riot of spring that takes place over a 2 or 3 week period in May.

I've also taken note that I've got to go out this weekend and buy more wood pellets for our pellet stove. Last fall I bought an entire pallet of them (50 bags) and we're down to the last few. But we won't need another complete pallet (I hope) and figure that another 25 bags should do the trick. We only use the wood pellet stove to heat the large addition off the back that serves as our great room. We spend most of our time in it. As a result we keep the heat in the rest of the house down around 65F all day and night; there's really little need to heat it much higher when we mostly just sleep there.

OK...so on with it. Here we go....

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
3. Your Ride - Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks & Flip-Flops - Personal Appearance
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

The Competitor - If you've been glued to the tube each night since the Winter Olympic Games have started like me, no doubt you've been alternately impressed, distressed and sometimes dumbfounded at what goes on at the Games and what is reported on. So far the feel-good story has to hands down be that of Alexandre Bilodeau, the young Canadian mogul skier who won the first Gold Medal by a Canadian on Canadian soil EVER when they have hosted either summer or winter games. Inspired by his brother with cerebral palsy, he has a fresh, wide-eyed wonderment at his new-found fame that is so refreshing and in all the interviews I've seen with him he seems like a genuinely nice kid who deserves all his success. But have no doubt - you don't win Olympic Gold without being a fierce competitor. He reached out and grabbed history when offered. His gold medal run was a complete gamble as he tore down that cobbled slope on the edge of out of control...but that's what it takes to be a champion...willing to lose it all in an effort to win. Several other mogul skiers tried the same on-the-edge, hair-on-fire approach, and but for the fickle whims of Lady Luck they might have been the Olympic Champion. But in pushing it a single flaming hair too far, they wiped out and off the podium. If you haven't seen his winning, ball-to-the-walls run, here it is.

At the other end of the spectrum comes the unfortunate story of the Japanese luger who was disqualified because the combined weight of her and her equipment were 1/4 lb overweight due to a miscalculation of the formula used for underweight athletes to carry additional weight. Not great for an athlete who puts in years of sacrifice to make it to the Games only to be DQ'd for 4 oz. However the blogger who reported on this story, Trey Kerby, set himself up for ridicule as he called the method used to determine the amount of weight a "somewhat complex formula". See for yourself just how complex this formula is...but if you're too lazy to click on through to it, I'll repeat it here: WOMEN: (165 lbs - body weight) x .75 ....ta da!  That's it. No differential equations, hell not even algebra, just straight up 4th grade math. Look I'll be willing to give Mr. Kerby some slack in that maybe arithmetic is not his favorite subject but how in God's name does he function in the adult world if he considers this to be a "somewhat complex formula"...either that or he thinks athletes all have rocks in their head and he's trying to cut this poor woman some slack. Regardless he's either an idiot or patronizing.

WWWD? - If you've never been actively involved in your community, there is no better time than now when our communities need us. Being an active participant in the town I live in is something I only learned to do as an adult through my brother-in-law and his family (long-time residents and small business owners in their hometown). This is something I never picked up from my parents as we moved often due to my father's military service and subsequent corporate career - however, as a Vietnam combat veteran he more than contributed to the benefit of our town, county, state and country. This is not to discourage our veterans from continuing to serve in their civilian life - we need them to share their sense of duty!

What I've found (and those that already volunteer in their community most likely will agree with) is that you get far more in return than the service you put out. There is the sense of satisfaction from giving of yourself and helping others. There is also the benefit of getting to know your neighbors and other community members, especially community leaders. When we lived in Florida I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, a Cub Scout Den Leader and as a result of the people I met and worked with, was invited to sit on the Board of our local YMCA. Through my active participation I felt like I was really LIVING in my town; I knew the mayor, town council members, and local business owners. I enjoyed trips to the store or a local event and running into someone I knew nearly every time I went out. While I may not have always agreed with some of our community leaders positions on issues, I at least had a better understanding of where they were coming from since I knew them on a first-name basis. This also provided me with the chance to express my views to them as part of a real discussion and not as just another voice lined up at the microphone at a town council meeting.

Since moving back to NJ, I've tried to pick up where I left off upon leaving Florida (in fact, active involvement in my community is one of the things that made moving away such a hard decision). So far I've again become a Cub Scout Den Leader and am a member of our church Building Committee. And already I've run into other members of both those groups out and about town - that really makes you feel like you are starting to belong when that happens. 

So I encourage you to not simply shut your front door behind you when getting home at night, only to shut out your community while at the same time inviting the rest of the world in via television and the Internet. "But," you say "what about time with my family?" Slow down cowboy - I didn't say you have to volunteer every evening or even once a week. And many volunteer roles are fantastic opportunities to bring your children along allowing you to spend quality time with them and to instill in them a sense of civic duty which has often been forgotten in today's suburban wasteland.

Black Socks & Flip-Flops - You can continue to call me a cheap bastard. Last week I picked up one of my pairs of dress shoes from the cobbler after having them resoled (for those of you not familiar with the archaic term "cobbler", I'm referring to a shoe repair shop).  I'm not so caught up in fashion that I have to have THIS year's style of shoes...thank God. Instead I buy a relatively good pair of shoes - around $150 or so - and wear them until they fall apart, having them resoled 2, 3 or even 4 times before the uppers can no longer take a new sole. At between $35 and $50 for a resoling,  it's definitely worth it compared to buying a new pair of shoes. Of course I could buy cheaper shoes to begin with but they usually don't last any longer than the soles, making any efforts at resoling pointless.  But can you imagine bringing these funky silver disco clodhoppers in for repair...?


So let's do the math: good shoes @ $150 + (3 resoling @ $50) = $300 vs. 4 pair of $75 shoes. Equal cost. However I'm guessing you'd probably go through at least 5 pair of $75 shoes in the same time and they are usually not as comfortable. And while they don't fit my wardrobe, I wouldn't mind seeing the woman who brings these boots into the repair shop....

Cheap booze, Snowstorms, and WD-40

I'll have to admit that as this snowy winter weather keeps us inside, it can become a bit trying to find enough to write about. Sure I can surf the web and find stuff (which I admit I already do), but I'm not getting out and about as much and actually experiencing things. Thus I can wind up feeling a bit like an armchair quarterback. However, given my desire to stave off boredom today, I think I'm gonna go cheap early and call this my Hollywood-tromp-through-the sewer edition.

1. The Competitor - Sports
2. Mr. Muscle - Fitness and Health
3. Your Ride - Cars
4. Greenbacks - Career/Money/Finance
5. Toys - Gadgets (i.e. boys toys)
6. Tasty Licks - Music, Movies, Books and other Entertainment
7. Arguing - Politics
8. The Great Outdoors - hunting, camping, extreme sports
9. WWWD? (What Would Ward Do?...think about it, it'll come to you) - Family
10. Black Socks & Flip-Flops - Personal Appearance
11. Honeydew - Home Improvement/Tools
12. The Wide World - Travel/Vacation
13. Eye Candy

Greenbacks -  One thing it seems you can be sure of is that even when the economy sucks people are still gonna drink; probably even more so. All we do is shift to cheaper swill although I doubt stars with a known affection for Lady Alcohol, like Lindsay Lohan (shown enjoying herself at left) and Mel Gibson, are suffering the same fate. While I'm not a big drinker, I do enjoy a beer to two. Lately, I've ratcheted down a few notches in what I buy, trying to stretch that dollar a bit further. What I want to know is what are people doing to make cheap tequila sales jump, yes jump!, 21% from 2008 to 2009. All I can say is that I think we all know what kind of night to expect when that bottle of ta-kill-ya is cracked open.

Tasty Licks - OK. I found this article comparing Spike TV to Lifetime to be pretty dead on and funny. Spike is definitely guys TV. Thank God being a Balanced Guy doesn't mean being a pussy and not allowing yourself to watch stupid guy shows. Being a Balanced Guy means being able to do that AND being able to watch a Lifetime movie with your significant other while keeping both in perspective. It means a boys' night out getting maybe a bit rowdy and pushing the envelope after a day spent coaching your daughter's basketball team. Being a Balanced Guy also means at the end of the day admitting that you'd much rather watch Spike TV. 

Neil Genzlinger, the author, demonstrates his "Balanced Guy-liness" when he states "So, clearly, members of one sex are living in a sad, unrealistic fantasy world, trying in vain to compensate for the drabness of their day-to-day lives. Members of the other are living a rich life of the imagination, at peace with their self-image and excited by what the future might hold. Which is which goes without saying." Nuff said.

Sticking with entertainment, last week the nominations for both The Oscars and The Razzies came out. By far, those for The Razzies are a hell of a lot more entertaining to read through although the Oscar-worthy performances are certainly better to watch (unless maybe you're halfway through that bottle of cheap tequila). Although I'm not sure I agree with Land of the Lost garnering nominations for worst actor (Will Ferrell) worst supporting actor, worst director, worst screenplay, worst sequel/ripoff/remake. 

Granted, it's not Oscar material but it was a really funny movie...to me at least.  Mature; no. Juvenile; yes. Not sure it's meant for the kids mostly because they aren't gonna get a lot of the jokes and there is some fairly adult humor, albeit innuendo. Keeping in line with a lot of the 1970's-TV show-turned-movie genre of the last 10 years or so (The Brady Bunch, Scooby D00, Charlie's Angels, etc) it's very tongue-in-cheek with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. The scene with Will Ferrell dancing through the pterodactyl nest in his underwear is priceless.

Honeydew - As I write this the white stuff is falling from the sky and we're under a blizzard watch here in Central Jersey. This is the second big storm in a week. While I don't mind shoveling snow, this storm is worse than the last as far as shoveling is concerned because it's heavy and wet. It's not the weight of the snow that bugs me when pushing it around, it's the fact that it sticks to my shovel. Little trick of the trade for ya - before you start the process of throwing your back out or bringing on a heart attack (yes, shoveling snow can be dangerous to your health) try spraying some liquid duct tape on it. What is liquid duct tape you ask? WD-40 of course. It's like a miracle-in-a-can. To back this claim, know this: it's even got a Facebook fan page with almost 4,000 fans (just slightly more than The Balanced Guy's fan base on Facebook and Princeton Scoop is catching up fast). 

The great part is that everyday, WD-40 sprays a blurb with yet another use for this can-o'-magic much the way Princeton Scoop tosses you info about great deals and steals in the Central Jersey area. For example, yesterday's Use of the Day: Detangles jewelry, like tangled Mardi Gras beads used in celebratory dance on Bourbon St. And one from last week...Use of the Day: Cleans cell phone battery connections. And another one that is wholly appropriate for our current weather - Use of the Day: Spray wheel wells and underbody of autos to protect from corrosion due to road salt. (OK...I'm not too sure about the phrase "sprays a blurb" but I'll go with it...I was obviously trying to be witty but I'll toss a flag and call it a "fail".  So stock up on WD-40, find ever more exotic uses for it and enjoy shoveling that snow!

Speaking of "fail", if you're looking to possibly wet yourself laughing I highly suggest you go to Google images and simply type in the word "fail". You never know what you'll find. Words fail me as far this image goes....

Beaches and my Soapbox

I figure February is as good a time as any to discuss getting the heck out of the cold weather, especially since we moved back to NJ after 8 years in southwest Florida (the Ft Myers/Naples area). I'll poke my nose into a few other topics as well. First and foremost I think, as with any undertaking, a mid-winter, warm-weather escape requires the proper frame of mind. You have to get your noggin in the game. Music is a great way to do that. I've got a playlist on my iPod called Beach/Beer Mix. It's the one we turn to on a Friday after work, a lazy Saturday afternoon, when we have friends over. Hell, it's the play list we play the most. A small sample of the usual suspects will give you the basic idea: The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley and. Then there are some more lesser-known contributors to our slightly buzzed Friday evening repertoire...Archie Roach, Paul Weller, and Taj Mahal among others...but you get the idea. It's mellow, feel-good music with a summertime, shoes off and I-don't-give-a-damn-until-Monday attitude. 

So you're looking to get away, but where to go? Um...I'll be boring and say Florida but there are a few reasons why other than the fact that nearly everyone's grandparents are there as well this time of year. First of course is the excellent weather right now. Second is the excellent weather. Third is our locally lousy weather. It's also not too far, flights are relatively inexpensive, no passport required...and...lean in a bit closer, this is a secret...I know of a great, really great, family-run hotel right on the beach in Naples that also happens to have one of the top-rated restaurants in the region. It also happens to be one of the few restaurants in the entire

area ON the beach, not to mention being one of the few remaining hotels on the beach in Naples. What? you say. Tell you this well-kept secret. Twist my arm. OK. The Vanderbilt Beach Resort has been owned and run by the Moore Family since 1968. It's old-style Florida. Don't expect over-the-top suites and over-the-top prices. Do expect the friendly charm you would expect by a family-run establishment, well-appointed rooms, a fantastic beach right outside and a phenomenal restaurant, The Turtle Club, on-property all accompanied by the best sunset dining in Naples. 

If you're looking for something a bit more rustic (i.e. camping), I strongly suggest you make reservations to camp out on Cayo Costa, an island/state park off the west coast by Fort Myers. Cold running water only (including showers), dirt roads, very, very, very few people and accessible only by boat, this place is truly an undiscovered gem, rated by Outside Magazine as one of the best getaways in the country. Those are my kids in the pic from when we went out there for a weekend of camping a few years ago. As you can see, not a soul in sight except for us on a gorgeous May weekend.

On to more mundane items now that you're wistfully thinking of someplace other than where you are. As I'd mentioned twice now in previous postings (Nov 2 and Nov 18) about Ford doing well. Seems those folks in Detroit are at it again, proving the world wrong that American auto manufacturing is ready to be put 6-feet under. Seems their sales are up while over at Toyota things are trending downward. Granted retail sales are down but fleet sales are way, way up. 

There happens to be a minor sporting event this Sunday called the Super  Duper Bowl or some thing like that between the Sinners and the Fillys..or is it the Saints and the Colts? Nevertheless, it seems Madden NFL, after accurately predicting 5 of the last 6 Super Bowls, is calling it that they'll be celebrating down in The Big Easy come Sunday night. I dunno. While it would be pretty cool to watch The Team Formerly Known as The Ain'ts win the Big Dance (I know...mixing my sporting terminology), I'm not too sure I'd be wanting to bet against Manning and his Colts. That guy is just too damn good.

Now I'm going to get on a bit of a soap box for a few minutes and state that in general people need to stop being such freakin' pussies. I like to stay apolitical in this blog so don't take my ranting as leaning one way or the other...the only direction I'm leaning is for people to buck the hell up and stop their whining and constant maneuvering to make the other guy look bad or take advantage of a situation.  Now look: I'm not advocating or endorsing what people said or did. However what I am doing is condemning the reactions to what people said and did. 

Exhibit 1: A mom in Denver is suing the school system after her 6 year old son's hands and mouth were taped with masking tape after he was misbehaving in class. OK. I might be a bit upset over that if it happened to my son although maybe he would have deserved it. That's beside the point. The annoying thing is that this woman is now suing for, get this, $500,000!!! Because her son was taped up with masking tape? Overreaction? You betcha...which is a nice segue into the next overreaction.

Exhibit 2: After Rahm Emanual called a few people and their idea "f*cking retarded" (he was referring to a group of conservative democrats actually), Sarah Palin called for his ouster based on his insensitivity and use of the word "retarded"...keeping in mind that Palin has a mentally challenged toddler at home. Fair enough. But....first of all, he didn't say this in a public forum. Instead it was apparently during a behind-closed-doors meeting. Second, I think people might get more upset with his use of the f-bomb than the word "retarded". Third was Palin's statement that rings about as genuine as a Gucci purse for sale on the street of NYC. I quote: "Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'N-word' or other such inappropriate language, Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities -- and the people who love them -- is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking." I don't espouse going around calling anyone a retard but I like to think of the old "those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" i.e. I'd be willing to bet solid coin that at some point in her day Sarah has called someone a retard or an idea retarded. Lesson that needs to be learned: While we need to respect all Americans regardless of ability, find some real issues to take issue with Sarah; as well as every other politician, left and right, who finds affront at the slightest burp if it will get them air time. Case in point ---->;

Exhibit 3: At a speech given in a high school in Nashua, NH earlier this week, Obama said: "You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices." Well, you can guess what happened next. Everyone and their uncle from Nevada...even Harry Reid for crying out loud, Democratic Senate Majority Leader, lined up to take their turn ripping the POTUS a new ANUS. Mayor Goodman of Vegas said Obama was not welcome in his town...that's a friendly attitude that'll  be certain to bring the tourists in droves. I think I can be pretty confident the president was using Vegas in the metaphorical sense in that it's intimately connected to gambling...excuse me...gaming. Yet the torches and pitchforks came out as claims were made that Vegas doesn't need the president tearing them down and driving away tourism. Ummm...seems to me if no one had said a damn thing about all this, no one would have heard about it and it wouldn't be driving away tourism....if it is at all. I mean really, while we may be dumb the American public ain't that stupid. If people want to go to Vegas, they'll go to Vegas. and not take too much stock in the president's analogy. The folks there need to practice their own tag line a little more "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"....sheesh. There's a reason Las Vegas is called "Lost Wages". Which leads me to my final exhibit.

Exhibit 4: I really, really, really wish someone could get both houses of Congress, both sides of the aisle, sit them down and say, no yell, at them "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? "These guys are more interested in getting re-elected then they are in solving our country's problems. Case in point...and I can't believe he actually said this, Lamar Alexander-R Tenn. said with respect to the whole partisan stalemate, and I quote because you have to read it to disbelieve it, “When we do policy and get good results, there is always the possibility that Democrats might gain a little politically,” he said. “But I think our main job here is to help the country.” WHAT? Are you kidding me? He's worried that if Congress actually succeeds in solving a problem that the Democrats might make political gains? What about country first, party second? And that he "thinks" they are there to help the country? He "thinks"? I'd like to "think" that was a pretty self-evident truth (to paraphrase the Declaration of Independence). Please elected officials. Left and right. Talk to one another. Dems - don't leave the GOP out of discussions. They are intelligent people with ideas too. Elephants please don't throw a monkey wrench in every effort the donkeys try to move forward just because you can. You ARE there to help the country...all of you.