Sunday Morning Coming Down

Former President Obama is cashing in with getting the first of more than few checks for public speaking gigs.  Following the lead of the Clintons, the Bushes, and more than a few former members of Congress, a speech for $400,000 paid for by Wall Street really looks cheesy at best.

Maybe I woke up way too early this morning.  I got the paper and started reading the front page of the Miami Herald.   Actually it seems to be a pretty big news day.  From the upper left: Lawmakers agree to pay surviving Barahona victim $3.75 million, next White House briefs Senate at a perilous moment with North Korea. Further down the page: four teasers Immigration, voters say no to crackdown.  More than 28,000 expected to run in annual Corporate Run. Followed by the search of Israeli Cuisine and a reminder that the NFL Draft begins tonight. There were four other stories that made the front page.  A state legislator who served eight years failed to file a single federal income tax return. Way to go Eric Fresen.  There were pictures of the continuing protests in Venezuela, an article about the outline for tax plans being promoted by the White House and a story about gun violence where a 17 year old shot and killed his 13 year old sister. ...

April 19, 1995, the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by Timothy McVeigh, and 168 people were killed.  McVeigh was said to be upset about the government's Waco raid in which 76 people were killed and an FBI raid at Ruby Ridge in Idaho.  I watched on the TV in the waiting room of my office where were served the unemployed, food stamp recipients, and more than a few refugees from the islands and South and Central America. I wondered how could somebody blow up a truck in front of an office building, kill a bunch people and almost destroy the building.  Somebody who had a bitch with our office or who we were supposed to help could easily do the same. Ryder Truck's home base was Miami, Florida Timothy McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001.

The Run for the Roses is in three weeks.  Serious horse racing fans have been following promising three year olds for about seven months.  There are usually three paths to Louisville: by way of the Santa Anita Derby in California, by way of the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, by way of Oaklawn Park is Arkansas, and finally by way of the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in New York .  Keeneland Park at Lexington Kentucky will also have an entrant or two, and not very long ago Mine that Bird made the long van trip Sunland Park in New Mexico to Louisville for a mind bending upset at 50-1. As of today I hope Irish War Cry will win.  I thought Classic Empire was a good runner, but he needs a good race today to punch his ticket to the next level.  McCraken was undefeated until he got schooled by a Irap that just broke his maiden at Keeneland in the Bluegrass. No strong opinion from Miami, my head is still spinning from all the upsets and injuries that have been the rul...

In 1969 I worked at a sewage treatment plant in Bensenville, Illinois, a summer job that helped to pay for college.  Swept up filter flies, greased pumps, learned how to draw sludge, clear trickling filters, do stuff to make solid waste dry more quickly, and do stuff  to make sure stuff went from one part of the process to the next part of the process.  Water and stuff in the front door, went out the back door into a creek that went some where else and who knows, somebody might have had a sip of it. 2017 and forty eight years later I watched two five horse power pumps removed from a lift station that moved mostly water and stuff to the county sewer line in Miami, Florida.  It was a big job and a big deal because we all shower and $%^t Pumps move water, they can move stuff that dissolves more or less in water but some times they get jammed up with stuff you should not flush down toilets, stuff that doesn't dissolve, like baby wipes and other stuff that gets used t...

What happened to Lexi Thompson on Sunday at a Golf Tournament leaves something to be desired. "What happened to Thompson is, by now, well-known: When a television viewer emailed regarding the infraction from the third round of the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA’s first major of the season, Thompson was penalized two strokes for the violation, then two more strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard — a scorecard she couldn’t have known was incorrect, because her error wasn’t reviewed until Sunday, when she was already in the midst of her final round. She was informed of the situation — a total of four strokes lost — with six holes remaining." Golf officials must get their act together.  I realize that golfers are supposed to self regulate.  I also think golfers seem to mark their balls when on the green way too often and mistakes can happen.  The rules are what they are.  Play it as it lays. There need to be more officials on the course to deal with issues in...

Quarter horse racing had a day in Ocala, Florida at the end of January.  There were no races at Hialeah Park since the end of the meet in February 2016.  This may not be news to folks in the business. The horse racing and breeding business in Florida which provides economic activity throughout Florida missed about 320 races because Hialeah did not have races so far this year. The "circus" that is horse racing has not come to town(Hialeah) so far in 2017.  Whether it will be missed beyond the City of Hialeah or the folks that own, train, ride, or clean up after the horses remains to be seen.  Gulfstream Park had the Florida Derby on Saturday and will hold races through the rest of the spring and summer. And so it goes.

Yesterday I remembered a name of a person who I worked with many years ago in Key West, Florida.  I had tried to remember his name for a while (about three weeks) after mentioning how we had worked together getting folks jobs in the Keys back in the late 1970's. He had been a Navy Pilot, we shared more than a few jokes about a plane landing I had experienced at the Key West Airport.  My first flight to Key West was memorable.  The second we hit the ground the engines reversed and the pilot hit the brakes.  I wasn't sure we would stop.  Off the plane, I related my experience to a slightly older gentleman who was going to take me to the Key West High School for a meeting.  He chuckled as he told me that the particular pilot on that flight was a good pilot with a lot of practice making carrier landings, which he added we close to being controlled crashes. Yesterday, while talking about the Keys with an older couple and having a beer, he showed me a picture...