So this might be a gross post, but I get a lot of wax buildup in my ears. Often times they get so plugged up I have a hard time hearing. Q-tips are shit, and I don’t think should ever be used in ears. They just seem to push the wax back and seem to make things worse for me. I bought an ear wax removal syringe and use it in the shower from time to time to flush my ears out. It works pretty good, but I just discovered this amazing tool.

It feels amazing if you have itchy ears and it gets the wax out. It doesn’t push it back like Q-tips do.

So today I got pulled over for “rolling” through a stop sign. I know damn well I didn’t. I’ve gotten two tickets for doing that, so I always make a point to come to a complete stop. What the cop really wanted to know was why I was sitting in a church parking lot for the last half hour or so. Well, that church was a Pokémon Gym. I was honest and told him I was playing Pokémon Go, but I don’t play while driving. He didn’t seem to care. I didn’t get a warning or anything. I guess it’s good that they are looking out for any mischief going on. It just pisses me off that they can pull you over for any made up reason. I’m just glad I’m white.

So many things are happening and no time to blog them.

Green Bay
A couple weeks ago I went on my almost annual road trip to an NFL game. My friend is a teacher, so Sunday games are hard to pull off. So we go to whatever Thursday game there is the week he has his MEA break. This year the game ended up being in Green Bay. Growing up I never thought in a million years I would be seeing a game in Green Bay. Thanks to Stubhub, now the average person can actually buy tickets from a season ticket holder if they are willing to pay the price. Our $95 tickets ended up costing $250. A little pricey, but with no airfare since it’s only and eight hour drive, it was a pretty affordable game this year. 

Lambeau Field was pretty amazing. It’s so cool how such a small town was able to keep their football team. In the early years of the NFL many small towns had teams, Green Bay was the only small town team that survived. It would be hard not to be a Packer fan if you lived in Green Bay. All the houses around the stadium had people tailgating in their front yard. It was such a cool experience and I’m not even a Packer fan.

Getting Old
A couple days after I got back from Green Bay I had a gout flare. I’ve never had gout before, and let me tell you it sucked. We had tickets to see Brand New in Sioux Falls, but I couldn’t make it. I loaded up on pain meds and drove halfway there, but I could barely walk so decided against the concert. I’m still super bummed. I’ve never seen Brand New, and now probably never will.

The gout was probably brought on by my blood pressure medication that I started taking in February. I discovered my blood pressure problem because I had a mysterious toothache that nobody could find the cause of. My tooth got better, but now we know the cause and I have to have a root canal on Friday. Getting Old is starting to suck. 

Vacation
Next Sunday we leave for a week long vacation in Arizona. I’ve never been to Arizona, so I get to check another state off my map. Actually it will be two states because we are flying into Vegas first to see a Penn and Teller show. If you know me you know how much I like magic shows. I’ve always wanted to see Penn and Teller. 

From Vegas we are road tripping it to the Hover Dam, then the Grand Canyon, and then down to Phoenix which we haven’t planned yet. Basically seeing everything I’ve always wanted to see in that part of the country. Should be a fun time. 

Back in 1994 I was living in a college dorm. I don’t remember how I discovered it, but I found a note written on the bottom of a drawer from the 70s. I don’t remember much about it, but it did mention going to a Kiss concert. It was pretty cool hearing from the past.

So of course I added my note from the 90s. I don’t remember what I wrote, but I know I mentioned that we lost “our” rock legend Kurt Cobain that year.

I wonder if my note has been discovered? I wonder if it’s still there? I wonder if there are some new notes? I’ll probably never know the answers to these questions.

Oh, hello blog. It’s been a while. I’ve been busy catching Pokémon. Before July I didn’t know what a Pokémon was. I’m old, Pokémon wasn’t a part of my childhood. Pokémon Go sounds dumb, but man it’s fun. I’ve put more miles on my bike the last month and a half than the previous ten years. Pokéstops around my house are just to far apart to walk it. I prefer biking anyway, the only downside is that I have to keep it slow for the kilometers to count.

It’s been great. I’ve seen parts of town I’ve never seen before. I’ve pretty much biked fifteen to twenty miles every day I’ve had off, and five to ten on days I’ve worked twelve hours. It’s weird, I just can’t wait to hope on my bike again. It’s bringing me back to my childhood, not the Pokémon part, but the biking part. I use to bike all over the little town I grew up in. It feels great to get out and do that again.

I should reach level 22 this weekend. It seems to be a constant battle to keep up with everybody’s level. That’s part of the drive I guess. I don’t want to fall too far behind. I’m dreading winter. It’s going to be difficult to play when it’s so cold that it’s dangerous to be outside.

Last night our neighbor freaked out and threatened to shoot her neighbors and any cops that approached her house. I was at work, so I missed all the commotion. Knowing her, I can’t imagine that she was a real threat, but you can’t mess around with threats these days. She was eventually arrested. It’s unclear if she was arrested last night, or this morning, but I’ve seen her mugshot online. It’s kind of scary knowing something like this happened twenty feet from where I am typing this right now.

I looked up the police call log to try to fine more info. I was amazed at the number of calls they receive, and the low-lifes they have to deal with. It would be really depressing to be a cop. I have the utmost respect for anybody who chooses that as a profession. It’s no wonder some cops get a little too trigger happy with all the stuff they have to deal with, I would be scared for my life too. That’s no excuse though.

I don’t want to get into the Black Live Matter debate. Being a white male, I can’t know how they are feeling. I can only image. If you are one of those “All Lives Matter” fools, educate yourself, you sound like an idiot. This comic is a good starting place.

Hello blog. I’m still around. It’s just that these are the couple of weeks that we get that are actually nice outside. It’s not too cold, not too hot, and the mosquitoes aren’t out yet.

I’ve been busy with yard work, planting grass and flowers. I cleaned the shed and the garage. Took the dog for a bunch of walks. I’ve even taken more bike rights this year than all of last year already. I’ve just been enjoying the outside. Don’t worry, it’ll get old soon. Then it will get hot and the mosquitoes will come out, and I’ll be back to being the great indoorsman that I am.

We are in the market for a new car. Our Jeep is 12 years old, and while it’s in good shape, we’re ready for an upgrade. We’ve been looking around, but don’t really know what we want. I really want our new car to include Apple’s Carplay, but few cars have it yet. I hate the Ford Sync system in my truck. I don’t believe car manufacturers know how to make a user friendly interface. I want a system that will be upgradeable also. If Carplay and Android Auto work like they say, updates on the phone will carry over to the car stereo.

This week Tesla announced the Model 3. It’s starting at $35,000, so it’s the first Tesla that normal people can afford. It’s on the upper limit of what we want to pay, but we could pull it off. The deal breaker though is the distance limitations. For people living in a big city 200 miles is probably fine, and for us around town it’s fine too. The problem is Minneapolis is 240 miles away, and we go there quite often. We would be stuck using my gas guzzling truck for all our road trips. So then what’s the point in spending that much on a car that can’t leave town?

I really want an electric car, but this time around, they aren’t quite there yet. They need increased range, plus who knows how much more limited the range will be in our cold weather. Maybe our next car in 12–15 years will be electric.