It Ain't Easy Being Two, It Was Easier Being #11

There is a bluebox on the right side of this page in the upper right corner just below the header.

It is titled, "MO Blog Rank, blognetnews.com" Awhile back, a blogger submitted my blog for inclusion on their ranking list. I don't remember who did it and what the criteria for being accepted to their ranking was.....I seem to recall faintly that the blog had to deal with political subjects. (Either I am THAT political or not that many people are political.) Anyhow, we signed up and linked to our blog. One week I was 15, a little later I was 11. I didn't pay much attention to it.

Here are this week's results:
Missouri's Most Influential Political blogs
Rank Blog Prev
1 Gone Mild 2
2 busplunge -
3 Life Of Jason 4
4 The Turner Report 15
5 Ozarks Politics 14
6 Blog CCP 17
7 KY3 Political Notebook 11
8 The KC Blue Blog -
9 BlogKC 18
10 Rhetorica -
11 Branson Missouri 5
12 100 Year Old Weblog -
13 The Source -
14 Tony's Kansas City 6
15 MPN: Missouri Political News 8
16 The 2 Dollar Bill 20
17 Arch City Chronicle News 16
18 24thstate.com -
19 Fired Up! Missouri 13
20 Missouri Political News Service 1

Blogosphere Influence Rating combines a variety of data sets to determine which blogs are most powerfully influencing the direction of the Missouri political blogosphere. The exact method BNN uses to calculate influence scores must remain proprietary in order to prevent attempts to game the system. BNN's methodology takes into account the fact that all Internet data is profoundly limited in its reliability by using multiple data sets that, when combined, reveal a fair picture of activity in the blogosphere.

Look how many of those blogs are from the Ozarks. I count at least eight of them. I am proud to be part of a non-structure that lets this old hillbilly with an opinion about dang near everything including politics and local happenings have a seat at the table.

I am kinda proud of being #2 in Missouri. I actually have a long history of being #2in Missouri. I was #2 to the bus driver, I was #2 to the guy who cures queers, Say, wasn't he the guy who cured....naw, this is way too much information, besides, it will probably come out in the election).

I was #2 when every kid counted, I was the #2 retired teacher, I think I was the #2 builder of bridges.

I'm pretty sure I was #2 to Bud Greve, Conley Weiss, Jack Ernst and probably half the school board in the mid to late 1990s, (and it was cool to talk #2 with the Plank while the board simmered and stewed.) I like to think Moses liked me in spite of all the bull#2 that was flying around.

I was #2 to my employer when I was no longer needed, I was #2 to those who no longer needed me.

But I was top of the hill to my wife, still am,,,,well most of the time, my kids, ditto. They're grown and got lives of their own. My grandchildren! They think I am the greatest grandfather in the world! Just this afternoon, the red headed one told the Grandma (who makes ramen noodles for the boys on demand - we buy in bulk and never run out) that he likes working with Grandpa because, "I never have to do any work, all I have to do is tell Grandpa what's been going on."

So, I am glad to be part of a one - two punch! It took awhile, but eventually it all circles back together. And I am glad to be here! And I am always willing to share my thoughts, on politics or whatever. The sixth grade teacher told the parent in a parent-teacher conference: "Jim has a wealth of information and is not afraid to share it."

I been trying to determine what makes a guy what he is. When I was in high school, my Dad and Father Wally Ellinger were on the board of MAMOS, which was a migrant worker advocacy group that focused on migrants who worked in the Bootheel. I used to go to the meetings with him because I liked to drive and Highway 60 in the 1960s was a fun road to drive if you were 16 years old. Lots of seat time.

All those hours in the car with my dad.....we talked , maybe more accurately, he talked and I listened. I was told once by a friend of his of the time he gave away his coat to a man who didn't have one. It was a cold and rainy night (should I have said "it was a dark and stormy night"?) and my dad gave away his coat to a man who was wet and cold and didn't have a coat.

I am not going to be like Romney and say I saw my Dad give this man his coat. But that story, and I have heard it now from people who actually witnessed the offering, is indicative how he treated his fellow travellers in life, with dignity and respect and a low tolerance for mendacity.

At the time, however, all my 16 year old eyes could see was that now there were two guys who were wet and cold. Today, forty plus years later, I get more than fleeting glimpses showing it is so much more than that.

And I know I am a lucky man. (Here I was going to insert a video of a: Emerson, Lake and Palmer--but the lyrics don't match, I don't die in the end. Well, actually I do in the end, we all do - that's what makes it exciting-, but the end is not near. I mean, I hope the end is not near. And b: Montgomery Gentry and his version of "Lucky Man." I googled the lyrics and,

Actually, I thought his lyrics were pretty good and could be adapted to this blog posting, except I don't have a job I hate because I'm retired. Well, I did have a job I hated (BTC) before I retired so maybe that counts?

Then I webbed over to youtube to get a video. It was then I learned the unfortunate truth. I don't like Montgomery Gentry. You see, I had never seen Montgomery Gentry sing one of his songs. I had only heard them on the radio. And even at that I wouldn't have known they were Montgomery Gentry songs if the DJ hadn't told the name of the recording artist. I had seen Montgomery Gentry on award shows and whatever,but I never connected the name to the face to the songs because I had never seen him sing. I just thought he was some cowboy singer who looked pretentious in that long coat and his hat pulled down low, like a mean old gunslinger.

Well, it's not that I don't like him, I don't like his hats. When I watch him on the tv all I can is the hat. It seems fake, artificial, like a costume. (I think I posted earlier about men and hats; Look here and look here.

You are just going to have to hear me say: "Thank you to all the members of the academy whose actions put me in the #2 spot, and especially thanks to those mental health professionals who teach us how to put stuff like this in perspective. I love you all."