Sara Has Updated Her Blog....

Daughter Sara has updated her blog. Frequent Bus Riders will recall that Sara has been a horse person since early childhood.
I must confess, I fostered that attention to horses for it kept Sara out of the malls and away from the hairy legged boys.
But dang, the cheapest part of a horse is buying the horse. Hay, shoes, boarding, lessons, more hay, more shoes, vet bills, more lessons, trailers, trucks to pull the trailer, gas to put in the truck to pull the trailer, more hay, and now, saddles.
Read it about it here.


The photo used to illustrate this post is a shot taken on the barnyard of the family farm in Halltown, MO. Those are the horses I grew up with. John has written about these horses on his blog in a post called another day on the farm.

Getting The Bus Ready For The Labor Day Parade....

An Email To God, From ... Michael Moore?????

From: Michael Moore
To: god@everywhere.com
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 2:49:39 AM
Subject: An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore
Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dear God,

The other week, the Rev. James Dobson's ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be cancelled.

I see that You have answered Rev. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don't blame You, I know You're angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an "Act of God" -- when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized -- and I ended up sendingover two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush's FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, "There you go again!"

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven't been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America's "wholesale slaughter of unborn children." His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don't do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven't sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time -- they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don't know what, Bush's head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government's response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W's to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It's done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I'll leave that to the followers of Rev. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. To all of God's fellow children who are reading this, the city New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

Don't Look So Mad Cindy, My Son-In-Law Still Likes Budweiser!

But then again, maybe she just read this about Sarah, plain and tall.

The Anti-Republican?

From Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish: This post about an article by Philip Gourevitch, writing for The New Yorker, is linked here and here and copied below:

Before she was running against him, Sarah Palin—the governor of Alaska and now the Republican candidate for Vice-President of the United States—thought it was pretty neat that Barack Obama was edging ahead of John McCain in her usually solidly red state. After all, she said, Obama’s campaign was using the same sort of language that she had in her gubernatorial race. “The theme of our campaign was ‘new energy,’ ” she said recently. “It was no more status quo, no more politics as usual, it was all about change. So then to see that Obama—literally, part of his campaign uses those themes, even, new energy, change, all that, I think, O.K., well, we were a little bit ahead on that.” She also noted, “Something’s kind of changing here in Alaska, too, for being such a red state on the Presidential level. Obama’s doing just fine in polls up here, which is kind of wigging people out, because they’re saying, ‘This hasn’t happened for decades that in polls the D’ ”—the Democratic candidate—“ ‘is doing just fine.’ To me, that’s indicative, too. It’s the no-more-status-quo, it’s change.”

This was two weeks ago, at the statehouse in Juneau. After persistent reports, in July, that Palin was on McCain’s short list of potential running mates, her name had faded back into obscurity. Nobody in Alaska seemed to take her seriously as a national prospect, and she had shrugged the whole thing off on television, telling CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that, before considering the job, she would want to know “what is it, exactly, that the V.P. does every day.” Now, at the statehouse, she sat, unattended by aides, curled up in a cardigan, and explained that what she had done every day since becoming governor was to stick her thumb in the eye of Alaska’s Republican Party establishment. “The G.O.P. leader of the state—we haven’t spoken since I got elected,” she said.

She went on, “I guess if you take the individual issues, two that I believe would be benchmarks showing whether you’re a hard-core Republican conservative or not, would be: I’m a lifetime member of the N.R.A.—but this is Alaska, who isn’t?—and I am pro-life, absolutely.” She continued, “I guess that puts me in a box of being hard-core Republican.” But she said she recognized that “the Democrats also preach individual freedoms and individual rights, capitalism, free market, let-it-do-its-thing-best, let people keep as much of their money that they earn as possible. And when it comes to, like, the Party machine, no one will accuse me of being partisan.”

So the possibility that Obama might win Alaska did not worry Palin: “Turning maybe purple in the state means, to me, it’s more independent, it’s not the obsessive partisanship that gets in the way of doing what’s right for this state, and I think on a national level that’s what we’re gonna see.” And she added, “That’s why McCain is the candidate for the G.O.P.—because he’s been known as the maverick, as the conduit for some change.” In the state’s Republican caucus, McCain came in fourth, trailing Ron Paul. “I always looked at Senator McCain just as a Joe Blow public member, looking from the outside in,” she said. “He’s been buttin’ heads with Republicans for years, and that’s a healthy place to be.” Then again, on McCain’s signature issue—the prosecution of the war in Iraq—she did not sound so gung-ho. Her son is a soldier, and she said, “I’m a mom, and my son is going to get deployed in September, and we better have a real clear plan for this war. And it better not have to do with oil and dependence on foreign energy.”

And, while this may look like LOJ, it isn't. The question being asked all over the tubes is, "Who vetted her?"

This is so retro, all we need now is for McCain to say he backs her 1,000%.

Remember That Guy Who Wanted Us All To Pray For Rain During the Democratic Convention In Denver?

He just had the wrong city and the wrong dates. Read Livengood's account here.

Separated At Birth....

Separated at Birth? Or maybe sisters?
Tina Fay Sarah Palin

Think this might be their older sister in the pictures below? Roseanne Barr
You know, the "not so skinny" one, the one who always seems to embarass everyone at family functions and who needs to be kept away from the wine and any attempt to sing "Jose, can you see"?Previous entries in the Separated at birth series were posted:
02/20/2008
01/29/2008
01/25/2008
09/30/2007
07/12/2007

Steelman and Palin --- The New Mavericks?

This comment from David Catonese's post on Palin on the KY3 website.
"quinn said...
Isn't it amazing that the Missouri Republican establishment is unanimous in its unabashed support for Palin, a maverick Republican who butted heads with the Republican establishment in Alaska, whose position on earmarks, fiscal responsibility, energy and ethics reform, are almost identical to Sarah Steelman's..." And Tony Messenger, of SN-L fame, had this on STLtoday.com.

The oh-so-quiet Sarah Steelman, who has had a tiny carbon footprint in terms of her media exposure since her loss in the Republican primary for governor, was one of the first Missouri politicos to heap praise on John McCain’s choice of a running mate. Says Treasurer Steelman, in a statement e-mailed from her state office:

“I am thrilled with John McCain’s bold selection of Sarah Palin for Vice President. Governor Palin represents the direction and principle that our nation needs.

“As Governor she has fought for the people of her state and for a government that truly serves them. In Alaska, she fought against cronyism and corruption and restored faith in what principled leadership can accomplish. In battling wasteful and reckless spending by Congress, Governor Palin called for a ban on earmarks, even when they would benefit her state. That’s the kind of leadership America needs.”

Jason Rosenbaum, on the Columbia Tribune Politics blog, has these statements from Blunt, Bond, Hulshof and Steelman.

Here is a posting from MsUnderestimated.

And this from Chad Livengood of the SN-L. Wow! Over 75 comments! I thought she was a member of the Assemblies?

Bet you didn't recognize her without her glasses:

Back Yard Trains and Roller Coasters

When our son and his cousins were little and our parents lived in a house and two acres on South Jefferson, my Dad and I bought a train for the backyard. We bought it from a man in Rockford, Illinois. It was a lot of fun but if the track was not adjusted correctly, you would derail.

These are pictures of son Jim riding the rails in the back yard of the South Jefferson house! (This house was really neat, it had hidden rooms, hidden stairways, hidden doors in paneled walls- Jeep Junkie and Longrooffan tell a lot of stories about this house. I never lived there, I was grown and gone when the folks moved there)

This train, a G-12, was made by the Minature Railroad Company of Rennselaer, Indiana is another one of those vehicles of which we ask ourselves, "Why did we ever sell this?"




More photos of the train are here.

"I'm Tired Of This Stuff"

I received a phone call yesterday afternoon around three.

A male voice said, rather gruffly I thought, "I'm tired of this stuff."

It was disconcerting. The call came from 523-0000.

When I called back the number I got the Springfield School District automated switchboard.

Why would someone from the school district's administrative office call me and make that cryptic comment? I was with a friend when the call came through and we thought perhaps someone at Kraft had tipped over the edge and that maybe Kenneth, indeed, knew the frequency.

Later, my cell phone showed that same number called me back at 4:00 pm and didn't leave a message.

I think my number is in the system because I have grandchildren in the school district.

Ed's Blog

Ed is my youngest brother.
He lives in Daytona Beach, Florida.
He has a Lake Wobegon family.
He has a blog

Longroofs 4 By The Numbers

The annual car show flea market was held at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds this weekend. Here are some of the carsI saw out there.

1970's Chevelle Station Wagon
A sharp looking Pinto Wagon, with woodgrain sides and cold air.
Interior of the Pinto
This 1957 DeSoto sold for $1700. It was all there and no rust that I could see. It looked like mice had lived in the seats, but seat covers are cheap. This was a nice car with the hub caps in the back. The seller said it was in a barn for many years and ran when parked.
Primered Maverick, a sister car to the Comet pictured below but a lot more expensive
A dang nice Chrysler, two documented owner car with all the paperwork. Very nice.
This is a 1941-46 Chevrolet --looks like a bus front end and a long bed pickup box. Maybe a safari truck? Or a drive through the fields to the deer camp truck.
1955 Chevrolet station wagon, no motor, set up for 350.
A really nice 1965 Ford Country Wagon. Not a Country Squire, a Country Wagon. Has been repainted and the interior was not quite finished.
I think this car would look better with the stock wheels.
V-12 Jaguar XKE---ever wonder why the British don't make computers? They haven't figured out to make them leak oil.
Plane Jane Long Roof
$6500.00 for this F-6, I don't think it sold. It had a later model V-8 in it.
Oh, Ozark door locks
This car had no floor boards and a $5500.00 price tag, no windows either.
1964 Chevrolet, not a trailer queen.
I saw several Studebaker trucks, this one was owned by an appliance store in Monett, the signage was still visible on the doors. Remember in Missouri when you were required to have your name, town and gross weight on the door of your trucks? And whether you were local or beyond local? "J. Lee, Halltown, MO 6,000 lbs Local"
1962 Chevrolet fodor Impala, I thought it was a Bel Air at first. I didn't know Impalas came in sedans.
Yeah, Longroof, it's the right color and has the small hubcaps. Granny's old car. Didn't you or Jeep Junkie end up with this one?
Chevrolet's version of the Pontiac Chieftan.
A really nice looking Ford half ton, long bed. Joan had one of these that was just gorgeous. Another case of "why did I ever sell this car?"
Cop car.
1955 Pontiac Wagon, red and white.
Stock tires and wheels in the cargo bay.
Nicely done interior.
1965 Pontiac Station Wagon. At first I thought this was a car that was on ebay earlier this summer.
Price and connection details.
Lots of rust in the quarter panels.
1964 Ford Falcon Panel Van. I forget what the price on this one was listed at, but it wasn't as nice as Longroof's Falcon, no windows either.
Look at the seat and there is no heater.
Pretty ragged looking inside, the engine compartment has been altered significantly.
Look at the engine parts.
Horsefarmer, this car look familiar?
Not too much rust on this Mercury and I think the color is the same at Tom's car. Once I was driving on Eye-44 west of PP when I saw Horsefarmer's Comet on the side of the road with the four-ways on and no sign of Tom. Turns out he had met Dad heading into Springfield and walked across the interstate and rode into town with him. Yep, he left his car on the side of the road. Tom's car got stolen out in California, he doesn't like to talk about it much, just to say if you are a sailor, don't pick up girls at a Jack-In-The-Box---they might steal your car when you go in to get her some burgers.