"THE BANDING MACHINE DEBACLE"

Okay, how is everyone today..this fine Wed?

Let me tell you it is gorgeous in K C right now pushing about 75....just beautiful weather.

Many of you know about my escapade with the Bonneville from hell, that they found full of bullet holes some two years ago......and then there was the "attack bird" story from earlier this summer and all I had was a hat to defend myself while stranded on I-70. (stupid bird)

Well, "The Banding Machine" debacle is from that same file of stories.

Let me take you back.....way back to 9 a m this morning.

I had 7 crates that needed to have the lids on them banded shut, so they were good to go for shipping on a bumpy long ride to North Carolina.

I've been here almost four years now, and am somewhat of an expert with the bander. Or so I thought.

It just so happens that in that span of four years I have never, not once, had to actually change the spool on it due to it running out of actual strapping (banding) material. And of course it was empty.

Damn, I thought, I'm reasonably intelligent, there's really no moving parts, how hard can this be? ( I should've known better)

So anyway, I go get the refill spool with the new banding material on it, unscrew the giant bolt holding the empty one on, cut the little tie thingy's holding the strapping material on the spool until you get it on the......uh........ooops.

WHRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Apparently the little tie thingys aren't supposed to be cut until AFTER the new spool is secured on the actual banding machine.

5,000 ft of strapping is unraveling at somewhere around the speed of sound.

By some act of divine intervention I am able to get some packing tape on the remaining strapping on the spool, and get it stopped.

At this point in the story you're probably thinking....well....not a huge deal... D C can just wrap the unraveled strapping back up, the tape will hold it in place...no prob!

All fine ideas, I was thinking the same thing as well.......and who walks thru the warehouse door for a surprise visit, take a guess......of course.... the director of our division!

Who actually is a pretty good guy, and we traded barbs at The K C T-Bones minor league game one afternoon on a team builder about Missouri/Iowa football and such.

I'm standing there in ankle deep unraveled strapping material, and I know he is going to have some smart aleck remark, and sure enough right on cue he says,

"First time changing the refill spool there, Dan?"

What a set up I thought to myself. He just left the door wide open for me for the perfect Bill Engvall "here's your sign" comeback.....and I had it to boy.....right there on the tip of my tongue.

AND IF I COULD REMEBER WHAT IT WAS I'D TELL YOU.

Somewhere between my brain and my jaw muscle actually saying the snappy comeback I had thought of.....the signal carrying it from my brain decided to take a detour inside my big boulbus head.....and it never got there.

So I started to say it, "Nope I'm........er....that is yeah....I'm......uh....I don't know what the hell I'm doin'."

Brilliant D C, just friggin' brilliant.

I guess next time I'll read the directions first!

Have a good weekend!

******************************

D C

Trip to U.S. capital is eye opening

From a letter writer in the Peoples Republic of Iowa City Press Citizen today, my response is below. I would respond to this individual in the paper, but you can't talk to people like this, you can't reason with them......period. Their hatred for Bush is so great, they are so blinded by hate, it continues to amaze me.

Beleive me ole' George hasn't exactly thrilled me either, but 9/11 was caused by our gov't? Come on.

That statement alone should tell you a person like this cannot be reasoned with.

On Sept. 14, I joined 50 other individuals and set out from Iowa City on a $100 round-trip bus ride to Washington, D.C., to participate in a march for peace, impeachment and other issues. When I first heard about the Sept. 15 march, I thought it was a patriotic thing to do and a really inexpensive way to see some of the nation's capital city. It became much more.
I was exposed to a myriad of critical thinking about this time of crisis in our country, including the illegal war my country is engaged in, the trampling of civil liberties in the form of the Patriot Act, the extreme possibility of 9/11 being an inside job by our own government, the incarceration and torture of "guilty until proven innocent" individuals around the globe and many other issues.
I walked proudly from the White House to the Capitol at the head of the march with other veterans of past and present wars this country has waged in the name of peace. As I walked, my eyes were opened to issues that profoundly affect us all. I began to think that if enough voices speak out, enough minds question, enough individuals rise to action, then the current course of our government's actions can be reined in and halted.
I realize now that it isn't enough for me to sit and believe that everything is OK. I can no longer "stay the course" for I have seen where the road is heading. I am now more actively involved in critical thinking, writing and visiting senators and congressmen, reading and supporting those groups who care about this country and our individual freedoms that are becoming extinct like so many other things.
Eric Sorenson
Battle Creek

******************************************

See folks, this is the kind of mentality that is tearing the country apart. You'll notice he doesn't offer one single, solitary shred of evidence for anything.

Let me enlighten you:

1. "Illegal War"

WRONG.....after Saddam broke the very first U N resolution we had the LEGAL authority to go back into Iraq after 1991.

2. "Extreme possibilty our gov't was behind 9/11."

Uh....right.

Who was flying the planes....not Americans.... all middle eastern men who had been HAND PICKED by Bin Laden and were active members of AL-QAEDA. But the U S gov't was behind it. Sure.

3. "Trampiling of our civil liberties by the Patriot Act"

Just exactly what can't you do now, that you did before?

4. "Incarceration and torture of guilty until proven innocent individuals"

They are called "enemy combatants" ....and nobody has been tortured.

Oh, maybe they didn't get to their morning "prayer" carpet or whatever.....but torture...hardly.

As you can see, proof vs. no proof.

You decide.

***************

HAWKEYE FOOTBALL

2-2

NEXT UP INDIANA

********************

D C

******************

HAWKEYES

HAWKEYES

Well, my Hawkeyes haven't given up a touchdown yet....although the competition thus far has not been very good. (Syracuse, Northern Illinois)

Iowa travels to in-state rival Iowa State tomorrow, and with the way the 'Cloners have played so far......our first test won't come until we play the Badgers in Madison next weekend.

STORY LINK

*******************

Authorities Arrest Suspect After Texas Girl, 6, Found Hanged, Sexually Assaulted:

Guess what......you're dead, you son-of-a-bitch. IF you make it to trial....you'll be dead long before they can stick the needle in you.

STORY LINK

*******************

Man Trying to Sneak Into Concert Venue Impaled on Fence:

Uh.....as the saying goes, "Bad things don't happen to you because you're unlucky, bad things happen to you because you're a dumbass!"

STORY LINK

*******************

Bush Lied, They Died.....T-shits Banned In Three States:

GOOD!

This is absolutely reprehensible.

First of all free speech is NOT universal....get it thru your head dumbass. You can't just go around saying whatever you want. For the most part you can. But even so, this is just abhorent.

SECONDLY BUSH DID NOT LIE! God, I wish people would stop saying that....do your research Mr. Bush hater.....EVERY ally, EVERY intellegence agency of every other country said he had WMD's.

Idiot.

See folks, these type of people.....their hatred for Bush and/or Republicans totally blinds them to the facts.....it doesn't matter if what they say is right or not, they don't care.

All they care about is making Bush look bad...that's it. Period.

I've really never seen anything like it.

They hate the right and the Republicans, namely because we're in the white house and they're not.

They think they are the only ones smart enough to run the show...when in fact history has proven the left to be wrong on almost every single conflict/war to this point.

I suspect this one will be no different.

STORY LINK

Have a good weekend everybody!

GO HAWKS!!

D C

*******************

Whoopi Goldberg Defends Michael Vick on 'The View'

Whoopi Goldberg Defends Michael Vick on 'The View':

How can somebody this stupid make as much money as she does?

Whoopi, you suck, your movies suck, you're not funny......and now the whole country knows what an idiot you really are.

It doesn't matter if it's "accepted" in the south.....it's AGAINST THE LAW.....not to mention just completley morally wrong.

Yeah, a light in his head went off all right, when he found out he was going to jail and having to pay back 22 million in bonus money to the Falcons.

Why doesn't Whoopi have to take a "sensitivity" class now.....for offending dogs.

I think we all know why.

STORY LINK

****************************************

Jerry Lewis Utters Anti-Gay Slur During Labor Day Telethon:

Can we give it a rest, he made a stupid joke.....do we have better things to worry about?

STORY LINK

*************************************

UI Faculty Council OKs arming police:

Good, about time.

I like the statement, "The April Virginia Tech massacre has served as a catalyst for the debate, which has arisen several times over the years. Many, such as Green, are quick to point out that armed campus police officers were not able to prevent that tragedy, nor would they have prevented the 1991 Gang Lu shooting at UI.

Mr. Green, you don't know that......how in the world could you possibly know something like that? If psycho boy Gang Lu KNEW campus police were armed, maybe he still does it, maybe he doesn't......at this point all we know for sure is a girl was crippled, and several good people are dead.

STORY LINK

*************************

Well....had a great time in Chi town....holy cow!

John Hancock Observatory

Soldier Field

Wrigley Field and Wrigleyville

Science and Industry museum

Navy Pier

Dicks Last Resort

Hawkeye Huddle

Ditka's

Pippins

Beef and Brandy

The Regal Beagle

The "L"

Needless to say we did it up!

GO HAWKS!!!

D C

*************************