Thoughts

It's a shame there are some politicians that will never admit that renewable energy has an important role to play in our country's energy independence. New article, but the same message I want to deliver in the midst of people claiming renewable energy doesn't work. In South Dakota we get 92% of our electricity from renewable energy. In Iowa that number is 83% and in my home stage of Kansas, it's 74%. Pretty amazing numbers if you ask me.

Link to article below:

South Dakota, an unexpected leader in renewable energy
South Dakota quietly built one of the cleanest energy portfolios in the country, helping redefine what clean power looks like.

I spent a part of my Sunday afternoon writing only to have lost the article due to an error on the server side. I may rewrite the article on another day, but I'm too disappointed to do a repeat today.

It's my own fault as I know better. Anytime you're writing an article, save your draft many times along the writing journey. Despite having the Internet rarely eating my homework these days, I'm disappointed in myself for not following this rule of mine.

Today, I got rid of an old reclining sofa that my wife and I purchased 24 years ago. At the time, it was an elegant black-blue leather sofa that reclined in a special way that it could be placed safely next to the wall. I say the color of the sofa is black-blue because I always assumed the color of the furniture was black, while my wife insists that it is blue. This debate on color was never settled, but I can assure you that family history rules will dictate that I was wrong and my wife is correct.

My grandpa greeted me often by calling me Zeke instead of Bryan. I once asked him, why? My grandpa replied that he had a friend named Bryan/Brian that everyone called him Zeke. He then paused and eventually admitted he didn't know why they called him Zeke either.

It wouldn't be Christmas without Doctor Who. The best part is it was my wife that bought me the tree ornament. She so gets me!

I love those Progressive commercials where they warn you to "not be like parents". I laugh at them because more times than not, I'm already at the "parent level" of behaviors and obsessions. This latest video from Progressive on weather nerds though hits close to home. After working for more than 30 years with the National Weather Service, I and many of my coworkers can't help but talk this way. Enjoy!

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I visited our son in Grand Forks, ND so we could see him in the musical, Ride the Cyclone. The musical was presented by the Empty State Theatre. He played the role of Ricky Potts, a boy that before his death was mute because of a trauma, though in the afterlife his ability to speak has been restored. Confused? Well you'll just have to see the play if you ever get a chance.

Logan was awesome in this musical! He was so good on stage that all I saw was his character. I was no longer Dad but an audience member enjoying the show. The rest of the cast awas also just as good.

Lately, I've been thinking about what it takes to really be happy. So in the new year, I've had some random thoughts on the subject of happiness. This one is more appropriate for social media than a blog post, but here it is anyway.

Being rich or poor is all relative. There is always someone richer and always someone poorer than you. If one can't be grateful with what they already have in this moment of time, I don't think one can ever find happiness no matter what "wealth" is obtained in the future.

The subscription model for anything is broke. Keep raising prices, upset your current customers, only offer a discount when they cancel the subscription. Why not make your current customers happy instead of only pleasing those arriving or departing? This is a stupid game we play.

In the early years of our marriage, my wife and I bought a lighted Christmas wreath. The wreath was two feet in diameter and was strung with the old incandescent cluster lights. This wreath hung in our picture window of our first house and would make its way to the transom window above the front door of our second house. Over the years this Christmas wreath had become my favorite decoration to hang during the holiday season.