Bob and Debbie Conroy - Enjoying the Journey Together!

I cannot for the life of me recall what teams were in the last Super Bowl, World Series, World Cup or championship games for any other sport. I am just not interested in this type of entertainment. Think of all of the time I have had to learn and master new interests and hobbies! Bliss!

The agency is on track to break even and perhaps make a profit in 2013 which is ahead of our business plan. This month I picked up a part-time job as an executive of a small insurance company while Debbie picked up a side job as a bookkeeper for a local insurance association. We may find ourselves pushing a combined Federal/State/Medicare tax rate of 50% again. I swore I would never pay that tax rate again. Where is John Galt when you need him? He never came for me or was I as obtuse as Hank Rearden?

Over the last few weeks, I have been across parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. In all three states, there were many fires where large piles of trees and brush were burning.  The last time I saw this much clearing was when I first moved to Iowa from Michigan in 1979.  Back then farmers were encouraged by federal agencies to grow fence row to fence row.  Easy credit and low interest rates drove up the cost of farmland and many farmers leveraged their operations to acquire more acreage. This was followed by a bust that lasted over a decade and many families lost their farms to foreclosure. Many of these farms had been in the same family for over 100 years.  I served on the Warren County Board of Human Services in the 1980s. I saw firsthand the extent of the suffering that the boom and bust inflicted on so many people.  There is a story in the D M Register that some Iowa farmland sold at auction for over $26,000 an acre last week.  Maybe the bonfires...

I recently had successful surgery on my thumb. It was locked in a “thumbs up” position. The thumb situation had progressed from painful to bend to impossible to bend. The surgery required a small incision to cut the tissue around the tendon to release the pressure. I went to a surgery center and put on a hospital gown then was wheeled on a gurney into the operating room. There were three nurses in there to prep me. My arm was vigorously scrubbed from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers. The final rinse was with pure alcohol. After the alcohol rinse, a large sterile paper sheet was immediately placed on me with my hand was sticking out a hole. I was warned by a nurse not to bring any other body part out from under the sheet. The nurse went on to say that it was the best way to kill any bacteria remaining on my skin. So I wonder, why do people put a substance that kills all that it touches their body. It is sad how the alcohol cartel has hijacked our culture.

We got rid of our land line five months ago and have not missed it once. When did Halloween become an adult holiday for narcissists? Anyone else bored with organic marketing claims, the bacon craze, Mayans, zombies, vampires, anything Batman? How can the 49 years in the picture to the right pass as if in a dream? I wish I never noticed the arrow in the negative space between the E and the X in the FedEx logo. It is like a tune you cannot get out of your head. Yesterday I saw somebody driving on the freeway that was not on a cell phone.  I was sure the temperature in Hell, MI dropped below freezing. Later I got a cart at Walmart that had no bad wheels and was sure of it.

I was in a doctor’s waiting room semi-patiently listening for my name to be called. On the other side of the room, a young mother was doing the same. Her children, however, were literally bouncing off the walls.  After a few warnings to sit quietly went unheeded she dropped what appeared to be the ultimate threat to them; “Settle down or I am going to text your dad!”. It worked!

The University of Iowa, nationally known as a top “party school”, has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Anheuser-Busch to guarantee its infamous standing. The contract will allow Anheuser-Busch to use the TigerHawk logo on retail displays, flags, caps, cups, and T-shirts. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIAAA supports and conducts research on the impact of alcohol use on human health and well-being. (It is the largest funder of alcohol research in the world.)  Here is what the NIAAA reports about college students drinking: Virtually all college students experience the effects of college drinking – whether they drink or not. The problem with college drinking is not necessarily the drinking itself, but the negative consequences that result from excessive drinking. College drinking problems: •College drinking is extremely widespread: about four out of five college students drink alcohol. ...