Would you read this book?:

In rural small-town 1930's Indiana, a boy becomes a bootlegger-- and a man too.

Fifteen-year-old Matt Wyatt knows the Depression is squeezing the life out of his family's farm. When the Crawford clan offers his father a lifeline -- cash in exchange for quiet runs of moonshine--Matt becomes the least-suspected bootlegger in Polk County. What starts as a thrill soon plunges young Matt into a world of violence, loyalty, and moral compromise.

Anchored by the girl who steals his heart, Matt navigates dusty back roads, outlaw justice, and the thin divide between right and wrong as one run goes terribly wrong and the consequences will follow him far beyond the Indiana flat lands he calls home.

Spanning the last days of Prohibition to the shock of Pearl Harbor and World War II, Hoosier Flats is a coming-of-age novel about duty, family, and the heavy price of growing up in hard times.

My impersonation of snow this week

 

Where and When

 My wife has the right to criticize me. It may be true I have bad breath, an inability to fold towels to her standards, or fart too much, but I have a reasonable expectation she isn't detailing my shortcomings to a random stranger in the cereal aisle. There is a time and place. 

Likewise, athletes are entitled to an opinion. As an athelete you might think Dave's Coffee is bitter swill. You might even express this opinion to your friends and family, but when you are in public, Dave's Coffee has a strong expectation you tell everyone within earshot Dave's is the reason you get out of bed to train eight hours a day. They are sponsoring you and that is the trade-off. Every athlete understands this dynamic. 

When you are at the Olympics the USA is your sponsor. The Dave's Coffee logo isn't on your sleeve. The uniform says USA right there on your chest. The Dave's Coffee jingle does not play when you win, it is the National Anthem. You can have an opinion. Leave it at home. 

There is a time and place. 

How long until baseball?

 We have to be quiet this morning, the granddaughters came for a sleepover and they are still asleep. Turn your TV down. Whisper. 

We had a great time last night. I made spaghetti and we played games and watched a movie while munching popcorn. Once they are up and hungry we will make fried biscuit donuts. I miss seeing those girls every day. 

This evening I will watch the Big Game and root for both teams to lose. I have not had so little interest in a Superbowl in a very long time and I have even less interest in the halftime show. A dude in a dress doing hip-hop in Spanish? I will pass. 

Have a great Sunday.

Dig it

 

No music videos and you are welcome

We find ourselves on a Friday morning. We may break above freezing for the first time in a couple of weeks after some snow showers this morning. It's winter. 

The wife is getting vacation fever. She wants to go somewhere warm. What she really wants is another cruise. All it takes is money. I have earned a good bonus at work. I exceeded every one of my KPIs (goals). Whether the company pays it out is another question. The automotive division had a rough year, so we will see. When I exceeded my goals a few years ago I got bupkis because the company did not do well. I will be angry if that happens again, but my only recourse is to quit. It took me so long to get this job. I really like my job, except the pay. Anyway, vacations come from the bonus pay, especially a big one like a cruise. 

I told her to stop looking. She never pays attention to me. "But you get to go places," she says. Like New Britain , CT or Valley City, OH, or St. Louis are ideal destinations. I may "get" to go to Grand Rapids in a few weeks. Western Michigan is a joy to travel to in the winter. 

Is the sarcasm font working?

More importantly,  why would anyone care about any of this?

One final thought, it is egregious Reggie Wayne is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The very definition of tiresome

 Idiot Target employees in Minnesota  (where else) are protesting outside of Target headquarters demanding management refuse to let ICE officers into the stores.

I suppose if you want to also invite the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to go after your company, you could ban Federal Officers, otherwise these leftist asshats display an astounding ignorance of the Constitution.