I am happy to announce.........I have a brand new Blog Link!

Maybe it is true, that most blogs have a feminine touch. If this is my feminine side, I'm OK with that.

Looking over to my right (is that your left. Just kidding), you can see that I have a new link. Jake and Amanda Zornes are my niece and nephew, from my wifes side of the family. And I think that they have a wonderful blog (and ya, it's feminine).

Link up and then scroll down to see there movie, were you can see how they made there announcement to there family.

OK, maybe I have more than one feminine trait. I like new baby's, in the family.

Only one thing wrong with there blog. No place to leave a comment. Maybe they are more secure, in there blogging and don't need comments to show that some one is reading. They may not, but I do.

Love Boyd

Incredible Story's of Grandma Case, #1

Grandma Case was a woman with few faults. Telling story's about her past, was not one of them. I loved that she had a new story every time I came to visit.

One story was about me and my two sisters, Stacey and Reva, and my brother Steve. The short version, as best as I can recall, goes like this.

Growing up in Southern California, we always thought it a treat to head north and visit Grandma and Grandpa Case, in Kainsville, Utah. One year, around Christmas, the tip was on. On the way up. all we kids could talk about was snow and how cool (pun not attended) it would be to slide down a hill on a sled.

After ariving, Grandma and Grandpa wpent hours rounding up warm coats hats and a few winter toys to set out on our little adventure. About an hour up the mountian side, we found ourself on the tubing hill.

Not one of us got further than twenty feet from the car, because of the cold. At least thats the way Grandma tells it.

I never remembered any of these events, but Grandma remembered everything, twenty years after it happened.

I will try to tell as many of these story's as I can, If I can remember some.

Let me know if you have a Grandma Case story, or a story about any other Grandma.

Boyd

Hard Truth and Consequences

Let me start by apologizing for this post. It seems I am stuck doing long, lengthy rants that feel like me blowing off steam, more than any thing else. Next post will be a memory, via Grandma Case, I promise.

Saturday night was a wedding, after getting up at 3:00am, working twelve hours and standing in a line at Auto Zone for forty five minutes. Not a chance that I was going to be in a good mood.

Doesn't matter were you are, you can learn lessons, from the many things going on around you. On purpose, I am not going to give you any details about what happened at the wedding, because I am so tired of the innocent people getting hurt and those who cause so much pain. are rewarded. Lets just say that more than one person is perplexed at why I am no longer there friend, because of there actions towards me and my family.

I may have forgiven them (even though no request for forgiveness was made), but what confuses me, is how they don't understand the consequences of there actions.

So my family and my wifes brother's family, snuck out for Chinese food.

Dinner was wonderful.

In all aspects of live, there are consequences to actions. Man can not change that fact. And yet "the world" seems to believe that it can.

In 1998 I made a big mistake that I am willing to admit. I bought a 1992 Chevy s10 Blazer with a bad motor. My brother Steve helped me put a new motor in it, but it never reached it's full potential. That was a bad choice on my part and I lived with the consequences.

The story of the hunk of junk, mention above, doesn't end there. About a year later, this car was stolen.

Four youths were coming home from a party, when they decided that walking was beneath them. My car, seemed to be handy and is less than two minutes, they had wheels.

Then it was decided that the party didn't need to end, so they spent a couple of hours grabbing beer from grocery stores, and running out the front door. They were not worried, because if any one got a license number, they were in my car.

The next morning, after drinking and driving all night long, they went through a school zone, doing forty, in front of an officer of the law. As soon as the lights came on, it was a high speed chase, ending with my Blazer in some one's fence (I think the real reason this truck was bound for the scrap yard, was because of that high speed chase). The four youths scattered and only one was caught.

During questioning of the one youth that was caught, a lawyer had to be present. In the interest of this fourteen year old boy, all pressure was removed, to have the boy point a finger at the other three, for fear of bodily harm, in retaliation.

The full consequences of these actions, for this youth, were as followed; He was made to pay back my deductible and my time lost from work, amounting to about five hundred dollars. And he had to write me a letter of apology. Thats it. No money was ever returned to the insurance company (making every one's rates go up). The other three, were never punished in any way. The hard truth is the consequences didn't fit the crime.

With out consequences there is no remorse. The proof is in the letter of apology, that I received. Past the opening line of "I'm sorry I took your car", was a page and a half of please feel sorry for my because I had to spend a few hours at night after school, working a job (provided by the state), for six months, to pay back the five hundred dollars.

That happened about nine years ago, and that boy should be a man by now. It is obvious that there was no way for me to see how his live turned out. But I do know what happened to some of the boys I grew up with.

The consequences of your actions, good or bad, always catch up to you. The world can only delay, never remove.

Congress has just sent money (out of our pocket) to help people stay in homes, they couldn't afford in the first place. Consequences, delayed. If they couldn't afford the home then, how can they afford it now.

I could go on and on with example after example of situations were people confuse compassion with changing the consequences of ones actions, but it is like talking horsepower to a car nut. You get it, or you don't.

In my own life, I am going to take a slow, hard look at how I handle the consequences of what I do and how it effects others. Slow, because of the need to think things through. I think better when I take my time.

It's true, I love you all. Boyd

A Day of Epiphany

Yesterday, I tried and tried to write a blog about how I think Barock Obama should have been made to answer a few questions before this nation made him the most powerful man in the world. I didn't like a word I wrote, because of the anger I felt. Don't get me wrong, there will be a post in the future dealing with this issue, but it may take a week or two more, before I can write it.

The avoidance mechanism kicked in and I surfed on over to LDS Talk and watched a few Glen Beck video, and gained an epiphany.

http://www.lds.net/videos/id_344/title_an-unlikely-mormon-conversion-story/
http://www.lds.net/videos/id_345/title_an-unlikely-mormon-conversion-story/

I don't always agree with Glen Beck. Maybe if we conservatives could get together on a few more things, we would be winning more elections. What I can agree with Glen on, is the concept of Zion. It was what converted Glen to the Gospel and was my freeing epiphany.

There is only one cure for all the sickness of the world.It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My sister Stacey did her part, working on prop 8 in California. Steadfastly stating that she (we) love every individual. But changing the meaning of what marriage is, or what a family is, serves no one.

I don't care who you are, I love you. Or I am trying to love you. True charity will save the world. And I may not be perfect at it, but I am trying.

Love ya all, Boyd

P.S.; if you don't get the whole epiphany, it's because words can't say it all.

A funny thing happened on the way to the polls.

My sister, Stacey, my son Justin and his wife Mellisa, have all been asking for more memories of my life growing up, in Southern California. I don't know if it is the age or if I just wanted to leave the past in the past. But here is one memory that popped up, wile driving my wife to the polls.

My wife asked me how I was going to vote on the zoo. She automatically assumed, because I enjoy making fun of people who treat there pets, like people, that I would vote no on zoo funding. I like our zoo, so I voted yes.

Growing up, we gave a few pets a shot, but none were more successful, with my Father than our cockapoo, Black Bart.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cockapoo
The appearance of Cockapoos may vary
Other names	Cockapoo, Cockerpoo, Spoodle (AU)
Country of origin	United States
]
Not recognized by any major kennel club

A cockapoo (also called a spoodle or cockerpoo) is a hybrid dog, bred by crossing an American Cocker Spaniel (or English Cocker Spaniel) and a poodle (in most cases the miniature poodle or toy poodle), or by breeding cockapoo to cockapoo.

My mother may have brought this dog home but my it was my fathers dog. And he treated it like he should have treated us.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the dog. But you could also say that I was jealous. Yeah, thats right, a teenage boy being jealous of a nine pound fur ball. As perfect as I am now (on a perfect scale of one too ten, ten being perfect, I put myself at a solid three), as a teen, I had a lot to work out.

We had another dog, a German Shepard named Lisa. One time, my Father was working on a car and on a test drive, the breaks gave out, and my father had to choose, the house or Lisa. My dad choose the house, and gave the kitchen a little too much ventilation. Too be fare, I think alcohol was involved. There was always alcohol involved.

But my fathers favorite, was Bart. Bart would love to go for a ride in the car. When in the car, Bart would either be bouncing around, jumping from windshield to the back window, or sitting between the back of the drivers neck and the head rest. One time, my father had to be towed home, because the little beast jumped from his neck perch and slammed the automatic transmission into reverse, while on the freeway. If memory serves me right, that car was a beautiful, white, Oldsmobile 442 (ok you purist out there, I know that the 442 is not supose to have a automatic, but if you check your facts, the later years produced a few) that I don't recall ever seeing again.



How or why that dog was still among the living, I have know idea.

All these thoughts came back, because my lovely wife asked me about the zoo. Who knows what will trigger the next memory. Maybe a douhnut will remind me of the time I worked at Winchells?

So, Mellisa, don't take it personal if I tease you about your cats. It's a free nation (for now), you can dress them up any way you want (alright, truth is I have no idea if Mellisa has ever put cloths on her cat). Just remember, some day, Jackson will ask you about your childhood and I hope your animal stories are better than mine. Maybe you should blog a few and save the best for years from now.

Just remeber what Glen Beck said, any one with more than two cat's, should be reported to homeland security as a nut job.

Is it wrong to want an old friend (General Motors) to die?

Any one who knows me, knows what a great fan I am of cars. And given the choice, American cars. To be more specific, cars that were built by G.M. . So why do I want to see all three of the Big Detroit Three pass on?

I don't know what it is in our DNA or our up bringing, that will make us choose a car company, and stick with it. My Father had a few Ramblers in his stable, maybe because of there connection to the Hudson's he use to race. My Mother likes Buick's and Oldsmobile's. My sister, Stacey once told me that if she ever bought a new car, it most likely would be another Lexus. Her husband, Doug, likes Audi's. My sister Reva, has, last I checked, a fondness for Subaru's. My wife, Sharlene and my daughter, Michelle, have decided too be strictly in Chrysler's court. And last but not least, my brother Steve could talk a while, about his Porsche or his Jeep.

For me it's a Chevy or a Pontiac. The Pontiac is easy to explain. The first car I ever bought was a 1970 Pontiac GTO with a Ram Air IV engine, producing over four hundred hoarse power at the crank. I bragged about this car more than I think I drove it. Even with the price of muscle cars falling faster than my income, that car would, in poor condition, be worth ten times what I paid for it. I know, because I looked.

Chevy's I can't explain.

With such a great love for American cars, you would think that I would be all for a government bail out for these really sick company's. It's because history repeats it's self.

Twenty years or more ago, Jaguar, one of England's finest sports car builders, found themselves in the same spot that G.M., Ford and Chrysler are in, today. The quick history goes something like this; Company can't make payroll, government loans money. Car maker goes father into receiver ship. Government takes over company. Cost skyrockets while quality goes downhill fast. Government sells to private investor's who reverse coarse and then sell to foreign investors.

There is a reason that the currant Democratic government has a interest in saving the big three, but it is not what you would think. In fact, it is the very reason that these auto makers are in trouble. Unions.

About ten months ago, while visiting my sister Stacey, Stacey let me read some of the trade magazines for the auto industry (at the time she was working for R.L. Polk, the company that provides data for the auto industry, to help them decide which direction the company should go). Most of the articles were about G.M. and how it needed to provide more hybrids to survive. The articles were right, without really knowing why. Unions.

If you break down any manufacturing company, like G.M., you have many departments, but really just three areas that differ, one from another. Manufacturing, research and development, and the bean counters.

Among the bean counters you have the marketing department. For years, I watched G.M. do what I would call substandard marketing when it came to there small cars and trucks. G.M., who if they were a country would have the fifth largest national gross income, in the world, can't sell a single Colbalt to anyone under the age of thirty, in the state of California, I think not. They put all there eggs into the truck/suv market for a reason. Unions.

OK I'll let it out of the bag, why I think that it is unions that are the demise of the big three. I have heard all kinds of figures tossed out, between 65% and 95% of the cost of a Detroit vehicle is labor. For years, all three of the US automakers have made one bad contract with the unions, after another. Guaranty's that pay will be there, even if there is no work. Add to that, health care packages that lasted till death and the generals troops were set for life. I use the word, "were", for a reason.

Here is how I see it, doing some simple math. It takes about the same amount of labor, to build a Cadillac DTS as it does a Saturn Aura. Still four wheels, four doors to attach, one front wheel drive train, same amount of airbags, seats front and back, one stereo and the list could go on and on. If your labor doesn't increase by much and your materials end up costing approximately 10% more, how can you justify (not that I think you should justify) a price tag that is 200% more, for the Caddy?

I have a friend in the auto finance business, that explained to me, that on small American cars, the money was being mad on car loans. In order to compete with non union shops, like Toyota, G.M. was satisfied with producing small cars for rentals and big cars and trucks, for the money. Financing cars of all sizes was very lucrative, back when there was money to loan. Last night I heard that GMAC was so short on cash, you need a credit score of 740 or higher to get a loan. Is it any wonder that G.M. sales are half of what the were a year ago?

Why would hybrids have helped if G.M. could have gotten them out sooner. Because crazy people have money too. In theory, the general could have put those folks who are sitting at home, collecting a pay check, back to work on the assembly line, because of the extra labor involve in building a hybrid. No more dollars spent on labor, but you can add around $10,000.00 to your price tag.

For the record, I am not a fan of hybrids. I think that G.M.'s eight cylinder engine that runs on four cylinders when on the highway makes more since to me. And with a very little engineering knowledge, a lot more should be done with cold/hot air intakes and free flowing exhaust systems. One good O'l boy, who's nick name is Smokey (I can't remember his real name) got 52 mile per gallon out of an old Pontiac Fiero, back when the factory was pushing to get 28. That puts the hybrids real world numbers to shame. Some think that this is were the hundred mile per gallon carborator rumor started.

Anyway, the car could never be put into production, because it didn't use a catalytic converter. It didn't need one.

So why do I what to see my favorite car company go away? Because there are so many "car guys" at G.M. . The Chevy ecotec engine, for example, has won the four cylinder drag racing competition, for eight years in a row. There was a time when Corvettes were banned from Firestone road racing, because the were so far ahead of the competition, I.E. Porche, ect.. I could go on and on about all the men and women at G.M., who are doing it right, but why? There are so many wonderful thing that these car guys could do, with small cars, big cars, trucks and suv's, if just given the chance.

But as history has shown us, G.M. will go the way of the Jaguar, and maybe in thirty years or so, we will see cars that can compete on the market place. If there is still a market place. The Democratic party has always got the union vote and now we will see if they return the favor. No matter how bad it gets, they will always say that it's the fault of the previous Republican President's, failed policies.

To get to the point, no were has the combo of Government and industry worked. But this country just voted for change. So can I say it, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Boyd

Some thing happy, for a change.

It is times like these, that the natural man in me comes out. Is it wrong to post pictures of my grandson, Jackson, before his father can?..........................Well of course it is. But that didn't stop me.
These Pictures were taken by Justin and they were not the best in the lot. But I thought it best, to leave him the good stuff, for his own blog.

The next post will be more seriousr, but fo now Happy Halloween.

Boyd

And a Nother Thing

One more reason I'm not voting for Obama.

Judges- Most people don't realize, how much Judges in this country have been writing laws from the bench. Obama has already stated that he will choose Judges who can put themselves in the place of the defendant. Doesn't sound all that bad, or does it.

Ever ask yourself why there are so many minority's are in prison? Growing up on the edge of a rougher part of town, I saw some of the reasons that people turn to crime. I am well aware that I don't have all the answers, but I know that two of the reasons are justification and a lack of community disapproval.

Justification may have the word justice in it, but they are two ends of the spectrum and leads only too more crime.

The lack of community disapproval may be best illustrated by a old George Carlin joke; You should never get caught with marijuana in the state of California. They are so strict, you could get a ticket.

Many don't know how many Judges the President chooses or what an impact Judges have made in the last few years. No one payed attention when a city council in Florida, condemned a large section of beach front property, not because the houses were sub standard, but because a developer would put more expensive homes on the beach front land and increase the taxes to the city. The case went all the way to the (not so) supreme court (in this case anyway) were the city/developers won.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but I will do what I can do and I will say what I can say. I think that if I do my best, and tell it like I see it, come Tuesday night, I will sleep just fine regardless of who wins the election.

Too quote an old Bee Gee's song, it's only love and love is all I have, to steal your heart away.

Love you all-Boyd