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June 05, 2004
Remember the Gipper
Well, it's been an interesting few days around here. After working 8-4 on Thursday, I went to see "Shrek 2" in the theater in Rice Lake with Mike and Shaun. It was definitely worth seeing again, especially since I missed the first 5-10 minutes of the film the first time I saw it, and because this time I actually paid to see it. ;-) It's a really funny film, and I caught quite a bit more the second time around. Puss 'N Boots (voice of Antonio Banderas) definitely steals the show! And the Three Blind Mice were great too!
After the movie we all went to Beaver Dam Lake to meet Kevin and a couple other people who were out on their homemade pontoon boat, complete with a second-deck (that's used as a putting green and driving range!). Anyways, Kevin and the rest of them were still way out on the lake when we got to the dock. They tried motoring into shore, but not long after they started up the motor to return to the dock, somehow the gas line got a bit loose, and was cut by the propellor. So Mike, Shaun and I are standing on the dock for an hour in the cold, until they finally make it back (after paddling the whole way) at 1am. But we were all determined to hang out on the boat (especially since I'd never seen it before), so that's exactly what we did for quite awhile, even though it was moored to the dock. :-) They even had a grill on the pontoon, and Mike was using his car keys as a spatula for the brats and burgers, hehe. It was great fun hanging out with them, and worth the long cold wait on the dock.
I celebrated my day off on Friday by sleeping till 12:15, and it felt great! I did a few odd jobs helping out my parents (like doing a bunch of the trimming), and then in the evening I went over to Nathan &Laura's for another fun game of "Rail Baron." Laura won yet again (her winning streak in that game is at something like 6 games, I believe), and yet again I failed to taste victory. But that doesn't happen very often to me in games, so I'm quite used to it by now. :-)
I stayed overnight at N&L's because I had to be at work at the radio station this morning at 5am for a five-hour shift, and it's only a 3-minute drive from their house in Rice Lake, as opposed to the 15-minute drive from my house outside Cumberland. But then this afternoon my dad and I drove down to Roseville to look at digital cameras. First we stopped at National Camera &Video near Rosedale, and I wound up purchasing a new Canon A80 digital camera, along with lots of other goodies and accessories for it! It was on sale $30 off of retail, and another $20 off because it was from an open box, so I got it relatively cheap, certainly as cheap as I could've gotten it off of the internet somewhere. I decided that the S410 was just a bit too small and with not enough manual features for my liking, the G3 was a bit too big and had too many buttons/features for what I wanted to do at this point, and that the A80 was a very nice compromise in size and manual features available. It's still small enough that it's able to fit in my pocket, which is a huge plus. I took some pictures with it tonight of some cool cloud formations (especially some spectacular mammatus clouds) and eerie lighting outside, but I don't have time to put them online tonight, since I need to get to bed because I work again at the radio station at 5am tomorrow morning (followed by driving a radio station van in the Camerama parade in Cameron, along with Mike and one other guy). I'll try to get a couple of them on tomorrow, but no promises.
Finally, I was quite saddened today to hear of the news of Ronald Reagan's passing, even though I figured it was coming for some time, what with his ten-year battle with Alzheimer's. America lost today a great man, and the greatest president of the 20th century. He stood for his ideals without caring what other people thought. He didn't care who got the credit for something good that happened to America, as long as it got done (i.e., he wasn't obsessed over building a legacy for himself). He played to people's greatest hopes, and not their greatest fears, and inspired people to greater heights, instead of encouraging them to feel sorry for themselves like so many politicians and bureaucrats do today to a sickening degree. He knew that people could best attain their greatest aspirations and dreams with the freedom and liberty that comes from a small and limited government; unfortunately, many today have forgotten that grand ideal. The Gipper was a brilliant beacon for freedom in America and the world at large (most notably by hastening the end of the oppressive communist regime of the Soviet bloc), shining out from the city on the hill. I've always been proud to call myself a "Reagan Conservative," and that's how I'll continue to proudly label myself. Reagan will be sorely missed. So tomorrow, on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Allied invasion of Normandy, when you pause to take some time to remember all the veterans and their sacrifices so that we might have freedom, also take a moment to remember Ronald Reagan, who also fought tirelessly for our freedom.
Posted by Jared at June 5, 2004 11:25 PM