July Is The Month Of Fun, Summer Activities

July is here and I couldn’t be happier about it.

The weather is hot, wheat is filling the area grain elevators and several exciting things are slated to take place this month.

From a personal standpoint, July means a couple of things to me.

First, as of this weekend, I have lived in Moundridge for a year. I moved into my house during the Fourth of July weekend last year.

Also, since my employment anniversary was June 13, I have been proudly working at The Ledger for more than a year.

Already I am seeing the cycles of Inman and Moundridge. I am beginning to get a grasp on what happens when, and that is a wonderful feeling.

No longer do I constantly feel as though I’m grasping at straws. I have put out a paper more than 52 times, which is pretty cool to me considering this gig is basically a one-man show.

Speaking of gigs, July also means the Galva Old Empire Days Fourth of July celebration is here, and my djing company, Lucky Se7en Mobile DJ Services, will be providing music throughout the day and during the evening street dance on Saturday.

If you are looking to celebrate the Fourth of July in a fun and family orientated manner, make the short drive up to Galva.

It’s a blast. I have grown up attending the function, and every year I look forward to it more and more because I get to see people I don’t see as often as I would like.

The food and fireworks are always good, and everyone has the opportunity to win prizes by entering the drawings.

And who doesn’t like to get people wet in the dunk tank?

Yes, it will be a good time, and I see it as a warm-up act for the McPherson County Fair, which is hosted July 15 through 19 at the County Fairgrounds in Canton.

There will be rodeos, a parade, judging contests and a demolition derby, which my brother, Troy, will be taking part in.

I love the fair. It really captures what small-town Kansas is all about.

There is no better place in the world than Kansas. I hope I can live here for the rest of my life and maybe even raise a family here.

Jackson’s Death Doesn’t Matter To Me

The “king of pop” Michael Jackson died.

So what?

I feel bad for his family and friends because it is never easy to deal with the death of a loved one, but why should I and the rest of the country be sad over this?

The answer is easy – we shouldn’t be.

Sure, he had hit after hit and was a cultural icon, but he wasn’t my friend. I don’t know him, so I refuse to be sad over his death.

I find it incredibly annoying when people get all crazy over the death of a celebrity.

Just because you went and saw him in concert 12 times doesn’t mean you two are now friends and that he remembers you and is going to invite you over for Christmas dinner.

He hasn’t even put out a song in nearly a decade. He was a star of the 1980s, which is great because that is one of my favorite periods of music, but his relevance now is limited to the influence he has had on current artists.

The only way he has been in the spot light is with his bizarre behavior and his prolific reputation as a child predator.

Want to argue if he has done inappropriate things with little boys? Go for it. I will just point you toward the “60 Minutes” interview he had with Ed Bradley on Dec. 28, 2003.

According to the transcripts, Bradley has him, “As — as we sit here today, do you still think that it’s acceptable to share your bed with children?”

Jackson responded by basically admitting he is guilty of perversions not worth describing.

“Of course. Of course. Why not? If you’re gonna be a pedophile, if you’re gonna be Jack the Ripper, if you’re gonna be a murderer, it’s not a good idea. That I’m not. That’s how we were raised. And I met — I didn’t sleep in the bed with the child. Even if I did, it’s okay. I slept on the floor. I give the bed to the child . . . Well, what’s wrong with sharing your bed? I didn’t say I slept in the bed. Even if I did sleep in the bed, it’s okay. I am not going to do anything sexual to a child. It’s not where my heart is. I would never do anything like that. That’s not Michael Jackson. I’m sorry. That’s someone else,” he said.

See, his answer sounds OK, unless you pay close attention to the fact that he first says he never slept in the bed with the child but then backpedaled a bit to say it would be OK if he did, though.

Here is a mash-up of the interview highlighting the most outrageous comments:

“Thriller” was a great song that is fun to dance to. “Billie Jean” gets played at nearly every dance I dj. My favorite song produced by him is “I’ll Be There” when he was with The Jackson Five.

Even so, he has a sordid past, and I don’t see why he should be held up on a pedestal about his music while ignoring what he has done since the 80s.

I feel that losing the likes of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett is a greater loss than Jackson.

McMahon was part of the best late-night show ever produced, and Fawcett was a sex icon known world-wide for being an “angel.”

As speculation swirls about the true cause of Jackson’s death, I hope for the sake of the family that it wasn’t caused by foul play.

I would never wish death upon someone, but I refuse to idolize him due to the disgusting liberties he probably took with children.

All the good deeds done in the world can’t make up for child molestation accusations.

By the way, if you want a laugh, read this article about how people haven’t been spelling “Michael” correctly online following Jackson’s death.

Another Lesson Learned In Motorcycle Riding

As if running out of gas wasn’t bad enough, I did something else pretty stupid while riding my motorcycle last week.

It was hot out, so I didn’t have my visor-shielded helmet on. I wore sunglasses and was just fine.

However, I didn’t think far enough ahead to consider what would happen at night.

I had no way to cover my face, and the bugs were out thick that night.

By the time I got home, my face was covered in dead bugs.

That wasn’t even the worst part, though.

Because I didn’t have my eyes covered, I took several bugs to the eyes.

It hurt really badly. The 15 minutes it took for me to get home was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

One bug, which I assume was just huge, struck my left eye so hard I almost had to pull off the road to recuperate.

I made it home, but my eye hasn’t been the same since. It still hurts.

I’ve been using eye drops, but that doesn’t seem to be helping too much, except it does alleviate the discomfort temporarily.

Riding my motorcycle during this wonderfully hot weather is great, but next time I’m either going to wear a visor or invest in some clear safety glasses to cover my eyes at night.

The dead bugs will wash off in the shower.

KS Sampler Works On Whiting Cafe Project

Currently the Kansas Sampler Foundation, of Inman, is helping change a small town in Jackson County.

Foundation Executive Director Marci Penner and Assistant Director WenDee LaPlant are leading a team of workers to give the Whiting Cafe, in Whiting, Kan., a make-over in honor of the owner, Rosa Thomas, who will have owned and operated the cafe for 25 years this August.

The cafe is in need of updates and repairs, especially since it is the local hang-out for people in the area.

Work being done is a project of the Kansas Sampler, and it is the pilot-program of the “We Kan Bank Initiative,” designed to “create accounts of community need and match them with accounts opened by individuals who want to offer services, materials, labor or funding,” Penner said.

The initiative, she said, goes beyond financial assistance for Kansas’ smaller communities, including Whiting.

“There are so many different kinds of needs a rural community would have,” Penner said. “Maybe it’s just finding a resource, or anything that’s good for the community as a whole.”

The work began Friday and is scheduled to wrap up today.

For more information about what the workers are doing, please visit the Sampler’s “Spruce Up Whiting Cafe” page.

Also, read Penner and LaPlant’s blog at http://kansassampler.blogspot.com.

Or follow Penner and LaPlant on Twitter (@marcipenner and @wendeelaplant).

Below are a few pictures the group has posted to Google’s photo sharing site, Picasa:

Friend Waters Laundry On Clothesline

With 100-degree temperatures gripping central Kansas, keeping plants, shrubs, animals and everything else outside hydrated is important.

Of course, I would think such a philosophy would only apply to the living creatures, but in the mind of DaWayne Stos, of Newton, that’s not the case.

I live in Moundridge, and I have a clothesline to dry my recently washed garments. This is normal, but apparently DaWayne worries about my clothes getting too dry.

Periodically on his way home from work in McPherson, he stops by my house. If I’m not home, he does me a favor and waters my clothes hanging on the line.

What a friend, eh?

He’s done this on more than one occasion. The first time I didn’t even know because by the time I arrived home, the heat had dried the clothes back out.

Thursday night, though, I knew.

He left me a phone message saying how since I wasn’t home when he stopped by he was just going to start watering my clothes with my own garden hose until I called him back.

I called him back and left a message saying I was in Inman working and I appreciated him taking care of my clothes for me so they didn’t get too dry and die, and I told him he would know when he had watered them enough.

He did a bang up job and gave the thirsty shirts and jeans a nice long drink.

So much, in fact, that they all gain a little water weight.

Just ask my clothes line, which couldn’t bear the load.

I came home and found my clothes lying in the grass, still attached to the line via the clothespins.

They are all getting re-washed today because I don’t care to have chiggers use my body as an all-you-can-eat buffet.

With friends like DaWayne, who needs enemies?

His wife, Britney, said I needed to learn my lesson and not leave my clothes on the line after they were dry.

True.

She also said she wished she had a clothesline to hang her laundry out on because it would help save money.

Also, true, but trust me, Britney, you should be glad you two don’t have a clothesline right now because paybacks are a . . . well, you get the idea.