More than once I’ve gone through a period of time, jumping from thought to thought with no real cohesion one way or the other.

This can also be the case when trying to write my column each week, especially when I so often have the attention span of a squirrel. So instead of finding one subject to write about this week, I thought I would tread down a path of minor thought trails that have made check-marks on my thoughts recently.

Good luck.

Alice in wonderland

The other day myself and Michael Stoll were waiting for a town hall forum with Rep. Jim Hagedorn. Getting there a bit early, I decided to stop in and see Alice Holst, beginning our conversation with a Finnish phrase she taught me a number of years ago. Or was it Norwegian? I’ll be honest, I’m having a hard time remembering and trying to look it up was fruitless because I’m sure I was spelling it wrong. Alice herself knows I’ve butchered the pronunciation more often than not, including this day when I peeked in, smiled and threw out a bunch of letters that made no sense whatsoever. Even after all these years of Alice’s patience in teaching me me this word, listening to me tangle it together in a mess of alphabetic chaos, is infinite.

Nonetheless, I had a great little conversation with Alice, as I always do. My goal in life is to have her attitude going forward, an attitude that always includes laughter.

We don’t laugh enough I think, which is probably the product of the world around us these days. Still, Alice is always a good example, greeting people with a smile, even with me when I mangle words from her hertitage.

Low expectations

I had a thought the other day, but just one because I only allow myself one solid thought per week.

It keeps people’s expectations of me low enough as to not expect too much.

Good news, a good amount of people expect very little of me. Man I’m good.

Fight, fight, fight

The other day the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres got into a bench clearing brawl. I’m not entirely sure why, only that the Reds pitcher, who was being yanked from the mound at the moment, decided to fight the entire team of Padres by attacking the bench.

Not my first choice, but hey … to each his own.

Beforehand, he was visibly upset, probably from some earlier conflict with just about everyone it seems. I unfortunately missed that part. Or fortunately. Perspective.

I was a baseball player for a number of years before lack of circumstance and lack of talent finally pushed me out, and I can’t imagine getting into a bench-clearing brawl. I guess I never understood how it could get to that point. I know that tempers flare from time to time, but it seems to me that it harms the integreity of the game.

But maybe that’s because I’ve never been in a bench-clearing brawl before.

It’s understandable. I’m so physically imposing who would want a piece of this?

Where’s Miranda Lambert?

When did debates start becoming more akin to Monday Night Football? CNN has an entire panel for each debate. I doubt they are the only ones that do this, it’s just the channel I watch, but it’s still a little unnerving. Or irritating?

But, I guess so long as they don’t come up with a theme song featuring Miranda Lambert, I guess I’ll be okay. Or instant replay. None of us have time to watch Wolf Blitzer go under the hood when Pete Buttigieg throws the red flag on the debate floor.

“Yep, Pete’s going to want to take another look at this. Seems Bernie Sanders might have stepped out of bounds on that play and I think on further review Wolf is going to find it was more of a ‘get off my lawn’ rant rather than ‘free health care for all’ rant. They are going to call this back.”

And really feel free to call me back. Clearly I’m wandering in and out of bounds.