Side note: 19,265 in attendance tonight, largest crowd of the season.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>10klakes wrote:</div>
Coincidentally, speaking of being worried about stupid bills, I just found this one:

HF1540. “Thoroughbred Racehorse Residency Program”. Purpose- stimulate Minnesota’s equine industry and support stable hands….
Racehorse owners will receive $750 everyday one of their horse’s race; if said horse is boarded at a MN racetrack for 120 or more days a year..
Note this is per horse- they could get $3,000 in one day if they own and enter 4 horse’s. It would be funded by tax payer dollars coming from the general fund.

Bill authors:
Ben Bakeberg (R)
Brad Tabke (D)

This is another attempt to buy the horse racing industry’s silence on the tribes sports gambling monopoly. God forbid Canterbury and Running Aces allow sports betting on premises. The tribe hates competition. If you’re paying attention the tribes are the only ones selling legal weed in MN despite it being legalized almost 2 years ago now too.

As soon as I saw race horses involved i figured there was a way to connect this to tribal/ casino profits one way or another.

I see i can rent one locally for $19 a day. I might swing by and see what they have. $19 doesn’t seem too bad to see if this works well or not.

What did I miss….

Heard on the radio this morning that part of the reason they were so tight with money these past few years, even when the team showed promise, was all the debt they were in. Sucks that their financial decisions in their other business ventures caused their hobby of owning a pro baseball team to suffer.

How long is Lewis supposed to be out?

I think that’s a big part of the deal is the role based on whatever the plan is. It’s been well noted that ownership and Kwesi are allowing KOC to make a lot of this decision, so in a way I trust that. It would be real nice to see JJ all year. Folks always talk about the situation a young QB steps into. The Vikes were a playoff team and on paper improved a ton, especially the O-line, so i can’t imagine many better situations.

Shifting gears, there’s still San Fran reporters and fans that are p*ssed the 9ers gave up Mason for very little. I think that’s gonna turn out to be an extremely good deal for the Vikes.

Vikes got Jordan Mason and pick 187 this year from the 49ers for pick 160 this year and a 2026 6th rounder.

After doing some digging this seems like a pretty solid deal. Mason had 800 yards last year and got a lot of RB1 time with Christian McCaffrey out. Looking at some comments on Twitter and 49ers fans are not happy. They really like the guy and were counting on him with McCaffrey injured so much.

The 2026 6th rounder is what the Vikes got a few days ago when they traded Ed Ingram to the Texans.

Bringing Aaron Jones back was fine but he’s got a lot of miles on him and won’t be around forever. This move gives the Vikes a proven back without having to overpay a free agent or reach in the draft for Jones’ successor. I’m optimistic about their RB situation being better this year.

I know it’s a beaten dead horse, but damn if Kwesi could’ve gotten just a few more starters out of all those bad drafts…. because his free agency work seems to be top-notch.

To the OP I’ve always fully agreed with what you said. I can’t comprehend the mindset of someone willing to smoke a cigarette but then treat the butt as “not my problem.” Someone has to clean them up right? It’s a POS thing to do and that probably reflects on the person.

Lots of college and NFL football teams have gone to matte coloring on their helmets but I haven’t seen a hockey team do it until Vancouver tonight.

Not much game excitement if all it’s generating is uniform talk.

Did I miss something with a color scheme change for Vancouver?

Mostly burgers, but when the season comes around we’ll grill plenty of corn on the cob.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I really need to put my phone away after a couple beers. I have made all sorts of stupid purchases over the years. Some good ones however :-). Got a steal on a Dyson vaccuum. Man those things are great.

Seems crazy but I think most of us are to the point in life where we do get very excited about a deal on a good vacuum or a pack of socks. And I’m ok with that.

Bumping this thread up because I Googled how to wash ice Armor. Last weekend I kept wiping my hands on my bibs after releasing and the bibs really smell like fish now.

One of my Google results showed this thread so I looked at it and a lot of the comments made me laugh (Sharon’s life jacket saga!) So hopefully bringing this back is fun for a few people

Sorry I know I go on long posts on this stuff but I’ve gotta add one more thing: Since watching the movie and reading the book, the tale of Delta MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart has always moved me. Those are the guys that were providing cover fire as snipers from their aircraft after Durant’s chopper went down but they knew that crash scene would get overrun. They requested and were denied twice to insert on the ground to support any survivors. They kept requesting to be inserted and were finally granted permission and were basically told they’d be on their own, that further support couldn’t be risked. They were well aware of that and dropped in anyway because they knew American soldiers could be alive down there (I have chills as I’m typing this).

You’ve all seen the movie and the documentary…MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were dropped into a hornet’s nest. The crash scene was being overrun from all sides by Somalis who were out for blood. They pulled Durant out of the chopper and tucked him away in a nearby building and fought off the Somalis as long as they could. They knew it was a suicide mission but did it anyway.

Both MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Maybe because of it’s recency or all the reading and viewing I’ve done on their saga, but to me it’s one of the very top MOH stories in our great American military history. I truly don’t mean to diminish those that have been killed or wounded in the way I’m about to describe…but I see what these Delta guys did as even greater than, say, jumping on a grenade or even running through enemy fire in some cases. These guys in Mogadishu were dropping into a nightmare. They figured they’d probably die, but it wouldn’t be over quick like jumping on a grenade. They’d have to scan for threats, fight them off, probably be wounded many times, reload, constantly react to movement coming from all directions, and eventually meet their fate. I believe some roads and schools have been named after these two but as I’ve mentioned on here before, names of our nation’s fallen should be mentioned periodically on the news, or on a billboard that just scrolls through those who have given their lives for our country.

That’s why I stand for and respect our flag.

I had some initial thoughts that I wish I would’ve put on this thread when I watched it a few weeks ago and I wish I would have.

One thing I do remember is agreeing with what one of the veterans said about getting off the plane in Somalia. In my own experiences of landing overseas, like the vet on the series said, you can only describe it as a whole different world. The facts are that you’re consumed by heat, but it’s so much more than that. It’s like a blow dryer that you just can’t get away from.

I strongly encourage anyone who hasn’t to watch the movie Blackhawk down, and for those that read, read the book as well, as well as any books written by Mike Durant, the pilot who was captured. In the movie, when the two Delta guys are killed and Durant’s position is overrun, he’s shown being hit in the face by a buttstock. Durant reveals in his book that he told people at the time it was a buttstock because he didn’t want to reveal the horrific truth so soon after what happened. But, as described in the Netflix documentary, he was actually struck by the ripped-off arm of another soldier from that scene. Truly horrific.

This two-ish day battle has so much to it that the Neftlix documentary honestly just scratches the surface. I was 17 on 9/11/2001, and I had always loved history and military stuff, so the Mogadishu battle was one of the most very recent combat engagements I could read about growing up. My senior year of high school I needed to fill a few class hours one semester and didn’t really have much to take so I had a general elective period where the teacher basically just said “come up with a project, anything” so I spent a quarter or semester researching the Mogadishu battle and wrote a 20-page paper on it. So many interesting details in that saga.

I’ve said many times before, the military in some ways is only as good and up-to-speed as its last war. When we went to war in Afghanistan/Iraq in the early 2000’s we had some Desert Storm experiences to go by but honestly a lot of gear, tactics, and medical training were still based on Vietnam. Then when you get into new wars everything accelerates very quickly and you get (or at least try to) caught up.

On that note, some of the shortcomings of the Blackhawk Down situation improved our preparedness in the early stages of the Iraq war. If you remember from the documentary or movie, when soldiers were gearing up things like water, food, and night-vision were mentioned and mostly dismissed because they figured their mission would only take them outside the wire a few hours. Fast-forward to Iraq in 2004 (for me and my unit) and it didn’t matter how long we expected to be out, we were bringing all of it, and people quite literally referenced Blackhawk Down as the reason.

I sure could use some power! From what I could tell power went out once overnight, then again around 5 right before I got up. Had to prob my garage door up on a ladder and bucket to get it to stay open while I drove out. Wife says the updates are it could be restored this afternoon.

Hoping the wind subsides just a bit so I can plow when I get home, I’m sure a lot of it will just drift back over but it should be better than what it is now.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I haven’t seen road conditions this bad in years.

Yeah this is definitely up there for craziest drive to work I’ve ever had. The amount of snow combined with the high winds made it real bad. I live on a dead end gravel road and drive about 5 miles of gravel before hitting a highway. I was very close to plowing the driveway before I left but decided just to floor it through the drifts. Very low visibility and crazy drifts everywhere.

I’ve had a few very inexpensive ones that charge through USB and I’ve liked them.

It may have been mentioned on previous pages but when applying for Real ID you can get your lifetime angling license (if you have one) designation on your new Real ID card.

I agree he’s an all time play-hard, hustle player across all sports.

As far as betting goes, no he did not bet on his team to lose. He also didn’t bet on his team to win EVERY game…. which could mean as much as betting on them to lose…

CaptainMusky wrote:

How can you possibly arrive at this? When I ice fish, I have a hard time managing 2 lines most of the time, now 4 potentially? Catch rates would definitely go up. I suppose if someone was solely using 4 lines for tip ups that is one thing, but say you are jigging a line, have a set line and then 2 tip ups? Ridiculous.

I guess I’m looking at it in the same sense people talk about adding a line for open water fishing, where many have the opinion where if people are fishing for a limit, they’re going to get it either way, adding lines just means it’ll happen sooner. I’ll admit I chose my words poorly and it could very well lead to more harvest. I just don’t think more lines means death to all fish as some do. Fishing with more lines, be it winter or summer, can catch more fish and it can also cause more problems.

Ripjiggen wrote:

In favor.

Yeah if they’re not changing limits, in theory we’ll see no change to the number of fish harvested but revenue (i.e. future funding) will increase.

One hell of a story Randy, I’m sorry for your loss.

Am I missing something…or is there a reason we can’t just seat people…in order? You know, people with tickets to the back of the plane board first and that’s how we fill it up? So much time is wasted waiting for the guy trying to stuff his bag into the overhead bin that was too big to begin with, holding up a line of others who need to get to their seat and settled. I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind it and why the easy fix just can’t be made, but man would that save a ton of time.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

its the people that have a maximum size carry on they put in the overhead bin and then they also have a “personal item” (which is supposed to go on the floor at your feet) that is dam near the same size as the carry on and they throw that up in the overhead bin too. They do this to avoid checking a bag and it ends up screwing over the people in the last boarding group because the overhead bins are already full. Many times people’s personal item is bigger than my carry on. The flight attendants don’t enforce anything related to personal items being in the overhead bins, so people abuse the system.

You are 100% correct. The absolute root of all of this traced back to when airlines started charging for bags. However, that charge has been the norm for about 20 years now, and although it’s stayed there because of corporate greed, every flier knows about it and as you stated Mr. Gummi, it causes people to act crazy with the baggage situation. I tend to follow rules in life so I’ve never pushed it and we typically end up checking bags, yet as you said you can always find a large percentage of passengers with way too many “carry-ons” or ones that should have 100% been checked. That causes the mad dash to get on the plane and claim some of the finite space available. And as mentioned, airlines rarely do anything to enforce it. Spirit/Frontier does, and because of that they get crucified in reviews. I’ve probably flown Spirit at least half a dozen times (never had any issues) and there’s always someone about to lose their mind that the terms they agreed to when booking their flight are being enforced in regards to their carry-on; they likely just skipped that part and didn’t do any research. Then that person spreads the word about how awful and cheap Spirit is and a reputation is formed. I don’t have a dog in the fight, I’m not trying to really defend Spirit at all, I’m just saying a huge percentage of complaints against them come from people mad about something they should have already been aware of.

lindyrig79 wrote:

I could use some advice on the deer protection. I’ve probably wasted over $500 on trees that deer have destroyed. Kinda gave up. But… we had to take down several large oaks near the house recently so this spring I HAVE to plant some trees. Thinking a mix of maple and pine.

I could get back to you on exactly what I use. I always get it at Menards, it’s maybe 3-4 feet tall. Comes in a roll and I just cut it to the length I need. I’ll put 3-4 rebar rods or fence posts in the ground and wrap the fence around it.

I typically keep mine closed by bending one of the wires on the end to sort of make a latch but you could use anything really to secure it. Every week or so I’ll open the fence up to trim. Usually I can get by with staying outside the fence to water the tree from a bucket.

I’d recommend being very conservative and giving yourself plenty of distance for protection. Obviously deer will reach over with their head and neck so it’s gotta be a few feet wider than the branches. That 2022 winter with all the snow, my apple tree fence just got mangled.

It can be a pain and somewhat of an eye sore at times but I keep telling myself that when the trees are finally big enough to pull the fence away things will look real nice. And like you mentioned, the dollar amount… might as well protect the tree money you have invested.

I’m interested in hearing what all of your watering practices are. I think in the past I’ve probably been guilty of both over-watering and not watering enough. I’ve seen before from the DNR or something that trees that are 1-3 years old need 15-25 gallons of water per week, more if it’s been really dry. I swear I spend half my summer with a hose in 5-gallon buckets, waiting for a dozen of them to fill up, and then driving around in my SxS watering them. I might see if I can find an affordable large tank of some sort to save some time this year.

Just wondering if you all water them often or just let God take care of it, and how you go about doing it.

KPE wrote:

To each their own, but I cannot understand this for the life of me. I’d pay extra to be guaranteed last person to board on every flight. Hate sitting there waiting for everyone to shuffle in, I want to buckle up and take off asap.

I would agree with you in all caps x10 if I could. 10000%. My wife is the complete opposite, she wants to go right away, even if we sneak into a zone ahead of us. When I’ve asked her why her answer is always “just to get on the plane.” I hate it, you’re gonna be sitting on that damn aircraft for hours anyway.

I’m sure I’ll be planting something. My guilty pleasure/toxic trait as they say is adding trees to our property. And the way I view it (or maybe I’m just justifying the money to my wife) is that to even enjoy some trees on the landscape on our property in our life, we’ve got to keep planting now.

Agreed on the tree protection. I’ve said before on here, I’ve probably got well over $300 invested in fencing between our gardens and young trees and I’m sure I’ll be adding to that this year. That can get expensive but it’s a no-brainer to me. Paying money for trees and not protecting them is completely wasting that money because our local deer will destroy them.

Last year we spent about $300 combined between a potted white oak and a potted birch cluster. Don’t know the size but they must’ve been at least 6 feet tall already. Might add another birch cluster this year. These were purchased from Sargents in Red Wing, which from what everyone says seems to be the gold standard as far as plants go around here.

Three years ago we planted two apple trees that have been fenced and are doing quite well. We bought them in May or June from Runnings in Red Wing so by then they were marked down a little and were about $75 apiece. As long as they continue to survive we’ll easily make our money back on them in apples.

And I’ll probably continue my habit of randomly picking up some 2-3 foot potted pines from Menards, Runnings, or Walmart depending on the price. Typically I’ll grab a few when they’re $25-$30 and put them in the ground in the hopes they’ll make it.

I’ve never gotten a large volume of saplings. I’d be interested but not sure I’d have the time to tend to them (mainly watering the first few years) and protecting them.

I agree with that, it’s tough scoreboard-watching late in the season and seeing a team you’re chasing (or being chased by) all tied up in the third knowing if both teams just kick the can down the road for awhile they’ll get a point. Some urgency could be added in late third periods.