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The Rambling Insomniac
Tom is a 25+ year resident of Germantown and the surrounding community. He currently lives in Hubertus with his wife and two small kids on a hobby farm near Bark Lake. Tom's blog will likely not save the world, but hopefully, you'll get some enjoyment from his ramblings.
June 2008 - Posts
By Tom White
Monday, Jun 23 2008, 04:33 PM
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Is it just me, or are you as tired as I am of seeing videos of that house in Lake Delton being gobbled up by the recent floodwaters? Honestly, I watched the WTMJ Channel 4 News over the weekend, and they showed that video at least 10 times during the ½ hour news broadcast. They also spent a full 20 minutes on flood related coverage, followed by 7 minutes of weather, and 3 minutes of sports. My goodness…is nothing else happening in Milwaukee or Wisconsin?
I feel terrible for those affected by the floods, but this all happened a few weeks ago and we are now well into the “clean-up” phase, so enough already! We get it! We had a lot of rain and some flooding occurred! Yes, we know Lake Delton was drained out! Yes, we know rivers are at flood levels throughout most of the southern ½ of our state! Yes, we know it might rain today, tomorrow or the next day, but do you really need to have the weather guy sitting at the news desk at the beginning of the newscast?
For some time now, I have been appalled with our local news media and their entire “Breaking News” format. All they seem to focus on is gloom and doom, and using shock value to instill fear into anyone that watches. Just once, I’d like to see a newscast that tells of some good things going on around our state. And if they want to cover the flood anymore, make it beneficial to those affected by it, and offer some news information they can actually use.
And please, stop showing me that poor family’s house floating down the Wisconsin River.
G’Night G’Town!
Weather forecast for tonight: dark. ~George Carlin – R.I.P.
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By Tom White
Tuesday, Jun 10 2008, 03:11 PM
I've always been infatuated with tornadoes. I watch T.V. shows about them, I love watching news clips about them, I constantly dream about them, and I truly believe that one will actually hit me someday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid of tornadoes; in fact, I look forward to the day I actually get to see one coming at me.
But herein lies a problem. The property where I live is heavily wooded, and any good view of the western sky is pretty much blocked by trees. If a tornado were coming straight at me, I likely wouldn’t see it until it was right on top of the house. On top of that, active railroad tracks run adjacent to my property. We’ve all seen countless video clips of the guy from the trailer park recently hit by a tornado that exclaims, “I was just standin’ there drinkin’ my beer, whens I heard what I thought was a freight train a comin’ right through my dang kitchen!” Fact is, I hear freight trains coming right through my kitchen 24 hours a day! As I stood on my porch this past weekend, mesmerized by the awesome storms that were rolling through, at least three different trains went by during the peak of the storm. So you can just picture me dropping my beer, running into the house like an idiot yelling, “hit the basement!” only to realize it was just another train going by.
All my life, there have been certain things I just knew were going to happen, and eventually they did. I’m certain my house will be hit by a tornado someday, and I really hope I’m there to witness it when it happens. And I certainly hope that when a tornado really does come, I don’t do something stupid like stand on my porch and say, “Oh, don’t worry about that noise, it’s just a train”.
G’Night G’Town!
Lolita: Hi, I'm Lolita, and this is Tanqueray.
Tanqueray: Since we're all about to die, we were wondering if you guys'd like to be our last boyfriends on earth?
Beavis: Tornadoes are cool, they can drive matches through a 2x4.
Butt-head: Yeah, a tornado can smash a poodle's face with a brick.
Beavis: They can suck a heart out of a man's chest and show it to him before he dies. Tornadoes are cool.
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By Tom White
Tuesday, Jun 3 2008, 01:43 PM
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Hello. My name is Tom White, and I am a criminal. I am a chronic speeder.
Now before you go and write me off as some menace to society, let me explain. I have a long commute to work each day, and that is where I generally do all of my speeding. Even then, it is restricted primarily to the freeway, and I’m only talking somewhere between 5–10 mph faster than posted speed limits. Having not had or caused an accident in some 20 years, I do consider myself a very safe driver.
So, with gas prices being so high lately, I thought I’d try reducing my freeway speeds to see if I could save a little bit of cash. I slowed down for two entire weeks as part of my experiment. Slowing down certainly did increase my gas mileage, but only by 2 miles per gallon when all was said and done. When I factor in how many miles I travel each day, and figure out my savings based on $4.00 per gallon of gas, I could save myself a whopping $22 each month by doing the posted speed limit.
But then I think about what this past two weeks of commuting has been like for me. I’ve been cut-off or flipped-off more times than I care to mention. I have felt embarrassed at times, and have been passed by more Minivans than I would normally ever admit too. Fact is, most drivers simply do not travel at speeds anywhere near the posted speed limit. I’ve become convinced that simply trying to do the speed limit is more of a road hazard than speeding itself.
So, when I consider my increased aggravation, my overall livelihood, my pride and my own sweet precious time, it gets me to thinking whether or not that $22 per month is worth it!?
Hello. My name is Tom White, and I am a criminal. I am a chronic speeder.
G’Night G’Town!
You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t have a clue.
If you did you’d find yourself, doing the same things too.
Breaking the law, breaking the law.
~Judas Priest
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