The Wild Midwest

Every now and then, I catch some flack for living in Nebraska. Usually it’s some comment about covered wagons and prairie dogs flipped my way any time I venture out of the state. I always have to defend Omaha by saying, “No, it’s really a city. Yes, there are paved roads.” And “No, it’s not the wild west.”

Today, Megan and I went to our bank and found the entrance taped off, cop cars out front and the drive-through lanes closed off. Was my bank robbed? Did I just miss seeing a bunch of gunmen storm out carrying bags of money with big dollar signs on them? Do I watch too many superhero cartoons? For all I know, somebody with a bad case of heat stroke wandered in to knock over the deposit slip racks or charge over the counter when the teller wouldn’t acknowledge they were there as they helped car after car in the outside lanes. If that’s the case, I feel for them. If it was a robbery, I’m just glad Megan and I hit the post office first. I like watching the horses thunder in from the east to drop off the new Sears Roebuck catalogs.

UPDATE -- News just came in that it WAS a bank robbery. I've already signed on for the posse.

That explains all the whiskey

Man, it is COLD today! Makes me wonder how the hell people survived this back in the 1800's. I suppose the honest answer is that a lot of them didn't survive it. Sure, we've accomplished a lot since then, but we seem like a much softer species now. People complain when they have to throw on a jacket and some of them don't even remember to put on long pants when they're scraping off their cars. Yeah, I saw some guy in shorts scraping his windows in the parking lot the other day. I'm sure anyone questioning him about it will get the standard, "No, dude, I love the cold. You should try it dude!" Sure. This is what scientists call Natural Selection. Unfortunately, the modern world is much more tolerant of idiots. A hundred and fifty years ago, idiots were weeded out fairly well. At least, the idiots who don't know what to do with a coat and pants. Now, they get patched up and sent bumbling along their way to make videos of them injuring themselves for You Tube.

Appaloosa comes out on DVD today. I think it looks pretty good, so I'll check it out. Fortunately, the -20 degree winds have blown most of the snow off my car. There's still some ice on the windshield though. Maybe that dude in the shorts will scrape it off for me. Heh.