Podcast 401

Back To School. At some point in our childhood, most of us remember looking up somewhere around the middle of August and realizing we only had two or three weeks left in the summer. We’re getting that old back-to-school feeling at the Bob Davis Podcasts. Somewhere around this time, you’d end up at The Gap, or JC Penny, or Sears buying your new sneakers, jeans and shirts. You’d bring them back home, and try them on, and they’d feel like cardboard, and you’d be grateful for the few waning days or weeks of summer. This has been a great summer of events in the Mobile Podcast Command Unit, covering some politics in Wisconsin and Iowa, the EAA Air Show, Sturgis and heading up to North Central Wisconsin to hang out with old friends. Now it’s time to re-engage in the political sphere. And yet, it feels … dirty. In this walk and talk podcast late on a Sunday night, with the buzz of bugs and power lines in the neighborhood, some final thoughts about summer and some thoughts about what awaits us ahead. That feeling that we are at the end of a political and social era, perhaps even the end of a cycle of history is almost … palpable. Scanning and reading up on the news brings the conclusion that despite the carnival barkers in the echo chamber who urge you to follow the bouncing ball (which is what they’re doing), we may remember this time as that moment before … rather than a time that contained anything of any real lasting value. While the circus rages on, and the ‘pundits’ work harder and harder to predict the future based on someone’s email, or someone’s blathering on yet another Sunday morning talk show no one watched, or someone getting shouted off the stage, or someone’s latest studied plan to solve some earth shattering national problem, one gets the impression 99 percent  of this isn’t going to matter this time next year. One thing is for sure, something is coming and no one can predict it. Thank God there’s still time to sit in the sun and read a book about something … anything else. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul. 

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Podcast 249

Snowstorm! As tropical storm Nuri hits the Aleutian Islands and Northwest Alaska (Nuri is the same size as Super Storm Sandy, we are told), its hurricane force winds are sucking the jet stream down to the lower 48 from Canada. That means the return of Old Man Winter to the Upper Midwest, in spades. Minneapolis-Saint Paul is forecasted to get as much as a foot of snow before it is all over sometime Tuesday, November 11th. It’s been a long time since Minnesota had a winter storm in November. The smell of the air and snow predictions brings back memories of snowstorms in childhood. Which storm do you remember the best? The 1960’s? 1980’s? The great Halloween Storm in Minnesota of 1991? Sitting by the fire, enjoying potato soup and watching the snow fall, and being elated, because it meant the best thing in childhood; No School. These times in late fall also bring back memories of late fall and winter camping, in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with best friends in the boy scouts. (Editor’s Note: Of my two best friends, Steve’s dad was the quirky scoutmaster of the troop. The men wanted older boys to take care of the ‘little kids’ as they were called, so the men could have sumptuous dinners and enjoy themselves. While they never abdicated their responsibilities, Steve, Andy and myself were ‘inducted’ into the scouts at a much older and wiser 13, 14 and 15 to fill this role). We had some adventures — far too many for one podcast — but we formed a bond that has lasted a lifetime, and learned some pretty good lessons that have also lasted a lifetime. While visiting Andy down in Arizona this fall, we learned our scoutmaster, and one of our friends had died recently. We were both a little shocked since we’d lost contact over the years. Between snowstorms, memories of campouts and mischief in those days, those perfect days when you’re in between childhood and adolescence, it serves as a break from the constant blaring about politics over the last few days in the wake of election 2014. Yeah, we talked about politics in those days, around the campfire but mostly it was about girls, the right camping equipment, what we were going to do on the next campout, our favorite songs, our shared friends and enemies. Take a break in this podcast from politics, sit by the fire, and remember your own stories from the best snow storms and campouts when you were a kid, where ever you grew up. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating, and by Depotstar. 

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