I've been busy....

News report on the Mcdonald's commercial trip to Chicago:
 

I've been busy.....

On August 8, 2011, around 5 o'clock PM, as I was closing up the cabins and getting ready to head back to Springfield, a sudden squall tunneling down the holler behind the cabins.



I was inside the B's Nest and I could hear the wind howling, tree branches hitting the roof, and I could see the wind blowing the heavy rain almost horizontal.



I was debating where to take shelter, should I go under the cabin or hide in the bathroom. That's how spooky it was.



I heard a loud crack, felt the cabin shake and several heavy thuds. I knew something had went down. I looked out the front door and saw a huge limb in the street about where I usually park my Suburban. But, because Ganey had left earlier, I moved my car up to her parking spot.



I was congratulating myself on my wisdom in moving my car because the limb would have surely fallen on it and, of course, I only have liability insurance.



I walked into the kitchen to get a drink and looked out the kitchen window.











Son Jim and I cut tree and got it off the road. Neighbor Jack and I cut the stump out of the deck and I rebuild the deck.











The trunk of the tree is about 20-25 feet long, straight oak. Make a great beam if someone wants it. We dragged it out of the road with a chain.





















The deck looks different without that tree there. The repair job turned out nice. It took me all day to do it.

Please Stand By....

We all live downstream.

Working on a post about the Chicago trip and the filming of the McDonald's commercial. Here are some preview pix.

Billy Long's addiction is aversion to the truth

StLtoday has this editorial: Billy Long's addiction is aversion to the truth

Someone on his staff should explain the Internet to U.S. Rep. Billy Long, the cowboy-hat-wearing Tea Party Republican from Springfield, Mo.

Mr. Long seems to not understand that his statements, often typed on Twitter, end up being consumed by the general public. For instance, he created quite the firestorm recently when, shortly after British singer Amy Winehouse was found dead, he compared her battles with drug addiction to congressional addiction to spending.

Mr. Long said he couldn't imagine that his ill-timed statement would be taken in a bad light, and then he issued an apology referring to Ms. Winehouse as a "true artist." We're guessing that the "conservative values" Republican hadn't actually paid much attention to the painfully gritty lyrics of Ms. Winehouse's songs before he suddenly became her biggest fan.

Contradictory statements are par for the course for Mr. Long. A couple of weeks ago, he said that "we are not going to raise the debt limit." Then he said that "cut, cap, balance" was the only way to raise the debt limit.

And on Thursday, he said he would back House Speaker John Boehner's plan that completely erased the lines Mr. Long previously drew in the sand.

Truth-telling, it seems, is not Mr. Long's addiction.

Ah, but we've been trying to tell you all that for over a year now.

Going to Chicago For a McDonald's Commercial

Shortly after the 4th of July, while I was still down at the lake and on limited email access, I received the following email:

Hi Jim,
I saw a picture of your beautiful 1954 School Bus on the Stovebolt website and was wondering if you still have it.
I am working on a television commercial for McDonalds in the Chicago area this month and we are looking for a bus from that era. The commercial is a period piece and will be shot on July 27th at the original McDonalds in DesPlaines, IL.
If you still have the bus and think you might be interested in having in a commercial, please let me know.

I replied via my iPhone that it sounded interesting but I didn't feel like driving the bus all the way to Chicago and back.

I shared the email with my brothers and a couple of friends. They all encouraged me to do it. I was still ambivalent about the deal, I hadn't been feeling too good lately and I thought this was one of those deals that talked better than it was.

Then I got another email asking if I would be interested in driving the bus in the commercial and, if so, please send photographs of me. I did.

Then I got an email asking for clothing sizes and hat size.

I called the guy back up and during the course of the conversation he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

So tomorrow, my grandsons Trey and Austin are heading to Chicago with me in the Suburban.

Yesterday (Saturday) my brother Tom came up with his flatbed, we re-wired, put a new fuel pump on the bus, bought a new battery for it, bled the brakes and loaded it on his trailer and hooked it up behind my Suburban.

Today, I detailed out the bus, it's cleaner than it ever has been since I owned it.

Here's what Bungalow Bill had to say about the trip--
The Bus is Headed to De Plaines

Just a mile or so from where I used to live in Chicagoland was the McDonald's museum. It was a classic style McDonald's missing Ronald because back in those days it was Speedy.

Well, it just so happens, Springfield's most famous bus is about to receive some fame in Europe. Busplunge blogger Jim Lee has negotiated a deal with Oak Park based McDonald's to drive the bus up to Des Plaines, Illinois, to the McDonald's museum to be featured in a new McDonald's commercial that will air in Europe.

Congratulations to Jim for this honor. The bus has been featured in numerous parades and political campaigns. Even Congressman Billy Long wanted to go for a bus ride at one time before he was elected.

The boys and I are planning on leaving at 4 am tomorrow morning. We will be tweeting and blogging and facebooking, so watch for us!

It's our great summer adventure, Part II. Ain't life grand!

LA TIMES discovers our "Smack talking Auctioneer"

Yep, Congressman Billy Long, our own 'smack talking auctioneer, made the LA TIMES with this article by Andrew Malcomb:Missouri Rep. Billy Long shows how D.C.'s deficit talks could be improved.

Here's a little Friday entertainment we've been saving for crunch time in Washington's deficit talks that have been going on longer even than the heat wave back there in Washington. Or, wait a minute. Heat wave. Swamp. Hot air. Congress.

Anyway, here's a little video from the good folks over at C-SPAN who capture virtually everything official in D.C. It's a brief speech by Rep. Billy Long of Missouri. He's a former auctioneer. And he wants a day to honor auctioneers.

We thought the new House management was doing away with this sort of celebratory hooey. But Long got the floor and goes on about the economic import of those fast-talkers who peddle for a fee just about anything anyone wants to sell.

Auctioneers, Long asserts, annually sell nearly twice as much stuff in value as the nation's $14.2 trillion in national debt. and who knew that auctioneering has been going on for 2,000 years? Or cares?

But hang in there. Billy gives a little sample of his trade on this deficit doodah. and it occurs to us maybe if Speaker Boehner and President Obama got to talking this way, we could get this unending hot air wave over with sooner.

Take a listen. Or give one:

Frequent bus riders will recall that the Auctioneers asked Billy to "drop a bill" and of course, he obliged.

Billy's words:

The National Auctioneer's Association called the office and they said, "We want you to proclaim the third Saturday in April, which a lot of states already have an auctioneer's day, a lot of cities already have an auctioneer's day. They say, "We'd like for you to 'drop that bill'.

Billy Long lied to us, he knows it and he knows we know it too and he is running scared.

Remember this exchange? I do:
“Are senior programs on the chopping block?”]

“When I ran for congress, I said, ‘we have to honor our commitment to our seniors,’ and that’s exactly what I plan to do and that’s exactly what we’re going to work on in Washington D.C.”

Congressman Billy Long, April 19, 2011, Springfield, MO