In late 1985 I bought a new pickup truck. The old 1974 just fell apart - to make a long story short. Around that same time I had been with the City of Dallas about four years. Although there were hundreds of employees working for Dallas and many titles that went with them, I had reached a glass ceiling due to not having any college. I was also nearing 30 years old and wanted to do something besides spend the rest of my life working for a government entity.

    I put a few fliers out in the spring of 1986 to see if any one needed their lawn mowed, shrubs trimmed, etcetera. To my surprise I got a few takers. There was the roots of my landscape maintenance business. That first year I trimmed a few dead bushes and built a flower bed or two. Working Monday through Friday for the City limited my own endeavor to weekends and evenings. But that first year I did very little in regards to working with my business. 

    It was the next year that things took off. I had some magnet signs made for the truck doors. I put out some more fliers. That spring of 1987 I got calls to cut lawns not just build a flower bed or two. In retrospect just mowing lawns and cutting a few shrubs was the best system. I would eventually drop landscape construction from my portfolio. I would define my business as just a "lawn service." 

    Heide and I lived in a small house with a small yard. I cut it with a small lawn mower. It became obvious I would need a bigger lawn mower. It sounds a bit tacky now having bought a new truck the year before, but money was tight and Dad sent me a couple hundred bucks to buy a better mower. We had moved to a little house in far east Dallas the year before. Heide also had to buy another small car because her old Datsun 210 took a dump. Dad could add the mower fund to the 400 Dollar VW-Bug in Germany; the 700 Dollar Mustang II just before we got married; and, the tiny travel camper we lived in when we moved to Houston and Dallas. Over the years he had stepped in to help from time to time. 

    Slowly but surely I added some more equipment: a pair of gas hedge trimmers; a leaf blower; and an extra push lawn mower. Heide questioned the leaf blower purchase and adamantly insisted I should have been fine with my "two brooms." The yards in the Dallas area where often fenced in either by wood or chain-link. Some times it was a hassle to get into the yards. Later when I bought a big walk-behind self propelled mower, I had to be cognizant of the gate openings so I bought a mower with a little narrower deck than some commercial models. I picked up a bunch of customers in our neighborhood because of the signs and the truck sitting out in front of the house. 

    There was one other thing the lawn service gleaned us via the law of unintended consequences. One day while cutting a yard I saw some naughty kids bopping a kitten with a stick. The kids moved on after I gave them my best glower. I picked up the ball of orange fluff and brought it home to Heide. We named the dehydrated, malnourished ball of fur Cindy. We both took the orphan beast to the vet a couple days later on Saturday morning. The old Vet down the road gave us a funny look, "Its a male, you realize," he said apologetically in his soft Texas accent. We tweaked the Cindy name to Sidney - he eventually lived about 14 more years until 2001 after following our journey to five different houses and back to Wisconsin. His last assignment was to keep me company while I lived in and cared for my mother in her house as she died of cancer. 

               Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story

    I see the main stream pundits are still up to their old tricks more than ever while I was gone to Iraq. So, I am thinking, each day I should continue to jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story." 

    The war in Iraq languishes on; the dollar collapses; gas prices have us working stiffs deciding between filling our car tanks and buying necessities; and, Washington apparently continues to be run by two-party paradigm lunatics. But by God "zero tolerance" will be followed regardless. "We will have order!"

    In the nanny-state America that has become the real-time world of Orwell a sophomore at Copperas Cove High School in Texas, where apparently many students have parents deployed in Iraq, was suspended for answering a cell phone call in school - the call was from his dad in Iraq.  Brandon Hill and his mom are a bit pissed at the school.  I concur - after having been to Iraq twice, you never know how many two-minute phone calls you have left.  Each one could be your last. The school apparently reneged on an arrangement with the principal so the boy could answer the phone if the father called.  Mother of God! - let the poor kid talk to his dad no matter what - it could be the last time.

    Now there is some real God damned news! 

                                        Wisconsin military service person of the week

    Lieutenant Michael McGreevy Jr., 30, was killed when the MH-47D Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down during operations near Asadabad, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. He was a U.S. Navy SEAL. He had received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that in recent years Michael was a resident of Portville, New York. He was however, a Wisconsin native, and was born in Milwaukee. His family moved away from Shorewood, Wisconsin when he was still in grade school. He had also lived in Virginia Beach, Virgina. He is survived by wife Laura and daughter Molly, around a year old at the time of McGreevy's death. McGreevy was assigned to SEAL Team 10, Naval Special Warfare Group Two. Lieutenant Michael McGreevy was the third Wisconsin military service member with Wisconsin roots to die in Afghanistan since 2001.

    82,856 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
    
    8,145 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    4,036 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    488 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    308 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    295 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    29,780 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    1,914 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    89 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    10 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    127 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.