Here are some of the challanged ballots from the Senate Race. Challenged is the most appropriate term.

It's 4 o'clock in the morning and I cannot sleep. Why? because of some crazy reaction dealing somehow with my acid reflux meds. Every square inch of my body is itching so badly that I cannot sleep. I have showered twice tonight and that didn't make a difference. The perfect ending to a rather disappointing and somewhat frustrating day.

Please, please let me sleep.

It’s this time of year I like to open up the Cyber gift bag and hand out virtual gifts to my acquaintances. This year my bag has a direct pipeline to BustedTees.com so all of my gifts are t-shirts.

Let’s kick this off.

For Thom I got this lovely shirt. He spells his name Thom not Tom.


This one has multiple applications. However since Kevin has been talking the most about his love for the game of Scrabble he gets this shirt.



You might say to yourself that a Kevin t-shirt spelled with bacon would be better for Kevin but I am giving this to Peter. He likes bacon and Kevin, not necessarily in that order, and it is about time people knew of his loves.

Religion is the dirty word of the 21st century. It is true that Churches and the people in them have vastly failed the standards they would claim as their guiding principles but the people are not the religion. The religion is rather the principles. And rather that finding one religion that might have a chance at being right, religion has been shunned by the masses.

Why? Because it is un-cool? Don’t flatter people that much. They claim it is because that all religions are man made so they would rather make up their own and call it spirituality. Guess what though, spirituality is just a personalized completely made up religion.

Now science wants to tell you that this is all by accident but they cannot even come up with how we existed. And before you tell me that evolution is the way we have come to pass, save it. Evolution within a species is evident but evolution from nothing to a single celled organism to the vast variety of species on the planet doesn’t hold water. Not with the science of today. Sorry, but I cannot buy into that myth without some proof.

You might argue that I bought into God without any proof. Fact is the same proof that you would have for evolution is to me more than enough for God. How could this world happen by accident? How could trees turn sunlight into power more efficiently than we can after decades of work spent trying too?

But that isn’t my point. Faith is under a great deal of scrutiny, or faith in God at least. It has become so unpopular that even people who believe in God have abandoned their beliefs for unfounded and loose theories about God. It is more acceptable to believe in a world and life as we know it belching from nothingness (which all theories pertaining to spontaneous life have been roundly disproved) than a creator.

Believe what you will. We are in a country and a time where that is afforded to everyone, but please don’t judge me for what I believe. And if you think there is a God, seek him. Don’t just play with the idea that there is a God. If you have standards, chances are the One who created you does as well. Make sure you have a good idea about what they are.

Nothing is never worth believing in.

Today and tomorrow I say goodbye to a friend. I don't feel strong enough for this. I am hollowed by my fears and sorrow. What else can I offer?

For over three years I worked at my uncle’s tire shop. I was a tire monkey and a basic mechanic and I learned a lot. I gain a large amount of knowledge about cars and met some great people, among which were Steve and Jason Petersen.

Together they were a couple of cousins out for a good laugh and separate two men how fought to provide for their families. Today there is only one and the laughter remains but it labored. Steve lost a cousin, a brother and a friend.

Jason worked. I don’t remember the last time I saw him doing anything other than working. Even when he was done working he was still selling and trading snowmobiles and cars like so many cards I used to trade in my youth.

Yet even in his work he was happy, always with the quick wit to crack a joke or work out the makings of some more elaborate trick. No one can attest to this more than Steve who found himself at the receiving end of some of Jason’s best.

Along with the smiles Jason bore his children with pride, another Petersen trait. After I had moved on from the shop I still returned to visit and upon one return Jason greeted me with his normal care and concern. Then he asked if I had heard that he had another child on the way. That was what he most wanted to share. It is a little story and poorly told yet it is telling none the less.

There is much more to share and many better than I to do so, but I would offer this. Many tears will be shed and they will not be enough. Many words will be shared and they will fall short. But in the laughter that will continue we will best remember Jason Petersen, for that may be his greatest offering. He loved with a reckless abandon and taught those who knew him to love and laugh as he did.

My only pictures of Jason are in my memories but they are fond memories and for the life of me I cannot think of a time that I saw him when he didn’t smile. I hope that we will meet again in heaven.

Your smile and laugh linger, but you are missed my friend.