GRANDPA JIM

A random phone call from the State of Iowa Economic Development office, landed me in the driver's seat of a 7-day British TV adventure.   The following podcast explains the British adventure and announces my new book, "Send my mail to the end of the trail", now available on Amazon.

Keep the calendar open. Find your fishing gear. Uncover the boat and fill th trailer tires. Visit the liquor store. Get off work early to beat the rush.  So many things to remember. The pressure is on. Timing. Your Dad expects you at a certain time and to be ready for any type of weather. Breakfast is bacon and eggs at 4:30 AM, or "O-dark-thirty as we said in the Navy.

How long can we ignore the growing mental health crises? We remain trapped in the mindset that it will be OK. There remains a delusion of invincibility. Ignoring the need to be vaccinated is ignorance.  Fatalism can get a foothold when we are just trying to "get-by". Climate legislation is on life support as Earth cooks. Who can find daycare?

Still, and again...mental health gets talked about and nothing moves forward.

Haste makes waste. Many examples have shown that when you do things quickly, without planning, mistakes are made.

New podcast: MEET BIPOLAR DAD Mental health advocate joining the chorus of more people speaking out about the vaccination campaign.

More than just the "flu", COVID-19 continues to wreak health havoc in people of all ages. Isolation, disrupted routines, loneliness, stress, anxiety and fear continues to climb as the pandemic continues. 55% of respondents report an increase in mental health issues. We are not ready for this next challenge.

Murder and mayhem in my old home state. Terrible news. Burning, looting and scared citizens. I wrote about this effect in my last book, self-published on Amazon: "The KMA Syndrome". The policeman in the video showed he did not care, the rioters are showing that they don't care, and the agitators from outside the Twin Cities are showing that they don't care...about anything other than their OWN agenda. It is sad, frightening and anarchy. The virus already has us scared...now what?

Reading from the Des Moines Register columnist, Rekha Basu. VP Pence and Iowa Gov. Reynolds are pushing an to open churches and keep the meatpacking plants running. This podcast explains why that is a poor idea.

By culture and tradition, Iowans are meat and potato people. Landlocked with a short growing season, seafood and produce are hard to come by, especially if money is tight. Inexpensive processed and fast food has become the mainstay for people of all ethnicities who are to exhausted to cook after work, so malnutrition is rampant. Exhaustion and stress mean less exercise and less sleep. This is the perfect recipe for obesity, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes -- the top three "pre-existing conditions" that increase the risk of death from COVID-19. Anxiety an depression are rising. The U.S. is ill-prepared, with some clinics already on the brink of collapse. Isolation and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are already resulting in a sharp spike in people seeking mental health help.

From Iowa, Jobs Webinar, Part 2 -- again, under 20 minutes. I include a reading from NE Iowa hourly worker, losing her job, as the result of Wall Street. Major changes are demanded, before returning to work. Let's keep our eye on the ball, folks.

Within three weeks the 'rosy' unemployment picture and jobs story has went to hell. Slow response time and disinformation has the entire nation confused and scared. In keeping with the game plan of 15-minute podcasts, here is my first of three stories about how the virus has hit the heartland.

It is now likely that the majority of Americans will get the coronavirus. Slowing it down is crucial, because our healthcare system has limited resources. We only have about a million hospital beds in America. We have well under a million ventilators. If millions of Americans get sick enough to need treatment, we will have a calamity on our hands. What will happen is a form of battlefield triage, where the doctors focus on trying to treat the young and allow the older people to die. It is already happening in Italy, where people over 65 are being left alone on hospital gurneys to suffocate to death from pneumonia. They basically drown in their own sputum!

New book by Peggy Orenstein -- "Boys & Sex: Young men on hookups, love, porn, consent and navigating the 'new' masculinity". Two years research brings alarming new insight to the chasm that has grown between boys and girls. It has also uncovered the trend that I see every day as a school bus driver. Boys do not know how to talk to girls. And that silence is becoming a problem. Evidence is showing that boys are growing up to become young men that not only learn to NOT feel, they cannot identify their emotions. Are you starting to think about the low-information electorate? Could this be a reason?

OPINION From Fern Kupfer, retired English professor and author of "Before and After Zachariah" #jimthebusdriver shares a Holiday letter from the Des Moines Register Opinion page.

Seven days of adventure with BoundlessProductions.TV. Followed through with a random call from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. I was in the database for acting, but also for transportation skills. I was hired by Boundless Production, in London, to serve as scouting guide and RV driver for the production of a segment of a TV production called, "Are you smarter than..." First a three member scouting mission and then a three-day shooting event with a crew of 12 and three TV talent.

Reading an article from the Des Moines Register, by Mark Flatten. He is the national investigative journalist at the Goldwater Institute. He is the author of an investigative report highlighting how state certificate of need laws are hurting mental health patients. He can be reached at mflatten@goldwaterinstitute.org. I also read from my self-published book: The KMA Syndrome, available on Amazon.

We all grow older. There is only one alternative. The Des Moines Register has printed an OP/ED by John and Terri Hale, who own The Hale Group, an advocacy, consulting and communications firm focused on aging and caregiving issues. I add my Two Cents worth.

Born and raised in a small Minnesota farming community, attending and being value programmed inside the Lutheran Church, I gave little thought to what "other" churches were doing. There was an early discussion in my small number of close friends, when one of my classmates started carrying a Bible and switch from the Lutheran Church to the Methodist Church. He had found his way, long before any of us, and has since lived a good life as a Methodist minister. The gossip around the Catholic Church has risen to a loud shout. Good reporting hitting the social networks has unveiled a very dark not-so-secret. I read aloud from a recent OP-ED, by Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen.

Three thoughts following great trip to Colorado. A "dream" state that makes arthritis disappear! 1.) In 25 years, the people over age 60 will be one in six. 2.) Iowa's 'appointed' and unqualified Gov. gives Medicaid insurers big raise. 3.) Catholic Church had "playbook" for hiding sex abuse. #Amazon #Scatterbrain #TheKMAsyndrome