Minnesota In The Top Ten For Gay Couples

-Hello … We are Steve and Warren, and we’d like to welcome you to our daily blog … here is where we share “events” about our lives, gay news, things we’ve read and just about anything that comes up.

-First off, out in our back yard this morning it is clear and 34 cool degrees. A bit cooler than it has been the past few days … but all in all it’s not to bad.

Color weather radar this morning indicates that we got clear conditions all across Minnesota.

-Today’s northland weather forecast is:

Partly cloudy. Highs 48 to 53. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Actually, the extended forecast for northern Minnesota for the next three or four days is looking – not to bad.

-Yesterday was perhaps one of the most boring days I’ve spent in years! I was home all day waiting for the telephone repair man to come to our house. I had called the telephone company on Wednesday to have them install a second temporary telephone line into our house.

The gal at the telephone company said, “the installer will be there Friday”. So I thought, hey that’s great. Little did I realize, that as I sat at home from 5:00 a.m. when I woke up until 4:45 p.m. – that it would take all stinking day for the telephone repair man/installer to come to our house.

Holy cow, what a waste of a beautiful day. Sure I was able to go outside – but I couldn’t go anyplace. I wanted to go to the clinic, the post office and the grocery store – but just as just as the nose on my face – the darn guy must have come to our house – last. We had to be the last customer on his list of “stops” for the day.

He was nice enough, and friendly – but underneath in my mind – I was “upset”! After he left, I thought to myself – why in the heck doesn’t the telephone company give you an estimated time, when their repair / installer men will be coming by.

After all … here I sat, not being able to go anywhere! Geesh, I was frustrated.

Steve and I communicated about three times all day – and that was it. He was somewhat bored at work, and I was bored at home … two bored gay dudes. What a thrilling day it was. NOT!

-Yesterday was also Halloween … but by the time Steve got home and I got done with the telephone repair man installing our new phone line – neither of us felt like doing anything. So we had a lite supper and headed off to teh bedroom to relax and watch our Boston Celtics play the Chicago Bulls.

There were no rings at TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night – unless you count the circles that the Celtics ran around the Chicago Bulls.

Kevin Garnett had 18 points and 10 rebounds despite sitting out the fourth quarter. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo added 14 points apiece for the Celtic’s who are now 2-0, and who held the Bulls below 30 percent shooting overall.

Tonight, Boston hits the road for the first time, visiting Indiana. K. G. and company looked pretty darn good last night.

Personally, Steve and I would love to see the Celtics take another NBA Championship this season. But time will tell.

-Vote No On Prop 8 is the word, as prominent Silicon Valley executives and investors have publicly opposed California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to once again eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. The group of executives includes founders and current and former top executives of companies such as Google, Yahoo, Adobe, eBay, Intuit, Cisco, Facebook and Palm.

The group is running a full page ad in today’s San Jose Mercury News urging readers to vote “no” on Prop. 8.

I hope you guys who live in California realize how important getting out and voting is going to be this coming Tuesday, November 4th. Not only is it important for you to vote “No” on Prop 8, but I’d encourage you to vote for the pro-gay candidates of your choice. We need change in this country, and this has to be the year that “change” starts to take place.

Instead … the change has to come from the bottom ( us ) up to local city, county, state and federal government levels. We can let special interest groups any longer dictate how we as Americans are going to live. It’s time for a change…and I would hope you would join Steve and I – by getting out to vote on Tuesday, Novemeber 4th, 2008.

-Things we’ve read…

* The Chinese ideogram for ‘trouble’ depicts two women living under one roof.
* Malcolm X’s original name is Malcolm Little.
* Cattle are the only mammals that pee backwards.
* The Saguaro Cactus, found in South-western United States does NOT grow branches until it is 75 years old.
* There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes.

-It was just one year ago yesterday – that Steve’s job finished here in town …

When Steve took over the local office – he brought the office up to the appropriate level that was expected by the company – after all that is why the old manager left – he didn’t have his ducks in a row and didn’t have the office running at top level efficiency.

But as I look back … I have wondered … why didn’t his local office work – simply because the owners of the company had (1) no advertising support, (2) no management support, and lastly (3) no sales support.

You can’t ask a carpenter to build you a house – if you don’t give him a hammer, nails and the necessary materials to do the job.

Case closed!

But the good news is that Steve is now working for a similar company and hopefully economic times will be such that this company won’t go under. Each day he says their “busy” and that to me is a good sign … but the true good sign is number growth of clients and financial growth of the over all business. Steve’s boss has made a couple moves to make the company leaner … which is simply good business practice.

So we, like millions of other gay men around the country continue to hope that jobs will be secure and that our nation will pull itself up by it’s bootstraps and the financial woes we find ourselves in today … will start to turn around and we’ll see some positive signs.

October was a rough month for American … perhaps the worst month since 1929 and the great depression.

-LGBT issues are not on the minds of most voters this election season while economic woes and a poorly executed war dominate the news, but for many of us, our issues are always on in the front of our minds. Minnesota LGBT voters will have a lot of candidates to decide from this election cycle, and we should decide — we are a substantial minority of the vote.

Minnesota saw the third largest increase in same-sex couples in the most recent census out of all 50 states, the only Midwestern state to break the top ten. We are the only Midwestern state to rank in the top 10 in terms of same-sex couples by population and Minneapolis St. Paul is ranked eighth among the nation’s fifty largest metropolitan areas in gay, lesbian and bisexual population according to the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles.

With numbers like those, we should all vote. There are enough of us to swing an election.

Here in northern Minnesota, both Democratic Reps. James Oberstar and Collin Peterson are expected to win reelection handily with no serious challengers. Neither are particularly strong on LGBT issues, although Oberstar has consistently voted against enshrining discrimination in the U.S. Constitution through a Federal Marriage Amendment. Peterson, however, has supported such an amendment.

Minnesota race for U.S. Senate has been one of the most closely watched in the country. Democrat Al Franken, Republican Norm Coleman and Independent Dean Barkley are locked in a three-way race. Franken is unequivocal in his support for LGBT issues, and Barkley has a good platform on the issues as well. Coleman has a mixed record in the matter. He has a history of opposing LGBT rights, but cross party lines in the U.S. Senate to expand hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation.

So make sure to come out and vote on November 4th and let your voice be heard!

Only Sunday and Monday left – and honestly – I promise not to talk about the darn elections again!

-Today Steve and I are heading off to the big city of Duluth … Steve has an appointment for an oil change at 10:30 a.m. and then at 12:00 noon he is getting a new radio/CD player installed in his car. So we’ve got a busy morning.

This afternoon he wants (no not me) he … wants to go see the movie – “Saw V”, which is definitely not my kind of movie – thank you.

While Steve is watching the flick – I’ll go into one of the other movie theaters and watch something else – more to my liking.

After that, we are going to stop at Old Chicago in Canal Park for a medium sized pizza…and the probably get some groceries and head back to our home.

So, all in all it is going to be a busy but somewhat routine Saturday for the two of us.

-Next weekend Steve and I head over to west/south central Minnesota to visit his family for the weekend, and the following weekend we leave on a Thursday for Minneapolis and St. Paul – where we will be just ‘chillin’ for four days. We are going to attend a Horror Convention, a Minnesota Wild game, and a Minnesota Timberwolves game … so we’ ve got a busy weekend or two coming up.

-It’s about 6:26 a.m., and I’m going to wander out into the kitchen and see if I can find something for my breakfast.

How about you? What are you having for breakfast on this Saturday morning? I hope it’s something good.

Steve will be sleeping in today until about 8:00 a.m. … catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation. As for me…well as you get older you just get up earlier – so I guess I’ve gotten all the sleep that I need – there, I feel rested and ready to tackle another day.

Have a great day off guys – enjoy your Saturday – and remember to be kind, and be good.

-Until next time…