Last Day Of August

September 1st marks the beginning of the inevitable slide toward winter. At that point there's no escape.

So even though it's still technically summer, winter is on the way. And we haven't even had fall, which shouldn't be forgotten.

In fall I have the same resolution this year as last. To enjoy it as much as possible. But last year when I tried that I noticed the enjoyable aspects of fall are very short-lived. Before you know it it becomes mean and bitter. And it's more enjoyable staying inside.

Still...it's a good resolution.

But, oh, winter. We'll be having to buy Christmas presents pretty soon.

Promoting Wives Of Dead Senators

Someone is proposing letting Teddy Kennedy's widow, Vicki, take his place. And big time Senate guys, like Orrin Hatch and Chris Dodd.

I don't like the idea. Just because you're married to a senator doesn't mean you're good senator material.

Or is it just a job that any warm body can handle? Like the presidency when Bush was in there?

Can't the people of a state vote on someone? Or the governor nominate some reasonably qualified caretaker replacement? That sounds better.

Nearing The End Of Summer

I was over by the municipal swimming pool today. Not too many were out swimming, since it's cooler than usual in August.

Everything feels like fall is coming on strong. I saw some leaves falling already. I even picked up a few. And some friends of mine had a handful of leaves from their neighborhood that looked so perfect that they looked plastic. But they were real.

I like catching the subtle whiff of autumn once in a while. It comes unpredictably. Like the whiff you get of spring when it's in the air too. Something about it tells your body something special has happened. But the glory of it doesn't last very long. So you have to enjoy it while you can.

Make a wish and make it a wish for more enjoyment of the seasons!

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee climbs aboard the Crazy Express -- the same train Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rex Rammell -- are on.

He thinks -- Mike Huckabee seriously thinks this -- that ... get this ... that if we had President Obama's healthcare reform that Ted Kennedy would've been neglected the whole last year of his life, that he would have been told to go home, take a pill, and die.

I don't know what planet that is believable on. But I know it's very very far from this one.

Is there no penalty anymore for this kind of insane talk? Blather. Good grief, how far we've fallen in the quality of discourse in this country. The Republicans are out and out crazy.

Republicans Hunting Obama

Just imagine the outrage if anyone had said anything like this about President Bush. But it's getting more and more common, these terrible things people are saying about President Obama. And made no mistake. These people are not patriots. They're anti-patriotic. They're scum of the earth.

First, a gubernatorial candidate in Idaho. Rex Rammell said he would buy a license to hunt President Obama if such a thing were offered. As it is he needs to stick with a $11.50 wolf tag. I say let's get out some of the anti-terrorist laws we had when Mr. Bush was president and put a guy like Rammell away for a while. This is outrageous. This guy is not a loyal American. And he's running for governor of one of our states? Crazy.

Second, a pastor (!), although no pastor I'd want to have anything to do with, Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, had a sermon titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama." Wow, nice pastor. Good grief, if this is the "Faithful Word," please steer me toward something else. This sounds like the devil.

Anyway, "Pastor" Steven Anderson said, "I don't obey Barack Obama. And I'd like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight." And he also said, "Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell."

Obviously "Pastor" Anderson has issues, number one being he has no idea about God whatsoever. Loser.

The thing is, though, remember the uproar over the pastor from Chicago during the campaign? Pastor Wright? Supposedly he was so unpatriotic and the Republicans had their underpants in a knot over him. Wright doesn't hold a candle to these idiots.

The Sheriff Wrestles Me To The Ground...

...in my mind, that is, in my imagination. I thought of it.

I was at the grocery store and a guy from the sheriff's department came in. I was in the checkout line, looking harmless, since I am.

And here comes a sheriff or deputy across the way, toward me, but more toward the space between me and everyone else. On his way past us.

He had a walkie-talkie in his hand and was looking down the aisles. Then he went down one of them and that was the last I saw of him.

When I got to the car I was thinking, Let's say I were the perp, I would want to look as inconspicuous and harmless as I must've looked standing there in line. Like Ho hum, is this line ever going to move? But I could've never managed it if I'd been guilty of something.

Then he would've wrestled me to the ground, I would've reached over to the freezer case and whacked him with a pack of Little Sizzlers. Then he would've cuffed me and that would've been it.

I'm fascinated by law enforcement. It's weird though when it's right there in plain sight, in the grocery store.

Crazy By Patsy Cline

I've got the song "Crazy" by Patsy Cline running through my mind. I'm not sure why since I haven't been listening to it.

It was written by Willie Nelson. And it's a great song. I wonder how much money Willie gets off that song in the course of a year. It must bring in quite a bit.

That's a great thing about writing a hit song, one that people love years later. You had the inspiration, you did the work once, then they pay you forever.

I haven't gone to much karaoke. But I understand "Crazy" is one of the top karaoke songs. Every two bit chick gets up and butchers it, probably. LOL.

I ran into Willie Nelson once, true story. It's a true story with nothing interesting about it. He was walking that way, we were walking this way and said hi.

Willie probably doesn't remember it.

The Lying Bush Administration

Attorney General Eric Holder is dipping his toe in an investigation of alleged Bush-era torture abuses. You know, possible crimes against humanity stuff. Nothing big.

It's .... about .... bleeping .... time. (Didn't the perps flee the scene back in January?)

But Ari Fleischer, one time press secretary to George W. Bush, said to the Huffington Post, "I think the decision is disgusting. It's amazing to me that the people who kept us safe may now become the people our government prosecutes."

"Kept us safe." Ha ha! Still beating that dead horse, huh? I don't remember asking the Bush administration to break the law. That's why we have laws. Thou shalt not. All that. If you're perverting our values as a nation... I guess there's no reason to shout at those who cannot hear. Ari doesn't have the right to tell us what's disgusting. We lived through those shameful Bush years. We know what's disgusting.

I heard a blurb on TV today where it was said we want to "look ahead, not back." OK. Remember that every time someone breaks the law. Everyone wants that same standard. "Your honor, I admit I robbed the bank, but, please, let's look ahead, not back."

West Side Story

I'm watching "West Side Story" on a VHS tape I got some month ago.

I know it must sound absurd to say I've never seen this, but it's true. How many hundreds of times have I seen the old soundtrack LP over the years. But I never really had any idea what it was all about. Seriously. I'm very out of touch at times.

Whether I've ever owned it, like in a box of records, doesn't mean anything. I definitely never listened to it.

Now, I'm only up to the part where the Puerto Ricans have sung "America," so I don't know if anything else will be familiar. I have heard the song "Maria" or snippets of it, and I could have identified where it came from, and I have heard the song "America" or snippets of it, but I could not have identified it.

So far I'm really liking it. The opening, though, with the weird looking gangs, that was disconcerting. They looked like space aliens to me. Or cult members.

I don't know how much more there is to go ... but it's enjoyable and I hope it stays that way.

Abraham Lincoln Was Almost A Classmate Of Mine

Now that I've seen a new Lincoln penny, I suddenly recall that earlier in the year I heard they were going to make some new ones. But I forgot.

It is, after all, the 200th birthday year of Abraham Lincoln. Only 200 years old. I mean that. You think of Lincoln as being ages ago, but he's still of very recent vintage. I'm over 50 and he wasn't president till he was 50 something (or whatever), so add that to 1809 and take away my 50-some years, and we could've almost been classmates.

It would've been cool. In fact that'd be a good TV show. Lincoln is reincarnated in a neighborhood. He reveals himself to one particular kid. They're classmates. The kid knows he's Abraham Lincoln, with a different name. He happens to know a lot about the 1800s and anything that has to do with Lincoln. And so forth. You have him getting extremely mad about Lincoln impersonators, Lincoln birthday sales, etc.

Let's say Lincoln really was my age. And he and I are hanging out. And I'm offering him a "penny for your thoughts." Like that.

This new penny has the normal design on the heads side. It's the flip side that's different. This one has Lincoln sitting on a Lincoln log. He's reading a book. He's got an ax at his side.

Exclusive Magical Secrets

I bought a weird book at a garage sale today, "Exclusive Magical Secrets" by Will Goldston.

It says on the copyright page that it was Copyright 1980 by Coles Publishing Co. of Canada. Maybe the copyright laws are different in Canada, but this book was obviously a reprint of something much older. The artwork and typography make it look at least 70 years old.

Since then I've looked it up and I believe it said it was published in 1912. So it's coming up on being 100 years old. The original book of course.

At ABEbooks.com they have some in the thousands of dollars range, like for an early edition. So if I'm going to have a copy, this looks like one to have.

I leafed through it and read about a few tricks. It has great little cartoon pictures, diagrams, schematics of magicians' equipment, the whole set up for particularly complex tricks. Page 422 and following as an example, shows a disappearing piano trick. There's a piano that must be a fake piano. Once the curtain comes over it, the person sitting at the piano folds up the piano and it becomes the platform, with the whole thing folded down to make nothing but a floor! Then it shows her, the lovely assistant, walking a plank out the back so she won't be there when the curtain's lifted.

Wow, what a trick that'd be! Complex as far as I'm concerned!

The book is just over 500 pages long and tons of tricks. I'm not going to be trying any of them, because the set up on the ones I looked at looks extensive to say the least.

Good Idea -- Boycott Arizona

I'm not much on boycotting. I said I was going to boycott American Idol when Adam Lambert lost. But who knows? Maybe I'll sneak a few two hour peeks every week!

I was amazed that a boycott -- or I guess it was more calling advertisers -- affected the Glenn Beck show as much as it did. The advertisers were dropping a half dozen a day. I was stunned.

Now we have these clowns in Arizona packing heat whenever President Obama is around, parading around with their guns threatening him, racist intimidation in action.

I like what I glanced at in this guy's article. Arthur Frommer, a travel guide person:

For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.

Personally, I've never been to Arizona. And based on the crazy laws they have there, that it's perfectly acceptable to be stalking the president with guns, it's not a place I'm planning to visit any time soon.

The Raw Sewage Tweets (Collect Them All)

Changed the litter tonight. But by the morning the cats will have left me a surprise. Not exactly buried treasure, since they don't bury it.

There's several good things you can say about cats. 1, unless they're really, really sick, they don't do it on the floor. Very disciplined.

But I see them in the box a lot. One eats his breakfast, then I'm getting mine, next thing I see his head sticking out of the box.

It's not a pleasant sight, but like I say, they have the discipline not to do it on the floor.

I'm more of a dog person, but dogs need all kinds of help. I have my dog out so many times a day! A vampire couldn't own a dog.

The process of digestion waits for no man. It's always "ready or not, " as regular as clockwork.

I've heard of saints who didn't really have to go to the bathroom, like Therese Newman, I believe her name was. Saved on toilet paper.

She just layed in bed and ate air or something. And air doesn't need digested, just breathed back out. I think she ate sunshine.

Something like that she supposedly ate, very lightweight stuff. Wouldn't be enough to fill me up, a few watts off a light bulb.

It'd be great to be a saint who could lay in bed all day, though. I don't know. I guess there's advantages to getting up. Like a life.

I myself ate regular meals today, including going out for Mexican food for dinner. That's around 20 bucks plus tip, so it's not cheap.

I could've gone to DQ, had a flaming burger, some fries, a drink, and a sundae for under $15 and no tip. So maybe I should've.

I'm disciplined to a certain extent. But then once in a while we feel like splurging a bit.

Anyway, I'm like the cats ... when tomorrow gets here it doesn't matter if you ate steak or canned soup.

The guy at the sewage plant stands there with his big rake and knows you're awake. Always monitoring the intake.

If I worked at the sewage plant I'd keep it very impersonal. Like I'd monitor the flow but just average it out.

I'd guess tours at the sewage plant include a lot of laughter. Like "You can set your watch to it, the toilets flushing at 8 a.m." Ha, ha.

I think of that in the morning while going to the bathroom. Like, How long does it take for this to get to the sewage plant? Do they notice?

Let's say you work at the sewage plant and you have a sore stomach or a migraine. You feel like ---- and you know exactly what that means!

Sewage plants loomed large in my imagination as a kid too. We had one at our town we always drove by, big metal domes over it, sanitary.

You figure, it's domed and round. There must be a big scooper under there stirring it all up. Then it turns into varnish and they sell it.

It was different at some of the smaller towns, like where I also lived. It was just out there in the noonday sun in a big square pool.

They had signs on it that said "RAW SEWAGE. NO SWIMMING." Most people violate a rule here or there. I never knew anyone to violate this one.

Surprisingly it didn't stink. But I never got that close. The worst one that stunk was one that I believe was enclosed, but maybe not.

We used to think anyone who worked around the stinky one would go home with an apparent beard like Fred Flintstone's.

The intake valve on your face, continuing to breath, would be plugged up. Then the creeping brown would outline Fred's beard shape.

The Lengthy Afghanistan War

There's a poll that says people are turned off on the Afghanistan war.

Maybe they're just now realizing we're still over there, doing what? The little light clicked over my head the other day too when there was a report about the war on TV. I asked out loud, "We haven't won that war yet? What's going on?"

Why are these wars endless? It makes you wonder how World War II ever managed to be wrapped up so speedily. Wars these days are like highway construction. A guy goes on the crew right out of high school and he's 65 and retiring before they get the road open.

The Iraq war has been a stumper for me. The Iraqis had no army beyond the first day, no navy, no air force, no coast guard, no nothing. And we've been over there since 2003! Hitler had an army, a navy, an air force, and we beat him in less time. Hitler! Whose name is synonymous with the baddest ass ever! He was evil, I'll give him that. He just didn't know how to pace it.

We're fighting these wars -- I'm convinced of it -- just to keep the military contractors happy. It's all wink-wink, put in another division.

The First Guy With A Gun

The first guy with a gun at a presidential event is reminding everyone, "Hey, remember I was the FIRST. These other guys are imitators!"

"It never occurred to anyone just to show up with a gun till I did it. And now everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon!"

So look for his internet store, selling T-shirts with a gun on it, saying, "I was the first!" If anyone's name deserves a future trivia question on the subject, it's his. Although I don't remember what it is at the moment. Westric. Wrestic. Wettick. Weston. I'm not coming up with it.

Anyway, it's a new day for presidential events, and this will make them much more exciting for years to come. At least till we have another Republican president and all this is forbidden again.

But who knew what you can get away with?!

John Wilkes Booth is kicking himself in his grave. "I could've just bought a ticket, killed Lincoln, and stayed for the rest of the show. Silly me."

Lee Harvey Oswald's going. "I could've killed Kennedy and finished out my shift. No need to run."

Sirhan Sirhan's sitting there going, "He wasn't even president yet! And anyway, I was trying to kill a mouse in the kitchen."

Squeaky Fromme is out of prison, thinking, "That was a waste of 30 years. They should've pinned a medal on me."

It seems like John Hinkley's been doing time too, poor guy. But who knew he had the right to be there with a gun? We didn't know it at the time.

Another Guy With A Gun?

There another guy with a gun at one of these meetings where President Obama is, this time an assault rifle.

How in the world can this be legal? So you're telling me Lee Harvey Oswald was well within his rights to show up at Dealey Plaza with a gun? That he could've brought a cannon and set up on the street if he wanted?

When I've gone to see presidents and presidential candidates, the Secret Service (or someone) has been downright thorough about checking everyone's possessions, down to cameras and cellphones. I can only imagine what they would've said had I shown up with my hunting guns.

"Uh, sir, may we help you?"

"Yes, please help me up, now that you've wrestled me to the pavement and broken both arms."

Is there something, though, about having a Democratic president where we have to put up with this? I remember there was a deal in Denver during Bush's years where someone was hustled out for having an anti-Bush BUMPER STICKER on their car out in the parking lot. C'mon!

So a bumper sticker is a no-no, but a guy brings an assault rifle, that's OK?!

Ezekiel's Temple

I've been interested in Ezekiel's temple lately. I've been studying up on this book of the Bible, being fascinated the mystics and strange people. Ezekiel probably fits in those categories, with all the inspiration he seemed to be under that was, to say the least, unusual.

So every word is worth considering.

I've always thought the temple section, everything from chapter 40 on, except for a couple of more interesting passages -- the returning of God's glory and the water flowing from the temple -- was very boring. I just stumbled through it, thinking of something else. Whatever!

But I've been more interested in that passage. And whether anyone has the key to it or not, and on the internet you can find all kinds of crap, I don't know. I tend to lean toward the passage as an idealized state of things from Ezekiel's point of view that is not going to be fulfilled in literal fact but still has symbolic, inner value. To me that's the kind of spirituality that's worth something.

Looking around on the internet, I found some of the graphics that people have come up with, which are very helpful to visualizing the structure of the temple set forth in the vision. And I came across something I'd never heard of, Google's SketchUp, which is like an architect's tool for putting building drawings in a program, so you can rotate it, zoom in, and see it like a viewer standing there.

There's a few graphics that folks have worked up about Ezekiel's temple with this program, and they are fascinating to look at. I couldn't really get the controls all to work, or maybe I'm expecting too much. But it's pretty fascinating to go into the Holy of Holies, for example, even if it's just a minimal computer mock-up. It's better than nothing!

I'd really like to be able to do more with it, but still it's worth checking out. You need to get the viewer.

After seeing the viewer, though, and moving things up and down and zooming in, all that, it feels weird looking at normal web pages. Like you're expecting them to move up and down just like that.

Why Is Blogger Such A Lonely Place?

Why is Blogger such a lonely place?

I can go to Twitter, open an account, post 25 things and have a "follower" or two in minutes. But at Blogger, you can type and type day after day, 2,000 things, and no one says Boo.

Maybe these posts aren't really showing up anywhere?

There has to be someone out there. Say something if you exist!

Like the Three Stooges say, "Speak to me, kid. Give me a few syllables." Or, "Tell me your name so I can tell your mother." -- "My mother knows my name."

I've thought before you could have Al Qaeda starting a few Blogger blogs and posting their secrets and they'd be safe, because no one notices anything here.

My Cellphone's Very Good Week

One week ago today my cellphone dropped into a toilet.

With that one little dunking, my morning and a couple hundred bucks were shot. I tried to dry it out. But it's easier for the water to get in than it is for you to get it out.

I tried a stupid plan I read about on the internet, which is to soak it in rubbing alcohol, then that's supposed to somehow evaporate and the water with it. It sounded reasonable but was completely worthless. The weird thing about the plan at that website is that if it doesn't work the first time to keep trying it. Right. I tried it once and it was worthless.

So I had to go get a different phone. And my contract isn't nearly done, so this meant buying a new one at full price.

The good news now is that I've gone a whole week without the new phone falling in. I'm trying to be extra, extra careful.

P.S. - As for phone technology, the phone I got is a newer model of the old one. But they've taken a couple steps back. The old one had a video function, the new one doesn't. The old one told you how many characters you'd typed (helpful for Twitter) but the new one doesn't.

And of course they felt the need to change the plug so my old phone's USB cable doesn't work on this one. I guess we know why, sell more cables.

Republican Prattling

I see Republicans very much up in arms -- literally in some cases! -- over health care reform and everything else.

They "don't see how it will do any good, blah blah blah." Socialism, lines in England, death panels. And endless such prattling.

I'm all in favor of citizens voicing their opinions. But we just had an election. And President Obama promised health care reform. That's what the country voted for. That's what we should get. That is democracy in action.

The Republicans lost the election big time. They had their time in office, and someday they probably will again. When they were in power, they did not give one iota of concern for what the Democrats' opinions were. They ramrodded through whatever they wanted. Whether by hook, crook, lying propaganda, or all three. They told us to sit down and shut up. That we were unpatriotic for thinking anything different.

Now of course they're making a big stink, because that's what they do. (It turns out that true patriots are supposed to speak up. How convenient!) It's weird they were willing to support any criminal activity that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney engaged in. But they blink at anything decent that President Obama wants to do. Literally choking over him! I'm not seeing principles here, just partisan opportunism.

If the Republicans wanted the same kind of disastrous government we had in the Bush years, they should've worked harder for Senator McCain. As it is now, we don't want to hear from you. That's the same treatment you gave us, you will recall.

No Buzz From Oysters

I believe I said the other day that oysters were the new peyote. That when I eat them I get a buzz, not exactly hallucinations but a buzz.

But tonight I ate a whole can of them and didn't get anything. The stew kind of burned my tongue a little, but that's not desirable at all.

Someone says, What about your buzz? Yeah, I have a burnt tongue. OK, that's really worth it. The best thing, it satisfied my craving for it.

Wonderful Summer

There's an old song (1963) that I love, "Wonderful Summer" by Robin Ward.

"I want to thank you for giving me the most wonderful summer of my life. It was so heavenly, you meant the world to me. And anyone could see that I was so in love."

Beautiful song. But it's not one that you can buy an MP3 for, it appears. I remember Dic Youngs on KIOA (Des Moines) saying he used to be neighbors with Robin Ward, lived across the street from him wherever he lived at the time. So he'd play it and it made it extra sentimental.

I'm a big romantic at heart, all that teenage weirdness about falling in love and being sentimental about it. Little keepsakes. A broken heart when we have to part.

One time my family went down by Branson and stayed at a resort and there was a girl about my age. She and I walked up the path, up a hill, and I believe we sat there for a while. I have one isolated souvenir of this event, which is a tiny article I wrote about her in a newspaper in 1971. I just looked it up because I didn't remember her name.

Incredibly the little article tells the name of the resort that her parents ran, her first and last name, and her brother's name. But it doesn't tell about us walking up the path on that rainy day. I believe I took home a baby food jar full of the rain water. (I believe I did? -- I know I did, LOL, but it's long gone, unless it's in my parents' basement somewhere after all these years. What would a 40 year old jar of water be like?)

The year was 1968 or '69 when this happened. Then the newspaper article in '71. Then after high school I hitchhiked down to the area, not to see her, but I was just passing through with a hitchhiking friend. But I couldn't resist, and I don't remember what happened exactly. It seems like I saw her at a restaurant with an open front, but I really don't remember. Maybe she was with some guy on a motorcycle. It doesn't seem like she knew me or cared to know me. My imagination's failing me at this point.

Anyway, I've always loved that song, "Wonderful Summer," not because of this girl.

But thinking about it -- and maybe Robin Ward knew this -- the lesson about such things is this: Never go back! Ever!

Koi Ponds And Naughty Profiles

You know, on Twitter we ought to get the girls with their naughty profiles together with the guys selling koi fish ponds, a partnership.

Then whatever naughtiness the girls are engaging in, they have the beauty of a good koi fish pond in the background. It'd soften it, pretty.

Given the two, I'd probably look at the girls, but I'd rather BE with the fish. I know the fish haven't been out fooling around.

I'm in a follower race with a guy on Twitter named RatRaceTrap. Currently I have 4 and he has 13083 (seriously). He's getting complacent.

It'd be interesting to know how many of his 13083 followers sell koi ponds or have naughty profiles. I would guess he's going for numbers.

But say you had 13083 followers and you decided to prune them out. After the first week of constant work, you'd just forget it.

As soon as I do any project that involves thousands of whatever, I start figuring it out...if it takes me 34 seconds for each one, that's...

He's running a lot of quotes. That must be a life, poring over books all day looking for inspirational stuff. Good old Churchill and others.

One from today: "If we are together nothing is impossible..." Ho hum. Or "Things get worse before they get better." Tired stuff.

No offense to him. He's not saying it. These guys from the past, good for nothing but the quotes they first Twittered back then, said it!

I like the quotes by "Unknown," who I guess I could claim to be. "To get what you've never had, you must do what you've never done."

"To get what I've never had." I've never had syphilis. "You must do what you've never done." Ignore the koi ponds, turn to the girls? Ha ha.

I'm writing a book here. How come no one else jumps in? Am I the only one with something on my mind? Oh, right, it's an empty warehouse.

The Oyster Posts

Wanna have a mystical experience? Overdose on oyster stew.

Oyster stew gives me a buzz. I haven't had any junk for a month. Don't tell anyone, OK? Let's keep oysters legal.

Seriously, oysters are the new peyote. I went out in the wild and made some oyster stew over a campfire. I saw strange beings all night.

You ever heard of the merkabah vision of Ezekiel? It was oysters that did it. Babylonian oysters, the good stuff, very rare, black market.

I tried to enlist and go to the Iraq war, just to get closer to old Babylon. Risking my life for oysters. Didn't pass the physical.

The blood test of course is what did me in. I tested positive for oysters. And the weird thing is I hadn't had them for six months prior!

Picked Up My Guitar

I have some guitar playing I need to do coming up. No major gig, since I'm actually no good. But I'm good enough once in a while for groups of people to sing to. If I practice like crazy and have the music in the few chords that I know.

So I started working on it today, because I haven't played the thing for a month or so. It just sits there. And that means my fingers lose whatever minor callousing I had. So I was messing with it today. My guitar sounds bad because the strings are old. But I hate changing them.

I've been thinking of getting a new guitar. But I hate to spend the money right now. It's something I've been thinking about for over 10 years, so maybe in another 10 I'll get one!

I was working out the chords for a few songs. I had to essentially learn a few new chords, a couple anyway. And I still haven't quite got them. My fingers hurt and I'm making slow progress. But by the time I need to do it I'm sure I'll be good enough to stumble my way through.

It'd be great to be a good guitarist. I picked it up 40 years ago, was never any good. Then I made one giant leap somewhere along the way and could do the chords I know pretty well, hitting the bass string, all that. But after that giant leap I never made any more progress. Not that I work at it very hard. So that's probably the problem.

Have You Hugged Your Hog Today?

Well, have you?

Healthcare For Crotch-Related Injuries

Hunter at Daily Kos has a great post today about the Republicans' shenanigans.

It's all right on as far as lamenting their extremism and their weird insistence on stupidity as the best way forward for America. They somehow think trashing up everything and watching our nation go down the tubes is the best way to preserve our values. Type that in on your calculator and see what the answer is. It's less than zero.

But Hunter sees one ray of saving sunshine, the utter incompetence of the Republicans. We lamented their incompetence most recently for eight miserable years. But who knew that very incompetence might eventually save us all?

Hunter says:

I'd be afraid for the future of our country, but I know that if these people ever actually armed themselves and tried to take over they'd all have accidentally shot themselves in the groin within the first ten minutes. Then they'd all limp to D.C. to hold a rally demanding free government healthcare for crotch-related injuries.

True, true, true. Except they'd probably restart the whole cycle by blaming Bill Clinton for letting them keep their guns!

Republicans The Party Of Thugs

Pardon me for wondering if the Republicans have a death wish. Or are they simply thinking counter-intuitively?

But if your party becomes The Party of No, The Party of Failure, The Party of Rascism, is it a good thing to top it all off by becoming The Party of Thugs?

This disruption of public meetings by the shrill outbursts of crackpots and crazies ... like we saw in the rabble-rousing of the '08 campaign thanks to McCain and Palin ... is this the road to trust and electoral victory? What's next, Kristallnacht?

Let's say I wasn't already a Democrat. If I saw them disrupting meetings with all of it being coordinated by greater thugs at the top, believe me, that wouldn't be the party I'd want in power. These guys are bad news.

There was a story somewhere today that said the threats against President Obama's life have gone up 400%. Is this the Republicans' idea of a better America?

P.S. I don't see the logical connection between seceding from the Union and patriotism either. Help me out.

Fatigue

I'm getting very fatigue, as the French would say. I exercised vigorously tonight, listening to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart's "It's All Happening On The Inside" LP (MP3s on my iPod.)

That has to be one of the best albums ever for exercise. It keeps me going fast and furious.

That worked me up a nasty sweat. That's been a couple hours and I don't feel terribly damp. But now I need to go mow the yard, and that will do me in ... with sweat.

Then it will be almost time for bed!

Without My Phone

Eeek, I went to the park with my dog. And when I got there I noticed I didn't have my phone.

That's a weird feeling these days. It used to be when we never even thought of having a phone to carry with us of course it was normal to be at the park without one. (Too obvious?)

But these days it's completely necessary, in my opinion, to have it right there ... just in case. Plus someone might be calling. But mostly I need it in case I need help or something.

So when I got home of course I wanted to find it.

Thoughts Bubbles At The Beer Summit

"Hmm, two black guys and Biden. At least we're not outnumbered."

Road To Somewhere

Trying to explain to people what road you're on can be tough. Especially these little county roads where you don't know the numbers.

It comes out by [a certain town.] But how can that be, someone wonders. Because in their mind they're thinking of a road three or four miles away.

There's a GPS up there somewhere but there's not one in people's heads. So it's a dispute.