Holidays of 2009 - 1st in a 6-part series

I have decided to do a 6-part series of the holidays for 2009. The one that has just occurred and our XMAS.

Part I.

I broke a driving record on a wonderful trip to Ithaca, WI without any unnecessary risks. I live in a SW suburb of Chicago and was going to Ithaca, Wisconsin which is an hour west of Madison, WI. Ithaca, my hometown, is where I grew up all of my 20 years and is where my parents still live. Population growing up was about 30, and it's about 70 now. My high school graduating class was 29 seniors

Now, it's about 220 miles from my current home and about a 4 hr. trip. I wanted to get to Ithaca by 11 am. which meant leaving around 7. That meant getting the kids up around 6:30. They had to be all set before they got up - packed, know what they'll where on the trip and what they would wear for Thanksgiving.

We travel on I-90, and when you are traveling north of Chicago, you have to pay around $3 going from the Illinois border to Chicago. We also had to travel on I-294 which is another toll road as well. You get a discount for using the I-Pass, and you don't have to stop to pay, your mobile transponder pays the toll while you are going 30+ mph. Maribeth was nice enough to give me her I-Pass. (MB works at Loyola and has to pay twice each time she goes to work). We packed, we gassed the car, and we were 1/2 hour late and didn't leave until 7:30. I didn't think that was terrible, and what I suspected came true. Only a few motorists would be on the road on Thanksgiving morning.

After an hour or so of driving with no jams, no stops & smooth sailing, I was getting ahead of schedule. If you can go a couple hours doing nothing but 70some miles an hour, you can cover a pleasing amount of distance. Maybe I could get to Ithaca in under 4 hours! The thing that helped the most, by far, was no stops. No stops for gas, for the bathroom, for eating something, just moving northwest at 70some miles an hour. Things kept getting better; we crossed into Wisconsin, and it wasn't even 2 hours into the trip - it was closer to 1 1/2 hrs. Crossing into Wisconsin from Illinois is always significant, because that marks exactly the 1/2way point of a 4 hour trip.

Later, we drove on the Beltline of Madison which meant we only had about an hour. IT WAS ONLY 10 AM! So, I turned and said to my 3 kids (who were behaving great on the trip and mostly sleeping through the trip), "If you don't stop for a bathroom break, you can spend $10 at Walmart Friday instead of $5". (No, that isn't much money either way, but like my parents, I try to keep on budget and cut costs!) So, they, too, were fired up about making Ithaca by the 11:00 target! Closer and closer and the excitement rose. We were in the same county as Ithaca (Richland County).

We rolled into my parents' driveway, and it was 10:47. We got out of the car beaming!!!

Out of all of the times I drove to Wisconsin since 1989. This was the time when I broke the record for the best time from Chicago to Ithaca. DRIVEN IN UNDER 3 1/2 HOURS!!

the news from my ex-wife, MB

Late last month, Maribeth had tests and they were, sadly enough, positive. She had uterine cancer. So this is what her Dr. planned.

1. She had an extensive biopsy done last Tuesday.
2. The biopsy was encouraging insofar as the cancer is not developed, not spreading fast.
3. Her Dr. scheduled a hysterectomy for Dec. 15. She may have the ovaries and f. tubes taken out as well. The Dr. agreed. Their viewpoint is that since we have enough kids, MB is 42, and there's the potential for there to be cancer there, be safe and take it all out.
4. The hysterectomy also will get rid of the extensive problems she has had w/ fibroids. I didn't know this until today but she not only had a biopsy on Nov. 17 but also had a D & C to get rid of the fibroid problem until the next surgery.

We have been praying, and we definitely feel that our prayers were answered, by the encouraging results of the biopsy. The caring process is a 2 step process.

First we'll care for MB. Then we will have to take "care" of the massive, hospital's, physicians', anesthesiologist's and radiologist's bills. Yes, there's insurance (thankfully) but there is always co-insurance, deductible and that's a lot. Oh well.

car insurance is messed up too!

Sorry, I have been putting off writing about a health problem affecting someone in our family. It's been crazy at work. & now simply isn't the right time.

Instead, it's time to vent. Since we know there will be $100s and $100s, maybe $1,000s in Dr bills, hospital bills anesthesiology bills & radiology bills piling up in a month or 2, I decided that I really needed to cut costs. One way is to find out if my car insurance was too expensive. So I got quotes. The quotes weren't that good, and they weren't beating my current insurance monthly rate. Then they said that I had a car accident in January of this year, it was my fault and the claim was over $1,900!!!

I was thunderstruck; no such thing happened (& if it did you know damn well I would have been writing about it!). So, I got very upset with my agent and demanded to know just exactly what the hell is going on. A person shouldn't be so upset, being angry sucks and makes you look bad. So, I took a breath and said, "Jim, imagine how upset you would be if the credit agencies were all reporting that you had a bankruptcy. You would have an impossible time getting a credit card under 20%. There would be numerous financial hurdles to cross w/ a bankruptcy!!"

It took him a little over 24 hours to find out what exactly happened. While Maribeth & I both have separate car insurance policies, we both get a multi-vehicle discount since we are both at the same car insurance company. 2 years ago, Maribeth executed a 2-way trade. Her Dad could no longer drive so she got his car. Her niece, Kristin, had no car so Maribeth let her have her KIA Rio.

So what happened in January, 2009?? Kristin was driving down the interstate, the front car hood was not attached properly (for some unknown reason), the hood flipped up and smashed into Kristin's windshield. If it had smashed several feet closer to the driver's side, Kristin could have been killed. Naturally, Maribeth, owner of the car, made an insurance claim.

The insurance agent said that while this incident has nothing to do with me, I am getting a multi-vehicle discount. That means that Maribeth and I are once again linked! The car insurance stated that what happened to Maribeth's car necessarily goes on my driving record.

What kind of gomer-bullshit logic is that? I received one consolation. I was looking to save about $20 a month, and I asked that all towing and rent-a-car coverage be taken out of my auto insurance coverage. That ended up saving me well over $20 and now I'm paying slightly over $60.

I still don't think that's right that our records are linked.

what really hurts

I've been wondering this for a long time, and suspected it for about 8 years.

I'm finally convinced that silence and failure to act are some of the most formidable insults one can face.

Amazing Hypocrisy!!!!

Yesterday was a day honoring veterans and rightly so! We have a bill supported by Pres.Obama, ALL DEMOCRATS and many Republicans which would give wounded veterans MORE benefits. Why is Sen.Tom Coburn of Oklahoma single-handedly delaying such a bill? At the HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY, he gave speeches yesterday about how much he supports veterans! He should get off his Ass and take his Senatorial Hold off a bill helping veterans.

Here's another guy like Limbaugh who is so intent on seeing Obama not do well that even an excellent, much-needed bill that needs passage. Here's a REPUBLICAN, a physician, no less who feels the need to hog the spotlight at the expense of veterans who have fought overseas. As if the Republicans couldn't stoop any lower, here's a guy that tries to make it that way.
Most Republicans are reasonable enough to support this bill, yet Sen. Coburn has been so UNREASONABLE that he has earned the sobriquet "Dr. No". Pretty stupid to oppose a president when he's right.

Further, a statistic during Veterans Day has come out that over 2,000 Veterans have died in the last year, because they lack health insurance. I guess Senator Coburn's insurance is fine, and since he is such a hypocrite in his lip-service but no support of Veterans, he is too oblivious to know the plight of Veterans after returning home from combat.

son's first encounter w/ crime

We live in a good community, but even "tony" suburbs have their crime. We encourage Andy to do lots of walking. Late this afternoon after school, Andy was looking forward to playing on the family Play Station 2, because the school gave all students in the district 3 days off. It was the end of the grading period. He enjoyed a boxing game, but the disc was scratched up. Since we have a membership at a store called Game Crazy, he was able to walk the 1/2 mile and get the game's scratches removed, for free.

Unfortunately, he took a path that has many apartment complexes. He was approached by 3 tall high schoolers, all young men, & they asked what he had in the bag. Andy answered, "none of your business."
They followed him and yanked the bag carring the boxing game in it. Maribeth wanted him to report the incident to the police. Andy was embarassed and afraid of a trial where he would have to testify against 3 young punks.

Yet, we all know that in a town of 20,000, the police are very unlikely to find them. There will be no trial. The police admitted that there were a good deal of thefts in the apartment complexes near where Andy was robbed. The interesting thing that the officers said was that they caught teenagers Andy's age making the thefts!

So, what are we going to do about this? Well, 1st of all, it's absolute bullshit to say that Andy can't walk to Game Crazy anymore. It's absolute bullshit to say to Ted that he can't go to Subway when he earns his pay for work done at home, b/c the Subway restaurant is only a quarter mile away.

However, I told both my sons that adjustments need to be made. First, Andy will walk down the much safer US Highway 6, rather than the backstreet he took. Ted will not order carry out when going to Subway, because the young punks were drawn to Andy's bag. He will eat at Subway instead.

Like I said, Andy didn't want to go to the police station. I agreed 100% with Maribeth that he needed to make a report. I told Andy that if he didn't go to the police, he was letting the whole community down. That was a pretty melodramatic statement, but there is truth to it. When something like this happens, the police patrol that area more, and there will be a item in our local paper of a young 13 yr. old getting robbed. I doubt that Andy's name will be in the paper. There needs to be awareness that even in decent towns, thefts happen.

Andy, in the end, was glad he went to the police station as the questioning was professional and matter of fact. Let's hope that safe methods will now lead to safe results.
---------------------
There will be another post coming this weekend about news from family. Just haven't had time.

more news to come

been very busy at work, attended a Paralegal Conference at the very posh Union League Club @ the Loop area of Chicago ( & more importantly, I actually learned a few things in my legal writing class).
Pray for those women w/ cancer. It may hit closer to home than you think!

I will write 2 posts on both of these subjects, hopefully, this weekend.

football season comes to an end

On the face of it, Ted's team failed again as they were unable to win one single game (just like last year). But let's make some comparisons.

LAST YEAR touchdowns: 2 THIS YEAR touchdowns 6

yards gained passing Last year: 0 This year: 100

Scrimmages won, last year: 0 this year: 2

goal line by defense: Last year: 2 this year: 10

In the tournament game we faced the 1st place team in the league, our defense held them to

their lowest score. They only had 12 points. Our defense certainly did better than our offense but as you can see from above, there was much improvement.

Ted had 3 times as many sacks and tackles as last year. He was made team captain. He didn't carry the ball last year at all. This year he caught 2 passes for 18 yards and ran the ball for 5 yards.

He looks forward to basketball, and his future in athletics both in grade school is bright and maybe he'll be able to play in sports in high school as well.

a test for YOU :) !

Your Best Trait is Creativity
You may seem like you're a bit flaky or flighty, but you're really just deep in thought.You are the artistic type, no doubt. However, you are also highly analytical and logical.You are able to solve problems in unique and interesting ways. Your ideas are unpredictable, but they always end up making sense.You are picky and sometimes downright critical. You expect the best of yourself, but others are not prepared for your exacting standards.

for your test go to

http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourbesttraitquiz/