HE'S OUT!!!!

I am so glad to hear that Rod Blagojevich is no longer the governor from my state!!!!
He's been a damn one-man wrecking crew to our state's Democratic Party by being a CORRUPT DEMOCRAT.
I have been so pissed off with him for over 2 months now. & yes, all my conservative friends at Church asked if I voted for him (I did) and I had to artfully ignore them. Thank God I haven't seen any e-mail missives about IL Democrats from my family.

I am so angry with him b/c he has been a one-man wrecking crew to Democrats in Illinois. For 3 yrs. in a row, he made a humungous drama out of passing the budget and acted like he was the only one who knew how to govern in state gov't. & the other Democrats looked like fools for supporting him as he preened and showed off during the budget votes. Earlier than that I really wondered about him, b/c he had an open verbal fight with his father in law (Dick Mell, alderman in Chicago) and publicly reveled in it and said he had "testicular fortitude" (& all he showed was that he was an asshole for being mean to his father in law).

Do you know that I'm more pissed off with the Democrat, Rod Blagojevich, than I am with a Republican by the name of George Bush?
Why? Well, I really do dislike George Bush for having young men slaughtered in Iraq under false pretenses, appting judges as reactionary as him, not giving a fiddler's fuck about the environment b/c he was an oil man supporting other oil men, I could go on and on!!!

But Rod Blagojevich has made it respectable to be a Republican in Illinois, and this angers me b/c Illinois WAS solidly a BLUE State. Republicans can tar other Democrats next year when there is a governor's race and legislative races. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a Republican governor elected in 2010 and a majority of Republicans in the Illinois "congress".

Just living proof that you will be more betrayed by a scoundrel who acts like your friend than you will if someone is actually your enemy. We had no illusions about George Bush in 2000 and how lousy he would be, but I had high hopes for that asshole Blagojevich, and I'm furious with him.
I have half a mind to go to his mansion in North Chicago and toilet paper the trees 'round his house. I might just be worth it getting caught.

anxious circumstance, WORSE memory!!

NOTE: I'M NOT USING THE ACTUAL NAME OF THE FIRM BELOW FOR PRIVACY REASONS. Also, in the latter part of this post, I AM NOT USING THE ACTUAL ADDRESS OF A CERTAIN BLDG. IN CHICAGO FOR THE SAME REASONS.

Our law firm is taking a big interest in a different case. A case/lawsuit that we are not involved in at all legally.

They had me copy parts of the lawsuit at the Clerk's office. I pointed out to them that there is a part of the case called "Discovery" that will probably not show up in the Clerk's office file. So my office manager said, "I think what we could do is go to Joe Moron''s office and get the "Discovery" part there.

I am really getting worked up about the office manager asking me to go to Moron's office. I worked there in 2002 for 6 months. In Sept., right after I had to suffer the trauma of being served divorce papers, I was told that Moron fired me. I was shocked; I was blindsided. I really am not 100% sure 6 1/2 fuckin years later why I was let go.
I think that the reason it happened was that I had to have deviated septum surgery the same month I got fired, and I was off for 1 week afterwards and then my surgeon ordered me to leave work early several times for required follow up care. At the 2nd interview all prior to that of course, Joe Moron made great emphasis that he put a high value on good attendance if I was to work there. The person who fired me was this young ofc. manager, and he was so shocked that Moron fired me that he had TEARS in his eyes when he told me. He knew that I had just been served w/ divorce papers. So, he took me to the firm's kitchen, went to the fridge and said we need to drink some beer and then told me I was fired.

I was given some money to get a cab and go home with my boxes of possessions that I had from work (I learned a lesson not to bring so much stuff to work with you). There was a time when the taxi driver & I knew that the money given to me by the firm to pay the taxi driver was not enough. I was afraid that he was going to leave me at the side of the road b/c he was angry. I figured at that point that if he let me out of his cab, I would hope that some criminal, some gangbanger would come by and kill me. That's what I really wanted. Between the divorce and the firing coming so close together, I was in a ton of mental anguish. But then I decided to tell the cabbie that we would stop at a gas station and get him some more $$. That made him much happier and I got home with no more incidents.

So anyway, I am getting worked up about the thought of going over to Moron's office and copying documents. It just brings back so many bad memories. There's a chance I won't have to. A made it known in the office that I didn't want to do this. &, believe it or not, I am actually not that low on the hierarchy. (WOW!!!!!!!)

& get this! after I got fired, I was hired by another firm 2 months later. It was one floor ABOVE Joe Moron's firm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It ended up that this firm was even WORSE, actually much worse than Joe Moron's firm. I worked for a very abusive female attorney who loved to scream at me. I didn't quit b/c I really really needed the money and knew it would be next to impossible to go to another firm. so when I was fired there (only 6 months after the 1st firing) I was actually relieved.

So 070 S. Prick St. is where both law firms are at. & you know what, it's going to be traumatic that I might have to walk into a building housing so many bad memories for me. I don't know if I'm going to be asked but just the thought of going into that tall white building is just like going back to an awful crime scene! It literally makes my blood beat faster and completely changes my mood!!

A NEW BEGINNING!!!!!

Hallelujah!! Obama is now the President of the United States. I have heard people say, "I feel better, I feel new!" I feel hopeful and to a certain degree confident.

Gone are the policies that rely on oil to power our cars and provide energy.

Gone are the policies that put the rich first and the poor last.

Gone are the policies that don't give a damn about our environmnet.

We look forward to policies where more people can and deserve to share the wealth that has usually gone to the few.

We hopefully anticipate a time where we fight less and put our efforts moreso into prosperity, justice and a cleaner environment.

& God Bless Obama for criticizing those policies carried out with gusto by the departed Bush administration.

A new day has dawned not only for our nation but the world. For people outside the US and around the world, we finally have a president who is interested in what you and your leaders have to say, not being ignored as the previous administration did. We have a President committed to intelligently fighting terrorism and spelled the same out in his speech.

Let us help Obama and his assistants achieve progress. & for those who stand in his way, let us show them in the clearest manner possible that they are in the MINORITY!

scary experience

I was rushing to a meeting b/c I'm the vice president and I was late. The group I am in is St. Damians' Mens' Club. We are group that raises lots of money for the school and we are an area charity that supplies food to those who are poor and helps the elderly. So anyway, I was late and the cops caught me speeding.
You know & I know that when you see those flashing red and blue lights and they are for YOU, there's an awful feeling. Naturally when they stop a person they ask for your driver's license. This policeman decided to talk about how fast I was going and I anticipated that he would THEN ask for my driver's license, and so I reached in my coatpocket to get it.

OMG!!!! Wrong move.He shouted at me to get my hands on steering wheel and then get out of my car as soon as possible. I was frisked. I said I was just going to give him my driver's license and he said, "never reach for anything in your pocket", b/c police will think you are reaching for a gun. & they don't have any time to find out if it's a license or a gun. So they are required to act fast and PRESUME IT'S A GUN. Thank God, he let me go w/o giving me a traffic arrest. It would've really sucked to have gotten a ticket and pay $100 for traffic school. I came to the meeting very shaken during the 1st half of the meeting.

FIGHT! FIGHT!!

Usually, nothing special happens on the train other than it's a much better ride than the bus. However, if you ride enough sometimes things get wild. Like in 2001, there were 3 women (in their 20s) & a guy together. One of the women got off the train, started beating the hell out of the other women, and the 3rd woman stood there yelling at the aggressor. The guy tried to break the fight up but took some punches (that's what a person gets for breaking up a fight and trying to do the right thing! no good deed goes unpunished!)

Today, I got off the train and saw this guy bump this grey haired woman. OMG! Did she get pissed! She walked and was screaming at him, calling him rude, saying he didn't say anything. Well, he was walking faster than her so soon there was distance between them. He didn't say anything and wanted to get the hell away from her. BUT then she started running up to him to catch up to him. I just thought to myself, "OMG, what is she going to do when she catches up to him"
Well, let me tell ya! She started yelling at him, getting in his face, and asking, "Why did you bump me? Are you a pick pocket?? THAT'S IT! YOU'RE A THIEF! HEY, THIEF!" So she kept repeatedly yelling "THIEF" Then, there's this corridor that you have to go through to enter/leave the train station. I couldn't see the 2 of them when they went into the corridor, but then when I get through the corridor, I could see this angry woman but no guy. I walked by her and literally walked SIDEWAYS to lessen the chance that I would get within 2 feet of her.

It was so wild. You gotta love a little drama at the train station!

2 topics (makes you think...)

I have complained before and will complain once again that spam is out of control and I get so much of it on my Yahoo e-mail. It's so bad that the spam has invaded my e-mail at work. The office manager has had to install spam protection on our e-mail. It's disgusting.

It also makes you wonder. If I had looked at every spam and did what the spammers asked, how many times would I have been "ripped off" and my money taken? 20 times, 200 times, 2000 times?? I hate spam!

----------

As you can see, I have Google AdWare. For about 4 or 5 months, I have only been able to run Public Service announcements. Google did this b/c I did not revise my password when they asked me to. Well, that has been taken care of now. Now, I can go back to running regular ads and actually make a few cents.

So, please click onto the ad. You don't have to actually buy it, & you don't even need to read it. If you want, just click onto the ad and then get out of it (either by "x"ing out or ALT + F4).

Please click onto the ads as this helps me financially. & it so easy just to click onto something and get out of it - even with a slow 8 yr. old computer like mine!!!

The Christmas trip!

I spent 4 days in Ithaca, Wisconsin. Ithaca is extremely important (just look at this blog’s URL!) as it’s where I grew up, went to high school, learned a work ethic on our farm; it’s where my parents live now. Before the trip, there was some concern about there being too much stress on my elderly parents (they’re both in their 80s). However, I knew that we would help a lot and that by the end things would be ok which turned out to be correct.

It was an exciting XMAS, we left Illinois @ 4 and got to Ithaca, WI @ 8. The trip there went great and we were so looking forward to 4 days of holiday fun. But we were also determined to be responsible and help Mom A LOT, and to make the noise level of 3 kids be low and tolerable for my dear parents.
So then we woke up XMAS and the kids opened up the rest of their presents. They were all very happy. We went to church @ 10 and I was so proud of the way, my oldest, Andy, helped my dad in and out of the car. Before that, breakfast went well and we did the dishes for Mom and Dad.

My 2 brothers Jerome and Bill came up, and had a good time. It was amazing to see Bill talk more and hold conversation with all of us. Usually what happens is that Bill quickly goes to sleep right after dinner and Jerome talks to everyone else. The exact opposite happened this time. Jerome slept and Bill talked. After my brothers left, Mom told me that Bill, who suffers from alcoholism, has been going to 1-on-1 counseling and he’s made noticeable improvement which really seemed the case when we saw him.
Then we went tobagonning on the hill. Basically a tobaggon is just like a sled that you can zoom down a hill with, but instead of a sled having 2 runners, a tobaggon is a flat wooden surface that can hold 3 or 4 kids (including me with mine!) and zooms through the snow. We went tobagonning both morning and afternoon.

Later during the holiday, we sadly watched the bowl game that the WI Badger football team was in and they got destroyed by Florida St. We had fun though watching Doctor Who w/ my mom who didn’t know if she liked the show or not.
On Sunday, when we were leaving, I asked mom if things went well during our 4 days and she said they did. So I felt good that the kids and I worked hard together and there was less work for my Mom. It meant so much to them that the kids and I said the rosary with them. I knew how to say the rosary and have done so for over 30 years, but learned that they added 2 new prayers to the rosary. I had been taught by Mom the Rosary 30some years ago, but apparently they added those 2 prayers. I knew all about the 4th mystery that Pope John Paul II added to the rosary.
I guess if there was anything troubling, it was reading my dad’s written medical report about his possible Alzheimer’s. I am happy and glad that the trip went well. It makes you thankful for the family that you have. Because you can’t choose family!!!

MB & I even felt the holiday cheer as I left her a letter at our condo where she was and she wrote me a nice one back. She was unable to go to Ithaca with us, because her father just came home from the hospital. She decided to take care of him during the holidays.

let's hear it for my nice boss!!

Terry is one of the bosses I work for. He's the lawyer & I'm the paralegal. The law firm didn't give us a XMAS bonus. So, anyway, Terry gave me this morning $40 in cash. I love getting cash/money for XMAS. That, by far is my favorite gift b/c I can use it to get anything or even stop my account from getting overdrawn!!! So thank you Terry. I love working for you; having a great boss is a REAL blessing!!!!

a few pictures

I wanted to show you some pictures. I didn't grow a beard this year, b/c MB complained about it having too much grey in it. So instead I have a mustache. The pictures of my beard are from several years ago. Believe it or not, the beard gets noticeably MORE greyer with each year.

As a special treat, you can get my senior picture of me on the football team (not soccer, U.S. football, lol). Sorry for the blurriness, I may use my Kodak software and make some minor improvements on it so that you get some semblance of what I looked like @ the age of 17.

So much better looking, yet so callow!

a little story

Certain events have happened recently. Because of the "bad economic times" I (& no one else at our firm) received a raise or Christmas bonus. Also, certain views in my house were expressed that I find disappointing to say the least.
I feel that I can't come right out and say what has upset me. If I do say it, I'm afraid the reaction won't be what I want. I think it's better if I apply my disappointment in a story. The story has some symbols in it and I think you'll understand the theme behind it and maybe even some of the symbols.
Also, the Blog website gave me a lot of problems tonight for whatever reason. I wasn't allowed to make paragraph breaks, so I was forced to make bullet points for the paragraphs.

• Jim was a construction worker who had a very tough job. He had a very physical job with heavy lifting. He worked in all kinds of weather. If it was 20 below 0 (fahrenheit), he was required to work. If the job was dangerous, he was required to do it. On one of these trying days, he was feeling terrible. As he rode home in a co-worker's car, he discussed his disappointment. Yet, he explained to his friend, "At least I have a nice bed to sleep in and give me comfort. On a bad day, the best friend I have is my bed. No one can give me orders. No one can hurt me or make me feel bad."
• When he got home, his mood improved. He quickly ate supper, did some reading and went to bed. When he laid in his cherished bed and put his head on the pillow, he received a very upsetting shock. His pillow that he trusted and relied on for years suddenly became hard. He couldn't believe that at a time like this, when he needed the comfort of home, he was greeted with hardness. The hardness was a shock because he expected comfort. He changed and readjusted the pillow, but the pillow could not, would not change. He used substitutes for the pillow but as he was poor he couldn't go out and buy a pillow. The substitutes he used that night were inferior, yet he finally got to sleep. (He used bunched up clothing that he put into a plastic bag.
• The next day at work was tougher than the one before. He relayed his plight of the night before to his co-worker as they drove home.
• Jim bitterly recounted, "You know home is supposed to be your castle, your refuge, the place where you find support. Yet that comfort wasn't there last night. I was confronted with hardness and little comfort. I can't survive in such a cruel world."
• Eric, his co-worker, asked, "You've complained at length about your pillow, but how were your sheets."
• Jim quizzically looked at Eric and replied, "The sheets were great, they were warm and comforting. If you're going to ask about the bed cushion that was nice and comfortable. The box spring did its job well, too!"
• Eric smiled and responded, "You have to appreciate all that went well. We can't dwell on what is wrong because there is so much in the world that IS WRONG. I guess believing in God is a pretty good idea because God doesn't change, get worse and be unreliable. Friends come and go, as do jobs. Your own kids, your own "flesh and blood" could die young. Spouses can be hard, embittered and rude; they can serve you divorce papers. Your TV can be stolen. & that pillow that you relied so much on turned hard. You still have your sheets, you still have books and magazines to enjoy."
• Jim said, "You are right. But still, I wish my pillow was soft. Everybody has a pillow they can sleep on..."
• "But that's wrong! Everyone doesn't have a pillow to sleep on. Everybody doesn't have kids to come home to, spouses that give them comfort or even food on the table. Hell, we could be living in Africa, we didn't choose where we would be born or whether our family was starving or had full stomachs," Eric asserted.
• Jim realized that he would go home and enjoy his magazine a little more. The stroganoff meal he made for himself would taste better. He would value all this so much more, because he realized he would either have to put up with a hard pillow or make due with a substitute.

more concerns w/ son

I spoke with my son’s psychologist as my oldest son, Andy, has Asperger’s Syndrome. The problem has been a precipitous drop in grades from 6th grade to 7th grade. The homework situation which was a problem last year is worse this year. You may remember Andy as I wrote about him falling off the balcony this past September.

The psychologist said that going to 6th to 7th grade is very difficult even for normal kids b/c they give far more schoolwork and academic responsibility to kids at that age. Andy simply can’t keep up to the considerably higher expectations.
I then said to him, “In 5 short years, Andy will be 18 out of high school and will need to get a job. How is he going to handle an 8 hr job if he’s having such a hard time now?”
“He WON’T be able to handle an 8 hour job. I’m not in the prediction business, and I never say ‘never’, but I doubt he would make it in an environment like McDonalds when he’s 18. He will have to have a job where he works 4-6 hours. He may have to telecommute and work at home.”
That was very sobering to hear that my son’s job/vocational prospects are already limited. Not by a lot, but definitely some. But now we at least have some idea of what we are up against. We are going to have to dial down our expectations somewhat. We are going to have to do an effective job of mixing rewards and punishments so that he is a motivated student. This has become more difficult than I imagined.

When I wrote about this in my support group, there was a pretty strong reaction, it sounded like the Dr. was giving up on him. I don't feel he was at all. He did NOT say that he couldn't work at all. He said that in certain conditions, he would succeed at work, and in other conditions he would not succeed. Now when you read that, doesn't that situation sound similar to the situation you or I am in? It sure does to me. I do not work well with hyper bosses. If they are going to fly off the handle every other minute, I want my paycheck from somewhere else!!

The fact is that we can't be in the prediction business about what will happen when he graduates from high school. We simply have to take it one week at a time and make sure that he's doing his homework and studying enough for his exams. There has to be more verifying. I used to be in the habit of simply asking him, "Andy, are you done with your homework?" and he would say "yes". That was it then, and then I would later learn that he didn't do all the homework.

Now, we verify things and use a computer program, RenWeb, which lists their grades and their homework. Every now and again things fall through the cracks because neither he nor Ren Web have the schoolwork listed or I might even forget that something is listed on RenWEb, and he will miss his homework that way.

I would like to think there will come a time that Andy will be more responsible with homework and learn to study better. Until that day comes, MB & I are spending a lot of time with Andy!

The question is how much does Aspergers affect his grades and doing well? It seemed that Aspergers doesn't affect cognitive function as he does show that he's intelligent, but things like organization which is something he really needs aren't exhibited. There is going to be a meeting with the Special Ed. teacher (that has specialized training on handling kids with mental or physical disabilities), social worker, principal and me in January, and we will discuss again the strategies for making this a successful school year for Andy.

A good exit

A couple weeks ago, I ended being president of the TMA. The TMA is the governing body of the condo complex where I live. There are 28 buildings in our condo complex with 6 units in each building. Our budget for the year is over $200,000. I think I handled it very well. I gave a speech at the Annual Meeting that discussed the situation/"shape" of our condo. I was very complimentary about the people who were on the Board with me. People were very appreciative and gracious about the work I did as a board member for 6 years and president for 3 years.

The nice thing is that I retired gracefully. I didn't get forced out, I didn't get voted out. I didn't leave "under a cloud". There were a few mistakes done, & I lost a friend while I was the president (which wasn't really my fault). But being president was a good experience and it definitely quenched my ambition to hold elective office at least for awhile.

silly superstitions

Everyone has heard of superstitions. It is probably a good thing that they aren't so widespread and popular as they used to be. I would like to think of myself as a rational person, but I wanted to share one silly superstition that I have.

Actually there are 2. I try to avoid the number 13. When I set deadlines for myself at work, I rarely if ever set them for the 13th of the month.

The other superstition is much sillier. I have a tendency during the winter to lose gloves. It's just my way, because I am absent-minded. I'm absent minded but have gotten much better about taking care of my wallet. I haven't lost my wallet since September, 2000. (Now, if only I could find my keys that I've been missing since last Sunday.......) Anyway, the last couple winters I have followed a superstition that has led me to lose my gloves fewer times. It's so crazy that hopefully you'll get a good laugh over it.

Since the tendency is to lose gloves, I used an illogical way to stop losing gloves. What I do is wear a pair of unmatched gloves. For example, I'll wear one black glove and one blue glove, or one red glove and one brown glove. Since wearing different gloves is so strange, I "reason" that it's like reversing Karma. So the reasoning goes that if I wear unmatched gloves, that will reverse the tendency to lose gloves. Sometimes I've lost the gloves anyway, but I don't lose them nearly as much, so I continue to do that.

Let me know if you have any superstitions...........

saving FAITH!!

I had a mishap with MB's and her father's dog Saturday. She always expects a treat when she goes out and defecates and urinates and then comes back in. Usually the treat is a hotdog, but my father-in-law is in the hospital and has been for over 2 weeks. So the only thing in the 'fridge was a baked potato rapped in aluminum foil.

So I threw it down to Faith, (she is 1/2 border collie and 1/2 English sheepdog, if I find a picture, I will add it to the post), I assumed that she was smart enough NOT to eat the aluminum foil. The amount of aluminum foil was more than enough to cover 2 of your hands. The damn thing landed face down and the aluminum foil was face up. So the dog swooped in and put it in her mouth. I tried to pry her jaws open to drop it and she tried biting me. (I was smart enough not to put my hands near her teeth and pull it out). But damnit, despite the effort, she swallowed it all. The aluminum was enough to cover both of your hands.

So, I drove home, got the kids, they were asking 100 questions about the dog and worrying about her. I just knew that she wouldn't survive with that amount of aluminum foil in her; she's only about 65 pounds. I got some Syrup of Ipeyac which is something you give your kids if they swallow a poison. But the problem was as Ted told me, the Syrup was 10 years old. So we went to the drugstore and they didn't have any! But they gave me some advice. There was an ER nurse that gave me advice, which really, really helped.

One person said get some water, put as much salt in it, as much as the water could carry, then the ER nurse said mix mustard with water and that would make her vomit the aluminum foil out. So I figured, "I know what I'll do, I'll mix mustard and a ton of salt together in the warm water."

So, we got Faith outside b/c we didn't want her vomiting in the house. I sat on her, holding her mouth open and my son poured the mustard-salt-warm water concoction down her throat. In a few minutes, she vomited up 1/2 of the aluminum foil. I was still worried about her. She still had 2" by 3" of aluminum foil in her. Reluctantly, Andy & I pinned her down again and poured the concoction down her throat again. Unfortunately, no aluminum foil came up. So we quit.

I told MB about it (expecting to get screamed at), but she handled it very well. She said the best thing to do is watch her very closely, and she was confident the aluminum foil would work through her. I was still worried about a bowel obstruction. But in 2 days she seems to be fine.

Why didn't we take her to a vet? We thought about that, but we really have no money for that. I felt really bad about it, because I like the dog and didn't want to hurt my in laws and MB's dog! It seems like we saved her by getting her to at least vomit out 1/2 of it.

This blog's 1st movie review: Shine a Light

If movies get 5 stars for being a classic and 0 stars for a movie so bad that it was as bad as if they showed Billy shitting his pants and putting out on You Tube, well then I give Shine a Light 3 & a 1/2 stars.

Bad: The first 20-30 minutes aren't worth a damn. There's nothing more boring than hearing a director (Martin Scorsese) and his assistant bitch about the same thing over and over again. In this case, they want Mick Jaggar to give them a conceptualization of how they will set the stage up for the concert, and they want a set list. As Scorsese explains, he needs to have the set list (especially for 1st song) so that if the song starts with a guitar riff, he'll cue the dude that's videotaping Ron Wood or Keith. If it starts with Mick singing, he'll cue that cameraman. But I don't give a fiddler's fuck, about the dispute between the Stones and Scorsese. With a little imagination, they could have made the beginning of this movie a whole lot better! Also, the concert footage was very good, but why the hell didn't they have them singing "Shine a Light"?? Maybe that's in the bonus cuts. I haven't seen that yet. Hopefully, you wont hold that against me.

The movie gets a little bit better when they show President Bill Clinton meet the Stones. Then the Stones have to change their schedule around to meet Hillary Clinton's mother. They greet Bill and the mother warmly although the movie doesn't show them greeting Hillary. They point out in the movie that the Stones change their schedule to meet Hillary's mother, and Hillary thanks them effusively for that. Bill goes out and introduces the Rolling Stones, and then the movie gets 12 times better!

They show the footage of the concert in New York not at an arena but a place that can hold 100s of people (The Beacon). The concert is highlighted by the guest stars. Buddy Guy singing "Champagne and Reefer" with the band, Jack White singing with them "Lovin Cup", and Christine Aguilera singing "Live w/ Me". My 7 year old daughter was outstanding company watching the movie with me, and she made me replay Jack White and the Stones doing "Lovin' Cup". I was sooooo proud of her!

Another thing that made the movie excellent was that they had cuts of the band when they were 40 yrs, 30 yrs younger. The interviews were very inciteful and illuminating. At one point, Mick is asked by the interviewer, "Can you see playing with the Stones when your 60s, Mick?" "Oh yeah, easily", Mick replies. Good choice, Mick.

I strongly recommend seeing the movie. Just skip the 1st 20 minutes of it.

Correction

When I heard the news, I was just thinking about deleting the last post and not saying anything. However, that's not being very open. I sent the outrageous picture shown yesterday to some of my co-workers. One of my co-workers went to the website that was shown on that awful sign. He found out from the website that you are able to put any message on that board that you want. So, actually someone wrote that message as a joke/gag, and then sent it to someone else. Then, one of the members in my support group saw it and took it seriously which is what I did, too.

So basically you could go to that same website and type in something nice instead like, "R2 loves Amel" and it would show up on that "cyberbillboard" with that Baptist Church in the background.
So, this blog has posted its first correction, sorry for not being more thorough.

this weekend, parents, Brianna

I received word a month ago that Dad was in bad shape mentally and that it looked like he had Alzheimers. It didn't seem that way when we were there. (But my brother who told me sees Dad more than I). My older brother did say he has bad and good days, and he has already been getting tests for his memory. So, I'm not sure what to think.

It's interesting to see the interaction between Mom & Dad. I can't fault too much of it their marriage has lasted 61 years and counting and I couldn't even get ours to last a decade. Still, it bothers me some the way he orders Mom around the house. I was hoping if he was actually "out of it" then he was not giving so many orders to Mom. It really was a different mindset between man and woman back in the 1940s when they 1st got together.

Anyway, things are back to normal and all the bags are all unpacked. My WalMart transaction hasn't shown up on my checking account statement so I am hoping and praying that I can get my paycheck into the band on time tomorrow and they will credit that before they credit the electronic Walmart transaction. It still makes me angry that I was weak enough to buy the shoes. Even though they were not that much money (less than $30) it still would be enough to put my checking account into an overdraft, so I could've waited. Someday, I'm going to write an essay on how our financial condition seems to "define" us!

Also, Brianna has learned to tie her shoes. She ties them loosely, however, and so she has to keep tying them (practice). I just hope and pray that she doesn't lose heart and give up on tying shoes. So far so good. It is NOT an easy skill to teach! Now if we can just get her to tie them tightly rather than loosely.

unreal !!

Having the Governors at the Florida conference gather around and hear in rapt attention what Sarah Palin has to say is akin to a bunch of big business CEOs take advice from a precocious 9 year old!

I still have the JONES!!

I am a political junkie and operated under a large amount of stress last week, then euphoria and now apprehension. The apprehension is a new Congress and a new President make the nation appreciably better is NOT guaranteed.

So, I'm nervous about how all this will turn out. Also, I continue to apprehensively watch news shows. & instead of getting angry with Johm McCain and Sarah Palin, now I'm made at hostile journalists. I still am jonesing for news and have all these questions: is Obama safe? is he going to succeed? what are his opponents up to (both inside and outside the nation)? What in the world is going to happen??!!??

George Will, a conservative commentator, was on the TV, got up, and asked, "Can I tell you 3 reasons why Republicans should still be happy?"

"NO YOU CAN'T, ASSHOLE!", I shouted at the TV and promptly switched it off.

Watched a program on CNN. This Journalist who I don't know the name of and don't give a damn to find out was questioning Obama hiring Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff. So he asks, "If Obama is such a "man of the people" why does he have a pit bull (Emmanuel) guarding the White House door?"

So I shout back at the tv,

"Because a Chief of Staff has to make sure the staff of the White House is on task, competent and not 'off message'. The role of Chief of Staff in this case also relates to making certain demands on Congress which will need to be done, obviously. The idea that Emmanuel is tough and disciplined is recognized by friend and foe alike. The dumbass journalist is not smart enough to understand that Emannuel being Chief of Staff does absolutely nothing to take away the President's "man of the people" perception!"

This all brings up a very interesting point. Everyone was so enthralled with this bald moron from Ohio called Joe the Plumber. Joe the Plumber stated that Barack Obama was going to betray Israel and allow its enemies to attack the nation. So Obama hires Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff, who is a Jew. It's indisputable that Emmanuel holds a very important position in the Obama White House. Furthermore, Emmanuel is someone who Obama has been friends/political associates for quite awhile. So does anyone with any common sense really believe the stupid, ignorant beliefs that Joe the Plumber spouted off about Obama & Israel. I hope not. Let's hope that Joe the Plumber's 15 minutes of fame are up. However, his unfair remark is just a series of unfair remarks that Obama will be subject to during his presidency.

UPDATE: I found a solution to my "jones" problem. I am going to get a subscription to The New Republic. I used to have a subscription but had to save a little money. It's not too expensive.

praising the young

I wrote to about 8 or 9 college student newspapers from North Carolina, Indiana, and Ohio. It's possible I might write a few more letters to students in Virginia.

Anyway, people ages 18-21, college age students have been counted out and taken for granted for many years in politics. The view is that since they are the age group with the lowest proportion of voting, that it doesn't matter if they are opposed to a certain issue or not.

But this election was different. College age students turned out to vote (mostly for President - Elect Obama) in record numbers. They made an impact in the very close elections in places like the states listed above. It made me proud of this age group. So I wrote a letter of congratulations to them and praised them for participating. Maybe it should have been expected all along, but I don't agree with that. It's actions by these young people for the better, and that deserves praise!

HE WON! A truly special night!

At long last, the people have spoken!!! My candidates won and the hope is that the bad times Americans have suffered (especially economically) will all be a bad dream 4 years from now. There are no guarantees on that, however.

I am happy that Obama triumphed over a couple of below average candidates in McCain & Palin. There are more than 3 reasons that make me truly happy to be on the winning side.

First, I'm sick to death of the Republicans 2-word panacea (in other words, solution to every problem): TAX CUTS. Republicans love to criticized Democrats for their "tax and spend" policies. What about the Republicans "borrow and bury" policies? Republicans hate raising taxes, so when they inevitably spend more than they tax, they borrow money. As a result, (and this is the important part) American taxpayers pay money on the interest. So instead of the Democrats spending $4 million on a tank, Republicans spend almost $5 million on the same exact tank because Americans also have to pay interest on the money they borrow. There is no "pay as you go" with Republicans, and suc a disastrous policy could not come at a worse time. More and more "Baby Boomers" are going to retire and the amount the United States spends on Social Security will jump astronomically in the next 2 decades.

We need to somehow get the tax money to meet such expense. We will get that with a Democratic president and Congress. Secondly, the Bush administration and his ilk have had a dreadful, godawful, loathsome environmental record. It will be nice to see an administration reverse course on being better stewards of our earth.

Third, we will get a better balanced judicial branch. A president appoints federal judges. We have had more Republican presidents in the last 20 yrs. than we have had Democrat. We have too many who are too conservative. It led to a mistaken decision in the Supreme Court in 2000 when the Supreme Court stopped cold the voting/counting process in Florida in Bush v. Gore.

At 8:25 pm, I knew and later learned the McCain camp learned the race was for all intents & purposes over. When Pennsylvania went to Obama earlier and then at 8:25 Ohio also went to Obama, that was the one-two punch that put the Republicans prostrate on the canvas.

I'm a little nervous. All eyes are on Democrats as they lead Congress and we have a Democratic President Elect. If things go South, it will be blamed on the Democrats. I hope that Obama's ideas take root and grow among the people. I hope we can get a handle on the budget deficit, end the war in Iraq, and reverse course on the environment.

Where will all this change lead Americans? An anxious nation and an anxious world awaits!

I really want to congratulate all of the voting 18 and 19 year olds, all of the voting 20somethings college or non-college who got out and voted. Those awesome young people helped win this election for a very worthy candidate. People from 18 to 29 have never gotten much respect from politicians and political experts b/c it's so rare for people of that age group to finally, at long last flex their political muscle! It was so inspiring to see that young men and women intelligently recognized how crucial this election was and used their power to support Obama and other Democrats. I can hardly wait to see what brilliant minds will come from their age group to lead this nation in the future.

You could see, feel and be inspired by the happiness of the accomplishment tonight. The faces of many minorities in the crowd at Grant Park, Chicago. They fully realized that together no problem was too big and nearly anything positive was possible. In fact, as much as I liked seeing and hearing Barack Obama tonight, I was more energized by the pictures/footage of the crowd. The look of sheer joy, the feeling of euphoria and the confidence of triumph. Seeing Oprah cry tears of joy, seing Rev. Jesse Jackson, a presidential candidate crying not once but twice. More than a few of us cried tears of joy as well.

It's within our hands to solve some serious problems. Working together, we can do no less!

I voted

I got up 1/2 hour early to go and vote. I waited in line 15 minutes (no complaint there!) to vote. I felt happy, but still nervous and anxious. Rachel Maddow explained why there are still concerns. For instance, Virginia is a very important state and they simply aren't equipped or prepared for the big turnout. That may lead to chaos and disorder. & chaos and disorder and lower amount of people voting favors Republicans (CRINNNNNNNGGGGGGE).

The first picture was supposed show clearly the words "I voted", oh well, you get the idea. In the other picture, you get to see the place where I work. (No, I'm not impressed either! lol).

UPDATE: I've learned that there are already problems with the voting today, especially in the very important state of Virginia. Stories include: man hit power poll and knocked out all power for the electrical voting devices, a person who was supposed to open the location where voters vote overslept so that polling place opened about an hour late, and of course, long lines abound all over Virginia. John McCain's staff has sued Virginia and accusing the state of not counting military/overseas soldiers' voting. If this becomes a close, contested vote like 2000, watch for Republicans falsely accusing Democrats/governmental leaders of suppressing the vote of the military. The military vote is conservative and bolsters the Republican vote. This was one of the battle cries in Florida back in the sad, bad election year 2000.

I continue to be worried and optimistic all at once that we find out Obama won by 8pm, CST, but there's no indication whether or not that will happen!

UPDATE: It's 3:00 pm., CST, and I'm a "hot ham & cheese MESS"! That's slang for a person who is very nervous, angry or in some animated condition. I'm not angry, but my nerves are screaming and growing through my skin begging and pleading for some news or information about the progress of this election. & obviously, right now, there's nothing to report. In 3 - 3 1/2 more hours, we will finally get some information as to what in the world is going on in Virginia. Right now, as a major political junkie, I am "jonesing" for a fix (a fix for conclusive political information), and there is just no fix to be had.

doing something beneficial

My youngest, Brianna, who just turned 7, doesn’t do many things with me alone. Why? Because, if I’m alone with any of my kids, it’s Ted and usually we are all doing things together. However, yesterday was different. We decided to walk on the bike/walking trail. I was pleasantly surprised at 2 things: how good of a time we had and the fact I got a better workout then I anticipated. Brianna decided that it wasn’t good enough to simply walk on the trail. So, there were times she decided to run. I am glad that she’s only 7 and not 14, because I would not have been able to keep up with her. But with Bri, I kept up just fine although I was huffing and puffing.
But it was funny, because Brianna was completely in charge! She decided when we would start running and stop running! I simply followed along. The picture is her on the trail. I live in Cook County, Illinois and Cook County has more miles of walking/bike trails than anywhere in the United States. We were on an oval that was 3.3 miles long. We walked about ½ of it and then we crossed the street, to a lagoon and saw all the ducks and geese.
We spent about an hour walking and when she asked how far we walked, I told her about 2 miles. It was a very enjoyable time. I’m glad I was able to burn off a few calories I have gained eating Halloween candy. The best thing is we will be doing that again next weekend!

She asked a rather endearing question. "Daddy, why do people keep smiling at me?"

"Because they like seeing your beauty and innocence," I replied.

important statistic & the election

When President Clinton was in office from 1993-2001, the average American family gained $7,500 from the beginning of his term to the end.
While George Bush has been president, the average American family HAS LOST $2,000 from 2001 to the present time.

I can't complain about election coverage or the way the election is going. There has been some criticism of the media for being too positive with Obama and too negative against McCain. They have counted more negative stories about McCain than Obama. However, one journalist said it best, "If McCain is running a lousy campaign and we don't show that or report that, then we are biased against Obama."

If there was one thing that I don't like it's that journalists and everyone else is trying to create false suspense. They are saying that the election is closer than it appears. McCain, they say, could still win it. Yea, right! 1st he has to win Pennsylvania and the polls have him up by over 10% points. Very big lead to overcome. Obama is going into Republican states to campaign while McCain is desperately trying to hold onto those same states. But the journalists have been coming up with all these scenarios that he could win. One is that people don't want to look racist so they tell the pollster that they will vote for Obama and then turn around and vote for McCain. But pollsters are getting wise to that & ask questions that will uncover bias which they then factor into the results.

Anyway, I enjoyed the joint appearance by Clinton and Obama last night in Florida. That's where I got the statistic to open this post. I'm also really happy to hear Obama give Clinton credit to how much better our nation was in the 90s.

I don't know... maybe I should take these reports of a close election seriously. But the problem is that the thought of McCain winning after Obama has opened up this lead makes me too angry to think about. IT's bad to lose elections especially to a guy as devious and underhanded as Bush. But to lose after being ahead is just too much to take. I think if McCain wins, I'm going to go on a prolonged, violent attack against certain conservative targets. It's going to make my pyro escapades the night Reagan was re-elected in 1984 look tame in comparison.

Well, lets just pray that don't happen!! The nation needs a decent president and so does the world!! We deserve a helluva lot better than a Bush retread.

I like this guy

I read a really good article/bio about Keith Olberman a newsman at MSNBC. So, I have been checking him out a couple times ever since. I like hearing what he has to say. I guess I can almost empathize with someone on the other end of the political spectrum saying that they like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. After all, if there is a guying saying things that you really agree with, you will probably enjoy hearing them talk.

I enjoyed what he had to say last night for instance and the cravenness that Fox Network had tried to capitalize on their coverage of the woman who said she was accosted by a black man from the Obama campaign and had a "B" scrawled on her face. This woman finally confessed that this didn't happen, and that she had beat herself up and scratched the B on her face to get publicity (how does someone do that).

Now I hear that he has a "political soulmate" named Rachel Maddow, and since she also agrees with my views, it looks like I will be watching more of them in the future. She comes on right after he ends his broadcast of "Countdown".

The chances are very good that there will be more Democrats in Congress and that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. So the "hope" I spoke of in my Intro part of my blog is being replaced by happiness and optimism. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas only my day to "open the presents" is going to be November 4! I will right more about this when the results are official.

The kids and I are going to take part in the history and hopefully go to Grant Park for Obama's election rally. The only thing holding us back is trying to get a ticket quick enough, and the difficulty in either getting the kids on the train or downtown by car. It would really be great to take part in history rather than reading about it.

season over

Ted has been playing ball on Sundays for the Oak Forest 49ers since the last wk. of August., and today was the last game of the year. They were winless, the team they played today was undefeated. So they lost 28-0. Ted's team was smaller, slower and inexperienced than that team and all the other teams they played too. They were decent on defense, but poor on offense. They had a very difficult time achieving any consistency on offense. When there was good blocking the running backs would run to the wrong place (they were only 3rd graders as running backs). When they ran to the right place there was no blocking.

But there were some bright moments. Ted played nearly every snap of every game. He did a pretty good job today. They played the same team last week, and he was up against a kid bigger and tougher than him and he ended up hurting his legs and his back. He was so sore he missed school on Monday and missed Tuesday's practice. But today, he came out of the game unscathed.

Anyway, I am showing a picture of the back of his helmet. His awards are either "Pows" or "footballs". He gets a Pow for stopping the ball (he pulls off a flag rather than tackling the ball carrier). He got a football for achievement on offense like snapping the ball back to the QB flawlessly (Ted was the center), the team's only TD or blocking well on a given play.

Ted is reading this too. & he would like to point out that he would have gotten a lot more Pows but they ran out 2 games ago. So he would have received 6 or 7 more than what appears in this picture. Also, he would have had 2 more footballs on his helmet too.

poor MB

I feel sorry for MB, b/c she didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Her father couldn’t go to dialysis and has been filling up with fluid and that makes it harder for him to breathe. Plus, he’s also got pneumonia so she was up for awhile hearing him breathe then finally she called the ambulance.

It was annoying, b/c the paramedics in the ambulance wanted to ask her dad a bunch of questions to verify he wanted to actually go to the hospital. Then, he made it worse by saying he had no problems breathing. So that led to more questions, finally with MB’s blunt warnings, they concluded it was a good idea to take him to the hospital. It’s usually a good idea to take someone to the hospital if they can actually hear how hard it is for someone to breathe (Don’t you think??? Duh!)

The illness has also made him confused. Maribeth got home at 6:15 after being up all night, then a ½ hour later, she got a call from the hospital. First a nurse talked to her, and then her dad got on the phone. He said, “Guess what Maribeth? I’m in the hospital!”

Resolved

I was upset with my older brother at the content of his political e-mails sent (I think it's reasonable to assume that he agrees with what was said, b/c that's what he said!)

Later, however, he complemented me for the way I presented my view compared to his.

So that was very gracious of him, and I complimented him for that. We promptly changed the subject in our e-mails and talked about my oldest son instead.

So, in the last post in this blog, I was being sarcastic and not trying to take things too seriously, but now it's even less important.

The chances of Barack Obama and a more Democrats in Congress are growing. I am happy about that but I am not too exuberant, b/c it would be foolish to make all sorts of predictions only to see them proven false on election day.

I love my family, but they're wrong

So, Thursday, I receive this political screed from my well-to-do older brother. He forwards something that some idiot from Maine wrote stating that those who give money to Democrats during this election might as well "Fed Ex a grenade launcher to the terrorists".
Then today, I get an e-mail from one of 2 sisters (no, not the one who deliberately ignores me, but the other, more intelligent one). In it, I read from some other political screed that if I vote for Obama, I am going against God. As much as I really hate to admit it, that e-mail hurts worse than the one that my brother sent.
I wrote back to both. The screed that my sister sent also noted that Obama is suspect because he was once supported by Jeremiah Wright. I told her that by that standard, all Catholics should be held under suspicion because our leader, the Pope, idiotically states that married couples who use condoms are sinning.
Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.
So one day my brother insults me, the next day my sister insults me, I insult both of them back so I was just thinking about the future.

At the rate I'm going, I'll probably not even get the satisfaction of seeing Barack Obama win the election. No, instead I'll probably get run over and killed after I vote for Obama in the morning of Nov. 4 by one of those asshole cab drivers in Chicago running a red light, then promptly go to hell (hey that's what the e-mail insinuates anyway), then in the final coup de gras, some person will piss on my grave and write TERRORIST with a big black magic marker on my tombstone.
It's been nice knowing everyone. Don't worry, I'll try to avoid all this mess; I'm going to confession within the next 10 days. Please pray for me!
Thanks.
Good bye.

witty speech from insignificant me

A few of you may be here for one of the 1st times b/c I told you to check out my political entry. That would be the entry BEFORE this one.

I belong to the St. Damian Men's Club, we are a philanthropic organization that helps the parochial school and the church groups and the Oak Forest community. So we had a free dinner tonight in appreciation of the members of the group and their lovely wives/significant others/ domestic partners, and Maribeth couldn't go b/c she had the common cold.


It's really amazing how far you can go by just paying attention. The average age of the Men's Club is 65. So the women were that old too. But I was amazed at how many kept themselves "up" and they looked great! So since I am the Vice President of the group I got up. Giving a speech, I said, "I haven't seen this many good looking women in one place since the Miss USA pageant!!!" There's was a big whoop and cheer, and since we got some sharp people in the group, someone yelled out, "What year was the pageant"? That was so funny b/c it was dead on w/ reality.

Then I added how happy I was to see so many new faces b/c the only way the group will have a good future is with young men taking the place of a group of men leaving the group b/c they are in their 70s and 80s.

It was a short, concise happy speech which picked up the mood of the crowd of 70 and even picked up my sour mood too after some person insinuated that I was a terrorist just b/c I would rather fall off a 10,000 ft. cliff than vote Republican.

All Reactionaries can fuck off!

an exchange of 2 opposing political views

1st e-mail:

I am very scared for our nation as we have gotten so soft and liberal. I believe if Obama get in for president that we are in the end times. I feel very badly for what we have left our children.

My reply e-mail:

Nonsense, (name withheld) I am damn glad that we are going to have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. You make it sound like Obama is some Godless twerp. Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents we've had since Warren Harding. It's not right when his rich friends lobby and make laws that are lax on the environment. Bush was way, way, way behind figuring out that allowing cars to burn gas for the forseeable future is a great thing. The state he led, Texas, before he was president had cities with the worst smog in the nation. The United States, among the world, is not the leader or the beacon in saving the environment. It used to be!!

Reasonable minds can disagree on Iraq. I don't agree with leaving Iraq on January 20, as some would think Obama would (HE WON'T!!). But the Iraq War was a mistake for 3 reasons: we were, in fact, misled to believe that there were weapons for mass destruction, (2) we lost over 4,000 of our finest men and women and that was a shame (3) more effort in Iraq means less effort in Afganhistan. Anyone who pays attention knows that Democrats favor the war in Afganhistan. (THereby proving the idea that Democrats are soft on terrorism is B.S.)

I once was a Republican and believed the bill of goods Reagan tried to sell us. But I stopped in 1982. What I've learned over the years is that Republican presidents favor going billions and billions of dollars more than what this nation needs in national defense all the while deprive poor people programs and opportunities to improve. I will never support a party like that. I will never support a party that hates the minimum wage.

Here's a dirty little secret that you and other Republicans fail to acknowledge. Republican businessmen love to proclaim how hard they worked for the wealth they earned. Well, the fact is poor people work hard too (surprise)! There are many people, as we speak, working 2 jobs, work 50-60 hrs. a week and getting a crappy wage with no insurance. They, their children and their community suffers as a result. & the answer ISN'T TAXING THEM LESS, JUST AS THE PROBLEM OF TOO FEW PEOPLE HAVING INSURANCE IS LESS TAXES. That's the most weak, ineffective solution there is!

You may have heard of a President by the name of Clinton. Oh, of course, you know that he got impeached and lied and committed adultery. Yes, yes shame on him for that. But you probably forgot the part where he raised the taxes of the wealthy in 1993 and then our nation had the longest sustained prosperity in our nation's history. He balanced the budget and that led to the prosperity. But don't take my word for it. Listen to Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman during the Bush, Clinton and Junior Bush early adm. Oh and by the way Alan Greenspan is a REPUBLICAN!! He gave Clinton credit for balancing the budget and trimming the national debt (which is double; thanks to Bush and the Republicans in Congress when they were in the majority). He said that trimming the national debt led to prosperity. Yes, it wasn't the only reason but it was a MAJOR contributor.

Republican love to deride Democrats about how they tax and spend. Well, I hate the Republican "borrow and spend' policies. Think about it when we buy a tank or a machine gun for one of our courageous soldiers in Iraq on borrowed money, you know & I know the taxpayers pay for the price of the tank and gun and they pay the interest for borrowing the money. With Bill Clinton, we had a "pay as you go" government. You'd never hear that from a Republican. I could go on for 8 more pages, but that would really suck, wouldn't it? Let's face it. You are a businessman who hates high taxes, who believes in morality and capitalism. So you are a natural for supporting the Republicans. I don't hold that against you. What bothers me about you is when you support candidates who believe in borrow and spend policies, who waste billions of dollars to the Pentagon, and their actions show that they don't give a damn for the poor.

You had your 6 years of Republicans in Congress and the White House. In those 6 years, some things didn't go so well did they?? Guess what? it's our turn! Don't worry, someday we'll elect another Republican president. The Republicans are alive and well. I am a natural Democrat as I proudly work in the 3rd largest city of our nation, I walk past homeless people Monday through Friday on my way to work. I have struggled and cut costs trying to balance a budget. I am an employee not a boss.

So (name withheld), if you ever tout your political views to me, I promise you a very spirited response. If you still want to do that, great. I respect, but don't agree with your views. Also, I believe and assume that you are a very good boss. You told me in the past you provide your employees health insurance. Good for you. If more bosses treated their employees like you, _____, we might not have some of the laws protecting employees as we do now. The fact is that there is a certain minority of bosses that ruin it for others and have to be stopped.

Let's clear a few more things up. Not all Democrats believe in abortion. THe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is against abortion. I am against abortion in most cases. Democrats are for a strong national defense and applaud the policies Bush carried out against Afganhistan until he went to war against Iraq and depleted forces in Afganhistan. There are moral Democrats. Barack Obama is a church going, happily married man. He's a Christian, NOT A MUSLIM, as a few of those redneck Republicans would have us believe. If Obama cheated on his wife, don't you think with how intrusive the media is we would know about it? Clearly Fox's "fair and balanced news" (not) would have dug up something by now. I never thought that Republicans were evil or stupid. I do however, question/disagree with Republicans' policies and their national priorities.

tell Karen Knudsen that I have her card

A few nights ago, I was walking the 2/3 of a mile to the train. Below the curb laying on Adams Street by LaSalle Street was something that looked like a credit card. I picked it up and it was an employee ID. The company was The Human Resources Services Group, and proclaimed that I had some of their property by holding on to her ID.

I want her to have her card back. I googled the above company but the results were not helpful. I guess the thing to do now is Google "Karen Knudsen." Wish me luck finding her. & if you know her please let her know I have her ID and would be happy to give it back. I feel bad for her, b/c I know what it's like to lose something important and all the inconvenience associated with replacing the possession lost. I remember one time I was carrying $200. Now, that was a very, very rare event. I usually carry a sum of $20 or less. Carrying $200 was an event that happens .000001% of the time. I'm not exaggerating that much. I made the mistake of wearing a fall jacket with shallow pockets in it. I was pick pocketed and gone was the $200. My wife understandably raised some hell and even cried about it because obviously to a struggling family, $200 is a lot of money.

& Karen, if we don't meet, and I can't give your ID back, I keenly feel your pain.

sometimes I wonder

I've seen a pattern with blogs and writing on my depression support group. I will be so upset that I'm compelled to write. So I do, and some of the remarks, observations made seem a bit "edgy" maybe even "outrageous".

Then, sometimes as soon as 24 hours later, after a decent night's rest, I don't feel so upset. Then I wonder if what I said was too outrageous, too overwrought. Of course, if I never showed my feelings, this would be a pretty damn boring blog.

For example, two days ago, I used the analogy of a finger being cut off and being upset. It would be a mistake to think that I believe that what I'm going through is as bad as getting a finger cut off. It was just an analogy. I actually know someone who has had their finger cut off, and I know for a fact that man has gone through more horrors than I could ever imagine. & I'm sure some of you knew what I meant already.

Still, I worry that I'm being a bit of a "drama queen". That's not the intention. It's a really fine line that a blogger must deal with anytime he writes about him or herself. If you write about how happy you are and your accomplishments, there are those who think you are "tooting your own horn" and that you are a tiresome bore. The triumphal Christmas card from an overbearing family comes immediately to mind.

Then, if you bemoan your problems, then people think you should get off your ass and stop whining so much (because it's getting annoying).

I don't know if I handle that dilemma very well or not. What do you think?

a story and a money saving dilemma

Here is a story and a problem I often think about.

There was a baseball player named Mordecai Brown. He was a great pitcher and played for the Chicago Cubs. He was so great that the Chicago Cubs won a championship with him. The fans here in Chicago have been thinking a lot about the time Brown helped the Cubs win the World Series for them. It was in 1908, a hundred yrs. since they last won the championship.

Mordecai Brown was very unique, b/c he was born with only three fingers on the hand that he pitched with. They nicknamed him “3-Fingered” Brown and rarely called him Mordecai. Brown accepted the nickname, b/c in those days everyone had nicknames. People marveled that a man with one less finger than others could pitch so well. They used to ask him, “Isn’t it hard to pitch with 3 fingers?!?” He said, “No, because I was born with only 3 fingers on that hand. I’m obviously used to it.”

This story points out a very important lesson. You don’t miss what you never had. How many of you miss not living in a mansion? Not very many of you. However, if you have something and it gets taken away, then we really miss it!! I would like it if our household got rid of cable TV. The problem is that Maribeth and my 3 kids would definitely miss cable TV.

I’m in a dilemma, because as much as our household saves money, we still come up a little short when we pay for bills. We rarely go out to eat, and on the rare occasion we do, it’s to McDonalds. We always do our laundry at my father-in-law’s place rather than pay $2 for laundry at our condo. (bless my FIL’s heart! He’s helped us in so many ways!!) We don’t order out for pizza. We don’t rent movies like we used to. We don’t subscribe to as many magazines as we used to. We make our meals at home and then we eat them at work, we don’t go and plunk down $10 to eat lunch somewhere. We NEVER go clubbin’ and haven’t for well over a decade.

But if that’s not enough, the idea is to do more cost cutting. If we got rid of cable TV, we would save $50,$60 a month (enough to pay another bill). But if we got rid of cable Maribeth and our kids would raise holy Hell! They wouldn’t get to watch Cartoon Network and Maribeth wouldn’t be able to watch The Closer and Law & Order. I wouldn’t give a damn whether we have cable or not. But MB pays the cable, so I don’t have the power to get rid of it. Plus, it’s probably still not enough to solve our bill-paying problem.

So how far does one have to go to live an ascetic lifestyle? Should we all go around eating peanut butter sandwiches for most of our meals? Should we walk everywhere within 1 mile to save on gas (even when it’s raining)? Should we skip all snacks to save on the grocery bill? Should we avoid all plays, school productions, Market Days to save all sorts of money? Should we both work 60 hours a week and stop seeing and parenting our kids so much, but we’ll earn a lot more money? Should we stop our subscription to the Chicago Tribune, and get the same paper out of the trash for free? Should we go “dumpster diving” like some families do if it meant that we no longer suffer the anguish of overdraft fees and late charges?

Now you and I know the answer to the last 3 questions, but it still makes me wonder. We are used to living an easier, more pleasant lifestyle. It’s hard to cutback, so how much will we sacrifice?

I often come up with analogies about a certain situation or a certain plight.

I finally came up with one about the problem that bothers me most, my family’s financial situation. It’s a well known fact that many people are struggling to pay their mortgages, pay their bills, go into debt, lose their ass, etc. Here’s what it’s like:

It’s like a bunch of people walking around with diabetes, and the diabetes is the severe form because if we don’t make all the right moves we lose a limb. (That’s analogous to all the people with money problems.) So, I try hard and make 85% of the right moves, but since I haven’t made 95-100% of the right moves, then I’m forced to lose my right pinkie finger. But people come up to me and say, “It’s sad you lost a finger, but I know so many people who are losing arms, legs, one person I know lost all four limbs!!” Yet, I don’t agree with them at all. I feel bad that I lost my finger. I’m staring at my little lost appendage and thinking, “Damn, this is terrible! I tried hard not to lose this but I still did!”

The people who lose arms, legs, all 4 are analogous to the people who lose their cars, who are thrown out of their houses, go homeless, begging on the streets, are bankrupt. Yet, as hard as I work, it seems like I don’t deserve to lose my house. But then again, what did they do to deserve this?

Some updates

Wanted to give a few updates:

I have announced at the last meeting that I wouldn’t run for another term on my condo complex’s board of directors. After November 24, I will no longer be the President of the Board. It will be nice to not worry as much on how the condo is doing and there was stress when we had to pass a special assessment or had to raise assessments. I am happy that I was on the Board, and I think that I have helped a lot of people while I was first Secretary and then President of the Board. The proudest achievement was getting a very corrupt administrator of the complex out of there when we first started back in 2003.

Andy, my oldest son, is doing OK in school and we will continue to watch his progress and make sure he is doing his assignments in school. This will be vital, because it seems like 7th grade is more difficult than 6th grade was. He will definitely need to work harder than last year.

Ted is doing well in football and continues to play every minute of the football games. His team is younger and smaller than the other teams that they play, and they have not won any games yet. I hope they continue to learn and improve. They have 2 more games to go. They are playing the 1st place team and they will play the same team in the tournament. I doubt that they will win, because they other team is bigger and stronger. Hopefully, Ted and his teammates will not get hurt against this tough team.

Brianna and Ted both celebrated birthdays this past week. Brianna is now 7 and Ted is 10. (On December 4, Andy will be a teenager and celebrate his 13th birthday.) Brianna & Ted had fun celebrating their birthdays at the Hollywood arcade, a place where kids can have birthday parties.

Lately, things seem all right, and there is not as much reason to complain. I am also happy with the way the upcoming election is going for the United States. It looks as though November 4 will be a happy day as the candidates running for office have good chances in winning. But nothing is guaranteed and we won’t know until Nov. 4 what the outcome will be.

update on Andy

After reading the last post, I realized that I left out a very important part of Andy falling off the balcony. When Andy fell off the balcony, he was wearing his bike helmet. He was not trying to commit suicide. What he told me was that he was upset with MB & I, b/c we had disciplined him for lying to us about his homework. After I disciplined him that morning (& mind you it wasn't anything really harsh, I just made it clear that I wouldn't tolerate lying), he wanted to find out how much or if we cared about him so he jumped off the balcony.

Andy, in 4 days of hospitalization (psychiatric) and a week and a half of outpatient counseling is learning better coping skills.

Andy will be back to his normal school schedule on Thursday. His last day (& it's actually only less than 3 hours) at Children's Memorial Hosp. is tomorrow. Yesterday and today he has gone to the Arbor Park Middle School (his normal school) for an hour and then the rest of the day at Children's Memorial.

I was going through the coursework he missed in the 2 1/2 weeks he was out. It was multiplying decimals, dividing decimals and long division. Math is unique because skills you use 1 week are applied the next week. That's not really true of other subjects.

I discovered that Andy doesn't know long division. He can do problems like

72 divided by 8 =9

36 divided by 6 = 6

But he can't do problems like

723 divided by 8 = ____

452 divided by 2 = ____

So, I've been teaching him this. It's going to take awhile. I wonder how long it will take him to learn this??

I can't figure out why he didn't know this!! When I was ten and eleven, I worked on long division in both 5th and 6th grades. He told me that they worked on it some in 6th grade but he didn't do very well. He's in a good school district. I don't understand how this happened.

At any rate, he is going to be all right and we will work very hard to see that he does well in school.

be back later.....

I have been very busy and can't really blog hop and stay in touch with my dear blogging buddies or write any new posts.

The biggest problem is that my oldest son, Andy, jumped off our balcony at our condo. It was over a 20 ft. fall. He has no broken bones but they are trying to prevent such an incident from happening again. He is still in the hospital and will go 2 weeks to a transitional place before going back to school.

One of the problems is that he's having a tough time w/ 7th grade and his grades are worse than before. The other problem is that bigger kids bully him every now and then, but that's been going on for several years. It goes away for months, then it comes back. Then it goes away and comes back again. The transitional school will directly address better coping mechanisms and how to deal w/ bullying.



So I may cover this situation more later or I might talk about something else in a week or so.

Ted's in FOOTBALL!!

Ted, my 2nd son, has been doing very well in football. He's the biggest kid on his team. He was moved to center and got an award for snapping the football back to the quarterback without any fumbles. He plays everything: offense, defense and special teams. He plays every single minute of the game!

I hope he continues to improve. His team is not very good. They have the smallest team in the league. Oh well, Ted is doing well. He is very competitive. So when they lost 26-0 Sunday, he was very upset. I agree with him. I don't think it made any sense to console him or make him feel better. I want to encourage him to be competitive and hate losing. That's the type of attitude that will get you off your ass when bad times strike. That's the type of attitude that doesn't merely want to do a good job or average job, but an excellent job. That's the type of attitude that EMPLOYERS WANT!!

People say that in high school or grade school sports the object is not to win but to have a good time. I understand that view. But tell me something.....raise your hand if you ever enjoyed getting your ass kicked in a sport by over 20 pts. No hands? Yeah, I didn't think so.

It's fun winning, it's fun scoring and doing well. IT ISN'T FUN when you are losing, playing poorly, and getting your ass kicked!!

PS. In case you were wondering why Ted had black under his eyes, that is used to make you see easier in the sun. The idea is that when you rub that black stuff under your eyes you can see better even when the sun is in your eyes. I don't know how exactly, but hundreds of ball players use it every weekend.

The Beauty of a Deep Cut

How many of you out there have the Rolling Stones album LET IT BLEED? The 3rd track on it is a song you never hear on the radio called "Country Honk". It’s the earlier version of the better-known song "Honky Tonk Woman". Obviously, "Country Honk" is a country western version of "Honky Tonk Woman". All the things in this song are things I despise in Country Western music. My opinion is that Country Western music sucks. I used to have wake up at fuckin' 5:00 am and go to the barn & milk cows. & our local radio station that was barely worth a "fiddler's fuck" played Country Western music in the morning. "Country Honk" actually has a fiddle on it. The fiddle is DEFINITELY NOT my favorite musical instrument. But the fiddle played by Byron Berline in this song puts a sweet ole' shit-eatin' grin on my face. I LOVE THAT FIDDLE PART ON "COUNTRY HONK". Where fiddles usually suck on all those hayseed songs that I heard milking cows, well it works like mad on "Country Honk". You can just imagine them doing this song in the studio. The great fiddling virtuoso, Berline, standing there fiddling his ass off, while Mick is singing glibly and right along side him is "Keef" Richards playing acoustic guitar and a 20 yr. old guitar virtuoso, Mick Taylor (who just joins the band that year, 1969) playing SLIDE GUITAR alongside them all.

I love this song so much! & few people know about it b/c it never gets played on the radio unless it's some special program like "Midnight Album nightly special: LET IT BLEED by the Stones" or some program like that.
My favorite music is the deep cut. I will come back to this subject from time to time. There are some great deep cuts. "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" & "Party" both by Boston. "The Rover" by Led Zeppelin, "Different Strings" by Rush, "Glass Onion" and "Baby You're a Rich Man" both by the Beatles. the beauty of the DEEP CUT is that it's like a beautiful secret shared among only a few people. No one knows about the DEEP CUT except you and the few that also have that album. (I guess in the Beatles and Stones case it's not really "few")
The DEEP CUT plays into and proves my theory about mileage and songs. (Part of the theory is that some popular songs are played so much that they sound worse and worse b/c like an old car they deteriorate from overuse.) The DEEP CUT is like that car that is shined and polished and only driven a few hundred miles so that sweet beauty is in MINT CONDITION! & the sweetest, most sublime part is YOU ARE ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE WITH THE PRIVILEGE OF DRIVING THE CAR!!