Time out.

It’s time to pause and try to decipher yet another day at the office. My career. The place where I spend the majority of my time. Sometimes I’m awake enough to enjoy a fast pace engineering day. Sometimes, I’m not. Today, I’m not.

Beth had a tough day yesterday at her job. She was asked, once again, to speed things up. I’m very worried that once again, Beth’s round personality is being forced into a square hole. She wants to do her job, likes the work, the work place and her co-workers, but unless she figures out how to whittle off her round edges enough to fit in the square hole, the job may not be very long lasting.

That kept me up way too late. That and the pooches were totally into sleeping on top of me last night. I love the little critters, but damn I wish they didn’t sleep on our bed. Three big pit bulls (yeah, Bob still gets up on the bed) take up a lot of room. Add in the fact that August really likes to cuddle up behind my head, and the result is a pretty mediocre sleep.

I’m unclear on how the final debate last night will affect the vote just three weeks from now. That is not a lot of time for McSame to stage a comeback, but it may prove to be enough. He looked pissed off and nervous all night long. He wrote obsessively in his notepad all night. I’d love to actually see what he wrote. He blinked and rolled his eyes. He made dismissive noises. It was weird and ultimately creepy. Obama did not sink to McSame’s level. He stayed above the fray, and presented himself as cool and in charge. McSame at least twice denigrated Obama’s eloquence as an attempt to hide the intent of a statement. What a crock. McSame only heard what he wanted to hear, and to hell with the truth. But none of this will make a difference to the right wing noise machine. It’s still going to be 100% Ayers and Rev. Wright. This is especially true if the long standing republican tradition of voter suppression and out-right voter fraud works as well as it has in the past two presidential elections.

Lastly, I’m not a very popular person right now at home. August managed to chew out his stitches, and now has a gaping hole in his nut-less little scrotum. I called the vet, and was asked to bring him in asap this morning so she could see him in between surgeries. Beth is home today and tomorrow, so I called to let her know that now would be the time to bring the dog in. She was asleep (around 9:45 AM) and wasn’t happy about the time frame. I softly reminded her that not everyone works on a noon to midnight schedule. She supposedly got up, and hopefully she managed to get the dog in.

Maybe I’ll send her some flowers.

Peace.

Early morning, October 13, 2008. The election is winding down, but the outcome is still, in my mind, unsettled.

The McSame campaign has opened up the door for all that bubbling shit pile of racial bigotry to come oozing out at his campaign rallies. The expectant father worried about the safety of his unborn fetus if Obama is elected due to his sympathy for terrorists. The addled old lady (who we only see from the back so we can all note her rat's nest hair) mouthing the words "....he's an Arab" and watching McSame grab the microphone out of her hand an offering a lame rebuttal that he's a good man and he's not Arab. The yells of "TERRORIST" and the surprisingly fey "OFF WITH HIS HEAD" from the rabid McSame crowd leave a lot of people wondering where this whole thing went wrong.

I actually know where this did go wrong. It's a result of a campaign that has lost all of its moorings, and has no other message to offer. It's a return to the same old shit of impugning the character of your opponent rather than facing down the issues. It also plays to that portion of the populace that is very concerned that Obama is not, wait for it, white. Hell, Para Salin has already dropped the bomb that Sen. Obama is not really like one of us. Who's us, white lady?

For the first time this year, it was actually kind of a necessity to wear a jacket between the dash from the parking structure to our building. It is beautiful. Nice sleeping weather, with daytime highs in the upper 60's to 70's, a day/night swing of about 35 degrees. This is truely the nicest time of the year.

Work has been about the same, some successes but mostly just tedium. It's been extremely helpful to have Beth's income, and this time around, we are not going to squander it. With the uncertainty in the financial markets, we need to make sure we're saving some coin.

OK, onward. I want to spend some time composing a political post and organize some more memoir based posts.

I was flashing on the memory yesterday of standing in my folks' den for Sheri's first marriage. Wow. I was maybe 19 or 20. That was so long ago, and so much has happened, mostly bad, in my sister's life since then. More on that in later posts.

We need to go travel soon. I'm still trying to get out to San Diego so I can see if I still know how to scuba. Joseph will be a very good dive buddy, and it'd be a hoot to go get wet (or dry, depending if I get to use my dry suit).

Peace.