So how do I justify my resentment to giving my sister holiday gifts?

A back story is warranted. Said sister has had a drug/personality disorder problem since her early adolescence. She went through a couple of marriages, one of which was a jailhouse wedding, while both parties were doing time for armed robbery. When she was out of jail, she tortured our mother by alternatively begging and then threatening mom for money. Always $20, and always for drugs.

When I got married, during our rehearsal dinner, said sister and her "friend" broke into my parents house and stole money, checks and jewelry.

Once my parents passed away, and after the sister got out of jail for the last time, it was now my turn to watch over her. Needless to say, her time with me could be characterized as tough love, but minus the love part.  I forced her in any way I could to be as self sufficient as possible and maybe make some positive choices in her usual cork-in-a-stream lifestyle. The end result was her spending almost a year in a local homeless shelter until the shelter's social workers managed to get her signed up for SSI disability payments.

That SSI allowed her to have and maintain a small apartment at a local low income complex. Sounds great, until she let some low-life hang out in her apartment (drugs again) with the result that her apartment became infested with bed bugs. Around this time, her already frail health took a major turn for the worst, as her COPD prevented her from navigating the single flight of stairs to get into and out of her infested apartment. Rescue was called, and she was taken to the hospital for what would become an extended stay in intensive care, rehab, and ultimately an assisted living facility. When her abandoned apartment was finally cleaned out, we lost a lot of bedbug-infested family keepsakes that she had managed to take from our parent's house.

So now sister is a resident of a fairly nice assisted living facility that is thankfully paid for in full by SSI and Medicare/Medicade. She has been on hospice for over a year now as her COPD has basically rendered her bed bound and almost helpless.

So this brings us to the 2017 holiday season. Sister calls several times every week on the phone I bought her (service through Life Link) to ask for things and to tell me how shitty she feels. She has recently escalated her requests because it's Xmas. And here I sit trying to be gracious to a person that has never done anything for anyone else.

Anything I do for her is because I am trying to be compassionate to a very unfortunate human being. It has nothing to do with being related to her. Both of us were adopted, and by the luck of the draw, she and I were thrown together and raised by the same family. We are certainly a case example for nature v. nuture. I'm not saying I didn't and don't have my issues, but I have managed to not spend almost 20 years behind bars. And with that said, every once-in-a-while I need to tamp down the resentment and memories of how cruelly she has treated my entire family.

A lot of these emotions are tied into the general expectations that come with this time of the year. Hopefully, with the New Year on the horizon, I can once again help sister out with a feeling of basic compassion without the deep down resentment.

Yeah, right.

Six years + since my last post here.

Let's dust off the blog and post an update.

My career as an engineer is, probably most certainly, over. Done. Kaput. The Water Utility Authority did me in. It ended with somewhat of a conflict, with me going up against my POS boss and telling him, as befits my advanced age (60!!) to go fuck himself.  Felt pretty good.

Hey. Quick note. A right wing blog I regularly visit if for nothing more than the well written doomsday parables (w/the exception of the deHann) talked about the "well mannered GOP" since they were'nt divulging individual members run-ins w/brick wielding protestors. Except for Eric Cantor.

Oh well, too bad he made the whole shit up. What a maroon. Kind of reminds me of the last tale of WMD's. That worked out well, didn't it.

GObama!

Year one of the Obama administration. My grade to the Prez.....maybe a C.

He needs to govern the way he campaigned. He needs to get rid of Geithner, Emmanual, Bernanke and Rubin. Why is it any surprise that the Dems are loosing their identity by acting like Republican Lights?

Now's the time Mr. Prez. Stand up and kick some ass. Get rid of the clowns in your administration that want to appease the right wing. Make a move on unemployment and make the banks accountable for their raping of our economy.

And lastly, and probably most importantly, END THESE WASTEFUL UNNECESSARY WARS that are bankrupting our country and killing thousands of innocent people.

ENOUGH!!

Just a quick update...

I just received word that I have a new job here at the Water Utility...Section Head for Utility Development and Development Coordination. It involves a nice raise and should put my design background to good use.

I've been wondering why General McCrystal, who will live in some infamy as the man that lead the Pat Tillman cover up, is still in charge of anything? Does running an unsuccessful cover up to make the Commander-in-Thief look good qualify a person to run a war?

The right wing noise and whining has reached a crescendo with the release of the "climategate" emails. LOL, certainly much ado about very little. I also get a small bit of gratification realizing that any obfuscation that may have gone on was in direct response to the incessant ranting and gnashing of teeth from the ill-informed and terrified "denial" side of the aisle.

Our pooch Bob died this morning sometime around 10. As is often the case, his health deteriorated very quickly in past month or so. He had wasted from his full grown weight of 70 lbs. down to probably less than 50. Bob died in the same room he was born, and with his passing, our Pearl the perfect Pit Bull generation comes to an end. Vaya con Perro mi amigo! It amazes me how much it hurts when we loose one of our loved companions.

It's Blasphemy Day everyone!! So, Allan Damn all the gods/prophets/soothsayers and other products of human imagination that have done nothing but limit our race's progress and tolerance.

This goes double for all the child-buggering woman-abusing clergy that represent various world wide religions. You all SUCK!!

There. Pretty weak compared to other posts involving poetry, pictures and actual eucharist defacement, but it still counts.

Peace.

BTW, I'm getting really tired of hearing all the shit from the right wing and my previously progressive friends that are still holding financial considerations above health care for US citizens.

I think I need to post this. The Wilson outburst was planned and executed to attract attention away from Obama's message.

I'm also worried about friends of mine that think the tea-bagger movement is somehow refreshing. In summary, the tea-baggers seem to be some of the most ignorant citizens in this country. Period. Birther/deniers/pseudo-libertarian white trash. Good, I said it out loud.

Planed and executed.

In light of the outing of Van Jones as a "9/11 Truther", I have to wonder where the line is drawn on the acceptance of bat-shit crazy conspiracy theories?

For example, why would the right-wing noise machine give the "Birthers" a free pass as having legitimate concerns about Obama's birth certificate while acting OUTRAGED....I SAY OUTRAGED!! about someone that wants more info about the events surrounding 9/11?

Maybe for the same reason that they are so OUTRAGED...I SAY OUTRAGED!! about the President talking to kids in school, even though their patron saint Ronald Raygun did the same (as did G.H.W. Bush).

Sunday Morning Musings.

Here, enjoy some Carl Sagan. Don't forget.

Late Night Saturday, and Jehovah's Wrath Rages. Now pass the pretzels.

Perusing the blogosphere, and ran into this article by James H Haught.

No wonder Bush was the ideal president for the birther/teabagger wing nuts that are weighing down our society.

I just had a thought. I wonder if the local right-y radio show host would be willing to ask the cranks that call to brag about how angry they are at the Obama administration how old they think the earth is? Once wing nuts, always wing nuts.

Wow, and only 89 more months of the Obama Administration.

Friday Musings

Another week down, and only one more week to go for my bride. In case anyone is actually reading this, Beth’s last day at ABQ Health Partners is a week from today. It’s been a long hard road, made evident by much writhing and complaining. I don’t think I have ever witnessed such a bad fit between physician and practice as I have witnessed this past year. It started with Beth’s stint in urgent care (“……you have no strength in any medical practice”) to her inundation in primary care (“….we’ll schedule you for patient visits in the morning only, but because you’re schedule is so short, we’re taking away your medical assistant”). I want to try to document her time in the McMedical industry as an example of how hard it is to fit in the corporate culture if you are a doctor that tries to provide care tailored to a patient’s best interest.

I’m getting my A-grade dry suit back from the shop hopefully this weekend. I had the overly confining turbo-hood removed and replaced with a standard neck seal and latex hood (w/purge). The shop also repaired two small holes (!!) in one of the boots and on the same leg. I wonder if I bought the suit like that or if I somehow managed to damage it when I was trying it on. I definitely need to try it on before I get it wet, as I need to trim the neck seal. Since diving is now an approved past time, I can get Beth to zip me in so I don’t rip up the zipper again. I still need to try to repair my B-grade suit, but I don’t think I’ll send it in. The B-grade has the sport air inlet valve, which is not compatible with the valve on the A-suit. Not really a problem, but I need to remember to bring both hoses with me if I decide to bring both suits on a dive trip. Woot….I can’t wait to actually go on a dive with a dry suit and not have half of the suit fill up with water. Now maybe I should start bugging Tim to finish up his cert course.

Joseph is planning on coming out the third weekend of August to go on a check out dive with me to Blue Hole. I hope to make at least one trip out there before his arrival.

It’s kind of ironic that my work site is about half a mile from Calibers shooting range, yet I’m not allowed to transport my Berretta in my car since I park it on City property. It’d be fun to go shooting one in while over lunch. Oh well.

I’m allowing myself to read my favorite right wing crackpot blog again. Once the outrage subsided with realizing that the author is truly bigoted, I am able to absorb his, and his readers, rants much more leisurely. While cruising blogs, perspective is critical to my understanding of the various topics being discussed. For example, no matter how sincere an author might be in their anti-global warming screed, the science behind global warming is sound and unanimous on the existence of human caused global climate change. Any climate denier’s attempt to portray global warming as some sort of mysterious political plot does nothing but put the rationality of the denier into question.

The same can be said with the sky-is-falling attitude about the Obama administration that so many of the climate deniers also portray. If the past eight years didn’t destroy this nation, than the appearance of a leader like Obama can only serve to provide all of us with some hope that we can move forward as a better society.

Chemical and Engineering News

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Healthcare

The righties are all about freaking out on the proposed health care reform.

OMG!!! Rationing!! (It's happening right now as insurance companys brag about cutting back on "unnecessary" procedures) It's OK If Your A Private Insurer. The right wing stands there and states, with a straight face, that the public option plan suddenly gives government total control and oversight of health care. What don't they get about "you can keep your insurance just the way it is if you like it"? The corporate insurance interests have no stomach for the competition that a not-for-profit health plan will bring to the table.

The depth of the Obama derangement syndrome is almost unmeasurable. The desire to leave things in the country exactly as they are with no consideration to the future well being of the common citizen on whose shoulders the wealthy ride is amazing. How much longer can the right wingnuts expect that they can lie to us and try to convince us to vote against our better interests?

I am such a procrastinator. The last blog entry was in January of this year. Up until then, I had made a good effort at posting entries at least every couple of weeks. So here it is, my mid-year update. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

On the personal front, a lot has gone on and there have been some significant changes made. Beth has finally had enough and has tendered her resignation from Albuquerque Health Partners. The state of medical care and the sheer greediness of both the individuals and the corporate overseers have forced one of the best doctors in Alb. to stand down. The workload imposed on her while with AHP has been impossible to meet with the resources she has been given. Doctors are expected to not only provide their own dictations, but to also prepare and submit all patient billing. This would probably be workable if the actual number of patients scheduled during a day allowed for a doctor to complete the paperwork on an ongoing basis instead of having to wait until the end of a day filled with 15 – 20 minute appointments, including new patient visits. The end result is Beth regularly puts in 50 to 60 hour weeks, with some work being done at home on the weekends. Any bonuses that may be offered are only based on the number of patients she sees with no consideration of medical outcome. The system as it exists now does nothing to promote health care or health education and only responds to the number of warm bodies that can be billed against at the end of the day. Hence the 15 minute appointments. Every time a patient has to come back to the office for an appointment, AHP can bill some insurance company for an office visit as well as collect a co-pay. Never mind that the issues leading to the return visit could have been addressed in the original visit, if the appointment would have allowed for an actual 20 – 30 minute appointment. Beth was seeing new patients during a scheduled 15 minute appointment. How can a new history be established in that short a time frame? Of course it can’t, but that doesn’t really matter as long as the billing is completed and the co-pay is collected. The system is run on greed, and will never change until the profit motive is removed from the health care system.

Is there a chance an actual change can be forced onto the health care system? I’m beginning to have my doubts. Unless a strong public option is created that eliminates the profit motive from health care, I don’t think anything will change.

Why can’t the right-wing noise machine get their minds around the simple facts that the private market health care industry is not particularly concerned with the overall public health? Why bother with health education when all that means is that people might not require medical attention because of bad health practices?

So even with all this happening, Beth is actually doing fairly well. I’m still concerned about her drinking, but she has been mostly successful with avoiding depression. I can take some credit, I think, for this, since I’ve really tried to avoid whining and complaining about my perceived problems while focusing on more positive thoughts.

After all of the above, Beth is going to stop working and could possibly be moving into retirement. I’m overjoyed that I’m getting Beth back into my life on a full time basis. If the money holds up, we will soon have the opportunity to travel again and to address some of the things at home that have been put on hold. Things like clothes glaciers and dying landscaping to name just two. Beth has also been very excited about the opportunity to enroll both of the pits in obedience and agility training classes. That would be awesome!!

I’ve also made some changes in my employment. As of this week, I have taken a job with the local Water Utility and am no longer involved in private engineering consulting. I realize that working my way into a new job is going to take some time, but damn, the public sector pace is, at best, leisurely. To be honest, my first instinct is to run away screaming “I f******d this up, let me out of here”. But c’mon, its been all of three days, with the first day dedicated to an orientation session. Patience is.

I took up scuba diving again at the urging of Joseph. Diving is such a blast, but I forgot how incredibly gear intensive a sport it is. This is especially true since I need a fair amount of help with getting all of the gear on in preparation for a dive. Once I’m in the water, it’s not so bad, but my disability does create buoyancy and basic gear use issues that complicate my diving experience. I’m pretty sure that more practice will make it easier for me and my dive buddies, but it’s certainly a challenge. I love using the stuff, and its fun getting all dressed out to dive. I’ve always wanted to get good enough at diving to go on some exotic dive trips, so I’m sticking with this until that happens.

Finally, I want to start linking up to sites that address the current issues of the day. I’m going to feature primarily liberal viewpoints; however I want to be fair. If the crackpot right-wing noise machine can present a fair & balanced analysis of the issues, I will make an effort to acknowledge that. I will, however, never stoop to the bilge-like self aggrandizing drivel that I have happened on through chance. Who would’ve thought that I would stumble on a climate change denier, right wing bigot’s blog by looking up links for the Chaiten volcano?

So I’m back. Hopefully more often, but I’ve certainly said all of that before.

Peace.

January 22, two days post inauguration. Almost two whole days since President Obama took office and things haven't gotten any better. WTF?

My fascination with Volcan Chaiten continues. Not a day goes bye that I don't dial up the webcam so I can check out the steaming beast so far south on the coast of Chile. Estimates vary, but it looks like Chaiten has extruded approximately 3 cu.km. (1.3 cu. miles) of steaming hot lava dome. Wow. The eruption event is ongoing, with continuous water vapor emmisions highligted with dome collapes of varying sizes. A fairly large dome collapse occured on January 19, and has been captured in both the web-cam log as well as from space in NASA earth resource satellite imaging.



The cacophony continues, and the days press on. One of the best things to happen so far this new year is a reconnection with my dear friends Kim and Joe Martinez. I will not lose contact with close friends due to my lack of effort any more. Really.

So it's a new year. Thank goodness. President Obama will be sworn into office in less than three weeks, and the new "more democratic" congress was seated yesterday. It looks like W is going out more the lamb than the lion that he could've been. After all, he didn't bomb Iran. It's obvious that any escalation in force in Afghanistan will be left to the new president, and he's allowing Iraq to fade into memory. Shoot, maybe he'll go out of office with more than a 30% approval rating. Maybe he'll also benefit from Obama's long coat-tails.

Our guv, Mr. Richardson was forced to withdraw his name from consideration as the new Secretary of Commerce. This was due to some questions on the propriety of his dealings with a brokerage firm that contributed to his campaign and also won a lucrative state contract. These questions were large enough that they've been brought up by a federal grand jury. I thought a couple of weeks ago when Big Bill's name was mentioned that this investigation might just derail his nomination. Wow, I'm a pundit and didn't even realize it.

I been considering other blogs, and how some devote much space linking to and commenting on articles that support the author's points of view. The up-side of that approach is becoming better read on the issues and staying as current as possible. The down-side comes from tying oneself so tightly to a particular point of view that any comment made comes across as a bitter finger wagging ideological rant.

More on that later. A question just popped into my head about any correlation between political philosphies (secular liberal v. religious conservative) and national demographics. For example, I know the birth rate in Europe is in decline, and I'm wondering if that has any correlation to the overall movement of Europian society becomming more and more secular. Why birthing babies has anything to do with being godly escapes me, but it certainly has to be tied to giving some godly purpose to carnal activities. Whatever.

My next chore is to find a good liberal blog to subscribe to offset my subscription to various right-wing scribbles.

Peace.

Some days lead to an unexpected amount of introspection. Reading through previous posts, it’s obvious that one of my recurring themes includes my non-fulfilling career as an engineer. It’s probably a pretty boring subject. Oh well. It’s probably because I lead a pretty boring life at the present. The times where my life wasn’t boring coincided with my immersion into some activity, pastime or project. The latest example that comes to mind was my three years playing sled hockey.

I really enjoyed the time I spent on the ice. The best time was my year sabbatical from work where I managed to play pick up games with stand up skaters at least twice a week. I traveled a bunch, and spent way too many hours on a plane flying to Buffalo, NY. I never understood the descriptive “rust belt” until I drove around Buffalo. Lining the highways were the remnants of a long dead industrial stronghold where untold millions of tons of U.S. manufactured goods were produced. Steel mills, now shuttered and rusting away. The Wurlitzer Organ plant, a long abandoned and boarded up factory/castle that produced so many of the instruments that fell into disuse several generations ago.

I played hockey in New Jersey, in a small town about 40 miles east of Philadelphia. Mark Weimer and I flew in at night, drove through the fog and drizzle to our hotel, and never saw any of the landscape around us. We left during the day, however, so we got to see the surroundings in the gray light of a foggy and drizzly day. I vaguely remember lots of trees along the highway into Phily. Once we arrived into the City of Brotherly Love’s metropolitan area, I more clearly remember the miles and miles of tank farms, chemical plants and run down neighborhoods. All in all, not a very flattering picture of that part of the country. Such is the hazard of short itinerary travel.

We played a tournament in Massachusetts about an hour west of Boston. Beth went with me on that trip, but spent the entire time goofing off with our dear friend Martha in the city while I drove myself to the tournament. The drive back was so much more fun, as I drove our coach Haley to her great uncle and aunt’s house in some suburb south of Boston. The towns and neighborhoods we drove through were so “east coast” that I was in awe. The styles of houses, the brick downtowns, the multiple renditions of steepled brick protestant churches, and the omnipresent crush of so so many people.

I played in a tournament in New Hampshire, where we hung on every local word waiting to hear someone say “Pawk the Caw”. LIVE FREE OR DIE was the proclamation on the license plates. The view from the highway on the way to our hotel looked a lot like coastal Oregon. Lots of pitched roof homes with crappy siding slowly returning to the dank earth. Lots of moss covered roofs and vines covered walls.

I went to a camp in Chicago, where I was totally out of my league trying for a spot on the national team while dealing with some of the most bigoted assholes I have ever met in my life. We played on the Chicago Blackhawk’s ice before a game, and I sat the whole time, not getting one second of playing time. I remember commenting on the huge populations of geese that were wintering on the golf course next to our hotel, only to hear how all the geese should be killed for the pests they are. Not a great time in Chicago. I still don’t know why anyone ever decided to put a town there.

There were a bunch of other trips. Most of those were local, and involved traveling to Colorado. Much better not only in terms of travel time, but also easier to blend into the part of the country that better fits me.

OK. Enough for now.

Obama is President; the D’s didn’t get their super majority so there will be a check and balance in place in congress; and the guy that writes the Fresh Bilge blog is still alive and getting even more bitter.

The economy is in a shambles and it is even more obvious that us Americuns need to go spend our hard earned money on Xmas crap from China to restart the now moribund economic engine.

Peace.

Hey, it's a new dawn in America. Or should I say....Obamanation? It actually happened. Obama got elected!! It wasn't exactly a landslide on the popular vote side, but it was certainly a wipe out in electoral college land. Democrats took states that had been in the R column for decades. Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and even good 'ol new Mexico. It's been a couple of weeks now after the election, so I've had a chance to sit back and bask in the victory, gloat at the right-wing noise machines impotent whines and consider how much President Obama has on his yet-to-be-inaugurated plate.

So what does the world look like as we cruise into the end of '08. It's getting closer and closer to the teenage years of this century, and it's pretty grim. Our retirement has lost almost 40% of its value, and unemployment is inching up. The US automobile industry is circling the drain, and has been forced to go to Congress to plead for a loan in order to stay in business. Wow. I guess that's what happens when you basically build cars that no one wants to buy and leave yourself totally extended in legacy retirement costs. I'm going to place a small amount of blame at the auto union's feet, as I don't know exactly what concessions they have made in order to keep the industry, and their own jobs, going. I'm pretty much in the camp of letting the big three declare bankruptcy so they can restructure and continue operations with as little disruption as possible. I don't understand how loaning them money is going to force their hand to streamline their operations and rethink how they build cars. It's kind of funny, sort of, that american cars are actually pretty good vehicles and have been getting better reliability ratings as well as gas mileage for some time now. But no one is buying them. Wierd. Perception is everything, and the competition, especially from asia, is really tough.

There are still a couple of wars going on, and hopefully the new Pres. et al can figure out a way to back the US out. Its mind boggling to think how much has been spent over there, in human lives as well as legal tender. Has it been worth it. Absolutely not!! What a horrendous waste. What a crime.

Peace.

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.