Yesterday afternoon after doing the H&R Block thing with his (very recent) ex-wife he arrived back here and explained he’s intensely ill after a few days feeling out of sorts.  By this morning he’s concerned because he started coughing up blood meaning either pneumonia or a return of the cancer.

Emotional stresses become physical stresses now more than I would have imagined in my youth (y’know, like until my late 40’s or early 50’s).  Even though I diligently tried to convince myself he only has pneumonia (only pneumonia – what the heck is wrong with me?) the imagination ran rampant thinking what if it happened to be cancer returned.

Imagine getting laid off nearly a year ago with unemployment benefits now at an end, no insurance, no local doctor and gotta get treatment.  It’s going on twelve hours since we left a local urgent care clinic and there are signs of improvement.  Pneumonia was the diagnosis.

I’m an agnostic and a cynic but please, God, pneumonia is enough! OK?

Thanks

Shortly after we were seated a family of four got seated at a table next to us.  It was hard not to notice the two boys (approximately 5 and 6 years of age) following their parents.  Each boy was far to occupied with their portable game units to pay attention to anything else.  Once seated the gaming continued through the ordering and until their food was place before them.  Mom and dad conversed approximately as much.  With food in front of them, each parent dutifully cut up pancakes and made sure the boys didn’t overflow syrup onto the table. Conversation remained sparse during their entire meal and soon as the boys finished eating their game units were once again activated.

Please don’t misunderstand me here, if I were to get started with one of those game things it would probably be all over but the shouting for some time.  At the same time I look back on my childhood (OK, maybe it was so long ago that memory is seriously fogged) and wonder how mom and dad would have reacted to that sort of lack of interaction at meal time.  Not acceptable comes to mind.

Then there are the pre-teens and beyond that are much too involved with texting to engage in verbal conversation with their parents.  The big question is do the parents give them the cellphone so they don’t have to talk with their kids or what is the deal?  Observing how little some parents and offspring communicate with each other from such early ages really frightens me.

That’s the Newcastle Brown Ale moment for tonight.

Whew! It felt good to get that off my chest. So I conclude this short rant with a quote from the first hour of the “Rush Limbaugh Show” 8-5-2009:

“A community organizer cannot complain when communities organize.”

That pretty much says it.

High potency Dunn Bros coffee takes very few sips to get the head going. I tried switching connectors and checking to see if the wired connection worked on one of the other computers. Nope, must be something fried in the wired portion of the router. Good thing the wireless still worked or we would have been on our way to Dunn Bros for more coffee and use of their WIFI. Nah, we don’t have an online addiction, much.

World conquering fell a bit short of a finished project this afternoon. Good thing too, imagine how boring life would be with nothing more to conquer. On the plus side was the creation of a bunch of aluminum shavings as a machining project was completed. I really love productive days and gave myself some well deserved pats on the back for my achievement before we left for dinner.

Dinner, burgers from a fast food place that isn’t a franchise. The burgers are great, the fries are likewise and the best of all is the sound of arteries slamming shut while you eat. Nothing like that kind of meal to get the thinking processes active (I know, that may be pushing it). So let’s just say active to the extent of finally remembering a basic when it comes to cable modems and wireless routers: if it ain’t working, unplug it and give it fifteen to thirty seconds before plugging the power back in.

Thirty seconds later: Bingo! I don’t need to buy a new router quite yet, now if it could just help keep the arteries open. Life is good.

So here I am home and relaxing.  Today is warm, breeze is very light, birds are singing and from about 4 blocks away are the sounds of major road construction (always something to interrupt the mood).  Still it is good to be home.  But if someone were to offer the opportunity of jumping astride my Goldwing to pursue endless summer for an entire year with travel expenses paid, well I’d have to talk the missus into coming along ‘cuz she sure wouldn’t hear of it any other way.  So much for that dream.

However, if there is a benevolent soul reading this and willing to make the offer, please let me know.

This is the upper midwest, early summer and we have beautiful summers here, both days.  Some “two wheel therapy” was in order so last week was devoted to preparations for brother and I to visit sisters and families in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Saturday became our ride day ‘cuz the weather man was forecasting  a wet Sunday and he was right.  Brother was fighting with sore throat and an unpleasant cough by the time we arrived.  Sunday he devoted to sleeping and feeling like crap but the sleep made today much better for him.

Ninety-four degrees today, the kind of weather perfect for no jacket, well ventilated helmet and letting the sun bake all exposed body parts.  My arms are a prime example of baked.  Y’know, when the Dr. says you should at least use sun blocker because of some medications, the Dr. knows what she’s talking about.  Do I listen?  Nope.  Should I listen and act accordingly.  Yep.  Shame on me.  It’s hell to be a sun worshipper and have the Dr. tell you to stay out of the sun.

Lacking access to a time machine in order to verify how different it would have been I have to go with the direction life took me.  And that’s pretty dog gone good.  I have a relationship with the best lady on earth (that probably wouldn’t have happened), even though a couple hours physical work is the limit, I feel good, we never lack for food and I ride a 1995 Goldwing Aspencade.  A second major dream being fulfilled.

How many people have fulfilled one childhood dream, never mind fulfilling two, how many have managed one?  If the dream(s) had been of accumulating wealth perhaps that’s what would have happened but it just wasn’t one of the things I dreamed of.  The more interaction with people of “means” I’ve had the greater the realization my concerns and theirs are really no different.  That is of course unless their concerns center around appearances.

Appearance is the long version of fake.  So decide which of your childhood dreams is most important to fulfill.  My folks used to say “kids and fools tell the truth”.  Those dreams were the truth.  Live one of them and no one can accuse you of being a fake.

Nope, I’m not making it up.  Check it out here.  Lucky for both he and his wife they didn’t die.  Not so lucky for them he had to resign the Police force.  Got to wonder how he ever made it through the Police Academy in the first place.  Let’s see, what kind of job will be suitable for him?  Something really mindless that requires the use of no equipment he could hurt himself with and obviously nothing that he must submit to a UA in order to qualify.

What about the Police Department he resigned from? Bet they’re hoping this will blow over quickly so their “stupid for hiring such a ditz” is short lived.  The Police Chief may need to do a little extra campaigning to keep his job next election.

It does make me wonder about that long standing motto: “To Protect And Serve.”

Alice B. Toklas’ spirit may be feeling a bit restless as of late.

You see, I’m not one of those “Go Green” to save the planet types. Of course the more enthusiastic of the “Go Green” types will translate what I just wrote to mean I am for destroying the planet. That is probably the result of being so focused on one way of doing things so as to ignore the incredible variety of ways available and being developed. Did I just imply they are narrow minded? Possibly some percentage are but I think many are simply narrowly focused and not seeing that things outside the beam of their focus also exist. Enough for the preaching.

A fair amount of my time today was spent examining a website that offers instructions for building solar electric panels and wind generating equipment very inexpensively. I suspect the information offered is accurate, detailed and usable. I also believe a number of the claims made though basically true may not be entirely as you were lead to believe in the sales pitch. That’s what I was looking at today, the sales pitch. It offers enough teaser to make me want to buy the “do it yourself” download and check it out. Only a couple things about the “Sales Pitch” makes me go “Huh?”

First the instructions are supposedly being offered at about half price (rather than $99.99 it’s $49.97) right now and there is an “urgency box” (my name for it) that among other stuff says:

“Discount disclaimer: Discount only available for customers who order before the offer expires.”

Well duh! I want the name of that copy writer, don’t you?

Further into the sales pitch I learn I can start a profitable business making and installing these:

“The basic system can be made for as little as $200 and others are selling these for over $500! So by using the {name withheld} instructions you can profit over $300 for every installation. Think about that for a second – After a bit of practice you can build up to 5 [units] every week (or even more) and sell them for a profit of $300 each. That’s a weekly profit of $1800.”

Whoa, wait a minute here, this is just way too good. Build 5 of these, make $300 on each one and end up with $1800 profit. Either we’re talking miracles or we all need to hire this guy’s accountant.

Now the thing that frightens me the most. I am incredibly curious about this. It goes through ClickBank so my $50 should be safe if it’s a total line of crap thing. I might just do it in the morning.

Deep, dark secret here folks: That’s why I almost never click on links I suspect might lead to these types of things.

Last week I spied some six packs of this years yield of Leinenkugel’s 1888 Bock, a seasonal beer , dark in color, rich in flavor and unfortunately around only a short while. This year in each six pack was a pencil. Yep, a regular number 2 lead pencil with the 1888 Bock label printed in green on it. In years past their advertising claim was that when you poured it into a glass the head was so thick you could stand a pencil in it. This year they even included the pencil but made no mention why anywhere on the packaging. Of course Janice questioned what it was about which provided the opportunity to tout my diverse knowledge (yeah right). Next evening when I cracked one open Janice wanted to see the pencil stand in the foamy head. It did and she was impressed.

Knowing it is a seasonal experience I decided to latch onto a couple extra six packs today. Wouldn’t you know the neighborhood store was out and didn’t know if they would be getting more in. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll give a try at a much larger liquor store several miles further and see if I can score there.

For tonight I resigned myself to watching Fringe with a Newcastle in hand. Oh gosh, darn, woe is me and all that kind of stuff. Don’t you all feel bad for me?

Don’t answer that!