Passported, excessive, black light, just pushing pills, they did what??

So the past couple days I have not been going to the gym over lunch.  It has felt odd not working out over lunch.  I have used the lunch hours to run some errands.

Yesterday Ali stopped by so we could go apply for our passports.  Passports you say? My dad has been talking for a couple years about taking a big family vacation to Ireland.  To me it seems like it is his idea of one last big family thing before he retires firmly into his golden years.

Now of course trying to coordinate the schedules and lives of so many people is a rather monumental task, hence the reason this has drug on for a few years.  The invitation has been made to all of my siblings and their family to embark on this epic journey  It is unknown exactly how many will actually participate, including Ali and myself.  We got our passports because it’s a good thing to have regardless. 

There a couple negatives about the trip.  Anyone that knows my dad knows he is a bit eccentric.  I can easily see this trip turning into another National Lampoon Vacation installment.  Being in close quarters with people you are not used to living in close quarters with, even relatives, for that length of time is sure to generate some degree of conflict on various fronts.  However the biggest concern Ali and I have are the dogs.  Kennelling them for that period of time is pretty much out of the question.  I think the only way we could swing it is if I could cajole my mom to staying out at our house while we are gone.  Since she now has her job back that means she would have to commute from our place to work during that time period.  I know she will cringe when she reads this.  Hopefully I can bribe her somehow.  We’ll see.

I’ve never had any burning desire to travel overseas but I can appreciate the stupidity of not taking advantage of an opportunity to do so if someone is willing to pick up the majority of the tab.  Life is all about experiences anyway.

So anyway to get our passport we had to go to a brand new building in the government complex.  This building was planned and started when the county was living high on the hog on sky high property valuations.  The place is massive and adorned with the best of everything.  Walking in there with the present reality of tight budgets, layoffs and various financial problems makes you instantly think “excessive” as you walk through the place.

When we went into the area for passports that excessive theme continued.  The space they had was ridiculous.  There was enough room for three times the amount of people that they had there.  A counter that was 100 feet long was stationed with two or three clerks.  Every clerk had a computer monitor on their desk that looked like a flat screen tv, they were HUGE.  Everywhere you looked it become more and more apparent why the county is scrambling for dollars now. 

We had a health fair the other day.  I heard one employee mention that she had a cholesterol screening done and it showed her numbers were high.  When she relayed that info to her husband he said “eh they just want to sell you pills”  Although I don’t totally disagree with that stance, I think the big point is totally being missed. 

I agree that many doctors are far too eager to fix problems that could be remedied with a change in diet and exercise with pills instead.  Doctors are incentivized to push meds.  IMO they are doing their patients a huge disservice by not encouraging them to treat the source of their symptoms instead of the symptoms themselves. When someone gets test results that show bad numbers it should be a sign it’s time to finally do something themselves about their health instead of relying on a pill or procedure to do it for them.

A few weeks ago Ali brought home a black light.  A black light can be used for many things, one of which is to see otherwise invisible excrement stains on carpet.  Ali brought it home for us to inspect areas that Spook used as a litter box since we still had some issues with smell in those rooms.  Well last night Ali turned off the lights in the main living area and walked around with the light.  She called me out to see. 

As we walked the house the light exposed countless spots on the carpet, it was crazy.  Despite my regular vacuuming and shampooing of the carpet, it evidently has not removed all remains of the abuse our pets have subjected it to over the years.  Seeing that mess wanted me to immediately replace all of the carpet although a replacement would surely be subjected to similar abuse. 

I plan to end my two day gym hiatus today.  I will stick to legs, abs and cardio.  My incision seems to be healing pretty well.  There have only been a few times that I moved my arm in a manner where I could feel some pulling in the wound.

This weekend I have various things planned to do since the following weekend will be swallowed up by the Run for the Paws and Jeremy and Randall’s visit.

I was astonished when I read the headline that the supreme court overturned a decision that limited the amount of money corporations and unions could contribute to political campaigns.  Not only can they throw as much money as they want at a candidate to buy his favor, they can also run whatever ads they want right up until election day.

Now the conservative judges that slammed this through hid behind free speech, saying that it was unfair to limit these groups from expressing their political ideas monetarily.  Of course the reality is this is simply another weapon to allow big business to simply buy any political favor they deem worthwhile.  It disgusts me, seriously. It’s a blatant purely partisan move that again demonstrates how Washington DC is always for sale, even if you sit on the Supreme Court.