Category Politics

When I walked out to the parking lot last night my annoyance meter instantly shot up when I saw a politician jammed a paddle into the side window crevice of my vehicle and every other vehicle in the lot.  I don’t get it.

The other day on Facebook I commented how one of the local candidates had successfully annoyed me out of casting a vote for him purely because of the ridiculous inundation of junk mail I have received from the guy.  Literally I have seen at least 15 mailings from him.  When paired up with his signage that is literally everywhere it long ago crossed the line from informative to suspicious.

I read this guy has spent upwards of $150,000 on his campaign to take one of the county commissioner seats.  When a guy spends more than double the amount of the salary for the job he is running for it gives me pause.  Obviously there are some big dollars wielding big amounts of influence behind this campaign.

Of course nothing touches Rick Scott spending 60 million plus of his own personal fortune to brainwash the sheeple in the Florida governor’s race in 2010.  Dollars rule the world.

Last night I decided to do an unconventional quick workout, a 500 foot death crawl.  If you are wondering what a death crawl is, click here.

I still receive my free Newsweek subscription that I never asked for.  The magazine has a definite liberal lean so I find a lot of the opinions more or less in step with my general ideas about the world, both good and bad.

This month there was an article talking about the true state of the middle class in America.  As you can imagine, the picture is not rosy in the least.  The article talks about many aspects of the problem including the tremendous and accelerating wealth disparity between the 1% and everyone else.  It even goes as far as breaking down the 1%r’s .

In 2010, the average 1 percenters had their earnings increase 11.6% however the top .01 percent of the one percenters had their earnings jump by nearly double that, 21.5%, in ONE year.  Please keep in mind these are 2010 numbers while the country was still in horrible financial shape (as opposed to just really bad now)

I find hard numbers like this pretty eye opening as they appeal to the logical side of me.  However this number was the most shocking of all, 70 percent, when used in this context.

“Families headed by people under 35 are almost 70 percent poorer today, adjusting for inflation, than they were in 1984.”  HOLY SHIT.

If you can read this line and shrug it off, then you shouldn’t be reading my blog.  That is a staggering stat.  The curve for the rich is the exact inverse of this trend, skyrocketing upward to the point today where the country’s billionaires have the most favorable conditions in history and if you haven’t noticed, they are keeping it all to themselves. Corporate profits are at all time highs, yet the economic conditions for the masses are still pretty awful.  There is no “trickle down”.  Someone fixed that leaky faucet long ago.

First take a look at the official spin on Ryan from the Obama camp.  Obviously it is slanted but not inaccurate.

This article rolls right into my thoughts on Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s new running mate.  Ryan is a Tea Party favorite and is a pretty obvious attempt by Mitt to appease the new extreme right of the Republican Party.  Ryan has some pretty radical ideas when it comes to how dollars should be allocated moving forward including gutting Medicare as we know now it.  He also was a big proponent of allowing people to funnel social security dollars into the hopelessly corrupt and rigged financial markets. Seen this yet?

I think picking Ryan as the VP just further cements Mitt as being one of the most spineless presidential candidates ever.  He hasn’t flip flopped, he has somersaulted back from his positions and policies on abortion, health care and economics to whatever his advisers have told him was the most convenient stance to take at the time.

The guy, to me, represents exactly what we don’t need in a presidential candidate, a rich puppet that is having his strings pulled by someone else.  Plus the guy lost to John McCain for cripes sake.  Nothing like throwing a retread out there.

There is a theory that despite appearances, the monarchs of this country would actually be quite content to see Romney lose.  After all, even under Obama, they have flourished thanks to many reasons, including Obama being unwilling to follow through on his campaign promise to kill the Bush tax breaks.  If Obama stays in office the rich will continue to do fantastic while being able to blame the continuing middle class quagmire on Obama, a win/win for them.

If you have a history of blog readership, you know I am not an Obama fanboy either, I am not pleased with a whole bunch of things that have gone down during his first four years in office. Most recently, I am furious that the government decided to not push criminal prosecution of Goldman Sach’s for their deliberate role in the financial implosion.

However in this situation I think there is a very clear lesser of two evils.  Unfortunately with the way our political system is, those are the only two viable choices available.

I had another weird dream last night.

I was in my garage and suddenly found myself confronting a couple that wanted to steal my Cadillac STS (I don’t actually own one).  There was a physical altercation before the couple hopped back in their vehicle, drove towards the back of my property, realized that was the wrong way and spun around.  They headed back towards the front fence line and smashed through it.

I got a partial plate number and was in the process of calling 911 when another car pulled up in the driveway.  In the car was a man, a woman and two teenage looking girls. I was annoyed because I was just dialing the call in to police.  I hung up, walked over to the car and asked what they wanted.

The woman said she heard I was selling my Cadillac.  I told her no I wasn’t and became instantly suspicious that she even knew I had a STS, she had to be connected with the people I just chased off.  I tell her to get the fck off my property.  She flipped the switch into bitch mode and started screaming at me.  I went full Hulk Smash mode on her and told her if she didn’t leave I would drag her out to the street.

The entire time this was going on, the man was just sitting there in the passenger seat.  He sort of looked like he had some sort of mental disability.  However as the screaming continued I noticed the two girls got out of the car and tried to go around me into the garage. I stop my scream fest with the woman to intercept the girls.

I ask them what they think they are doing.  They say they need to use my bathroom and start walking past me. I snag both of them by the arm and pull them back out to the car and tell them to get in.  I again turn my attention to the woman and tell her this was her last chance to leave on her own before I make her leave.

That is when I woke up, I felt like I was ready to fight.  It took quite awhile before I was able to calm down and fall back asleep.

So yesterday the big news was that the Supreme Court upheld the majority of the health care law that was passed in 2010.  Evidently the most shocking aspect was the conservative judge that wound up backing the law wasn’t the one most people thought would.  Now this guy is being cremated by the health care haters.

Ok although I have covered this topic many times in my blogsphere, let me quickly recap my thoughts on this.

I think the healthcare mandate that was passed was far from ideal, it was manipulated and mangled by the infinite dollars in the pockets of insurance company lobbyists. However I think it is a step in the right direction.  Prior to the law insurance companies had the deck ridiculously stacked in their favor.  They got fat insuring low risk customers and if an actual health problem arose they would find a way to dump them. Once a person was dumped they were literally f’d since no company would touch someone with the dreaded “pre-existing conditions”.

This plan has been incredibly successful for insurers.  Despite the sky rocketing medical expenses of the last couple decades, insurance behemoths have consistently posted immense profits.

The healthcare law attempts to level that playing field by doing stuff like removing lifetime caps and the pre-existing condition black hole. Now as a compromise to insurance companies, the stipulation that people MUST carry health insurance was added.  The theory behind that is by enforcing this requirement, the cost of insurance gets spread among a significantly larger pool of individuals.

I have a very simple question for people that rail against this theory.  I ask if they think that owners of automobiles should be required to carry auto insurance?  You are required to carry insurance because you could potentially impact others as a result of your driving.

If I extend this to health insurance, if you are 350 pound fat ass with no insurance that finds themselves in the hospital treating your various obesity related health issues (heart attacks, diabetes, strokes, etc…) then you are impacting me as well.  Your lack of insurance means the health provider is absorbing all of that expense which directly affects the cost of health care for people actually footing the bill.

The health care law has some other good things in it like requiring no co-pay for preventative type procedures, check ups.  Honestly I wish it did even more to reward people that take personal responsibility for their health.

From a historical perspective, it is important to know that both social security and medicare were initially greeted with similar amounts of resistance with similar predictions of doom and gloom.  However today, if you took a poll regarding if these programs should exist or not there would only be a tiny fraction against them.  Our elderly population relies on them.

It seems like there is a lot of focus on the slimy part of the population that make a career out of not doing shit.  Instead they muddle through life doing as little as possible while collecting government benefits as a reward.  Hey, I HATE that mentality as much as anyone.  But the difference is I don’t let my dislike of those type of people blind me to the fact that there is a much larger percentage of people that are in genuine need of help.  They aren’t working the system, they are doing the best they can but still are drowning.

I also think that people that feel strongly about either side of the healthcare issue are huge hypocrites if they are not doing the right things to take care of their own health.  I mean the biggest part of this entire health care cluster f is looking at back at us in the mirror, we are the problem.

Our country as a whole is disgustingly unhealthy.  The massive health care costs we see today are a direct result of our own gluttony and laziness.  It’s only getting worse as the fat ass curve is moving farther and farther down the age range.  Childhood obesity is accelerating at frightening levels.

So to summarize, I’m glad the court did not cut the legs off legislation that is at least a start in the right direction but until our country stops shoving shit down their throats at breakneck speeds we are ultimately f’d in the end.

I used a couple vaca days to give me a 5 day weekend next week after 4th of July.  I am looking forward to it and plan to utilize that time to do some painting.  I want to at least get the master bathroom painted and if I am feeling crazy ambitious, the bedroom as well.

I have been debating what I want to do color wise.  I am leaning towards sticking with the color used in the main living area for the bedroom and maybe the bathroom as well.  It’s not a daring color but pleasing to my eyes.  I was considering painting the bathroom the same green that we used in the spare bathroom and office, I like that color too.

I guess I will firm up my color choices this weekend.

I was so shocked when I read that Dick Scott’s chief of staff resigned because he is accused of, gasp,  shady dealings when it comes to awarding state contracts.  How in the world could a man as honorable as Scott appoint someone that could do such things?

Ok let me wipe some of the dripping sarcasm off, of course I am not surprised to hear there is corruption in Dick’s administration.  It’s hard to avoid when the guy in charge is the king of slimy deals.

I am still quite confident that Rick Scott is solidly on course to become the worst governor this state has seen in the last 50 years.  This certainly will not be the last story of of corruption that will come from his administration.

Ali stopped by the house last night briefly to drop off the Scooba.  She was out that way for something else.  Tuki was quite excited to see her since Ali is the only one that is allowed to more or less pet him without fear of reprisal.

So I left from work to head up to Fort Myers last night to pick up the used Dyson vacuum I spotted on Craigslist.  I had already performed the obligatory CL negotiation, offering $150 for the $175 listing which the seller accepted.

I was lucky that I had printed out back up directions from Google Maps.  The guys address evidently was so new that my 5 year old GPS had no idea where to go.

I arrived about 25 minutes earlier than I expected.  I called ahead and made sure he was home which he was.  As I pulled into his driveway he was just opening up the garage.

His garage was filled with a number of toys like a 270Z convertible, mountain bikes and a bad ass Suzuki fat tired motorcycle, that instantly made me feel like we had common ground.  However first and foremost he showed me the Dyson.

I was at first struck by the size of the DC24.  It was A LOT smaller than the Dyson Animal we have had for 5 or 6 years.  Hell I bet it is close to half the size.

The smaller brush bar meant more passes on the carpet but the smaller size also meant it was a lot lighter and easier to push around. This model also has the ball design which I really have come to like as it makes the vacuum super maneuverable.

The vacuum was in like new condition which didn’t surprise me as I looked around the garage.  All of his items looked to be very well maintained.  I told him I actually had a Dyson but gave it to my wife since we recently separated.  Well this opened up a long conversation where we found we connected in many ways.

Mike was 55 years old, single (divorced) and in addition to being into both 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles, he has competed in triathlons and distance running, including a half Iron Man and a full marathon.  In addition to the stuff in the garage he showed me his top of the line Trek tri bike.  The wheels alone cost a couple grand.  Yes obviously Mike has done quite well for himself.

He has turned his fitness focus to body building in recent years.  He looked great for his age, you would have never guessed he had over a decade on me.

Anyway we got involved in quite a lengthy conversation touching on all of our shared interests, something I certainly was not expecting.  Mike also talked about his relationship experience including what were some absolutely unbelievable successes despite his age. Let’s just say he keeps himself quite busy. He gave me various pointers that may come in handy down the line.

Anyway I bet we stood there and talked for more than a half hour.  We talked about perhaps getting together for a bike ride or a beer the next time he is down in the Naples area.  Well that certainly wasn’t how I expected that Craigslist transaction to go.

When I got home I put the Dyson to the test, making sure despite it’s smaller size it was still big on sucking power.  It worked quite well, pulling out the dog hair from the girls weekend visit with no problems at all.

So there were a couple Eagles news items that caught my eye, something that doesn’t happen much in April.  Brian Dawkins retired from the Broncos.  To be honest I thought he already had since I didn’t see him playing late last year when I watched a few Bronco games.  Evidently he had another serious neck injury last year that contributed to his decision.

Even though he finished out his career as a Bronco, he will always be the heart of the Eagles defense for most of the last decade.  I loved his aggressive style of play.  Even now when I think of Dawk laying it all out there to smash opposing ball carriers it makes the hair on my arms stand up a little bit.

Ironically the other piece of news is about a player who is as Anti-Dawkins as you can get, Asante “Shoulder Tackle” Samuels.  Evidently the Eagles have been actively trying to trade Asante but haven’t had much luck moving him and his fat contract.

Samuels came in here with much hype as a ballhawk and a guy that created turnovers.  To a degree, he has done that for the Eagles but not enough for me to declare him as being worth the money.  I really dislike his weak tackling.  I can’t tell you how many times in the past couple years I have screamed at the tv as Asante missed again and again at weak shoulder tackle attempts.  I will be totally fine if they dump him.  Get me a mean son of a bitch that hits like a truck over a ballerina with stick um on his hands any day.

So now, short of an unplanned demise, Mitt Romney is guaranteed to be THE republican nominee for president.  I am not quite sure how this came to be as Romney is the wrong guy in so many ways it just makes me scratch my head, a lot.

I mean in a time when there is such an uproar and spotlight about the 1 percenters courtesy of the Occupy folks, why would the elephants trot out a guy that is filthy, filthy rich?  On top of that, time and again during the campaign Mitt has stuck his foot in his mouth, obliviously blurting out one liners without realizing how condescending and out of touch they were to those less affluent than himself.

Not only is he richer than rich, if you dig into how he amassed much of his wealth, by devouring companies and spitting out their remains for profit without hesitation, it should give you some pause.

Oh did you hear, in one of Mitt’s homes, a 13 million dollar property, they just installed an elevator as part of an expansion project.  The elevator was for his CARS.  I shit you not.

Now of course you can’t entirely dismiss a guy just because a he made a few bucks.  I think Mitt has done a darn good job discrediting himself on policy decisions as well, backing away from his actual record to play the part of a fiscal conservative in the primary, morphing into the candidate he thinks others want him to be.

All of a sudden he has to make people believe he didn’t create the Massachusetts Health Care Law and that he didn’t have a moderate stance about abortion.

Then there is the Mormon thing.  I’m sorry, any religion that deals with magic underpants is just bizarre.  The hard core right wing Christian Fundamentalists that cast their vote primarily on how many time a candidate says the word “God” can not be pleased with the idea of a Mormon sitting in the White House either.

Hey I am not very happy with the way Obama has been passive on certain issues up until recently as the election season heats up, however if my only choice is Mitt or Obama, it is a no brainer.

Saturday morning I drug my sleepy ass out of bed at 4:30 am to do the club run.  The weather radar wasn’t all that favorable, it looked like if it wasn’t raining in Naples now, it would be later.  I didn’t really care, rain helps keep me cooled off. Ali and Christy were supposed to be there as well.  Neither of them showed.

I was a bit bummed because originally I had ideas of running with them at a slower pace, something more favorable with the sleep deprived state my body was in.  Well instead I wound up running again with Matt.  We did run a slower pace than last week, exactly one second per mile slower according to my GPS. 🙂  Oh well in the big picture going harder is always the preferred choice for me, even if I don’t realize it sometimes.  It did rain lightly for part of the run but it never let loose.

On the way back to the house I stopped at Ali’s and grabbed the dogs.  I figured they could hang out while I worked on stuff.  It also gave Ali a break as she had plans to dig into her remaining unboxing duties in earnest.  The dogs were quite surprised to see me and as excited as ever.

So the girls and I headed home to continue on my chores.  I got a head start on Friday night, cleaning Tuki’s cage and cleaning the bathrooms. During the bathroom cleaning process I almost got into a fight with the toilet paper holder.

I was down on my knees completing the glamorous job of cleaning the toilet.  I was reaching down along the right side of the bowl.  As I reached I also dropped my head down to get a better vantage point.  As I did I smashed my head into the corner of the toilet paper holder.  I instantly went into Hulk Smash mode.

I had my fist clenched and was mere moments away from uppercutting the holder off the wall.  Thankfully I took a couple breaths and unclenched my fist before any damage was done.  I was also quite lucky that the corner of the holder was rounded off and not sharp.  I would have been bleeding like a pig.

Well the rainy skies on Saturday took care of one potential chore item, mowing the grass.  I figure I will try to knock that out after work some night this week.

I tended the garden, weeded, put out some bird seed (a $3.50 bag) for the first time in weeks and repaired the section of pool cage screen that was ripping out.

I then turned my attention to the Tacoma, completing my zero dollar oil change.  I had $30 in Autozone gift cards that were a throw in when I bought the IAC valve online so that covered the oil change materials cost.

I had talked to Ali about coming over to her place later in the day on Saturday to help her with some more items, I got over there in the party van with the dogs sometime after 3.

When I came up the steps I immediately knew Ali had made some significant progress by the large collection of flattened boxes piled up.  The main living area looked to be almost empty of boxes at this point.  One of my first chores was to collect all of the cardboard and throw it in the back of the van to deposit in the recycling bins.  Ali helped me do it.

We had talked about running out to a few spots for stuff Ali needed.  I had brought part of my robotic cleaning crew along, the Scooba, to work on the large amounts of tile that covers Ali’s kitchen and main living space.    The floor felt very dirty from the moving process.

I set the Scooba up and let it run while we headed out to run errands.

The first stop was right up the street at Staples and then Target where Ali returned one item and picked up a couple more.  We then headed a few doors down to a place called World Market.  I have never been in the store before.  It is an odd combination of things that include furniture, accessories, food, beer, and clothing.

Well Ali saw some furniture there that was really nice but not horribly expensive. One was a stand that would be much better suited for her TV and A/V equipment than her hope chest.  She also liked a matching shelf that would be a good fit for the top of her steps.  We had the Camry so we decided if she still liked the stuff we could drive back in the van and get it.

We headed to Lowes where she grabbed a few other items and used a coupon that was sent to her as part of a move in pack.  She decided she definitely wanted to get the furniture so we dropped the Camry off at her place and headed back out in the van.

The two boxes fit in the folded down bed of the van but not completely, the back doors didn’t close.  Since we were only going about a half mile down the road we used Ali as a supplemental door restraint.  She laid on top of the boxes and held the doors in place.  It looked funny but worked well.

Now I have a lot of experience with put together furniture, it typically looks ok but obviously the quality is not up to par with conventional furniture.  Well this stuff from World Market was way different than something you would get in a Sauder box.

There are only a few parts to assemble, most of the furniture is already intact.  You are basically just attaching the legs with a number of allen bolts.  The new stuff looks GREAT.  I would challenge anyone to walk in Ali’s place and guess the stuff came in a box.  It looks that good.

The Scooba had done an amazing job of cleaning up Ali’s tile, the floor felt noticeably cleaner on our bare feet.  When I dumped the waste water out of the robot it was almost chocolate milk dark.  I have a feeling the Scooba will be making some regular road trips.

I also brought over the Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner.  Ali asked if she could borrow it.  The vacuum we bought her is good for step cleaning but it doesn’t have nearly the brute sucking power of the Dyson.   This was confirmed when Ali ran the Dyson in just her bedroom, closet and office and pulled up a ton of gunk.

I told Ali she could just keep the Dyson, saving her the expense of buying one herself.  I had located a used Dyson on Craigslist that I plan to pick up tonight.

We also made time to partake in a Tivo/Biggest Loser session, the first time we did such a thing out of the confines of the four walls of the house.  Doing it at Ali’s place felt a bit weird but it was enjoyable none the less.

During the time I spent at Ali’s place I discovered three ticks on the floor.  The tick problem has not subsided.  Ali took the dogs to the vet last week to get a thorough once over.  While she was there she got some good news and bad news.  The ticks are not deer ticks, the type that typically carry Lyme disease.  However the dogs had a total of 7 or 8 ticks on them, including two more on Nicki that were filled with blood.

The vet put flea collars on both dogs as a backup to the monthly Advantix that is already applied.  The collar and Advantix is supposed to repel/kill the tick if it actually chomps down on the dog however it does nothing to keep the ticks from getting on them in the first place.

Even with this double layer of protection, I pulled another full tick off Nicki later in the weekend.  Ali obviously is still freaked out about the ticks and again said something to the community staff about it.  They said they would talk to the grounds maintenance although they again claim they haven’t heard any serious complaints from other dog owners which seems unbelievable.   I have never heard of a tick that exclusively adheres to black female lab mixes.

So I left Ali’s place with plans to come back the next day to attend to a few items I didn’t get to handle yet.

Sunday morning I finally got to extend my sleep session, staying in bed till an unheard of 7:45 am.  It felt good to not be jarred out of sleep by the alarm for once.

I had a few items to attend to to finish up my duties around the house. My plan for the rest of the day was to head back to Ali’s to finish up and then drive up to Fort Myers to pick up my used Dyson, I originally made arrangements to meet the guy between 4 and 5PM.

I got over to Ali’s place later in the morning and got back to work.  I hung a 4 foot shelf in her small utility/laundry room, giving her a much needed storage option in the small area.

I was going to hang a few of her bigger items on the wall but Ali halted the process when she saw my anchor kit included silver screws.  Having silver screws against the black metal of the wall pieces would drive Ali crazy.  I told her we could pick up some black drywall screws to solve the problem.

So, we made plans to again head out on the road to score some additional items.  The first stop this time was Pier 1 where Ali was juts sort of cruising to see if anything caught her fancy, nothing really did.

We then headed across the street to the recently opened Trader Joe’s, a place I have heard a lot about but have not checked out as of yet due to the huge crowds.  Well evidently 1PM on a Sunday is not a good time to shop there either.  I hypothesized that it was the post church crowd, the place was just clogged with old farts.

I just wanted to take a quick look.  I heard from my mom and a couple other people that Trader Joe’s has a wide selection of healthy frozen meals for one that are not stuffed with chemicals and preservatives yet are reasonably priced.  I confirmed this was true although I didn’t pick any up.  I figure I will grab a handful some other time when it is less crowded and when I don’t have additional stops to make.

We then went back to Lowes, Ali had more coupons to use up.  We grabbed Ali a new detachable shower head, a small stand/table for her master bathroom, a towel bar for the guest bathroom and the black drywall screws.

Once we got back I dug into installing everything as well as using the drywall screws to hang items in a visually matching manner.

I had gotten a call back from the used-Dyson guy saying he was going to be stuck over in Miami later than he planned, we agreed for him to let me know when he was leaving so I could decide if I wanted to make the drive Sunday night or not.  I had asked Ali if she minded if I just hung at her place until I heard from him since it would give me a roughly 12 mile head start to Fort Myers.  She of course didn’t care.

Once all the work was done we actually had some free time.  We took the dogs for an extended walk which they seemed to really enjoy and later Ali and I went over to the main community pool to hang out.  It was the first time since moving in that Ali has gotten a chance to enjoy any of the amenities.

I hopped in the hot tub for a little bit and soaked my aching old bones.  Ali chose to just relax on the awesome padded chaise lounges and read a book.  The pool area at her place is simply awesome.

As we were out on our walk earlier Ali mentioned how it almost feels like we are still married, just a modified version of what we experienced for the last 14 years.  I agreed, the frequent visitation does make it seem at this point like this is simply Diet Marriage or Marriage Lite.

I think though the large amount of assistance that Ali needed in coordination with the moving project has had a large contribution to that.  I know that part of this process needs to eventually be less contact while maintaining the caring bonds where we have each other’s back when push comes to shove.  It’s necessary that we both continue growing outward/forward.

I have been watching Game of Thrones Season 1.  You ask how am I doing this since I do not have cable tv or a HBO subscription?  cokeandpopcorn.com  I am using the site to stream past episodes via a PC.  I extended the viewing to my bedroom last night by attaching a laptop to the tv.

I see why the show has gotten so much acclaim.

As I was paying the bills on Sunday I just happened to run a report showing my gas expense for the last month.  I almost fainted when I saw the number, $609.  Granted that period includes some of the tail end of Ali’s gas expense but still, that is an incredible amount of money to spend on gas in a month.  I will be doing whatever I can to minimize that expense going forward.  The roughly 50 mile round trip to work I put in everyday is a real killer.

So as I mentioned before, tonight after work I am heading directly to Fort Myers to score my used Dyson.  I am hoping the thing is in good working order, supposedly it is only two years old.  Our Animal is over 5 years old and still doing great.  I will put it through a suck test before handing over the cash.

I have a brief three day week, taking Thursday and Friday off for my SSR repair/upgrade adventure.  I am actually looking quite forward to it, as long as the truck makes it all the way to Plant City on it’s noisy flywheel.

Yesterday Obama made a statement that lit up the headlines regarding the Supreme Court and their potential to overturn the health care legislation that was passed through congress.  The bullseye line was mentioning that an unelected group of individuals such as Supreme Court justices, should not be involved in determining law that has gone through the full legislative process.  He also mentioned that if this would happen, it would go firmly against past GOP policies decrying “judicial activism”.  For conservatives to support this move would be pure hypocrisy.

One of my buddies, who dislikes pretty much any and all things Obama, sent me the link to the story, presumably because he thought this somehow reflected negatively upon Obama.  Ironically I think it does exact the opposite.  I am glad to see Obama not back down from this fight, something he has done entirely too often during his term thus far.

Let’s not even take the health care law into consideration for now.  How stupid is it that supreme court justices are appointed, LIFETIME positions?  Very.  It makes absolutely no sense why a sitting presidents decision on a supreme court justice can have lasting effects years or even decades after that president has left office.

To me a supreme court justice should be on the same election schedule as presidential elections. They should come in and potentially go out with each administration.

Kudos to Obama for putting a light on the stupidity of our higher court system selection process, regardless of what decision they come to on health care.

After many, many, many months I posted a new blog poll about a subject that typically is tread lightly upon, religion.  Feel free to post your your vote on what role religion has for you in today’s society.  It won’t take long by viewing some of the choices I have made available that personally, I am not a big fan…

This morning I was awakened by ear pain between 3 and 3:30 am.  Basically as soon as the Advil wears off the pain gets pretty severe.  I popped two more Advil but was not able to fall back asleep so I rolled out of bed around 4:30.

When I got into work I called the clinic and reported that even though I am on my 4th day of antibiotic drops, I have not seen any lessening of the symptoms.  The PA said she would call in a prescription for an oral antibiotic.  In the past this almost always seems to be the final resolution to my ear woes.

If my ear pain continues as is it will definitely put a damper on any weekend fitness plans, there is no way I am doing cardio with a throbbing head plus my body just feels weakened from fighting the infection.

Saturday night we are supposed to go to a party.  If I am on antibiotics that means I shouldn’t drink which means my ability to efficiently party will be significantly impaired.

I read that fecal matter Santorum would like to outlaw pornography if he gets the big chair in DC.  This goes along with the myriad of other bible mandated ideas that he would like to impose on the country.  Have to love people that view themselves worthy of being the morality police for others. Idiot.

I have to say it was nice yesterday being able to leave the gym without having to deal with a sputtering truck for the drive back to the office. Although I paid dearly to have the issue fixed, at least it is fixed.

Early yesterday afternoon I touched my right ear and felt pain.  I knew immediately I was once again developing an ear infection, something I do on a pretty regular basis.  I can only assume it was the end result of my 1600 swim on Sunday for which I did not wear ear plugs.

I typically never wear ear plugs when swimming in a pool, figuring the chlorinated water negates the problem.  When I swim in something like the gulf or ocean I would always try to use ear plugs.  I have a life long issue with ear infections / swimmers ear.  I guess the way the inside of my ear is laid out it makes it very easy for water to collect in there.

So anyway, I had no doubt I was on the road to yet another infection so I called our onsite employee clinic and was lucky to be able to get in right away.  The PA looked in my right ear and said it looked very red and inflamed already.  I was given a script for antibiotic ear drops which I started last night.

Despite catching the infection early and having two treatments of drops in my head already my ear hurts badly today.  The pain is radiating outward, into my jaw and even a little bit into my throat.  You know the pain you feel when flying and your ears won’t “pop”?  That is pretty much what it feels like full time.  I am hoping the symptoms start to improve instead of worsen soon.

After my series of failed repair attempts on the Tacoma I was due for a win.  I got it the other day when I successfully resurrected our Hayward Navigator although again, it took multiple tries to do so.

The pool vacuum has had an issue where it was hardly moving around the floor of the pool.  The first thing I tried was replacing the rubber feet.  Over time these harden and get smooth, losing their ability to push the vacuum efficiently.  The new feet did nothing to improve the problem.

The next thing I did was get a new set of hoses since the old ones were getting brittle on their ends with pieces of plastic breaking off. My theory was the hoses were leaking, causing inadequate suction.  A new set still made no difference.

My final purchase was a Navigator “tune up kit”.  This included new feet, wings, front/rear flapper and pods.  I didn’t swap out the feet and wings since they were still in good shape.  I did replace the flappers and the pods. I was quite happy when I saw the vacuum once again scampering quickly across the pool floor after the tune up.  I am pretty sure the actual problem was the pods.  When I took the old ones off a spring fell out in my hand.

I am happy we now have an extra hour of daylight in the evening.  It helps me get more stuff done on weeknights.  Last night I took advantage of the daylight by repairing the rear view mirror on the Tacoma (fell off) and giving the SSR a much needed bath after it inadvertently got sprayed with scummy sprinkler water over the weekend.

I am collecting info for the next SSR project which will be replacing the bent panhard bar.  It appears to be something I can replace myself utilizing jack stands and my floor jack however I will probably need to get a 4 wheel alignment after I am done.

I read this morning that Santorum won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries.  Supposedly it was somewhat of a surprise but I am not quite sure why since those states are breeding grounds for white trash stupidity.

Of course I am not saying that Mitt is a good choice either but people voting for Santorum is such a sad statement about the mindset of our country.  Check out this link if you aren’t sure why that is.

The absolute primary reason he is getting votes is because he is a bible thumper and precious little else.  If you look at his political track record you quickly see he has precious little else to offer.  There is a reason he was catapulted out of congress during his last reelection bid, he simply sucks.

Yesterday I got a message from Autozone that my IAC gasket was in.  I was surprised because I was told it wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday.  I had to laugh out loud at the Vonage text translation of the voice mail. Here is what it thought it heard.   “This is Roy. I am calling from outdoor song to let you know about the car payment. Thank you”

I was worried when I stopped at Autozone on the way home and the guy walked out with a huge cardboard envelope that was at least a 2 foot square.  The part I ordered was all of 3 inches .  After he ripped open the cardboard and another smaller envelope inside I was relieved to see that the gasket was indeed what I needed.

When I got home I headed right out to the garage to try to put everything back together before I ran out of day light.  The new gasket fit exactly as it should.  Reassembling the throttle body and reattaching it to the truck went smoothly.  The truck fired right up although the real test is when I do my first warm start. I am 90% sure that I have squashed the problem.

I made a video outlining the steps I took to clean the IAC since I was unable to find any Tacoma IAC cleaning videos going into the project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-71hfgaxzc

So we are supposed to receive our new bed today.  Last week I was contacted by the company responsible for the delivery and set things up.  I was told the night before I would be receiving a call giving me a 4 hour delivery window.  Well I received no call.  I called and left a message, hoping someone calls me back to let me know when I can expect someone to show up.  I wouldn’t be surprised if my notice is the call that says “we are at your front door and no one is home”.  Oh well, I guess they will be waiting if that is the case.

Yesterday when I was using StumbleUpon I was directed to a pretty cool job search sight, simplyhired.com.  The site aggregates job listings across many sources and presents them in an easy to use interface.  Of course I did a few searches based on mom’s address and came back with a few interesting hits that I sent to her.

Last week a copy of Newsweek showed up in our mailbox with my name and address on it.  I was baffled.  I definitely did not subscribe to the weekly periodical that is typically found in doctor waiting rooms.   Hell the only subscription I have anymore is Wired and the paper version typically goes right in the recycle bin since I can read the enhanced electronic version on my Kindle Fire (or Ipad).

Maybe someone got a free subscription deal and put my name down as a joke.  Some FB friends said they too have started receiving magazines they didn’t order and heard it is a gimmick publishers have been trying to boost subscriptions.  Well I can assure you, it won’t work in this case.

I saw Rick “Anal Fluid” Santorum won three primaries, well not really, they were more like straw polls since no delegates were decided based on the results.  The election process is so needlessly complicated and stupid.  Anyway grats to the republican voters of Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri for firmly establishing that you are indeed first class ass hats.

In a story near and dear to Rick’s heart, since he thinks gayness can be cured and is somewhat similar to bestiality,  a California court ruled it was illegal for voters to overturn the gay marriage right (Prop 8). I think this is a great thing but of course Rick doesn’t or the religious marriage police.  I have yet to hear one logical explanation of how allowing two men or women to marry each other affects anybody else in a negative manner whatsoever.  Maybe that is because there is no logical explanation.