I
am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity
in political thinking.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt
Good morning
fellow Drivellers. Hope all is well you and yourn. Mother Nature has
blessed us with a bit of a bumpy ride here in the middle of the
heartland. Keep those in Oklahoma and other areas hit by tornado in
your thoughts and prayers today. People are just beginning to try and
figure out how to cope and what the next steps are. Especially
devastating are those young school children who died during the
storm. One can only imagine the heartbreak the parents are coping
with.
Let's give a
shout out to the IRS, the Department of Justice and the Secretary of
State. These upstanding federal employees and elected officials it
seems have been doing a number on us for a while. Several thoughts
cross my mind when these things happen. First, I am paying these
jerks for violating our laws and apparently applying a “Big
Brother” thumb on us. Second, whatever happened to morals and
ethics? Did we ban these? Third, how can the public shrug their
shoulders and go about business as usual? I just don't get it.
Next on my hit
list my privacy. At one time I didn't have any problem with the
government having access to some of my private information. I felt
that it was the cost of being a citizen. That was when I had faith in
our government and a reasonable expectation that they were doing what
was best for its citizenry. I believe I have morphed 180 degrees. I
received a letter from my doctor a while back informing me that she
had joined a group of professionals to better tend to my medical
needs. As a way to make this comprehensive set of services practical,
she would like my permission to share my medical records with these
other UN-named people. I thought about it for a few days and decided
to not give them permission. Low and behold, yesterday I hear that
these customer loyalty cards that you scan in the store supposedly to
allow you to earn extra discounts or reward points is no more than a
data collection of your personal information that is sold on to
anyone. Stores like CVS, Walgreen’s, Petco, Petsmart and etc. are
simply taking your shopping history and preferences and selling it to
third parties. Seems the going price is 50 cents to a dollar a name.
Medical records are also in high demand by third parties. These
records are selling for 25 to 30 dollars on the market. I don't know
about you, but I am getting concerned by all of this and I haven't
even mentioned internet firms like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter
and etc. I am thinking of giving up on Facebook for this very
reason. I think one thing that happens when you turn 67, you start
getting a little cynical and suspicious of peoples intentions.
My gym
attendance has gone in the dumper lately. It seems that I have
appointments of one kind or another all of the time. Starting
tomorrow, I will get back into the daily routine. Enough is enough.
On the domestic front, my current wife is still here. She cooked up
some FANTASTIC bean and ham soup last night. In all the years we
have been making it, this batch was by far the best ever. We may have
turned a corner. You know it is good when you are “tooting” all
night. Give her a shout out also for making a solo trip to Menards.
She visited the garden center and selected some new plantings for the
back yard. Those coupled with the hostas from daughter number 2 has
helped a lot. We may actually end up with something. Keep your
fingers crossed.
Daughter Debby
had a birthday last week. She received a new BBQ. It was delivered,
assembled and made ready for use. All she needs to do it turn it on.
Barney and Max officially christened it by each raising a leg in
salute. We celebrated at the Texas Road House for a birthday meal. We
were honored to have 2 doctors in our party this year – Doctor
Football, and Doctor Roto-rooter. Doctor Football has been with us a
few times but not as often as we would like. He is enjoyable to
converse with and brings a wide range of knowledge to the table,
especially football. Boy does he know his football. Doctor
Rotor-rooter has been with us before also but just recently earned
his new name. He is in his last year of Med School at U of I. His
goal is to be a vascular surgeon or some such thing. He does things
with veins. At least that is what I took away from his explanation. I
asked about discounts to relatives. While sympathetic, I don't see
that happening not that I need such a procedure but down the road who
knows.
Frau Fritz is
on the mend as I understand. Hope she continues to mend, her smile
and kind words are missed. Hope she can get to the gym soon, Fritz is
a bit grumpy when she is not around.
Big change in
my life. After agonizing for months and trying to resolve the issue,
I finally gave up. I tendered my resignation from the Church Video
Production department. It wasn't really a department, it was just me.
Fluffy is the audio department. I guess we kind of made up an A/V
department. I was asked to create a video support system to accompany
our Sunday services. It was a trial to see if the congregation liked
it. They did. That was in 2011. I have being doing this every week
since with an occasional Sunday off here and there. I have just
gotten burned out. You see it isn't just Sunday. The process begins
on Thursday and continues often into Friday and sometimes even
Saturday. Couple that with my blog on Tuesday's and there just isn't
that much time left over. Some of you are aware that I have been
rehabbing my left shoulder which apparently had rotator tendinitis. I
have gone through weeks of exercises but last Thursday they put these
electrodes around my shoulder and hooked me up to this machine. It
felt like a million needles tap dancing on my shoulder. They let me
simmer for about 20 minutes with an intensity level as high as I
could tolerate. Afterwards, my shoulder was almost totally free of
the sharp burning pains that I had been having. I have signed up for
more of those treatments. I now will have time to do some long
overdue traveling. I have some geneology research that I need to get
done and gosh, who knows – maybe some sightseeing.
Do you all
have exciting plans for this summer? Fishing, vacationing, boating or
whatever. We have some exciting plans but I can't find the list right
now. Don't you just hate it when that happens? It will turn up; I
just hope it shows up before fall. I am a little late with my blog
today. You see, I had to get a fasting blood test this morning at
8:00. Why it needs to be fasting I don't know. Have you ever noticed
that under normal evening situations, you don't really snack much or
require any food after say 7:00 o'clock? But when you have to fast
for 12 hours and avoid all food from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am, you are
starving to death. My hunger pangs began at 8:05 pm and lasted all
night. I could hardly sleep. I felt as though my body was beginning
to shut down I was so hungry. I gutted it out but let me tell you. I
had a breakfast for a lifetime after the blood test. I'm sure my
doctor would not have approved of that but what the heck --- I was
hungry. I had best get this to my editor before she freaks out too
much. Have a safe week, enjoy and we will see you next time. TA!
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