Free Time, Forced Civility, and Oil Usage Restrictions

We are trying to figure out what to do with our time now that the boy is finished school. I really shouldn't say we, it was the wife that spent so much time making sure he stayed on task, but hey, I live here too! I have marked certain milestones, like retirement, with changes in my appearance. Grew my hair, cut my hair. Grew a beard, shaved my beard. Grew...you get it. Well I'm running out of things to change, it's hot, it's humid, seemed like an easy choice.



Graduation was great, the boy was absolutely glowing, right along with us. The school has it down to a science, 577 kids, they'd better. One thing bothered me, well lots of things bothered me, but this one was acute. They made an announcement to please hold all clapping, all cheering, and all outbursts until the end of the ceremony as a courtesy to those listening for their childs name. It didn't happen! When I take over the world this will be a thing of the past. Your name is called and there is an outburst, you come into school with a parent on Monday to get yours. I'd like to force a little civility on people, even if they don't want it.

This spill in the Gulf is horrible. How can it be that something like this doesn't have an answer? We make the coal people have a plan for when things go wrong, they don't work, but we make them have one. BP had a plan to save walruses, tons of those in the Gulf. Did the USA restrict things like travel, fuel consumption during WW2, pretty sure they did? Stop all non essential air travel, tonight! Give us coupons for gasoline, use your coupons and you either stay home, or you trade with someone else for theirs. These aren't big problems, just ones that need serious answers.

The Girls Working Together, Bamboozled At Doctors Office, and Bank Telling Me I'm Late, I'm Not Late, You Were Slow

The girls are going tomorrow to teach rollerskating, together. The head teacher just had a baby, so the girl is stepping up in her stead, the wife is the girls helper, oh my! The wife is a rollerskating goddess in these parts, the girl is gaining fast.I sure hope their styles match up or this could be a strained atmosphere around here. I'm thinking of going on a road trip to avoid any tensions here.

I was in the "recovery" room at the spine doctors yesterday, done been slice and diced, just waiting for the OK to head out. This young girl came in, started to explain how my new tens stimulator worked, put this here, this is up, this is down, and this is off. BOOM! She jumped into the back brace I need to wear, but I stopped her there, said one thing at a time. I didn't want the wife's co-workers to know my measurements. Funny thing is the doctor didn't mention either of these things? I think I got caught in a shell game, the girl is there to sell these things. I need to find out if I need this, or if I looked like one of those Bugs Bunny skits where he looked like giant Suckers!

Pay bills electronically, we love it, works for us. Got a notice in the mail today, said we were late on our mortgage, and that a hefty fee was being assessed. I checked my records, got my confirmation number, call the bank. They explained to me that when I submitted my payment on 2/7/10, it was delivered by 2/10/10. My payment is due between the 1st and the 15th. OK, done, except it snowed and they were closed. They didn't open the payment until 2/17/10, 2 days late. She waived the late fee, suggested I pay more attention to when I mail things. I chose not to tell her to bite me, but promised I would mark my calender when blizzards are predicted, and she may be off.

Naval Academy To Seek Out Minorities

I can't believe sometimes the reasons given for why groups do something. The United State Naval Academy has decided there are not enough minorities at the Annapolis institution. Are they currently being excluded? If so, are they the most qualified? They are changing the way they sound, so they say. No more stern male voice on there recruitment video. Is it that the voice was male, or was it that it was a white voice? They replaced the voice with a gospel choir. Do all minorities like gospel music? I thought I read that Hispanics are the largest minority in the US? If they aren't, they soon will be. Does the ad get redone to include salsa music next?

What's a summer seminar program? Do all plebes attend one of those classes? Half of the 83 blacks attending this years freshman class went to one. The total number of minorities this year is 351, a new record. Did half of them, or half of the total 1250 go to a summer seminar? How many blacks applied for the Academy this year? What was the race of the other 268 minorities? Do we need to trim some of them to make the numbers jibe? Who decides this kind of stuff? Isn't that kind of like a quota when you plan on increasing the numbers of one race at the expense of at least one other?

It looks like the current application process is a 10 step one, very impressive. Will that be replaced with one question, race? Are they going to take their new recruiting film to black schools and try to talk them into going? I thought if they wanted to go, they applied? How do I get someone to tailor a program that they seek out 40 something, handicapped white guys, because they aren't applying in high enough numbers? I have to admit, I'm confused. Is the AFL-CLO running the Navy now? How much did it cost us to redo the new films, posters, letters? Who wrote the new novel, yeah, they wrote a novel aimed at minorities. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Sorry Dr King, evidently we aren't there yet!

Loss Of A Real American Hero

Do we even know what a hero is anymore? I checked the local news and they did their usual dance around what they are feeding us as important. Gene Upshaw died. I remember him as a tough football player for the Oakland Raiders. Where are the Raiders now? The last 25 or so years Upshaw has been a big wig with the NFL players union. Though it's sad whenever anyone dies, I'd hardly consider Mr Upshaw's passing front page news in Baltimore. It was however on all the news channels and in the Sun.

I see Michael Phelp's and his family are home from China, what a show he put on. Anyone would be impressed with his record setting performance, but who cares that his mother went back to work today? They all covered it though, even told the story of his estranged father. I for one truly do not care! Everyone else in Baltimore, Phelp's hometown, must be starved for someone to look up to, he and his mom are all we see!

Ed Freeman passed away. I didn't see anything on the local news, or in the paper. He must not rate up with the swimmers mom going back to work. Mr Upshaw's funeral will probably be in the news days after he is in the ground. Mr Freeman probably is done being in the news, I'm sure his funeral won't be covered in the local news, maybe not even in the national news again. I don't know if Mr Freeman could swim very fast, or if he was much of a pulling guard in football, but he must have been one hell of a chopper pilot! They don't just give The Congressional Medal Of Honor to anyone, now do they?

The passing of Mr Freeman leaves only 101 living MOH winners still living. Mr Freeman was a Captain, U.S. Army, Alpha Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) Viet Nam. Captain Freeman took his unarmed chopper in to resupply stranded soldiers and then flew 14 rescue missions into an area that had been closed and other pilots refused to enter. Countless lives were saved by his bravery, and he was awarded Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism. The fact that these other "heroes" are front page news, and Mr Ed Freeman barely got a mention is the reason why we are making public service announcements for our buses. We put honor at the feet of the wrong people, and I for one shed a tear over it. Thank you Mr Freeman, and the other 101 brave souls.

College Text Books Out Of Reach For Some

I used to do a lot of reading when I was younger. I'm not sure why I don't read that much anymore, I just lost interest I suppose. I can tell you one thing, if I read nothing but college text books I'd of lost interest because I couldn't afford it. My girl just gave us the bill for the upcoming semester's books, $620. Whaaaaa? You have got to be kidding me? That's almost 5 grand just for books while she's in school. That's outrageous, it's ridiculous, it's plain preposturous!

They better end up reading every single word in every single one of those books! That's $155 per book, per class. What do those text books have that say MAD magazine doesn't? OK, that may not be a good example, but I'm MAD! They are all new books too, no used are available because they teachers want the new editions. You'd think the teachers were getting a kick back, what did they write the books? Oh yeah, they probably did.

Put this in the column of, "I want to put an end to it but I have no choice so I will pay it and just smile because she has to have the book to make sure she is prepared for the assignments she will have to do even though I know most times she won't need the book because the teacher will probably read from it during class and if she pays attentions she will do fine!" Where's my wife with that tranquilizer dart? They have you by the short hairs, that's for sure. It's not the type of school either, they all do this. I wish I could call someone, but they are all in on it.

Book collectors don't spend that much on books! That's about $100 a month over the 4 years of college. Just add it to the bill I suppose, but they know that. Where is the Bill Gates foundation to help with this? Why are there books at all? Why aren't there DVD's that they use and then self destruct? They could do that for like 8 bucks! I'm going to do what I have to do, but I don't have to like it. I also don't have to be quiet about it. What do kids that don't have family, or families that aren't willing to help do? Worse yet, what about families with 3 or 4 kids? I'm going to talk the boy into steamfitting!

Top News Sells Out To Fluff!

I don't even know where to start? My heart goes out to families of the 9 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. I can not even imagine their grief at not only having lost a loved one, but at the legitimate media not having enough respect not to put them on the same headline page as the release of "Hellboy II" and the birth of a Hollywood couples twins. It was a nice they got a place of honor above the story of the gay Bishop, nice touch.

Do they report on what some of the brighter minds in our country think may be a way to end this war? No, that doesn't keep you locked in the same way a review of the movie with the bat and the young guy that died because his life was so busy. I need more information about that, I feel left out of the loop. Try to put yourself in these families positions. You go looking for information and you find that the info was given by someone who couldn't be identified because the families hadn't been notified. Didn't stop them from telling it, or the newsies from reporting it. Ah, people of honor!

How many years do we watch our people die before we demand some answers? We aren't going to get them from the news, that's for sure. They weren't just on the band wagon over the war, they were the band wagon. That's back when it was the thing to do. If there aren't deaths in the 2 wars, they don't even mention it anymore. Instead they talk about what famous athlete is sleeping with what famous singer. Is there no integrity left in journalism? Don't look at me, I am looking for my own answers.

I watch very little television anymore. Nothing to watch. There is a new dog reality show coming out, I suppose that does it for some people. You can't read the newspaper in Baltimore anymore, you don't get the same effect with only one paper. We have a generation getting their "news" off of shows on the comedy channel. That's good. We have nowhere to turn anymore. I'm not sure we ever did, but it sure did feel that we did. I suppose I should just except that this is the way it goes, it's just hard to do when you know there are so many in pain and the newsies are talking about the premier of last weekends movies set new all time highs.

Guinea Pigs

Britney Spears is selling her house? I hope everything is OK? Man I hate seeing bad things happen to good people. Did you see how excited Kevin Garnett of the Celtics was last night? I didn't know he was bilingual? What was that language he was speaking, minus the parts they had to bleep out? Ya wanna know what I really hate? I hate it when mindless stories, such as these, compete, and usually top stories about the mistreatment of our veterans. Most of the time the major news groups seem to opt out on reporting on the war they helped promote.

So let me get this straight. The federal government has decided to test new stop smoking drugs on veterans who are home suffering from PTSD. It seems they didn't tell the Vets there was a chance of violent psychotic tendencies and suicide. Why would you test anything on these people, haven't they already done their share? Who makes these decisions? How come we don't hear about these things until something goes wrong? We don't hear because you don't announce when you're doing something that is underhanded and wrong.

Why don't we use the people in prisons to test drugs out on? Let's go to the detention centers and load "THEM" up on experimental drugs without their permission. Can you see the outcry from the government? You can't do that to people without asking them, unless they are Vets. Does the government own them? Do they think they can do anything they want to these men and women? It sure looks like it.

No matter what you think of the government, the reasons for going to war, or the war itself, it is disgraceful the way we treat our returning soldiers. With over 4,000 dead and 30,000 + wounded, they have done their part! It's now time we step up and say enough is enough, this must not continue. Isn't it bad enough we let our people go to war with inadequate equipment to do the job? Do you remember the stories of parents sending body armor and other supplies to their children in hopes of protecting them? Can't we at least take care of the troops if they come back broken and not treat them like lab rats?

As far as the news organizations go, how about giving us a way to get the real news. Let us know about the things and people that really matter, like our veterans and our neighbors who are in distress. If I want to know about Mel Gibson and Britney Spears having coffee, I'll buy a copy of Tiger Beat!