Wet & wild......

Greetings from soggy Ft Worth. In typical Murphy's Law fashion, after bagging 19 bags of weeds, grass clippings and leaves ( there are 4 large black oaks on this property) and dutifully leaving them on the curb for pickup this AM I was greeted (at 4:30AM) by a thunderstorm when I started work.  I could  only imagine what a mess was being generated out front.  As luck would have it the giant oak in front kept the bags fairly dry and so all is well as the garbage guys were here about 8AM and all has been removed.  However the rain has since restarted leading me into this selectron for your listening pleasure from the late, very great Doug Sahm

It's almost a done deal now - Mitt Romney vs Obie in the big election this fall.  Look out Mitt - you think it was down and dirty in the prelims.  Obie has an army of crusaders thsat will cast aspersions on anything and everything you've ever done and your Mormon faith.  That will be done subtly though - as Obie lives in a glass house when it comes to religion. The uber-right evangelicals are having fits with these 2 - the "cultist" vs the musilm  faux christian well whatever the heck Obie is. The Knights Templar had nothing on these uber-Obie supporters.

Things have been relatively calm here lately - Lynn's new med combo seems to be helping. Of course over time that will stop. There is very little I can think of that is as dehumanizing as Huntington's Disease and it is every bit as destructive to hearth and home as an F5 tornado.

I am virtually rant free today.  Must be time for another tune. Here's something appropriate...

The last one is for my friend Ramana who smacked me down a bit this week with an offhanded comment about negativity. My negativity.  R - I may claim to be a curmudgeon but in all honestly I've always been an optimist - which is why this has always been my fave Sinatra song and I believe it wholly appropriate to me at this point in time.

It's aloha Friday - as we used to say in Hawaii.  Have a great weekend all.

Indeed - things could be worse....

Leave it to mother nature to very deftly point out to my rather large self that things could indeed be worse.  While my circumstances of late are certainly much less than ideal,  yesterday pointed out they could be  far worse. 

Living in tornado alley, we are used to the annual wake up call from mom.  Yesterday she shook the bed extra-harda dozen times or so and sent us scurrying for cover with 12 tornadoes. Yesterday while busily working away at my computer I heard the ubiquitous tornado sirens going off and then that obnoxious sound from the TV that means either really nasty weather or an Amber alert. Clever fellow that I am, I figured it must be weather since the tornado sirens do not sound off during an Amber alert.  A quick check of the news made it clear the danger was close but not so close I needed to sequester Lynn, myself and the pets in the bath tub.  And so it began.

Nothing quite like watching video of flying trailers (of the tractor-trailer type) or seeing the damage from a tornado on the ground.  From the air it looks like mom directed the big windy to specific houses and spared others.  Tornadoes are unique in that way.  At any rate the damage started about a dozen miles east of me in Arlington and continued on.  The concern and storms tracked eastward for hours. I just heard from my HS friend Ted Taylor - he lives in Arlington with his family near the areas hardest hit. The damage was severe 1/4 mile from his house.  Whew. 

Hopefully that's our tornadic adventure for 2012 but I doubt it.  This seems like a very bad year so e'll juststrap ourselves in and let mother nature fire away at us.  We'll consider this latest round a high and tight brushback pitch.  

On those days

When just getting out of bed is a chore - for whatever reason - I find myself more than ever drawn to music.  More often thannot it's the music of my  youth - not because I live in the past.  Circumstances dictate I be seriously grounded in the now - but I find solace in older songs.  The selection may be somewhat surprising - for instance this is one of my all time favorite songs, always in my top 10 but the title and subject may shock some who know me  if we've ever discussed religion....

Then there's this one that makes me think of Lynn - who essentially left the building 10-11 years ago even though my primary purpose in life is to act as her  caregiver



Music lets me escape the realities of the day in some cases and reminds me of realities past in others.  Some voices just get to me - here is Bev Bivens -my fave female voice of the sixties singing another favorite song of mine

And when I need a boost I listen to this one - an early rocker written by a friend of mine - and the subject of which is a book called The Kama Sutra

And now the music has served its purpose - I am ready to face the day.  Come what may. 

And then there were four.....

The one-legged ass-kicking exercise known as the Republican Primary continues with another debate tonight.  Who will make the biggest gaffe? Who will steal the show?  Will Ron Paul get to speak? Wiull Newt's minions cheer? Will satan let Mitt prevail over that sweater-vested supposed hero of the religious right - Rick Santorum?  Amazing - the man cannot get elected Senator in his own state but suddenly is spoken of as a legitimate contender for the nomination.  Poor Ron Paul - he can't seem to get enough folks to take him seriously. Or maybe they do and like me feel he would be a danger to the country with his foreign policy views. Well - lets just see what happens tonight and next week.  I suspect Romney will ultimately prevail. Newt's  a loose canon and I am not interested in having a man like Santorum calling the shots for me - especially if the GOP takes control of congress.

Now on to something really serious (tongue firmly in cheek) - the recent TCU drug scandal. As a resident of Ft Worth and in fact I live in the TCU district I have enjoyed the gnashing of teeth and snarling certain individuals have espoused.  Sorry folks - this is not the end of the world. It's a bunch of stupid college kids peddling weed and a few other things to their peers. Been there done that.  Oh - the potential all american linebacker said surely most of the footbll team failed the surprise drug test head coach Gaary Patterson sprung on them when he lost a highly sought after recruit due to so-called rampant drug use on the TCU football team.  Guess that lineacker was assigned to squire the kid around.  Oh well. TCU football and Gary Patterson will be just fine. Patterson is a quality man in every respect and I'd be astonished if his team was rife with drug abusers. The NCAA has not even blinked at this and so our beloved Horn Frogs move to the Big 12 where they can feast on the likes of Kansas, Kansas State and a few others.  Purple power!!!

A couple of blogs I frequent as a reader/responder have been focusing on spirituality a lot lately.  That's an interesting subject for me as I am not what you'd call a believer. I think Thomas Jefferson had it right about Jesus - he lived by and established a moral code that is a model worth following. But as to the magic - oops - resurrection - well I don't buy it.  Genesis literally?  You've got to be kidding.  The age of the earth?  Lets not go there.  But someone I knew very well - one of my best friends, now deceased used to always tell me I was one of the most spiritual people he'd ever met.  We had many 3-way phone conversations with a mutual friend in the UK about the subject and they both essentially felt the same way about me. Pete - my late friend - was a staunch member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and Ron - our UK mate is a nondnominational Christian and active member of the Freemasons. I only bring this up because some seem to think a secular guy like me is essentially the pawn of satan. Living in the bible belt has been interesting for this lapsed Mormon. We'll start getting into that fith stuff next week.  I'm gonna make more time (better use of my existing time?) - and get in here more often.
So that's it for now.  day is done as PP&M sang.  

And what the heck - here's another

If it ain't broke don't fix it but if it is......

Interesting timing - to have the bogus BCS title game the day before the next step in the grand spectacle known as American politics. I suggest that both syustems are broken and need to be fixed.

The BCS is all about money - schools jockey for a BCS bowl game each year for the not insubstantial financial stipend that goes to each school for participating. The more prestigious the bowl the higher the payout.  BCS payouts according to Wikipedia are $18,000,000.00.  Non-BCS payouts range from 6.5M (Cotton bowl) down to .75M for several games that usually pit a pair of teams with as many losses as they have wins.

BCS teams come from the cryptic ranking system currently in place and coaches freely admit to being less than honest when bowl season comes around and BCS rankings and therefore bowl games and payouts are at stake.

That is of course the Cliff's Notes version of the BCS but it segues nicely into the election season currently just leaving the gate, Iowa already being in the books and New Hampshire voting today for the Republicans.
 Don't misunderestimate me.  Ahem - thanks for that one Dubya.  Our election system is the best one out there at the moment, we just keep screwing it up by electing the same clowns over and over.    We have made politics a profession.  We keep people in office often times until they can retire and become highly paid lobbyists or run corporations. They keep fat government pensions that we pay for, take advantage of the contacts they developed over time and then influence legislation to benefit those corporations. I mean WTF - isn't it the American way???  Improve yourself? get rich?

Clearly this is barely a sound-bite commentary on American politics and there is much more to come.  I just pondered the similarities between a flawed college football rating system and its payouts with a career in American politics and its big payouts. Where else but in America could a former politician run a company that requires signifiicant political ties internationally,  ascend to another even higher political office and then make that companies shareholders even wealthier when said company becomes an active participant - for profit - in international conflict.  Hells bells - one of the contestants in today's current New Hampshire contest spent recent years lobbying for substantial fees  but feels his calling as an idea man is to run the country instead.  Want to bet his lobbying fees go even higher when he inevitably loses??

So yes indeed I am saying that Americam politics are all about money. The Supreme Court says so.  They say Corporations have the constitutional right to influence politics. And Corporations exist for one reason - to make money.  There will be more on this subject later.

And so it begins.

The Iowa caucuses have spoken. Iowa's current 15-minutes of fame is in full force. And the decision??  That born-again, holier than thou Rick Santorum and uber-cultist Mit Romney are leading the Republican charge against Obie.  This week at least. New Hampshire is chomping at the bit to steal the spotlight away from Iowa.

So what does it all mean to us regular folk?  Not much.  Does anyone really think Iowa is a good snapshot of this nation's political leanings?  I sure don't. I do think Romney will be the eventual nominee and his most important decision will be his choice for a running mate. In my opinion, if he wins and selects Condi Rice Obie will be a one-term President (most deservedly so). Anyone else and it's 4 more years of the current nonsense.

One may think from my opening statement that I think both Santorum and Romney carry excessive religious baggage. I suspect Santorum truly believes Romney is a cultist - that's what any good card-carrying right wing BAC (born-again Christian) really thinks of Mormons.  I also suspect Romney believes Santorum is a far-right religious radical who would gladly impose his beliefs on this nation constitutionally if at all possible.  Of course what I believe and what they will admit to are quite different.  After all - it is election time and truth is further back in the bus than usual.  Hard to believe.  I know.

Both are decent men. I just prefer the decent man with a more moderate social view.  Clearly I am not a BAC.  Not sure I was ever even a C.  Disclaimer - I was baptized into Mormonism but am absolutely NOT active nor do I believe in the fundamentals of the LDS church.

So here we are - with a fellow removed from his Senate seat in his home state that somehow feels  qualified to lead the nation (rally round the flag right-wing religious tea partiers) and a businessman leading the charge against the evil democrats - those dirty, godless progressives.

From where I sit this election cycle will be more entertaining than network television could ever hope to be. I can't wait to read what the pundits have to say after New Hampshire