Politics. Again.
Last weekend when Earl and I were in Pennsylvania with his relatives the subject of the upcoming elections came up. To me this is somewhat of a foreign concept because there was an unwritten rule in my family that you just didn’t talk politics. You certainly participated by going to the fire hall and casting your vote, but you didn’t talk about it.
Anyway, as Earl and his family were playing cards, his step-aunt and I conversed in the living room and she asked who I was going to vote for. I said without hesitation that my vote was going to Obama and I stated the various reasons why: the past eight years have been nothing short of a nightmare and I believe a step in the wrong direction for the United States. I said that I believed that Obama’s message of “change” and “hope” is completely valid. I did preface my comments with “I would have voted for Hillary”, but that’s water under the bridge. Michelle said that she would probably vote for Obama as well and stated her reasons why. We were pretty much in agreement.
The next day at the wedding reception, Earl’s aunt asked us who we were voting for. Earl responded with “Obama, of course.” The aunt nodded and had nothing else to say. She is obviously for McCain. The conversation stopped there. We were being polite at the wedding reception after all. I had a hunch that there may have been racial concerns. Another said she wasn’t voting for Obama because he’d probably be shot before inauguration and she didn’t want to see him dead. Love that logic.
All that being said, I think Earl’s stepmom said something that I think a lot of people need to think about. Unfortunately, race plays a big part in many people’s decision. Personally I think factoring in race when making a decision like this is crazy but then again I don’t even come close to thinking like the rest of the crowd. Earl’s stepmom simply said that people should just close their eyes and listen to what the candidates are saying. If your judgement is clouded by race, then take race out of the picture. Close your eyes and open your mind because then the choice is perfectly obvious: she’s voting for Obama (but would have rather voted for Hillary). I have always liked my mother-in-law.
Listening to NPR yesterday I heard a person make a comment that I found to be brilliant. This is the longest presidential campaign in the history of our country. It is also the most expensive. The media coverage has been nothing short of overwhelming. The person said that if you had not made up your mind this late in the game, with less than two weeks until the election, then the motivation, thought and consideration behind your vote is going to be dubious at best. I couldn’t agree more. Granted, this is the perfect time to sway undecided voters in one direction or another, but if the truth were to come down to it, Americans should be making intelligent, well thought out choices based on the information that has been presented before them over the past countless months before casting their vote. A rushed, uninformed decision before doing whatever electronic gimmick you have to vote these days is not doing your duty as an American citizen. Picking the “handsome one” or the “white one” or the “woman who can see Russia from her house” or the “man with the bad hair” for those reasons alone is irresponsible. It’s our duty to know our candidates and make that well thought out vote.
Personally I can’t understand why a person doesn’t vote for Obama. A vote for McCain is a vote for “same same same”. The vote in that direction also says to me that you ‘tolerate’ Earl and I as a couple. (I will not be simply ‘tolerated’). It says that health care is not a basic necessity for everybody. (Sick people are o.k. if they’re poor?) It tells me that you trust Anita Bryant Jr. and the whacky Jesus 7 with the nuclear launch codes should something (god forbid) happen to John McCain. I hope the witches don’t get her on Hallowe’en.
Know your vote and know it well.
Rise And Shine In The Dark.
This is my favorite time of the year. I enjoy the cool, crisp autumn breezes, the crunching sound of the leaves when they’re walked on and the lack of oppressive humidity and heat that summer usually brings to these parts. What I don’t enjoy is trying to get up in the morning when it’s still dark. This task fights against the natural programming of my body.
This coming weekend would normally marked the end of Daylight Saving Time but because of Bush Lite and his wacky cast of characters, we have to wait a few more weeks before getting the clocks relatively aligned with what is really occurring outside. I don’t know why this frustrates me but nevertheless it does. I mean, last year we had to endure the same extension of Daylight Saving Time as we do this year. Maybe I should go back and read the blog from a year ago to see if I complained about it then. I probably did.
Meanwhile, I’ll stumble around in the dark getting ready for work. I think I need to buy one of those light therapy boxes to give myself a boost.
Lab Rat.
I’m sitting at the local medical center waiting for my turn to have a chest xray. Nothing peps up tired blood and kicks off a work week like a healthy blast of radiation.
I’m wondering if our fine citizens are going deaf or if medical facilities are trying to distract patrons from horrific screams because the music in this waiting room is loud. This is not the first waiting room that I have encountered this. When I was a kid there was a small speaker at the family doctor’s office. Said speaker played music from the 40s from an AM radio station. It wasn’t loud.
After my chest xray I head over to another lab for the last of my blood work. I haven’t eaten since 7 p.m. last night. I am hungry.
Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Earl and I are in Bucks County, Pa. for his niece’s wedding tomorrow. The weather is beautiful, the drive was wonderful though I had to take a power nap in a rest area for 20 minutes or so. I fell asleep really fast and had some really weird dreams, all in a 20 minute span in the front seat of the car. It was a little odd. I blame my new medicine.
Anyways, tonight was the obligatory rehearsal and dinner afterward. It was a nice gathering. We then caught up with my in laws for the weekly poker game. Earl threw some chips around and kept it respectable; I socialised. It’s what I do.
I think it’s time to go to bed. One of the cool things of staying here with my brother and sister in law is that it’s our old bed from the old house. My ass still fits in the same spot from years ago, even though they bought a new mattress.
Bionic Upgrade.
So today I went for my annual physical for the first time in two years. Dr. Lance, as we like to call him, is looking as good as ever. He was cordial and friendly and more importantly, very prompt as he entered the examination room. I had only been waiting one or two minutes. It’s a nice change of a pace from today’s lazy state of affairs.
Basically I’m holding up pretty well. My pulse is good in all my extremities. (He checks my pulse in my ankle like Dr. Bombay!) My reflexes kick well (I hate getting my reflexes tested for some reason) and my tongue still allows me the ability to say “ah”. He took my blood pressure twice, it’s a little high this time around. He wants me on blood pressure medicine for a little while. I was on blood pressure medicine back in the early oughts and it did fairly well. Earl kind of treats it like some sort of distemper shot as he says I’m calmer when I’m on it. My numbers were 134/94. Not overly high but a little high. It runs in the family so I guess that’s to be expected. On the other hand, Dr. Lance is rather hot so that could be a reason for having high blood pressure.
I have to do the usual fasting and ensuing blood work on Monday. I have to have a chest xray just to be sure of something, but I don’t know what it is. He said everything sounds good. I opted to do the non-fasting required blood work today. I’ll have those results in a week. I hope the black and blue mark from the lab tech is gone by then. The rest of the blood work involves cholesterol and sugar levels. He says that runs in the family and he expects my numbers to be high. Such the optimist.
The bionics upgrade from 2005 is holding well and he is pleased by that. Well he seemed pleased. I certainly am. That problem that hung around for 30+ years is well behind me now. Now things just hang nicely.
The Barber.
When I first moved to the area in 1991 I wore a flattop. I know that is hard for some to believe, what with me being bald for the past 12 years or so but once upon a time I had enough hair on top to wear a respectable auburn flattop. I complimented the look with a moustache.
Maintaining a flattop is a bit of a chore. If you go too long without getting it cut it starts to look all out of proportion and then you’re just a few short steps from parachute pants and exclaiming “Yo Hammer don’t hurt ’em”, so when I got settled in these parts I had to find a barber that could execute the precision my flattop required.
After a couple of missteps and bad haircuts, I finally found a barber that could do the job well. The barbershop is a standalone unit located on a side street downtown; it’s flanked by two empty buildings. There are two chairs but only one barber. The other chair was Sam’s station but he had passed away a couple of years before I discovered the shop. The front chair belongs to Carm, a jovial older Italian man. He’s tall and thin, his name has many vowels. I thought of him as “older” back in 1991, I still think of him as “older” today, 17 years later.
Carm is a pleasant man. I’ve never heard him speak ill of anyone. His shop is populated by all sorts of men; workers from the state and county office building, lawyers and police officers and construction crews getting cleaned up for the weekend. While not overly busy, I suppose he does a respectable business. I sometimes wonder when he’ll retire.
Though my visits to Carm became more sporadic as time marched on and my hair vacated my head, he has always remembered various stops along my career path: radio DJ, restaurant co-owner, computer man. I was last in his shop in August 2006 where he carved out my first incarnation of the “wide” moustache that I wear from time to time. He is located close my work and occasionally I’ll pass by on a wild attempt to get some exercise during my lunch hour. He always waves and smiles.
During my last visit to the shop I noticed that he had slowed down a little bit. I mean, he’s getting on in his years and that’s to be expected. I noticed two winters ago there was a sign in the window saying that he’d be closed for a few weeks due to illness. He came back and resumed his schedule a short while later, I’d still pass by and wave. He’d wave back.
Carm’s shop is still open today. Since that bout with illness I decided to drive by on my way home from work once in a while to see if the shop is still open. I have little reason to go into the shop: I don’t have much hair on my head and I wear a beard most of the time. I’d glance in the big window as I passed by and occasionally see him sleeping in the barber chair closest to the window; the task of reading the newspaper apparently turned into an afternoon nap that probably went a little longer than expected. So I developed the habit of giving a quick little beep on the car horn in an effort to remind him that it was quitting time. I’d then go around the block again to see if he woke up. By the time I went by the shop again, I’d see him stirring and making motions to close up for the day.
I don’t know if Carm knows what wakes him up on the days he falls asleep reading the newspaper near quittin’ time but I don’t think I’m doing any harm. His shop is one little piece of Americana in this fast paced world that I cherish.
Here’s a picture I snapped the last time I was in his chair. It was August 2006.
Say It With Pictures.
Random pictures from our weekend in Buffalo are now available. Earl and I also did a photo shoot for our photographer friend Angry Alan. I’m excited to see them. We might share them when they are available as well.
Contentment.
Earl and I are in Buffalo for the weekend for “Buffalo Bear Trap”: a gathering of furry men of all ages and sorts (and those that admire of them) where we meet up, bump bellies, party a bit and hang out with old and make new friends. The festivities began last night.
I don’t know if it’s the recent bout of illness, a feeling of “turning a corner” in my life or what but I am the most content that I have been in a very long time. I’m in full relaxation mode this weekend. I’m happy with the way I feel physically but more importantly I’m happy with where my heads is at. I guess my contentment could be interpreted as “completeness”. I feel complete these days. Complete and comfortable. I am happy with who and what I am. Complete and comfortable therefore equals contentment.
Last night I was the “sound designer” for the performances last night, which included a musical guest (complete with video) and two stand-up comedians. Kendall took the stage first with his music, followed by Kristen Becker and Frank DeCaro of Sirius Satellite radio’s OutQ. The performances went well and my DJ sets before and afterward seemed to go over well with the crowd. The space was basically a large box with 25 foot ceilings and the group rented a sound system. It was a bit of a challenge to keep things and sounding good without a huge amount of echo.
One of the best things about the weekend is meeting up with our friends Steve and Tim. It’s been a year since we’ve seen them but we seem to pick up right where we left off a year ago. Our schedules have been too crazy to get together any more than that, we need to make a better effort in 2009. We love them both.
I’ve taken a bunch of pictures to share but neglected to bring the interface cable. This is a little bit of a pet peeve of mine: I own my third Sony digital camera. The first two, and our video camera, all used the same cable to transfer pictures to the computer. This camera uses a completely different cable and of course it’s sitting on my desk at home. I guess I’ll share the pictures tomorrow night when we get home.
Tonight it’s the big party at a local show house and then an after hours party at the hotel. It’s going to be a long night.
I’ll be the guy in the corner who is content watching the crowd.
Role.
Dear Ms. Palin:
Is it o.k. to call you “Ms.”? I should call you Governor but I’m not sure that the title appeals to the Joe Six Pack crowd you adore so much. Maybe I’ll stick to the traditional approach and just call you “Mrs.” or “Your Ladyship”.
Anyways, a quick question for you if you’re not too busy being all mavericky. From my backyard I can watch brand new Boeing 777 Dreamliners and AWAK planes and military fighter jets land and takeoff from the local airfield. Because of this, would you please consider me to be the new head of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) should you and the Spooky One1 get into office in November? I believe my credentials are equivalent to yours, what with you being able to see Russia and all.
Thank you.
1 I’m waiting for the end of this bad episode where Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby rip off McCain’s mask to reveal who the mean guy really is.
