February managed to tick me off

The shortest of the months was very harsh. Usually I bask in such things as February marking the Beatles arrival or my own for that matter, but I’m glad to turn the page, even if March Lions all over us.

Perhaps, it was the unrelenting cold.(are we all tired of single digits?)

Perhaps, the lack of sun

Perhaps it was the need to repair one tire on my car.(flat tire, single digits)

Perhaps having to buy two more. (goodbye tax refund)

Perhaps it was having to repair the fourth less than a week later.

Perhaps it was the mild concussion suffered two days before one of my offices bigger benefits (having slipped on the ice in front of my former house).

Perhaps it was the ticket (for making a left turn? with the light? I received taking my daughters to pick up their glasses.

Perhaps it was the rent increase that arrived in yesterday’s mail

but I’m ready for a new month.

There are always positives, but as a whole, February was a kidney stone of a time frame. Never had a time period work my last nerve

There, now, a license plate for my Bike??

And I approved this message

You can understand how the political process makes people yawn, become disinterested, or just go flat out postal in frustration. Not a day has gone by over the past few weeks, that I don’t come home to find anywhere from 3-7 glossy 9″ x 12″ mailers from all the candidates up for election in my area. The common thread is that everyone is, and I mean every document, craps on the opposition.

Regardless if it is a local, state, or federal election, the vitriol is directed at what a crappy person his or her opponent is. And pundits have the nerve to wonder why people don’t vote. I make it to the polling place because you are supposed to, but you can understand how people can become disengaged because the bulk of the candidates are.

It comes as no surprise to this independent that we are not sending choir boys to Washington, Albany or even County and City Hall. I long suspected there is something in the water at the State Capitol where Caribbean junkets are written off as “economic development” and 20 years in other public offices makes you an “outsider” in Albany.

I don’t care that two candidates for the same office hate each other and everything they stand for, don’t particularly care if they speak of each other with affection either. Stop polluting my mailbox with laminated crap!

The masses are cynical, if ill-informed for a reason. There was an almost throwaway bit of dialogue on The West Wing that I think is pretty on the nose: “Politicians are always running for something. When one campaign finishes, the next one begins.” Okay, it sounded better when Stockard Channing said it, but you get the idea.

Just once, I’d like to open the inbox and be greeted with something telling me what you are going to do if I vote for you. Not in blank platitudes, no pronoun-laden propositions, just tell me your plan. You want my vote? Fine, what is in it for me? Can my kids schools be safe from funding foolishness? Are you going to do something to improve the jobs situation? Can you help make the government work for the people? (And don’t say run it like a business). Can you quit spending on stuff for you when cutting programs that improve the quality of life here? Can you just quit spending what you ain’t got?

But I’m not counting on those questions getting answered anytime soon.

I’ll queue up on Election Day, but I’m tired of picking between “Who gives a rat’s ass?” and the “lesser of the established evils.”

I want it to be a case of why I should back somebody other than he or she isn’t the other guy.

Yet, that seems to be the reason to go this year.

Random Notes

Letting it roll….

–a member of my employer came up to me at our entrance on a very busy Good Friday and screamed that I was full of certain substances and how being a member should exempt her of having to stand with such crowds. I made mental note that the language choice was interesting since her child probably wasn’t hanging out with sailors yet and that she didn’t notice that the 1500 people that she wanted to cut in front of were also members.

–nothing is a great physical equalizer like standing on concrete for 4 1/2 hours to make you realize that you are no longer bulletproof. I got back to my desk and my back was feeling every bit of its 46 years. Send a celtic kid into the sunshine for the first time and he’ll come back a sun tanned version of Miracle Max. “Oy” was the watch word for the rest of the day, and wrecked me for the night.

–Playoffs start in a week and while the Sabres are leading their division, it doesn’t seem likely that they will run into Tampa or Florida. Get yer crap together fellows.

–My inner sports geek is excited for the opening of baseball season. Controversies aside, something about opening Night at Fenway with the Yankees to start the season feels like must see tv tomorrow night.

–Let me see. The state is about the financially pawn the school systems, firing teachers, closing programs and sacrifice still isn’t getting felt in Albany. The CSEA says they are already sharing the burden with positions going unfilled. Yeah, sure. The State says “hiring freeze,” which for you and me means one thing, for Albany apparently keeps the number in the five digits. The state apparently needed my $10 refund to make sure one of Steve Pidgeon’s folks had lunch money. Are you sure you want the gig there, Andrew?

–I’ve been to Dairy Queen twice this week (Don’t judge me), I was taking the kids! Shaddup.

–Not feeling especially compelled about the Ipad, mostly because I don’t have the spare $500 laying around to invest in one. I think if I did, I would literally be someplace else. I’ve been doing a lot of money chasing lately which has me a little afaid for my creative abilities. Besides, I’m still settling in with my Iphone. Most features, I like, there are a few clunkers, but I have no qualms over the $49 price tag thus far.

–No Easter carols?

–Is my fate going to be determined when I slice the fanny off my butter lamb for a more enjoyable english muffin?

–Not being much of a practicing anything currently, I’ll opt for this over the Ten Commandments (Edward G. Robinson “Where’s your messiah, now, see”)

The American Dream

Borrowing a little from Buffalo Geek, a lunch time discussion was very timely into just how broken our system is and how truly screwed we are. Maybe I was dreaming, but it seemed like Congress would argue and debate an issue with an eye toward crafting something. Now, there is just mutually assured petulance. Brother George knew of what he spoke

Nobody uses the beaches.

Sigh!

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/962199.html

6.5 million in savings. (could probably find that amount elsewhere, instead jobs won’t be had, people won’t vacay, facilities will get more dilapidated). Wonder what that will wind up costing in revenue. I notice nobody talks about Albany making cuts, working more efficiently, spending more responsibly, none of that. In the honor roll of states, New York is a C student.

True Health Care Reform

I think I know what all the health care debaters are missing. I think the President, Congress, and all the semi-interested parties are focusing in the wrong areas.

I had my only experience to date with an MRI machine in August of 2008. Aside from some claustrophobia that made my 44 year old self wanting my mom (or anybody else’s for that matter) to be there to make it all better, I learned two salient details. MRI machines make sounds like my folks ’67 Ford used to and there is no way in hell that my 30 minutes of sheer bliss cost $1800.00.

I know the guy running the machine wasn’t pocketing those bucks either. I’m facing yet another chapter in insurance inefficiency once more. My previous employer had dental insurance on my kids until October of 2007 when I left for my current climbs. The kids were picked up by their Mom’s insurer who refused to pay anything in 2007, 2008 and the first part of 2009 because they were under the impression that my ceased policy was doing the work. This didn’t seem to bother them when my policy was active. That in and of itself was a mystery.

To rectify the situation, I had to go to the previous insurer, Met-Life, and have them draft a letter saying that they were not insuring me as of October 2007. Sent that off to GHI and (screw it, I’m naming names) thought all’s good. Dentist office was still twisted. So, I called back GHI and retraced my steps and made an agent process each appointment for each child.

You’d think all’s good. Until yesterday, when we get the notice that two appointments still slipped through the cracks. This really shouldn’t be this hard. Yet, as I write this, I’m about to slip into the void once more and get immersed in a divide of medical customer service that as precious little to do with health.

I’ve never thought it was the health care practitioners, it’s the fact that the first thing you encounter in a clipboard in any doctor’s office. I was able to call the emergency room doctor who initially treated my Bell’s Palsy and successfully get a referral for follow up. It is the craploads of data out there and it is being criminally mismanaged. My kids dental odyssey has taken months to get righted. That is where money is disappearing.

I’d like the President and Congress to come together on that one. Clean that up and you can say you had yourself a bit of a day.

Breaking News

needs to be redefined. The obvious isn’t necessarily news. With all the snow lately, my car keeps saying “Low traction” because apparently the No Shit light is burnt out. Information that really isn’t

For example, Mark McGwire admits to steriod use when he broke the home run record? Really? whodathunkit? To watch him as an Oakland A, he could swing for sure, but like Bonds before him, he made the transition from gangly to Popeye before our eyes. That was more than eating right and lifting a little

Sarah Palin signs with Fox News. Seriously, I’m gobsmacked, didn’t see that one coming.

In a related note, the Pope apparently is still Catholic and Generalissimo Franco is still dead.

“Nothing new to report in the Bills and Bill Cowher…” then why report it?? Airtime is at such a premium that most of the reports on the local news sights segue off to their websites and nondevelopments warrant hyping? If you got nothing to say about the matter, move on. This is a philosophy that will help keep food on your plate at the dinner table as well. tell what we need to know, like the details behind the circus of the Erie County Legislature or even if the funeral procession for Gumby’s deceased founder will all move on their right leg only.

In other news, bears, if left to their own devices, will shit in the woods.

Train was definitely in vain

While I reshuffle my mental decks from everything from mayoral aides asking not to know details, to what retread will take the Bills HC job, to sponsors bailing, to donors bailing, things generally not working right, to a sponsor signing, to whatever, how about a little night music.

I’m going to the movies

Stormy Weather

Read nothing but bitching in one form or another yesterday. “We had tougher storms and still went to work/school/whatever.” Yes, we have and I think my point was be glad you didn’t have to be out yesterday. As I write this now, it is 16 degrees outside and not much warmer in my office, but watching the wind & snow have at it yesterday, I was glad the kids got the day off and didn’t have be chasing buses and their mom got the day too.

The topper for me was getting the phone call a little before 7:00 a.m. that I got a day too. Somehow I stopped caring that I couldn’t see across Delaware Ave.

Yeah, sure we’ve battled bigger storms, but I’m glad we didn’t have toas by last night it was just cold. I still remember that if it wasn’t for a parent teacher conference my little brood would have stranding in at least three different locations during that freak storm of Thanksgiving Week in 2000. Last night, I had to pick up a daughter from a friends house, disturbing my car from the nice warm garage. It broke up a heavy day of reading, coffee drinking, laundry and way to much time on the internet, (but if you are a Star Trek fan, spending 8.00 for the Best of Trek volume one is a great purchase). Got a slight thrill driving my unspoiled car past snow mounds that had cars at their bottoms. It was real easy to find mine in the Wegmans parking lot when I made a quick stop on the way home.

I’ll leave you with this one thought: the person who invented the “necksock” for Columbia outerwear is a frickin genius and deserves a better cut of whatever royalties they are currently receiving.

Mark Sanford is a hypocritical chucklehead

Apparently “Hiking in the Applachians” is what the kids are calling it these days.

The South Carolinian Governor, a “Rising Star” in the Republican Party (not sure what that is really a euphemism for), was one of the many self-appointed finger wavers back when President Clinton was intern-hunting. Now, I’m not saying that was right by any means, but it had nothing to do with the business of governing. Only person with any kind of legitimate gripe then was our current Secretary of State. Sanford abandoned his post, used tax payer dollars and time to which he wasn’t entitled to further seek South American Nookie. The logic of any of this escapes me. I am now officially sick of spineless politicians who preach moral standards but they themselves are exempt from them.

It’s tedious and lord knows we all deserve better than to be continually talked down to like that, but in a world where primary candidates are ordained, I’m at a loss at to what to do about it.