O-Dark-Thirty

This is the tale of government abuse, of the destruction of an honest, though flawed, man who tried his best to keep his family together. This is like a tale of old; the tales where the evil Sheriff takes the property and confiscates the land of a local patrician, leaving him penniless and alone. Yet in this case there is no son coming back from the Crusades to restore the family honor. There is no redemption. In this case a local government gone mad - wins. Who did they destroy? A citizen. A veteran. A taxpayer. A father. A business owner. One of its own - a Sergeant for 23 years in the County Jail. How did it start? To make the tale shorter, we'll summarize. We'll call him Sarge. Sarge had seventeen surgeries over the years. These surgeries were not directly work-related, but working in a County jail is hard, physically demanding work. After one grueling surgery, the doctor said he was the perfect candidate for medical marijuana, since Sarge...

I am not a Congressman. Sometimes I wish I were, but I think something happens to the good men and women who are sent to Washington DC by the people of this great country. I am afraid something changes them and they forget where they came from and what they were hired to do. We usually say "elected," don't we? But think about that for a minute. We, the people of the United States of America, essentially hold job interviews and hire our Congressmen/women. We pay them a salary and expect them to do the job we hired them for. Now I don't know about you, but if I were a boss and had an employee that didn't do what they were supposed to - well, I'd find a different employee. Imagine this for a second. You're now part of the body of Congress and you have the chance to speak to your fellow delegates (your fellow employees of the USA citizens). Wouldn't you say something like this? I would. There is not a person here who does not want a better, ...

The day after we had the ribs at Spring Creek BBQ we received another coupon in the mail. Last night we used it and had ribs again. How lovely. This time I was much, much smarter. I only ate half my ribs, so only felt half as stuffed as last week. I also have dinner for tonight! The ribs weren't quite as tasty as last week (how quickly familiarity breeds contempt) but they were still quite good. I think it is the best coupon in town. The mac and cheese wasn't quite as creamy as last week though. The coleslaw was a little better and Darling is right. The green beans are delicious. The rolls, of course, were wonderful, but I need to make a note to eat a bit later; I think they start bringing fresh rolls to the table at about five, not four. (Hey, I was hungry.)  And I still like the pickles. The service is incredible, too. Darling dropped her knife on the floor. I had barely picked it up when one of the staff brought her new utensils. One of the young ladies working t...

A million dollars for a couple of days in London and Paris for the Vice-President? Are conservatives crying wolf again? Let's remember the conservative pundits who claimed President Obama's trip to India in 2010 cost $200 million per day. That quoted cost was ridiculous and thoroughly debunked by Anderson Cooper. No one knows the actual costs, but it was probably closer to $50 million for the whole trip. We do know some figures that are not in dispute: 04-Feb-2013 Hyatt Regency London for $459,388.65 and 05-Feb-2013 Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand for $585,000.50 . Okay, I'm trying to be fair here. Mr. Biden is the Vice-President of the United States. We respect the office and that respect should reflect on the person in office. We elected him, so we owe him that. He deserves protection. A lot of people in this world are unsavory characters and might try to harm him. It probably won't be anyone working in those two hotels, though. He deserves so...

Maybe I'm lacking perspective. Maybe that's the cloud hanging over my head. I've lost my perspective. I wonder at the daily toil in my life and am curious whether any good will come of my existence. I'm pretty sure the ISS will fly even without me at the helm (which I'm not, by the way). Speaking of the ISS, here are some tidbits for that. The International Space Station orbits an average of about 250 miles above the surface of the Earth. It travels at an average speed of 17,240 mph (7706.6 m/s). It takes the Station a little over 90 minutes to orbit the Earth. The orbit slowly decays so fuel is expended on a regular basis for a reboost.  There are currently six astronauts on board the station. They get up at 6AM and go to bed about 10PM. On average they work ten hour days M-F and five to eight hours on Saturday. They have Sunday off.  Now the real question should be what time zone do they use? I don't know. I'll check on that. The ...

Work seems tedious to me. Don't get me wrong - I like the paycheck and I still do a good-sized workload, especially now that the Sequestration tumbled the government expenditures. Contracting companies like mine will certainly get hit hard by the government cost-cutting measures. Democrats blame Republicans. Republicans blame Democrats. The bottom line is that most of our representatives, regardless of their political affiliation, have forgotten what it means to be a normal US citizen. They forgot how hard it is to make a living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. It does seem the government wants to step in and control more and more of what we do in our private lives. Gun control? Impossible - quit pandering to the supposed poll results and try to find something you   can   do to limit the danger to the citizens. Drones? Are you kidding me? Shades of Big Brother   and   Terminator. Irresponsible spending? I wasn't a big fan of M...