Five Hundred Words

I can tell you from first-hand experience, that dealing with the mentally ill is difficult, and fraught with an endless maze of conflicting interests.

When a loved one begins exhibiting signs of mental illness – even something as simple and common as depression – you quickly realize how powerless you are to help. For more severe disorders where a break from what you and I might recognize as reality occurs, it can be extremely difficult to get your loved one the help they need.

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Visiting Central Pennsylvania on a business trip, I stopped in at a favorite restaurant, The Filling Station. Normally I am there for lunch will colleagues, but this visit had me flying solo. I took a stool at the counter, ordered coffee and an omelette. My order arrived promptly and like any good 21st century guy I took a photo of it with my cell phone and posted it to Facebook. While I was doing this, the door opened and the waitress said “Hi Scott, the usual?”

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The wife and I bought a new car – new to us at least. With just under 12,000 miles, this is the newest car she and I have ever bought together. The experience filled us with both excitement and dread.

We were excited, because the purchase was part of our happy little partnership pursuing a business opportunity that required a nice vehicle that was reliable. The old Caravan just sucked nearly $1000 out of our savings, demanding a repair that deadlined the vehicle at an Amoco station. While the new oil pump, water pump and timing belt might give the minivan another 10,000 trouble-free miles, the last thing our fledgling enterprise needed was for her to be broken down on the way to a revenue event.

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Russ Carnahan was elected to represent my district after living here somewhere south of four years.  While certainly a longer tenure than Hillary’s few months before becoming New York’s senator, it still seems odious that he came here to first become a Missouri House representative, and then landed the Federal job after Dick Gephardt retired.

I would pretty much vote for a ham sandwich rather than be represented by a carpet-bagger. Worse, Carnahan proved to be to the left of even Dick Gephardt.  He voted for TARP, Porkulus, and Cap and Trade.  He’s all for Obamacare.  It has been as if San Francisco has two elected representatives.

Over the years, the GOP has fielded candidates, each slowly inching closer to the critical 51% mark to unseat the incumbent. Russ won in 2008 with a surprisingly narrow 53%.  Had he not been buoyed by President Obama’s historic election, William Federer may have been our Representative. God bless Bill, he is sitting this election out.

I had lunch with Ed Martin the other day.  He’s an attorney who will run against Carnahan in 2010.

Ed is no ham sandwich.
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My aging Dodge minivan began to show its age a few months ago. Already on its second transmission, the old gal’s 3rd gear began to intermittently jump in and out at highway speeds. This van was assembled in 1994, four years before the Germans took over, 13 years before Cerberus and 15 years before the Government took it over and arranged a shotgun marriage with Fiat.

I can say it has been a solid used car. I have never, and probably never will, buy a car new. Used cars make far more financial sense, even accounting for repair … Continue Reading

I have a beat up hat.  Khaki in color, it has the emblem of the American Red Cross, a logo as recognizable as anything in the world, save for Coca-Cola.  Composed of fairly sturdy cotton with a nice stiff brim, it features a Velcro closure.  This last is vast improvement over those wretched plastic doo-dads with the holes and the knobs you snap together.  With my giant melon, I always have to mate the last knob on the last hole. I think it makes my head look like someone is trying dress up a pumpkin to look like a trucker.

My … Continue Reading

Monday begins my second week working out. Today I weighed myself, and learned that the modest dieting and moderate to heavy exercise has netted me a .012% loss of my total mass. I am quite pleased, though I am realistic about staying on this trajectory. I am packing my lunch, bringing along many small items that I eat every hour or two. I read somewhere that it takes about 100 calories to fire up the digestion engine. Eat three 800 calorie meals, and you expend 300 calories digesting 2400 calories for a net of 2100 … Continue Reading

First Monday of the new year I purposed to go back to the gym regularly. I have never been a gym rat, but when my gym was just across the street it was a good deal easier to get into the habit of working out over lunchtime.

I don’t enjoy exercise, with the exception of cycling. I do love to ride my bike, and can be found doing just that when the weather gets somewhat agreeable. Toward the end of 2008 I was not able to saddle up and spin very much, and now I fear I have … Continue Reading

I am ready for 2008 to be over. I can’t tell exactly because it has been dreadful, or because I am just weary of the roller coaster ride it has been.

On the plus side, a lot of good things have happened. My son was married to an adorable young woman who has been his sweetheart since high school. This improbable event was unthinkable not too long ago. If anything, I know that I have worries, God has purposes.

Normally I have a skeptical eye for media histrionics on the economy. Our economic engine has climbed … Continue Reading

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were spent toiling away in my workshop, cobbling together the raw parts for a set of Christmas gifts for my two sons and daughter-in-law.

I am indeed a cheap weasel, but my goal was not to transform scrap plywood into inexpensive presents doomed to a landfill, but to help the grandkids make something for their moms an dads. Both my boys work hard and their kids love them. I wanted to give them the opportunity to express that love with their hands and spend some “grandpa” time with them.

You would be surprised how much time it … Continue Reading