• Are you ready for a war?

    The other day someone asked me what I thought about a possible armed conflict with Iraq. Like my coworker, I don’t really know what to think. What bothers me is, why is this suddenly so important now? As I understand it, the arguments being used for going to war have been valid for five or six years. You might say it’s different now with a new administration. In other words, it was important five years ago, but the last president was a “dove.” But if that’s so, why wasn’t it an issue in the campaign or a priority immediately after the new president took office? You could say that things changed after last September, but I haven’t heard the administration make a case for tying the two together. So if there is no real tie between the two, and there are no new reasons for doing it, I ask you again: why now? Give me a reason, any good reason and I’ll feel better about it. No one I’ve heard who has some knowledge of the situation, other than spokespersons for the current administration, seem to feel that it is critical that we invade now. So why now?

  • Are you ready for another vacation?

    On Thursday we leave home again for far away places. Let me say that in our house, far away places include anyplace outside Pinellas County. We are off to New England for a wedding and re-acquaintance with our roots. This trip will be shorter than our norm, but we hope to pack in all of the excitement of a longer trip. This is where I’m supposed to say that I’m really looking forward to the wedding. Don’t get me wrong, I am. Just the same, I’m really looking forward to the day in Boston we have planned. We’ll drive into Lowell, take the train into Boston, and go from place to place on the “T.” Taking the train adds expense, and it might even take more time, but I won’t miss the hassle of driving in town, and Beth loves the train ride. I can’t say that I blame her.

    I’ve been ready for this trip for about two weeks, which has done little for my productivity at work. Let’s go already!

  • Making the bed.

    In Thirty odd years I’ve never had any major problems with the laws of physics while making my bed. On Saturday I expected this trend to continue. I was attempting to spread the top sheet across the bed in the time tested fashion: I stood at one end of the bed, grabbed hold of one end of the sheet, and in one continuous motion I threw my arms out in front of me then pulled the end of the sheet up and towards myself. The throwing out motion tosses the other end of the sheet towards the other end of the bed. The up and in motion catches air under the sheet like a sail and helps spread the sheet out across the bed. What usually happens next is the sheet gently settles down on the bed. This time, however, it did not. It went up but it did not come back down. You see, this time I was doing this from the foot of the bed. Every other time I can remember doing this it was from either side. The draw back of doing this from the foot of the bed is that you must stand more or less directly underneath the motor of our ceiling fan. Unintentionally, and without looking, I deftly hung my top sheet on the ceiling fan in one swinging, graceful and continuous motion. One of the blades was pointing out directly over the bed and the sheet gathered up on it like it was meant to be there. Having so expertly hung the sheet up there you would think that I could take it down just as easily, wouldn’t you? Think again my friend. In that one swinging, graceful and continuous motion I managed to hook the sheet around two different protruding surfaces on the fan blade, making it necessary for me to climb up on a chair and unhook the sheet. All in a days work.