Odds and Ends

We are into the last quarter of the year, and less than a month away from the midterm elections, so why not clear out the blog folder of stories that weren't going to ever be full blown blogs but should be interesting enough for a quick thirty second read.

The problem with postseason baseball is that often you have two of your favorite teams playing each other and you don't know who to root for. Such was the case with the Cubs and the Padres in the wild card round. Now that I can focus my cheering for the Padres they can't figure out how to close a game when they have the best closer in baseball. On the other end of the spectrum the Southside White Sox are playing out of their minds and I could not be happier for my friends that are long time fans of this team. What an incredible year they are having and who knows how long it will last but it is already one of the best years in a loooong time for the pale hose.

Here is where the Bears will end up, Arlington Heights, in spite of them doing everything they can to screw this up. They have to be the stupidest ownership group in the history of sports. They are fighting over pennies when they have the chance to make billions but that has been their MO forever, just ask Ditka who famously left in the 1960's saying, "Halas throws nickels around like they are manhole covers."

This location allows them to build a stadium that would be state of the art and allow for Super Bowls which are money machines. Additionally, they could turn the rest of the property into a Wrigleyville Northwest with a hotel, bars, restaurants, stores, and all accessible via the Metra line right outside their front door. Instead they keep demanding to pay nothing in taxes which the state will never give in on. Take what is on the table and build the perfect operation and move the hell on already you dopes.

How is it possible to have blown out of your nose more than one third of your body weight in snot and still not lose weight? And just as importantly how did you collect all that snot and not gain weight? Where does it come from and where does it go and why does the inside of my nose feel like a sand blasted brick building? I feel better after a week of getting a cold but now the snot will not stop coming out and everytime I blow my nose I can only think of the Jethro Tull song "Aqualung". ..."snot is running down his nose. Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes."

I have gone through a box of Kleenex is two days, twice, since I got sick and it looks like I will likely finish another before I clear out all this mucus. And by the way, apparently some of it is crawling down my throat because when I cough it sounds like I just finished my third pack of Marlboro's for the day. I can barely breathe after a coughing attack and that leads to two or three violent sneezes and then another two pounds of snot being blown out of my raw nose. Good times.

Speaking of medical news, I visited with my primary yesterday. The NP is a nice kid and seems to care but like most doctors, or almost doctors, she has a hearing problem. I said that I would like to get off the fourteen pills a day I'm taking and her first impulse was to write a prescription for another new one. I reminded her that I want to go in the other direction and that seemed to throw her for a loop.

At the end of the meeting we and by we I mean she, decided what I really needed was to start taking Xanax and see a professional mental helper to stop me from getting crazier. I told her many people have suggested the same to me over the past seventy something years so she needed to stand in line. I also mentioned that if I managed to survive my mother without seeking professional help I surely can make it through this little speed bump.

While we are on the subject of medical help, it is time I just admit that I can't see anymore. The Lasik surgery I had forty five years ago bypassed the expected life span for me and now I have six pairs of glasses that I rotate thru the day depending on what I'm doing in that moment. I have an appointment with the eye doctor later this month and it is time for me to just get a couple pairs of bifocals and go back to wearing glasses full time. I will still need a third pair for looking at the computer because I tried a pair of trifocals and they hurt my head. I will get a pair of clear and a pair of sunglasses and be done with it once and for all.

Finally, tomorrow, the 7th of October, is Linda and my 48th wedding anniversary. I am taking her out to dinner, a real dinner not a lunch dinner like we usually do, at one of the nicest places in the valley. We have to dress up like adults for this event. No shorts or tee shirts, only long pants, collard shirts, and either a dress of skirt for her. I suppose they would let me in wearing a dress or skirt too but I think I'll play it straight this time.

It seems impossible that it is forty-eight years already. I can remember sitting in her room arguing about something stupid and shouting out at her, "then let's just get married already." After refusing to do so the first fifty six times, she finally said yes and here we are. Nobody that knew us at Spiegel, where we worked, thought it would ever last. From the first date to the wedding day was only eleven months and yet I knew she was the one from the start, she desperately looked for anyone else until she eventually gave up and married me.

My relentlessness was more than she could withstand and she ultimately realized I was the best she was going to get so she caved. She has had plenty of moments where I did something that made her think, what in the hell did I do, but we got past those and now we only have each other left and we like our life.

Happy anniversary Linda and thanks for sticking around.