There's a scene in the movie "Stripes"....

when Bill Murray's girlfriend has had enough of his bull and she packs her stuff and moves out.  After his pleas that his life will be over without her fall on deaf ears, she leaves.  After she has gone he says "and then, depression set in."

This morning I'm paraphrasing that statement.  Only it isn't depression that's set it, it's exhaustion.  Had a really busy day yesterday and it wasn't helped by awakening this morning at 4:24 a.m. and being unable to fall back to sleep.  So time to ponder comes early this morning.

Why is it when you go to get something done to your car, it's never only what you planned to do.  I went to get my oil changed and some new windshield wiper blades put on.  So when the guy showed me the oil choices, I gave in to their excellent marketing presentation and bought the next grade higher oil.  And when they showed me the air filter and I realized it was actually six years old I gave in to the suggestion to change it.  And then when they told me one of the belts was worn and needed to be replaced I didn't argue.  I'd heard the sound that told me there was a belt in need of replacement.  All told what I ended up paying was about three times what I figured I'd be paying. 

I used to go to a gym in the Marina.  There were three ways to access it.  There were stairs.  There was an escalator.  There was an elevator.  I can understand wanting to use the elevator or escalator after you've worked out and you are tired.  But unless you're challenged by climbing a flight of stairs, why would you take the elevator or escalator up to the gym before your workout?  I saw a group of people going to a gym like that yesterday and when one peeled off to go ride the elevator up, the others rolled their eyes or otherwise showed their disdain for that.

Someone I was talking to yesterday used the analogy of an air traffic controller and a number of planes under his control to make a point (my first thought when he said he was an air traffic controller was didn't President Reagan fire all those guys?).  He then described a "near-mid-air collision.  They didn't collide.  So wouldn't that be a near miss, not a near collision?  I guess that one could go either way.  But if someone in a car nearly hits my car, I consider that a near miss, not a near collision.  Nothing collided.

I read a company's dress code yesterday.  Women are prohibited from wearing heels that are more than three inches in height.  Do they give managers rulers to measure the shoes they think aren't in compliance?  The same dress code said women wearing skirts must wear skirts that rise no more than two inches above the knee.  Again, is there a ruler in the office?  Are the dress code police going from office to office checking?  If the requirement is "professional" dress, then it should be a subjective judgment.  You can't effective deal with that kind of thing by measuring "inches".

As I work on this I'm reading my neighbor's "Medicare Decision Guide" because he doesn't understand it.  So now he's going to rely on my interpretation and judgment of what he should do.  Why can't the providers publish this stuff in understandable language?  Or provide counselors to help the people with their decision making?  It took me eight minutes to read and completely understand that information but we have to bear in mind I'm a mutant when it comes to understanding insurance-speak and documents.  However, if someone really cared about it, they could make this stuff a little simpler so people like my neighbor might better understand it.  Then again, it's probably easier for him to just depend on someone else to read things like this.  He'd tried to get the facility director to read it and she declined.

Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show says he will never allow Hugh Grant to be a guest on his program, ever.  Grant's last guest appearance was in 2009.  So why is he making this announcement now?  Seems like just a stunt to generate publicity.  Or did he just happen to be watching that old show and suddenly realize "that dude was poison, we should ban him" in the last week?

Why in the world would a judge say "I'm not a gynecologist but I can tell you something; if someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse the body shuts down."  He was describing the events in a rape case before his court.  Oh wait, it just dawned on me.  He has experience with someone not wanting sexual intercourse and her body shutting down.  His wife.  Makes sense now.  Never mind.

I remember the "Miracle" USA hockey win in 1980.  I watched it on television.  Now Mike Eruzione is selling his jersey from that game and it's expected to fetch at least $1 million at auction.  A hockey jersey is worth that much?  I do understand economics, and the forces of supply and demand.  But that just seems like too much to pay for a piece of memorabilia.

Matt Damon says that Michael Douglas is a "terrific" kisser.  I'll just file that under the list of things I really didn't need or want to know.

This date in history:

On this date in 557, Constantinople is damaged by an earthquake.
On this date in 1542, Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
On this date in 1782, the Montgolfier brothers took the first test flight of their balloon.
On this date in 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia ends in failure.
On this date in 1819, Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
On this date in 1911, Roald Amundsen's team became the first to reach the South Pole.  They found a sign there saying "Santa's Summer Home Coming Soon".
On this date in 1939, the Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations because of its invasion of Finland.
And on this date in 1995, the Dayton Accord is signed in France.
On this date in 1946, super-agent Michael Ovitz was born.  Sure haven't heard much about him in quite some time.