Friday, February 15, 2013

Up in the morning at six o'clock, head for the city

That should be pretty easy.  It's a very popular song with Friday in the title.  It's also appropriate because for the second day this week I was up at four in the morning.  It's a shame that this song didn't have the word Friday in the lyrics.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Naa1HXeDQ

Yes, that's 3 a.m., and I'm just glad I am managing to sleep until at least 4.  It's still a great song in my opinion and I'm singing it as I write.  Fortunately the walls are thick and I'm not going full volume.  Otherwise my next-door neighbor would be displeased.

Sometimes when I write these rantings I feel as if no one pays attention to them.  And that's okay.  I do this as much (if not more) for myself than I do for the dozen or so folks who read this blog regularly. 

Maybe I'm just exhausted today.  Actually, no maybe to it.  I was supposed to be through with work yesterday at 1.  I had an appointment.  But I stayed because it was busy and the manager had to go somewhere.  In fact, I'd volunteered to stay until 5 and to take on three more clients when it appeared one preparer had phoned in sick.  That would have really kicked my butt.  Facts are facts.  I can't do what I'm doing indefinitely.  I just don't have the stamina to work more than a few hours a week and unless something resolves with the heart or the lungs, that equation isn't going to change.

I also have a problem going on with my left foot and I think I have figured out the answer.  It's a stress fracture.  Since the treatment is just rest, and I don't think I need a walking boot to protect it, I'm not going to see the doc about it until my next scheduled appointment.

Someone I know on-line only posted a boast on Twitter that no one could possibly beat him at the game of Words With Friends.  Naturally I had to take that challenge on.  The game is almost over, he has one or two letters left and trails by well over 100 points.  Fortunately he doesn't know who is kicking his butt and I'm not going to mention it on Twitter.  I'll know.  That's enough for me.

Other things I'm pondering this morning are:

What in the world does John McCain and the other petulant, childish U.S. Senators think they are accomplishing in temporarily blocking a vote on President Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary?  Other than looking petulant and childish of course.  There's an important conference Hagel should be attending.  He'll miss it thanks to McCain and his co-horts.

What will happen to the Lakers should Jerry Buss pass away?  Granted his kids pretty much run things on a day to day basis now, but will there be infighting over the team ownership once it is being passed on?  Will they be able to keep control of the team, given estate taxes?  That was one reason given when the O'Malley family sold the Dodgers.  Estate planning.

Can someone explain to me why deodorant for women is more expensive than deodorant for men?  Or why those pink disposable razors cost more than the blue ones I used to use?  Perhaps why a dry-cleaner will charge more to clean a woman's blouse than a man's shirt?  The only difference is how the buttons go.  It makes no sense.

$23 billion for 57 varieties of Heinz.  Some say it's a bargain.  How many people will end up being out of work because of the purchase of the ketchup giant by Warren Buffett and partners?

Nine years is 3,285 days.  If you were to allocate $1 billion over that number of days, it comes out to $304,414 per day.  That's how much the former mayor of San Diego lost on average during her nine year, $1 billion gambling binge.  How much per hand do you have to be betting to lose that much money that quickly?  Depends of course on how many days she was actually losing, how much she managed to win before losing it back and how many hours per day she was playing.  Bet she got some amazing comps.  If I was a casino manager and I had a client who could lose $1 billion, I'd build them a custom-designed suite and give them their own concierge 24/7.

Check out this hysterical video:  http://screen.yahoo.com/flip-side-valentines-day-000000989.html

Is it wrong for a Catholic Church Youth football league to ban girls?  That's what's going on in Pennsylvania after a girl who'd been allowed to play in the league for years was suddenly banned.  Hey, kids need to be protected while playing sports.  With all the pads that kids that age wear, she's pretty safe.  As safe as any boy.  This is as ridiculous as was Little League's initial response to girls wanting to play baseball.  The powers that be that ran Little League at the time insisted the girls wear a protective cup, just like the boys.

Did actress Connie Britton lose the role of "Dorothy" in "Jerry Maguire" to Renee Zellweger, because Britton is taller than Cruise?  She thinks that might have been the reason she lost the part she thought she had.

Models are fairly easily defined.  They model things like clothing or accessories.  They appear in advertisements in print, or on television.  So what makes a model a "supermodel"?  Is there some secret supermodel society that chooses which models get the word 'super' added to their designation as a model?

This Date in History:

On this date in 1764, the city of St. Louis, MO was founded.
On this date in 1879, President Hayes sign a bill giving female attorneys the right to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On this date in 1898, the USS Maine explodes and sinks while docked at Havana, Cuba. This leads to the Spanish-American War.
On this date in 1933, an anarchist named Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate FDR in Miami, but misses and kills the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak.
On this date in 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese invaders.
On this date in 1989, the Soviet Union announced that all of their troops had left Afghanistan.

Famous folk born on this date:

John Barrymore
Cesar Romero (he was only joking...)
John B. Anderson (independent candidate for the Presidency in 1980)
Harvey Korman
Jane Seymour (she was born to play Solitaire)
Matt Groening
Melissa Manchester (born at an oasis, around midnight)
Chris Farley (taken too soon by his own excess)