Damn this weather!!

This morning when I woke up, the high was going to be 48 degrees.  Then an hour later it was going to be 41.  Now, I see the high is going to be 34 degrees with winds gusting to 25 mph.  And it's not raining, but it's misting like crazy out there. 

Having tasted the warm weather recently, this annoys me terribly.  Why would I want to put a little make up on, do my hair all nice, put on decent clothes just so this weather can totally undo it as soon as I get out there?

That said, I would like to announce that I will be going out into the world totally commando-style today.  Well, I'll wear clothes, but not decent ones. 

Does infidelity matter if they are getting the job done?

I noticed in the news recently, yet another politician has resigned his post as a result of a picture he sent to someone he connected with on Craigslist.  What a fat juicy subject for me.  I’ll use this space as a jumping off point for a much bigger and broader discussion. Where do I start? 

First of all, as an aside, I just can’t wrap my mind around men in general.  How is it they are considered the same species as women?  It’s obvious we have a number of differences physically, mentally, and chemically.  But it IS what it is.  Generally speaking, they are driven by sex and we are driven by other things.  I offer as an example the recent Superbowl commercial where the guy and girl are on a date.  She is thinking, “I wonder how much money he makes.  I wonder if he’ll be a good dad.”  He is thinking, “I want to have sex with her.  I want to have sex with her.”  Funny, isn’t it?  My point is that sexual deviance is commonplace in our society.  While I, among many others, detest the act, it is accepted, more or less, by everyone.  It is expected.  So why are we surprised when our public leaders are found guilty of such things?  In most instances, marital infidelity results in a loss of a host of things, marriage and family being the biggest casualties.  But they don’t usually lose their jobs.   

This is where I have even more questions.  Why do we demand absolute perfection of our public figures?  They are but human beings.  I don’t know of anyone who has been perfect from the beginning of their life to the end of their life.  Do you?  The media made a circus out of the fact that Bill Clinton smoked pot in college.  It became a joke.  “I smoked, but I didn’t inhale.”  Who cares?  Did he do a good job when it came to being President?  Why do we care about the personal lives of these people?  The important question is, do they do a good job?  If a firefighter saves the life of four people from a burning building, do we care if he had an affair with the girl down the street?  No.  We care that he did his job and saved some lives.  Shouldn’t we be more concerned about whether or not they are committing treason, or if they are involved in a terrorist group?  Or what if they bankrupted a city or state budget?  Did they embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars?  Did they strike down legislation that was important to the public good so they could satisfy lobbyists, or because of stubborn party differences?  These are the things I look for when I choose to support a public figure.  Sadly, I think in terms of choosing the lesser evils.  Does anyone else out there agree?  Disagree?

It's a War Zone Out There

It started one morning shortly after I moved to Lexington.  I was cruising through the park on my way to school, when I was honked out of my thoughts by a white Durango.  The driver revved up the motor, honked again, and swung angrily around me.  I checked my speed.  I had been driving a reasonable 25 miles per hour THROUGH A PARK.  I felt obliged to push the pedal to the metal and go 30 or 35.  Soon a Toyota Camry closed in on my back bumper.  Was I a nerdy driver?  And this park had speed bumps every quarter mile.  I noticed the city had installed really high super speed bumps right before and after the points where the walking trail crossed the road.  There must be a reason for this.  I settled down, pulled out my stubborn, “I’ll drive the way I want to drive” attitude and headed on down the road.

A few weeks later I found myself making a left hand turn at a busy intersection.  My view was blocked, so I waited.  Again with the honking!  Well, we made it through the intersection with a blue minivan attached to my rear bumper.  As we approached the next stop sign, my 8 year old son looked back and said, “Look mom.  He’s waving.”  Then that 65-ish year old man sped past us on the right.  He wasn’t waving.  He was giving us the finger.  I had to laugh at that one. 

I’ve spent time in many different cities across the country.  I’ve even done Friday afternoon rush hour on the New Jersey Turnpike during a heavy rainstorm.  I have never seen drivers like these in Lexington, KY.  I thought it was just me, but my doubts about the sanity of Lexington drivers has been validated many times by neighbors, co-workers, and visitors from other states.  Road rage is rampant here.  I’ve even seen drivers jump out in front of emergency vehicles, causing them to crash, just to get ahead of other drivers.  These people are lunatics.  If you are one of these lunatics, I offer advice to you.   (1) Leave 15 minutes earlier than you usually do.  (2) Don’t look at your watch.  You’ll get there when you get there, and if you leave early enough, you’ll get there on time.  (3)And for Christ sake, put on some soothing classical music to calm you while you drive!  I like Chopin’s nocturnes myself.  Who knows how many lives and limbs you’ll be saving just by following these simple rules. 

There were skirmishes everywhere, and then . . . . .

Okay, a blog.  (pause)  . . . . how come my mind runs rampant all day long chewing a thousand different thoughts that might actually lead somewhere, if only I put them out there--and then I sit down in front of this blog site and, well, freeze up?  Even the words I want to use become hidden in the inner recesses of my brain and I am left without a decent vocabulary.  I am known as an epic conversationalist amongst my friends.  Sometimes I just won't shut up, which is why this is such a strange irony to me.  I think there are so many thoughts out there floating above me that it's hard to snatch one and materialize it in writing.

I am of the bi-polar type, so I live with tons of chaos half the time.  You never really know what you are going to get out of me.   One day it will be the subject of an orange and what it's usefulness is.  Another will be a rant about how free our freedom actually is.  And then some days I will just question the universal machine that drives us through life on a day to day basis.  I would LOVE to comment on the current subject of the woman who fell into the fountain while texting, and now she is going to sue some people.  But, alas, that subject is all worn out by now. 

In any case, I thought it would be just rude to start blogging without some sort of hint as to what will be on this site.  I needed today's introduction to explain myself.  My intention is to give you everything inside and outside the bounds of normalcy, to develop my skills as a writer, and to discipline myself in the ways of good writing and thinking. 

In conclusion, may God have mercy upon our souls.  It's on!