Fuzzy Brained and Politicians

Evenin' everyone!

I'm running a bit late this week – between a cold and finals, life seems to have conspired to keep me fuzzy brained and energy taxed to the max.

One of the interesting things we've been bantering, Don, has been the changes in medicine and what is now available that wasn't even thought of 10 years ago. I remember when my mother-in-law got her first new hip back when the procedure was virtually untried. It took her a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things but after that, she did everything that she hadn't been able to do for years – mainly walk. Twenty years later, when she got her second hip done (the Cadillac  version), when the hospital sent a physical therapist out to the house three days after the surgery, she was already walking the mall catching up on her shopping.

As magnificent as the medical field is, there are some definite draw backs – well, maybe not really but this year they seem to be problematic. My better half had a physical, was told he was in great shape and that in order to stay that way, he needed the newest, greatest, bestest flu shot and the super-duper pneumonia shot.  (I'm sure you can hear the music that says "Don't do that!")Within 10 hours, he had the flu and a rash caused by the bacteria used in the pneumonia shot. The rash became an ugly tomato red, sizzling to the touch and it literally inched its way around and down his arm. Three visits to the doctor finally resulted in a prescription that has halted the rash. He can now move his arm without pain but it still itches.  Amazing times we live in. If it doesn't kill ya', it will make you stronger, maybe.

We've been trying to get all the stuff we hauled out for summer back into place for winter and it just isn't fitting! I'm sure there was enough room for everything when I took it out at the start of summer! We have a break coming up in a couple of weeks and because of meetings, we won't have time to travel. So, I'm going to do the second best thing – clean! My thumb surgery put off throwing things out because I couldn't pick stuff up – but I'm sure that picking things up and moving it out will be good therapy for both my hands and my soul.

A friend lamented that her mother usually forced her clean up her room and she promised herself that she'd find a different way (not forceful) to get her children to clean up their rooms. She asked if I'd come over and embarrass her kids the way her mother use to – she's tired of living in the chaos of clothes and shoes and lunch boxes on the floor everywhere. I have my own stuff to take care of – thanks anyway.

We have an election coming in November and sadly, many people are pulling away from Obama (lame duck president) which is too bad because he has actually been able to do some good.  I've been working my way through a paper by Pete Souza about "Why Democrats and Republicans don't understand each other". One of the interesting quotes that I came across was from Speaker John Boehner: "We should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal."  Boehner is a Republican that has led the assault against Obama for the last 8 years – too bad. This was a time in our history when we could have said that we stood together, faced the world and became strong again. No such luck.

It has been theorized that "Republicans prefer purity, Democrats prefer compromise." In other words – someone HAS TO BE RIGHT. I wonder how many companies and how many countries have been lost to the concept of having to be right. But I do have to admire the Republican law makers – they stuck to their guns even when there was a Republican President.

All of this is going to lead up to an interesting election.

One more round of papers to grade and a series of meetings ... then a couple of days of rest - we can use it. Everyone I've talked to from students to instructors, to business owners and employees - everyone is tired - time to rest before the snows come. Time to watch the leaves fall because we were unable to take time to watch them bud... 

Wishing you all extra time to relax.

Carolyn