Good morning Boys and Girls,

I've been backing up my posts the last couple of days. I do it every year or so, but I have a funny feeling it's more important this time. Oh well. So it goes.

Off to Iowa again tomorrow or Sunday for the holiday. Should be a nice time. Thankful SweetLady passed her test, but to be honest, I wasn't surprised in the least. She could be a doctor if she decided that was something she wanted to do. She absorbs information efficiently and, unlike me, can call on it anytime she needs it.

My head is full of stuff too, but not only is much of it useless, but recalling it when I need it becomes more difficult every day. Sometimes someone will ask me a question about something I KNOW I know about, but I'll sit there, a deer in the headlights, unable to retrieve the information. Then, ten minutes, hours, or even days later, when I'm concentrating on something entirely unrelated; POOF! -there it is. Not only whatever factoid I'd been trying to dig out of my stubborn brain, but all the surrounding peripheral minutia too. I tell you, it's maddening.

I'm managing to stay just busy enough to justify leaving home each day, but my business is definitely off. I'm in the fortunate position of being able to take on more accounts to make up for the fact that none of my individual accounts are spending much money these days, and trust me, no one knows more than I do that what I do for them is not an absolute necessity.

This "expansion" strategy has at least two downsides. One is that I'm more tired at the end of the day because I travel more. The other, the one that really concerns me, is that when things turn around - even a little, I'm definitely going to piss off whatever accounts I have to shed because there aren't enough hours in the day to handle them. Hope I don't burn bridges. I know people in similar lines of work who go pick up an account anytime they have a slow day, and then can't show up again for months when things are normal. It's a good way to be dismissed as being flaky, and I can't abide that.

Instead of taking on too many places, I'm going to diversify a little and set up a little shop at home here to manufacture a product I made for a few years in Florida. Of course, it too is anything but a necessity, but who knows, maybe there will be enough folks out there with a few bucks tucked under their mattresses to justify the effort. Time will tell.

Today my sister turns fifty. Happy Birthday Maggie.

By the way, you can always reach me at surrogate@rocketmail.com. Make a note of it, would you?


Be good to everyone.

Good morning Boys and Girls.

A whirlwind weekend followed by two-thirds of a workday today - and a nap the minute I hit my door this afternoon - has left me a little overtired and befuddled.

I left SweetLady's Saturday afternoon, twelve hours earlier than I'd originally planned, out of fear of becoming sleepy along the way yesterday. I wanted to see my brother Matt and his band "Discipline" at the Magic Bag in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, Michigan last night. Detroit is another three hours east of here, meaning the trip from Des Moines to Detroit is at least twelve hours - or it is the way I drive.

My original plan had been to leave very early in the morning Sunday and drive to Hell, Michigan where I'd pick up my friend Bob who'd accompany me to the show. We'd drive back to his place afterward where I'd spend the night, returning to Grand Rapids this morning. Then just last Thursday, I found out my son Ryan had been asked to do a solo set prior to Matt's and the band's performance. Upon learning this tidbit I decided to leave Saturday afternoon.

I'd wanted to stay with my beautiful woman Saturday night, especially since she'd planned on hosting a special "party" (uh, ask her) that evening. However, since she had her big test scheduled for Monday (today), she eventually thought better of it and decided to reschedule her all-gal (except for me) get-together for another time. -Smart, as far as I was concerned, plus it allowed me to take off without feeling as though I'd left her hanging quite as much.

So... Left Des Moines at four Saturday afternoon. Got to the Michigan border about midnight and crashed in a rest area 'til about five-thirty a.m. Got back to my house at eight a.m.; napped with Roadie till about eleven; showered, and drove to Hell. Bob was ready to go and off we drove toward Metro-Detroit through the first nasty snow-storm of the year. We ate at one of my favorite Middle Eastern restaurants a few miles from our destination and arrived at the Magic Bag a half-hour early.

Great show. Fans came from as far away as Baltimore and Minnesota. I'm blessed with extremely talented relatives.

Got back to Grand Rapids by ten this morning and worked 'til about three.

SweetLady took her test this morning. I've got my fingers crossed. If preparation is worth anything, she certainly deserves to have passed; she worked her butt off. She'll find out in a few days. Either way, I'm proud of her. I love that lady.


Be good to everyone.

For anyone interested, here's a nice pic of SweetLady and me at my place last weekend.

Can you believe she puts up with me?

Good morning Boys and Girls.

Tomorrow is election day.

I've listened carefully to at least a couple of dozen speeches by both major candidates and at least a half dozen by each of their running mates - actually a dozen or more by Palin - and to me the major differences between what they want for America makes the choice easy.

For the life of me, I can't understand how anyone can think that:

(a.) A health care system that frees up entrepreneurs to start new businesses without worrying about whether they can afford to provide good care for their workers is a bad thing - (I can tell you, as a businessman, this worry HAS kept me from hiring people at least a half dozen times in my career).

(b.) As Teddy Roosevelt, (-that liberal socialist Democrat? ya know, John McCain's hero), saw ninety years ago when he began the system, that once people have enough money to live on and take care of their family, that they should pay a greater percentage of the overage in taxes. Let's remember that they wouldn't have extra money if not for this country and the rest of its citizens. Watch out for people who think that everything they have, they have solely as a result of their own hard work. They either don't realize, or can't admit, that it's those who came before them who made the playing field; who made their wealth possible and gave it worth; that with regards to setting up the market system and laying the groundwork that allows us to acquire whatever wealth we've acquired, we all stand on the shoulders of history and for that? -we owe.

(c.) Anyone still convinced that our job in Iraq - redefined at least six times since it began - is one we should accept as continually critical to OUR national security, while the perpetrators of the act that began our "war on terror" roam free, is just irresponsible and an ideologue who is simply incapable of thinking clearly, and will probably never be convinced.

These are the big "radical" ideas for which Barrack Obama is castigated. These are the three main ideas that make him "scary" to people who can't think straight.

Oh yeah, and he's black.

George Carlin redux: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of them are stupider than that."

It's going to be close.

I think it's funny how so many people are convinced our government (that means "us" or "we") could NEVER come up with an efficient and cost effective health-care system for all our citizens, but we're perfectly willing to invade another country who never attacked us and kill their citizens with impunity. My, what a good "Christian" country we are. We can't take care of our fellow man, but it's okay to wipe out hundreds of thousands without even having the decency to keep track of how many we've killed, nor are we strong enough even to see the caskets of our own soldiers who've been killed when their bodies are returned. See, evidently, that might make some of us feel guilty.

Hell, I know people who claim to be "followers of Jesus" who swallow this thinking. Sickening isn't it? The rationale is... is... well...

Vote.


Be good to everyone.