Dollars to donuts, I'm not spelling that right, but it's dogging my mom at the moment. She battled Bells Palsy a few years ago and the thought was that it had returned for round two. During a previous scheduled eye appt today, the eye doctor noticed one eye going nowhere during the annoying follow the light test. An MRI and some blood work, and suddenly a waiting neurologist later my folks have a more accurate path to go follow. I believe they stopped for Predizone on the way home. Good son that I am I arranged for the pizza delivery guy to meet em. Helluva thing. A week on the right meds and she'll be giving people the stink eye like normal. My dad described today as a bit of a mystery. From the eye doctors discovery at 9 to the waiting exam and MRI. It's a little nerve wracking in that to eliminate things you have to consider everything and that can make your mind nuts until you get to eliminate stuff.

Possibilities can be entralling sometimes, other times they can just be a bitch.

Thinking a good thought....

so it would cut itself."

Saw that on a t shirt this morning at the Towne. It is possible to laugh at 8 am on a Sunday. Rarely does an omelet reveal great secrets but whilest consuming my pre-game Bacon and Swiss, I decided that I need not the football next season. I'm going to finish off this year's committment and go gently into the good night.

A few folks lamented how they want fall, well here you go. It was cold for 50 degrees. I'm officially a wimp, as soon as the gates opened up, I had gloves on. Patrolling the Aisle between section 125 and 126 has been my beat of late. I expect to run into (e:Mrdeadlier) before too long. It was fairly innocuous today, aside from one guy who drank himself into a stupor and graphically illustrated how much. I thought it was cool that his buddies got him out of there without the sheriff's getting involved. I don't understand the mentality that wants to down as many 6.50 bud lights so quickly. The steady stream of folks getting multiples of that "fine" brew was impressive and discerning. Pay the extra buck and get a guinness people.

That and a few objective persona made it fairly easy. When things go right for the team, it does redefine why people like going to games in general. The communal experience, the sharing of good times, breaks down barriers. People who probably would be too scared or uptight to say hello on street corners are reaching across aisles to hi-five, talk some smack or share internet phones to check fantasy player stats. Those moments aren't nearly frequent enough, but when you do them, it's good for the soul, healthy to lose yourself in something bigger than you.

Lest you think I've gone around the bend (or more likely hi-fived a few too many times), those brief moments are always spoiled by ten more scenes like what I watched today. A little girl maybe 4 scared to go down the stairs because her grandmother went ahead of her. The old bitty had to be hollered at to come a little closer to get the kid. (Guess who did the hollerin). That can be scary and there are a lot of big bruisers who aren't looking out. There were repeated scenes like that too so it is an interesting study. I like the extra cash influx, but the 10 laps up and down the steps left me pooped and looking forward to the latest "Treehouse of Horror." in a few minutes.

The whole thing makes for a lonely Sunday, stocked with a lot of tertiary characters. Lots of people drift in and out for a comment or two, but from an early morning internal debate with myself about how many layers to breakfast to showing up to work left me looking forward to working over the Lions tomorrow.

My former employer sent me a letter explaining how they've fucked up my 401K payments and the correction will take place in the next few days, apparently the company wasn't kickin in at the advertised rate. Same stack of letters held my first bill as a non-employee. I promptly cancelled all the big movie channels. That will show'em.

Firefox didn't adjust to the time change, it locked and purged all my bookmarks. Bastards. If only I could blame that on they who will no longer be named. Best be nice, I got a meeting to make them sponsor the Giraffes in two weeks.

In light of the gender card being played at the other wise pointless democratic debate, I give you this. The old boys club in their finest frockery.


















Be thankful there is no swimsuit competition

Almost wrapped up the first significant chunk of time on the new gig, I can find everything and am starting to remember names and I don't think I've pissed anybody off that I'm aware of. So, so far everything is good. I got a handle on things somewhat that I can open my mouth without sounding too stupid. At least not anymore so than usual.

The previous employer who will no longer be named decided they need one more screwing of me to complete the set. They had it arranged that you get all your benefit time right up front. It does permit you to map things out and carry stuff over from year to year. My younger sister got married a month ago and I had blocked the time off. You get the time out but you "earn" it with each pay period. In addition to getting my new job check, I had one day's pay remaining from the evil overlords of yore. They saw fit out of the 8 hours of salary on the check, to take back six of them, since I left with a little more than two months to go. I know it's playing by the rules, but it frosts me a little to see them be so tight when I had more than 100 hours of sick time left that I hadn't gotten too.

It's just a nice reminder that there are always better possibilities. Part of me wants to tease my sister that her wedded bliss went 94 dollars over budget, so there goes the present. I shouldn't, but I probably will. Never too old to be that kind of jerk.

Elsewhere, Halloween night was a good time. I took part in a Wiccan changing of the season ceremony with respectful silence. It was interesting to see a whole different tradition, which gave way to a really nice houseparty. The fathers present divved up the responsibilities getting the trick or treaters out. We got a great neighborhood, but I wasn't inclined to turn the young folk really loose. I got the 7th and 8th grade girls and we cruised up and down Ashland and Norwood. ((e:drew) and (e:Janelle) , my daughter was the one in the witch hat. It cracked me up that she chastised me for having friends on Lexington that she knew nothing about). They did pretty well, loot-wise, tried to tell them that we really should have hit the other side of Lexington to truly make out, but what are ya going to do.

Randomly speaking of course,

I got in trouble on the new job the other day, but skillful devil that I am, I weaseled my way out it, by being right. Score one for the "new guy."

I'm full for the election campaign locally and nationally. Locally I think there should be special places in hell for our county executive candidates. Neither has said anything what they are going to if they get the job. I just returned from a meeting that demonstrated how pious some of the departments can be and neither Keane or Collins has given me a reason to consider them. Bad enough the two of them made me think of reassessing Jimmy Griffin. Bastards!

Nationally, I'm full for the presidential goofs as well. Campaign hasn't really started, but given the hype and logjam of caucuses and primaries, the whole thing is done by Valentine's Day. We'll have annointed candidates, then another 9 months of people talking out their ass to get elected. Given that commentators today are talking about Obama making a last stand to chase Hillary with tonight's debate, I'm more than full for empty promises. I want people to tell me things that don't mean anything, I'll head to the Pink after midnight.

Between the Bills, my sister's wedding, the transition from Time Warner to the Zoo, I had been without a day off in about 3 weeks, I finally got Sunday off and spent that celebrating my Dad's belated birthday. If I was looking a little droopy eyed on Saturday, it was only partly due to beer consumption.

Great to see everybody as always. My costume was fictional. I worked till about 9:30 at a Zoo event, but it was worth it to get my butt to the 24. Great costumes and skeery creativity, with props to (e:carolinian) to putting his own special payoff on his costume. (e:Imk2) 's was a vision and I mean that in a good way.

Don't care about the Bills quarterback controversy. If all goes well here, they are getting my resignation after the Ice Bowl. Decided that the other day, now that this is seemingly off to a good start, I think I can scale back to one gig, but I do want to get that free hockey game in, especially given the scope of it.