The "C" word...

What do you do when you find out one of your dearest, closest friends has cancer?

Not just a small tumor, but something that has spread and could get ugly?

And she's being strong and positive and trying with all her heart not to show how scared and sad and worried she is - being strong for "everybody else" - and looking at something with very, very bad potential outcome?

I feel that weak, powerless feeling - and I'm not ashamed to say I'm worried and a bit numb.


296 days

A lil' bit of dis, a lil' bit of dat...

It occurs to me that 99.9% of the strife and violence in the world could be eliminated if people would just follow ONE commandment - one that Moses apparently forgot to put on the rocks when he was up there on the mountain frantically taking God-Stenography by chipping away at them. In fact, I firmly believe this WAS the original first commandment, but Moses had gotten behind while looking for a good stone-chisel and forgot what the first one was -

"Thou Shalt MYOB"

What Does This Mean?

We should Fear and Love God that we may each Mind Your Own Business.

Thank you, 7th and 8th grade Catechism Class.

"Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me" is just plain ridiculous - if you take the position of the monotheistic Judeo-Christian-Moslem theology - because if there IS no other God, then how could you POSSIBLY take another one first? I mean - if there is one apple on the table, and you want an apple - you're rather limited in choices, n'est pas?

Particularly this occurs to me as I am entirely of the opinion that you just seriously cannot legislate morality. You can legislate against crimes against other persons - theft, assault, battery, murder - it doesn't really STOP them, but it does provide some accountability. But there are lots of things that religion opposes that really don't need to be criminalized.

Blasphemy - for instance. In many of the Islamoidiot run countries, "blasphemy" is a crime. It used to be a crime in many Christian countries until fairly (relatively) recently. Makes me want to slap them upside the turban and scream "Look - if Allah really is a God - then he's a fucking GOD - he can take a little criticism and joking - and if he can't, then it's still really NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS - he's GOD - he won't make a mistake and accidently punish YOU instead of the blasphemer!"

See, according to these "big three" major religions, they all have some Nasty Icky Place that you're going to go if you don't make G_D, Jesus or Allah happy. Whether it is Gehenna, Hell, or Las Vegas, Nevada - the Big Guy in the Sky has a place prepared for those who defy him, according to the scriptures. Since the BGitS already has it covered, it's rather redundant and a bit of a waste of time and energy for the BGitS's followers to run around chastizing and beheading and fairly much being dicks about it all. MYOB.

"Vengence is Mine - I will repay, saith the Lord " Romans 12:19

*******************************************************************************

So I guess I'm enduring try-outs for Greek Mythical Hero status. Every night I've been getting stabbing pains from my left ankle, specifically the Achilles tendon. The pain radiates up and down my calf. This is not particularly fun - but it's horrible annoying as it only seems to be evident at night, during the day at work and commuting I hardly notice it at all. I do, however, usually run around the house barefoot, and at work I wear shoes - perhaps a significant thing? Also, last night I wore an "ankle brace" - some compression bandage thing in a weird shape that wraps around your foot and ankle - and the pain in the ankle/Achilles tendon was much less, but when I took off the wrap, the FRONT of my ankle was painful to the touch - like very, very, very low shin-splints.

I don't want to have to go see a doctor about this, so I'm going to just wait and see if it improves. If it doesn't - I've got a Dr. appt. on the 10th, so I'll ask him then. It's not bad enough to spend an extra $30 on it - just a crappy annoyance, really. (Just someting to kvetch on my blog about!)

************************************************************************************

Daffodil noses are peeking out of the ground in the back garden. I suppose I should get back there and clean out the mess from last year, but the ground is still rock hard - I tried to put one of the little solar-powered lights that had worked its way out of the ground back in, but even in the exact same hole the ground was too frozen to jam it in. A few more weeks, apparently.

************************************************************************************

Diet Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea.

Yummy, to my utter amazement.

297 days

"Betrayal"

Senator John McCain - he who would like to be the next RepubliCON president today said that pulling out of Iraq now would be "an act of betrayal".


Dear Senator McCain:

NOT pulling our troops and contractors out of Iraq NOW is already a betrayal of the American People - and those responsible for sending them in the first place should be on trial for treason.

DIAF

Sewmouse.

Banking Woe

Ok, so I've been quiet - so sue me.

Well - don't, actually.

Anyhow - I've been "stomping out burning ducks" at work due to a bank error. A rather significant bank error that is making me a little crazy, and causing my boss to lose his hair. Apparently someone at our bank made a rather big "Oopsie" (Technical Accounting Term) and froze the assets in our account a while back. We didn't initiate it, we had plenty of money in our account to cover our debits - and the IRS wasn't after us. I found out when one of our vendors called to tell us that our check had been returned to her.

Needless to say, this particular vendor was a bit of a "problem child", in that we'd had some difficulty with their invoice and had only just resolved everything and authorized payment - so of course, THEY were the first to call me and let me know the check had been returned. Just like Mr. Angry - I was LIVID.

Little did I know just how much of a PITA this was going to be. Things that were supposed to be auto-deducted from our account such as car payments, loan payments, utilities, &etc - were all returned - refused - denied - and the folks who were supposed to get the money were told that WE had rescinded our permission for them to take it!!! Livid became a pale shadow of what I really was...

It's been going on for weeks now - I get a call from someone all confused and occasionally disbelieving when I tell them we really had NOTHING to do with it. The car loan folks immediately deleted us from their auto-pay program - and WE have to go in and fight with their website to reinstate us - the credit card company has put us on a THIRTY DAY CASH ONLY basis - we have to drive to one of their branches and pay them directly... And the best bit is this - since our bank is not listed on the credit card account as being someone the credit card company is authorized to speak with - they won't even TALK to our bank to find out that the bank screwed the pooch, not us!!

I don't mind taking pipe and dealing with asshatness when it's something I've actually done. There have been times that I've been less than entirely scrupulous about paying (my own personal, not the company's) bills on time or remembering stuff - and I suck up the bad that comes from it and try to remember to NOT DO THAT anymore - but this is fucking ridiculous - We didn't do ANYTHING wrong, and yet here we are being punished for some bank clerk's fat-fingered mistake.

I love my job.

But I really do hate banks. And credit card companies.

299 days