Random Musings

I've got a few different things to talk about, but I don't feel like taking a whole blog entry for any of them; and I know that if I don't write about them soon, I'll lose them forever. So, instead of doing a long, drawn-out ramble about each of them (or letting them go up in a puff of thought), I'm going to do a verbal collage. Here are today's musings, in no particular order.

During my recent family vacation to sunny California, I experienced a bad bout of flatulence during the final plane ride. I didn't really feel like walking to the bathroom every two minutes, and the flight was too long to bottle it up. So I did what came naturally, and let them slip every now and then. Fortunately, they were silent, so nobody could pin anything on me. Unfortunately, they were pretty ripe, so I had to sit in my own noxious cloud. Early on, my older daughter leaned over and asked me "Dad, did you fart?!?" I blamed it on the old guy in front of me. Several days later, she was telling the story, and I burst out laughing... I mean tears-down-the-face laughing, and I finally confessed that it was me. Since then, this is one of her favorite stories. She even told it at school. (Great!! Now I'm going to be known as the farting dad!)

I've already written today's entry once. Unfortunately, work got in the way, and I accidentally closed the browser before saving the entry as a draft. So I'm doing this all over again. This probably means that some of my original musings will be lost in that aforementioned puff of thought, and other reflections will float down in their respective places. The worst part is that I was just about done. It's not like I had only written one or two of my unstructured thoughts down, I was almost ready to hit "publish post."

My ex-wife is a deadbeat. We were divorced in the summer of 2004. She was supposed to refinance her car and get my name off of the loan, but she never did. Consequently, her failure to be fiscally responsible is negatively impacting my good credit, and cramping my finances. (This shouldn't come as a surprise, she's been trashing my credit since we were married.) I tried to take her to court to force her to refinance, but the judge wouldn't do it. This means I've got two options... occasionally make her car payments -- despite the fact that we're divorced -- so it doesn't show up on my credit report, or allow her deadbeat ass to continue dragging down my good name. I'm making the payments. I may take her back to court when it's all said and done, to force her to pay me back... but then again, it may not be worth it.

I really hope that today's immigration protest thing backfires.

I'm starting to get tired of the rain. I don't mind rain in and of itself, but I didn't get a chance to mow my lawn before the rain started. By the time I get a chance to mow, I will be trying to trim a small prairie.

I like having the windows open in the spring -- especially in my bedroom. I like being lulled to sleep by the crickets chirping, and being gently brought back to consciousness by the birds singing.

I love the sound of rain on the roof when I go to sleep, and I enjoy the scent of the rain floating through my room... unless the grass is too long. Then I obsess about how difficult it will be when I finally mow.

I really, really love my family.

I've been thinking about doing a podcast, like Paulius did the other day. But then again, I'm not too keen about the work I'd need to do in order to accomplish this, and I'm not sure I could come up with enough material to make it all worthwhile. By the way Paulius, you did a great job.

Just a few short weeks until I take my boys' trip. For almost fifteen years, three friends from high school and I have been taking these boys' trips. Sometimes more people go, but it's always been the "core four" of us. We started out doing self-contained downriver canoe trips. About five years ago, we switched to whitewater kayaking. We're thinking about going back to canoeing, because the others are too old, fat, lazy or scared to keep doing whitewater.

Anyone who's blaming the government for high gas prices, and expecting them to come up with an instant solution, is barking up the wrong tree. Oil is a global commodity, subject to the laws of supply and demand. Global demand is skyrocketing, and the supply is not increasing in proportion to the demand. Sorry folks, these prices are here to stay, until we can find a viable, long-term alternative to oil. My gut says we're about at the point where biofuels and so forth are an economically viable alternative.

I'm looking forward to my new job. This is partially because of the excitement that naturally comes with a new undertaking, and partially because I'm really tired of the stupid shit at my old job.

Another reason to find an alternative to oil is so we can reduce the economic clout of an inherently unstable part of the world. Let's face it, OPEC has us by the balls until we find an alternate method of fueling our economy.

I think I'm going to buy a motorcycle to help do my part to conserve fuel. Besides, it'll be cool!

I remembered to save my drafts during this second attempt at today's entry, so I didn't lose anything. This is fortunate, because I was interrupted several times during this writing.

My younger daughter is home today with a sore tummy. I think she ate too much spicy food last night. She's feeling better now and seems to expect me to entertain her. I don't particularly like days like this. She thinks she's sick enough to stay home from school, but around noon she feels better. She then thinks I'm supposed to keep her occupied, which distracts me from work. In this case, "work" means working on today's blog entry. Does that make me hypocritical?

Okay, my brain is empty... time to hit "publish post."