Hurricane Katrina. Her with the killer, red-eye. Her winds reaching out to the gulf shores as if tendrils from her Medusa head. The 24/7 news frenzy is being fed by the worst case scenarios–what if the storm was faster? What if the storm landed 20 miles to the East? What if the bodies came out of the coffins creating a New Orleans “toxic gumbo?”

This isn’t news. This is just making up titillating scenarios. In the 50’s, there were monster movies. In the 70’s there were a bunch of disaster movies, some natural, some man-made. It’s the 2000’s and we have 24/7 evil fantasy storm a la George Romero. Turn off the channel. I’m afraid already. I can’t sleep.

Think New Year’s Day, January 1. Then there’s Chinese New Year, and Rosh Hashanah. There are even more religious and cultural celebrations of the a new year. (Gotta love that Wikipedia!)

For me, though, the new year starts in September. Now that’s a beginning.

New Year’s Eve–some ball dropping in NYC–and I bet that all the Doc’s visitors have at least once just gone to bed at 11 (or 10?) rather than hold out. And what does the “New Year” bring? Bowl games, black-eyed peas for luck, and, for some, hair of the dog. January 1 seems pretty arbitrary. Something to cap the Christmas holidays, but more winter ahead.

Now September, there is a beginning. First, it is the end of summer, and, unless you are dead (and who knows?), the end of something usually means the beginning of something. Like fall. Relief from scorching August days. Earlier sunsets. The first time you put on long pants and shoes after a summer of bare legs. And, of course, back to school. New haircuts, new shoes, new teachers, and the step up into the next grade. The time to get serious, down to business. Put back on the ties and pantyhose.

A new year. Happy New Year! Boy, what a great excuse for mid-term champagne.

Cindy Sheehan doesn’t speak for the majority of military families who have suffered losses in Iraq, according to the Prez. So, we are going to stay the course and he doesn’t need to speak with her.

The current administration believes with all it’s political heart that since they “won” in 2000 and won in 2004, they can do what they want. I thought, though, the founders of our great country wanted to protect minority interests. There was a lot of discussion and–here’s a concept–COMPROMISE to come up with a representative democracy.

The Prez is president for all in the country, the least he can do is listen. His obligation is to do the best for us all. Maybe opposing views can inform decisions?

Nah!

Thinking is something that I always do. That’s not to say that I am especially GOOD at it. I just do it.

Maybe thinking for me is the same as analyzing. I pull different things together, make random relationships, and try to figure something out or apply a new “truth” that I made up. Again, just because I do this, doesn’t mean I claim any great acumen. I just do it. And, I enjoy it.

So, imagine a few weeks when I just couldn’t think. Now this might have happened to me before without my notice, but since I have been blogging about my thinkings (alright, YOU can call it “musings” if you want, but I will stick to “thinkings”) I noticed that I was out of gas. No fuel. No thinking. This makes me think, “Why?”

[Now clearly, this is a good sign for me. I am thinking again. “Why?” is clearly a sign of thinking.]

Anyway, why was I out of think-juice? What happened to my thinking mojo? I have been thinking about this and I think that maybe I didn’t have enough room to think. Kind of like when your computer has too many programs open and can’t redraw your wordprocessing screen: “Dangerously low on system resources.” I had a bunch of anxiety, guilt, anger, and sadness filling up brain space required for thinking. As some of these issues were clearing, I rebooted myself while at the beach.

The Doc is Back!

So what’s wrong with playing with your food? Bowling for Soup makes me suspend my prohibition on food fights for at least 3 minutes with their new single that starts off in Cleveland–with kudos for Drew Carey and the R&R Hall of Fame–and wishes someone back to Texas with the encouragement of Troy Aikmen, NASA, and the Bush twins.

I like a funny song–and if it has a good beat and a good hook you can sign me up. Laughing, foot-tapping, and singing are all evidence of successful pop. The first time we heard this one was in the rental car, driving back to the airport. Oddly, we were sucked in from the first power cord and ended up singing along about how “Mexican food sucks north of here anyway.” I am serious, we sang along on the first listen. The trick will be to not get sick of it.

Pop music can be like any kind of junk food. You eat too much of it, and it makes you sick. And, yet, it’s hard to control yourself. When I was a young’n, I snuck into the unattended ice cream tent at my dad’s union picnic. I ate about twenty ga-zillion, million, za-billion ice cream bars. You know, the one’s with vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate candy coating. Well, I had a stomach ache. The good news, though, is that it didn’t kill my taste for ice cream bars. So even if I get sick of the Ohio (Come Back to Texas) song, in future summers it will still be fun.

Yes, I have been AWAY on the most delightful vacation. I had been very neglectful of my thinking before my holiday, and was neglectful of my writing about my thinking while on holiday. I think that next will be some thoughts about thinking, and a bit on small town internet access. For now I am taking another breath. My family noted the difference.

I think that I am an open-minded person when it comes to music. I don’t like everything, but I like to think that I am fair.

I admit that I never got that Tony Bennett does MTV thing, but I have something ALOT worse.

Paul Anka sings Nirvana. WARNING, if you click you will here it.

Gross! I couldn’t stop thinking about how Joe Pipsoco’s Frank Sinatra would trash a song by “swinging” it. But at least we knew THAT was a JOKE!

(You need to download QuickTime for the video.)

Money raised for an anticipated Supreme Court nominee battle is obscene on all sides. It was spooky to see staunch conservatives threatening the President with their coffer–in addition to the expected uproar from the “other side.”

Democrats are having a hard time rallying around opposition for nominee John Roberts. While it’s clear that Judge Roberts is a conservative, that is not a surprise. Would anyone think that the President would make the same nomination as a Democratic Prez? But just as conservatives were not jazzed about Justice Ginsberg, Dems need to remember that when the Republicans are in charge, they get to choose.

So instead of raising and spending money to dig up and defeat the current nominee, how’s about using that money and energy to be in the position to name the next Justice. Winning is not the only reward.

That’s a big difference–between 10 and 28. For starters, the difference is 18. To put that into perspective 10 is almost one-third of 28. In the other direction, 28 is THREE TIMES greater than 10.

Why the obsession? Well, I used to have 28 days of leave, then I went to work for our United States. Even though I have been in the professional world for a long time, and even though I entered duty in a senior position, I still get 10 days of annual leave. I think that public service is important–and I am very proud of my role in serving. And yes, call me a whiner, but how can our United States expect to attract talented people to public service if there is this bizarre sense of fairness–i.e., all new people start at the bottom of the leave pile. I tell my kids all the time that fair does not mean exactly the same.

Does Karl Rove get 10 days as deputy chief of staff?

I need a vacation.