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.

Man, this Doc is too hot to think. I don’t think that I have ever been too cold to think. But definitely too hot.

The conflict has to do with the issue of air conditioning. It’s eighty-eight Washington, D.C., degrees at 10:30 p.m. That makes it plenty hot. We are not, however, using the A/C units in our old house because one of our beloved family members seems to have a reaction to it. Like he can’t breathe.

Now he doesn’t get dizzy, turn blue or faint. He just has trouble catching his breath. We discovered the relationship to the A/C last week. It wasn’t so hot then, so we did without. It IS hot now. The dog can’t breathe. I can’t think. Maybe I will figure this on out in the office, where it will be cooler.

I know, I have a rule that there will be no “ranting” on this blog. So, please feel free to stop reading now. It’ll be short, though.

I spent a good hunk of time working on a piece about the D.C. government going haywire with protecting us from ourselves (jaywalking tickets, red light cameras, etc.). I compared efforts on wealthier/whiter parts of town with poorer/blacker wards. I included research links. (It wasn’t good for city efforts.)

Anyway, I somehow lost it. And that makes me unhappy. I don’t really feel like recreating it, though. My mom used to say if you can’t remember it, then it must have been a lie. I guess in this case, if I won’t recreate it, it must’ve been a bore.

Good for readers.

Ni-i-i-ine. Bet you were waiting for that final nine. 867-5309. Jenny’s number.

We were watching a show where “one-hit” wonders sing their signature tunes then, later in the show, a cover of a current hit. Kinda like “I Was An American Idol.” So the 867-5309 guy gets up and sings about Jenny and the number on the wall. Frankly he stunk. His cover of the recent song was painful. Then they show flashbacks from his apex 80’s interspersed with his current job as computer coder.

COMPUTER CODER??? Like here was a guy who did a song that still gets played on some radio stations–my 13-year-old knows the phone number–and we see him trying to climb out of his Dilbert cubicle back to rock and roll. I don’t know to laugh or cry.

Reminds me that fame is fleeting. A few years back, a friend left a nice job to take on a job with national significance. You know, riding on Air Force one and all. You wonder what someone does after a job like that. But it is an exhausting role that can’t be sustained for a career. There must be a next step.

At least if you are a has-been, you once were. The real question is, what’s next? Me, I haven’t peaked, yet.

At the risk of going too far here, I realized that community and communications have the same start. (Sorry but I simply cannot remember what you call that part of the word, AND the kids are asleep AND I don’t feel like taking a side trip to word-roots.com or wherever.)

“So what?” you say. Okay, so if we have a failure to communicate, does that mean that there is a failure in our community?