Category: Orphans

Photo by cjessen/Courtesy of morguefile.com

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. Well it has temporarily stopped but here in Beaumont, Texas, — which receives an average of somewhere around 58 inches annually — it is sure to eventually return. That shall likely be sooner than later a glance at the radar tells me.

Looking out the window in my office building this afternoon I noticed that so many people were going to and fro sans umbrella. That isn’t all that surprising to me, though if you were from elsewhere and knew that a certain locale received almost five feet of rain each year, you would think everyone would have an umbrella to the ready.

But no. Not here. Not in East Texas nor Southeast Texas. I haven’t really paid that much attention to a lot of other places because I don’t typically think of rain unless it’s raining or if there is a drought, but I think the lack of umbrella may be part of the Texas and/or Southern machismo.

I first noticed this in college with guys especially. Real men didn’t carry umbrellas. Sometimes I don’t carry an umbrella as was the case today when I stopped by the office. I had every intention of bringing my umbrella into the office as one was in my pickup. And the clouds were an ominous dark blue with thunder rumbling about. But no. ¿Quien is mas macho? Not me. Just stupid.

Perhaps I should tie an umbrella around my neck, or have some type of scabbard for my umbrella. I could wear a pair of my cargo pants and my boonie hat. That’d look macho for sure. But I jest. But I jest better git as they say in these parts. Stay dry.

The blinding thunderstorm outside as well as the non-stop blather on local and national TV serves as a reminder to me that hurricane season is here. Start boarding up the windows and everyone move to Wisconsin until at least November!

No, folks here on the Upper Texas Coast aren’t quite that paranoid yet. Although if we have another hurricane or two this season — after two major ones and a cat 1 in the past four years — then perhaps some of those who were wondering about sticking around this area may be thinking of elsewhere to live.

The problem is we went forever without hurricanes here, or at least a long time. I’ve spent a good majority of my life in this area and only remember being on the fringes of storms over the past 40 or so years. That was, of course, until Rita came along in 2005 and Ike pounded us last year.

As far as I am concerned there is no reason to get paranoid, but unlike many years past, I have started collecting things I might could use if a ‘cane slams us again and leaves us without — just without — for awhile. In the meantime, here are this year’s Atlantic/Gulf storm names:

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

People have to bitch about something. The latest gripe against President Obama comes courtesy of the Republican National Committee, an organization sure to find some reason to complain about the opposition even when the GOPs are grasping for straws. The complaint: Presidential Date Night.

This from CNN which sees all through the darkly tinted political glass:

Republicans have also questioned the cost to tax-payers for the brief excursion — which included three Gulfstream-size planes to transport the president’s security detail, staff, and White House reporters.

“If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?” RNC Press Secretary Gail Gitcho said Saturday.

One must surely believe the RNC hasn’t yet scraped the bottom of the barrel to find complaints, but they have certainly come close.

How soon they forget the weekends that the last Republican president, one Gee Dubya Bush, spent in that glam of all glam places — Crawford, Texas.

CBS correspondent Mark Knoller, whom I always secretly cheered for when I’d see him in all his unkempt glory in Crawford, kept a running tally on the number of days Bush spent away in Crawford. The total number of days over an eight-year period: 490 days. Bush also spent 487 days at Camp David. Just those two places alone — not counting weekends at Kennebunkport with Poppy — amounted to about 1/3 of Bush’s time in office.

Although Camp David is a big closer to the White House than New York, New York, both are a far-sight nearer than Crawford. And since I spent a little time on the periphery of GW in Crawford and know a little about the geography, here is something else to consider.

The overwhelming majority of trips Bush made to Crawford meant Air Force One flying in to Texas State Technical College Airport on the northern edge of Waco. The airport is part of a former Air Force base and has a runway long enough to land anything flying including the Space Shuttle. Normally, the president would likewise fly in one of the helicopters of HMX-1, the Marine Corps helicopter squadron that operates Marine One, to the 20 or so miles by air from TSTC to “the ranch.”

Now you didn’t think that everyone would pack up at the ranch lock, stock and machine gun when GW returned to Washington did you? Not hardly. The military built a very roomy hangar out there, not in the line of sight from the ranch, although you could see a little of the president’s home on the way through the pastures en route to the hangar. The hangar was also used for press conferences in case of inclement weather, such as the cold day I went there for a newser with GW and then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar Lopez.

Now to lay out the case. Crawford, Texas, with no telling how many armed forces, Secret Service and not to mention overtime-drawing local yokel police officers around-the-clock (whether George W. was there or not), is not merely a hop, skip and a jump from D.C.compared to New York City. When weather was really poor, Bush would have to drive by motorcade from Crawford to TSTC, a good 30-some-odd miles by highway, give or take a few miles. I never stuck around that area to find out, but at one time it looked as if TSTC and the city of Waco might not be reimbursed for the money they laid out for presidential visits, mostly in police overtime. Some said it was a decent write-off in exchange for the bucks spent by reporters and others staying in hotels and visiting bars and restaurants in Waco. I’m sure someone made some money off all that just as some profited by the Obamas’ date night in the Big Apple.

But, I knew several folks who lost quite a bit of money when Gee Dubya came home, mostly when he had high-powered visitors like Aznar, the Chinese head of government and then-Russian President Putin. A couple of guys who operated air services at small airports near Crawford would inevitably be shut down due to no-fly restrictions during such instances. I don’t know if they ever got reimbursed either.

So if the RNC wants to bitch and moan about the president’s date night, let’s see if those folks would be willing to reimburse the federal government, the state of Texas, McLennan County, the city of Waco, as well as other local governments and private individuals who lost money on the almost 500 days Gee Dubya came to visit his beloved Crawford. I am sure some of those folks were never paid back for what was spent, at least in-kind. I wonder if now he has that fancy place in North Dallas if Shrub ever goes out to Crawford to chop mesquite? Well, probably not now that the cameras don’t follow him around.

Note: If you feel inclined to bitch at me about what I’ve just written, you are wasting your time. I don’t care. I could care less. But I don’t.

Let’s hope the ringing has ceased for awhile. I have been on the phone back and forth with several people this afternoon from my part-time job talking about where my work computer needs to be delivered. Funny, I thought I was off this weekend.

While all of this back-and-forth was going on I tried without success to reseat my gold molar crown which came off while flossing a couple of nights ago. That’s right, flossing, which only proves no good deed goes unpunished. The good deed I spoke of was supposed to have been for my teeth.

This has to be the fourth time the crown has popped out in the 30 years I have had it. I used some Dentemp the other night and the crown sat like it should until I woke up in the middle of the night only to discover it was once again rolling about in my mouth. I guess I am fortunate that I didn’t swallow it.

Who I will get to fix my crown and where are now questions I have to ask along with how much will it cost? I have no insurance, health or otherwise, and the VA doesn’t take care of my teeth because I have no service-connected injury or illness.

So why am I writing about this? Well, for two reasons. I try to write something every weekday. So I am doing that. Secondly, my dental predicament makes me wonder if the Obama administration will actually have some measure passed on health care and whether it will include dental care? Knowing my luck, I probably won’t qualify for it because I receive VA health care. Why do I automatically assume some Catch-22 when it comes to the government coming up with some kind of health care plan? It’s the government. It’s who I work part-time for, you know, the ones who have been calling me all afternoon even though any other time they would be on my case for my working when I am not scheduled to do so.

Here’s wishing us good health.

Vice President Joe Biden sent me an e-mail today urging me to stand and support the president’s nomination of federal circuit court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Why? Can’t I do it sitting down?

Of course, Joe sent the same e-mail to millions of others who normally get messages from President Obama and his minions updating us and soliciting our support on various issues through their vast electronic mail network. I hope Joe doesn’t get in trouble for using the presidential e-mail list.

It is incredible — the use of e-mail — for office holders and politicians to talk directly to their constituency. It isn’t a whole lot different from how congressional members used however much money that was allotted to them to mail newsletters or whatever to those back home. But it is faster. And Congress and everyone else requiring a fan base — like the Counting Crows just to name one — have of course taken advantage of e-mail for some time. But it all is relatively new for a president to do such a thing.

Now naturally there are certain percentages of any communication of any kind one gets from a politician that is pure bullshit. I am not sure what percentage but generally the rule of thumb is, the more words there are, the more likely many of those words will be bullshit. It is fascinating though the president can now use e-mail lists as a means of communication seeking support for various measures and votes.

Back to Joe, whether I am one of the “growing list of Americans who are pledging to stand with Sotomayor” remains to be seen. Oh I could just blindly go on what I’ve read or heard on TV about her since I learned of her nomination a couple of days ago. But as I have mentioned before the hot air dispensers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate are going to take their dear sweet time posing and posturing and pontificating in the run-up to a vote by the entire Senate, provided there will be one and there is no reason to doubt it as of now. So, I don’t see why I shouldn’t just wait and give the Senate their shot to worsen global warming by letting loose all that hot air.

Once that hot air is cleared, maybe I will have the opportunity to sort through the wheat and the bullshit to determine if I truly want to stand with Sotomayor.

But thanks for thinking about me Joe.