"Raised his head above the parapet..."

How's that for an obscure song reference??

It's not spring and yet here I am, emerging from hibernation.
Very groggy. Please forgive whatever follows. . .

The holiday season is over. Yay. Well, kind of - still haven't
seen everybody, and the ones who stayed away because of
the typical family bull are still away, but I don't have the
patience for that headgame crap anymore so who cares?
Life goes on. In fact, it was just this kind of garbage that
convinced me that if an opportunity to move out of New
England presents itself, I'll go. Finally. I've hated the
place most of my life so why stay?

"The snow is so pretty." So say those who don't have to
shovel it. The weatherjerks were moaning on TV last
week because we only got 29 inches in December,
"short of the record". Clearly they don't lift a shovel
either.

Well, our sports teams have cycled around and actually
pretty good now. But it's difficult to afford to take a
family to many games so why not worship from afar?
I'll still go to the Celtics games, though. Old habits,
you know.

I did my annual sentence, er, seasonal employment for
the month of December. Cash is good, but everything
else has to go on hold. No gigs (bad), but no rehearsals
either (not so bad). Working in a union environment is
really eye-opening. People there bitch and complain
about EVERYTHING while making more money for
doing less work than they ever could get away with in
the "real" world. But most have never worked in the
real world so they really just don't get it. There was
one guy who stood in one spot reading the paper for
90% of his shift. His coworkers had actually traced his
feet and put a placard on the floor that read, "Proper
foot position for reading periodicals". He did give a few
token moves here and there. And moved quickly at
break/lunch times. Let's not forget those "guaranteed
overtime hours" - two to four per day, as long as the
feet stay in the outlines.

While watching these people not work, I imagined
how they say "grace" before their holiday meals:

"Dear lord,

We see before us a small portion of the bounty to
which we are entitled. We are thankful for . . for . .
um . . er . . nope, I got nothin'.

And now, Timmy will read our list of grievances . . "

Yes, I know - I'm just jealous -- or not. At least I
know I worked for the chip on my shoulder!!

Apparently one of the bands I'm in has progressed without
me and now I've got to learn some new material before
Monday. In my absence, they always pick material I
wouldn't approve because, well, I'm not there to say no.
Stylistically, the material they expect me to learn usually
amounts to the equivalent of asking Charlie Haden to play
songs by Primus. There's never a "Louie, Louie"-type
tune that I could learn in my sleep. No, they have to
make me play outside my comfort zone. I suppose it's
ultimately "good" for me, but I can still grouse (and do!).

The primaries are happening here next week. We are
getting about eight phone calls per day from campaigns.
Isn't it great that when the politicians passed the "Do
Not Call" legislation, they exempted THEMSELVES?
Now when the phone rings, I don't say "hello". . . I
say, "Phone Harassment Central, please state your
candidate". For some reason, they don't see the humour.

I've had it up to here (you'll have to envision where)
with lying bastards who'll "cut taxes". Promised
every election, never done. The burden might shift
a bit one way or another, but it's all smoke and mirrors.
I especially like the guy who's going to "eliminate the
IRS". . . what crap. It ain't gonna happen. I find
that guy particularly offensive because his entire
campaign is a bunch of garbage people WANT to
hear that can NEVER BE.

And let's not forget Mr. 9/11. We get something in
the mail from his campaign EVERY DAY. It all
states that he's "tough on terrorism". I'm still
waiting for some honest reporter to ask him
"Why was the largest SUCCESSFUL act of
terrorism on US soil possible in YOUR city?"
I'm sure it was the OTHER party's fault, somehow.

Is my disdain showing? Damn, I haven't even gotten
started yet. What a pathetic bunch we've got to choose
from this time around (on both sides). I could go on and
on, but it's early yet.

How about those oil and gas prices? Only one more
year of uncontrolled rape and pillage, so they've
got to start putting the screws on us now. I like the
way that the price of crude goes up and the cost
of gas and heating oil rises IMMEDIATELY, even though
the companies have already paid for what they have.
BUT when the price comes down, well, that takes awhile
to show up at the pumps. The corporate line is that they
have to raise the price to buy the next batch when
the price goes up. No excuse offered for why it doesn't
work the other way. Oh, wait, maybe it's that $8 billion
annual profit. Yeah, gotta preserve that. In a perfect
world (ha!!), in "wartime", this would be considered
high treason (one could hope). If the oil companies want to
win me back, how about they donate all their 2007
profits toward the US deficit? I thought not.

In other news, the Ls finally have DSL. Our old service
provider was intentionally slowing down our connections
while trying to sell us an upgrade (they deny it, but
I am both an ex-programmer AND cynical so I know
it can be done). Instead, we moved to a different
provider. Of course, they are probably all owned
by two or three people so you don't really win.
Did I say cynical?

I have discovered that the time you save by not
waiting for slow connections is eaten up by the
time spent downloading previously unattainable
(i.e., huge) files. But, I have increased the size
of my CD collection, which, as anyone who knows
me will tell you, was absolutely necessary. D'oh.
Will need an out-building soon. Or less furniture.

What else, what else. . . I don't know. Maybe it'll
come to me later, after a few dozen more phone
calls from candidates. And with the new DSL service,
they get through even when I'm blogging.

I KNEW there was a downside.