July 2002, Week 4
|
July 2002, Week 4
|
|
05:30: I got up looked at my e-mail (not much today... yet) 06:00: I woke Mike and gave him his medicine. 06:10: I got Mike out of bed. 06:20: The bus came, Mike had taken his shower, dressed and was waiting for the bus. 06:30: Awaiting the opening of the Stock Market. Christy has a meeting on 'D' Rate downtown at 10:00, I will have to cancel my meeting with Diane at Smith Barney at 10:30 "He rocks the baby so it doesn't cry, but he does nothing." Peruvian woman talking about the current president of Peru... Sounds like my evaluation of Bush and the way he is handling the Economy. Why are sports heroes paid so much? What is their contribution to to society? Why do 'fans' put up with it... every day I read about another sports prima donna who's beaten his wife, gotten drunk and wrecked his car, got busted for drugs, murdered, stolen... why do I let it bother me? I keep thinking of the Roman Empire and how self indulgent it was before it's fall. 0700: time to get the kids up, Christy 0720: kids up and medicated, Autumn is eating, Mokie is in one shower, Cindy is in the other, Blado has had his and is helping Autumn eat while he feeds himself. 0830, I was two minutes late getting the kids to school, but they didn't have to check in 'at the window' I called Smith Barney and canceled my appointment.
0915: I took Christian to the
Parkers,
1000: too late to go to town and run errands so I taped two movies I didn't get to watch that are due back at Albertson's today. Picked up a bit around the house. Got an e-mail about some guy working on a PBS Special on Martha's Vineyard, seems he needs some info on the Daggett House on Water Street... so I sent him an old brochure that Aunt Dorothy had and a Poem/epitaph about the original proprietor: EPITAPH ON LANDLORD DOGGETT Innholder at Attleborough. Traveller If ever dram to thee was dear, Drop on John Doggett's grave a Tear; Who when alive so well did tend, The Rich, the Poor, the Foe, the Friend; To every knock, and every call, He said I'm coming unto all; At length Death knocks I poor Doggett cry'd, And said "I'm coming Sir!" and Dy'd.
1100: Calie and I went to the school and picked up a 1/4 bag of grass seed for the soccer field... got the mail... went to Jack in the box for lunch... picked up the kids and went home. 1400: Christy got home, I took Calie and Mokie and went to pick up Christian, drove half way to Palmdale and came home to... pick... up... my... god... damn... wallet... DAMN... that's annoying... 1500: Went to Albertsons to drop off the tapes I had rented, Home Depot to get the salt and a new shovel and rake, Wall-Mart to get Christy a cast iron skillet, Shoe Stop to get Autumn some shoes (decided to wait and take her with me later), Acton School to put down the grass seed. I played soccer with the kids for a while, I am pathetically out of shape 1930: Realized I had forgotten to take in the tapes I had rented Saturday... so... I took Cindy and "B" and drove back to Albertsons and I also picked up some chicken for dinner. I heard an interesting observation on the Stock Market: There was the theory/thought/hope that it was just a few rogue CEO's that ran amok but Wall Street and Investors are just now convincing the administration the problem is endemic and broad-based, World Com and now the Banks are looking at some serious losses, J. P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup are both looking down the barrel of an audit. How long will the delusional conservatives cling to their theories... are they saying that because only a few of the hundreds of thousands of businesses in America are corrupt on a scale of WorldCom that we have nothing to fear? If so, I think they need to re-examine their thesis. So far the magnitude of the greed, deceit and corruption among our corporate leaders is boggling, the economists and traders on Wall Street are convinced that there are more scandals ahead. WorldCom for example not only affects itself and the banks that have to absorb the bad debt but all telecom companies will have to take a beating too. ATT, SBC all of them use WorldCom facilities, all telecommunication companies are intertwined in fantastically complicated ways. Two more companies are under the microscope. on August 14, the top one thousand companies in the United States are going to have to resubmit and justify their earnings statements going back to 1990, there are going to be some sweaty palms on the Ides of August I'll bet. 2015: ... typed this.
Last day of Summer School, the kids told me last night, after the stores closed, that they needed 'treats' for a party... I think much of the world perceives us as aggressors and obsessed with preserving our way of life at the expense of the rest of the world. If Saddam were to say about America what Bush said about Iran we would be justifiably outraged, why is it OK for George to say it. Preemptive Military Action is not how we do things... any more (Kadafi (sp), Nasser, Grenada aside)... I hope. Dropping a missile on an adversary's house killing women, children and babies... like Israel just did, is not acceptable to me. Writing it off as collateral damage and saying the ends justify the means is obscene. That sort of mentality lends credence to suicide bombers, IRA bombers or anyone that acts on a grudge for that matter. I have been listening to the police apologists passionately defending a policeman's right to beat the crap out of a minor when the minor has his hands cuffed behind his back.
Mike went to school, all the others are out and officially on vacation... cool for them... not so for me. I took Calie, Monica and Christian down to the field at Acton... We mowed the little field and about a third of the big field... The kids mowed, I watched, then I mowed to clean up the mess they made... Christy had an IEP in Lancaster, she was the designated advocate... I took everyone but Cindy down to the Acton School again and we finished the field, Mike was a pain, so was Christian... we got it done, took about 3 hours... damn, I think I could have done it in half the time without all that help. Christy went to 'Prayer Meeting' with Cindy at 1800...
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. Edwin Schlossberg, designer (1945- ) (interesting ,pretentious sort of thing to say isn't it. If this is true then I have a long way to go) Mike scammed me again, I took him to Palmdale so he could meet with his buddy while I went shopping... I got suspicious when the door was locked, he pretended to be talking to Thomas and fooled me. I left him on the porch at 1430, apparently, as soon as the van turned the corner he went off somewhere else... I came back to pick him up and he wasn't there... Thomas said he wasn't there anyway. I went home figuring he would call or he had run away... He called about 1900... I picked him up...
Been swapping e-mail with a nice lady named Pam Lash, a
genealogist/teacher/writer who needed info on someone in my coffers...
Christian finally made it over to the Parkers for school, he is such a con artist. I rode the bike into Pasadena for a meeting with my financial advisor... she has some ideas about moving my investments around to be in position to take advantage of the inevitable recovery, we'll see. On the bike ride over there I ran into traffic when I got to Pasadena, I tried to sit an wait in line like a responsible 59 year old person, and I did, for about 15 seconds, I cut down the line between cars, rode on the shoulder, damn near crashed into the back of a brand new Celica... I thought I had outgrown that sort of behavior, obviously I haven't I took the Angeles Forest Highway home... I was reasonably sedate... mostly because there were police everywhere... about 10 miles up the road I saw a bunch of cars and people standing around one of the 'pull outs'. Sierra Mountain Rescue was pulling some poor person off the side of the mountain... looks like someone went off the side and straight down about 50 yards... I didn't stop to rubber neck but they didn't seem to be in a hurry so I don't think the person they had in the stretcher was alive... about five miles past that I saw a kid sitting in a police car, his car was on the other side of the road imbedded in a rock and gravel wall.
ITEMS ABOUT THE HAIR
Wayne says I'm a Motocross Addict... I guess he's right... The Motocross Des Nations is going to be held in San Jacinto on September 27 - 29 I am seriously considering attending... I may try to take some of the kids to see a Supercross in Anaheim next year. Mokie was sick again... sore throat again, I took her in to Kaiser. She is ok. I went to the Acton Soccer Field but all the work was done... I will be down at the Meadowlark field at 0800 sddmv 393
I got up and went down to the Soccer Field to help Mike and Cal stripe the field at Meadowlark... first time I've done it from scratch, getting a 200' but 300' field squared up is a little tricky, now that he's showed me how to do it though I think I can do it alone... Christy took Christian, Cindy, Calie and DaMoke to Cedar Falls Summer Camp... She took Autumn too just so she could say g'bye. I am reading the motocross race from Washougal , it is fun to be able to read about the race as it's happening, I wish there was a little more detail and some more explanation about why things are happening, not just what is happening... It'll be a good race to watch next Saturday. I took the boys (Mike and "B") on errands, I had intended to drop off some tapes at Albertsons and take them to dinner somewhere, I got to Albertsons and discovered that I had left my wallet home, they wanted to go to a store that lets kids trade games, I dropped them off and went home to et my wallet, when I got back the boys were out front waiting (the store closed at 1800, I dropped them off at 1815). I went to Wall-Mart and bought a couple things then I took them to Hometown Buffet, they let me down, couple of wimps, they left the prime rib and ham and ate chicken and french-fries... Getting a sore throat like DaMoke... I hope she'll be ok at camp. She wasn't complaining when she left. The woman who started the fire in Sequoia National Park is getting drug over the coals, she ran for help, admitted starting the fire to cook hot-dogs... but they are treating he like a criminal. They hauled her out in handcuffs, wearing a florescent green jumpsuit, damn. She didn't start the fire on purpose it was an accident, she's guilty of stupidity not arson... hang the Ranger in Colorado and the Navajo fire-fighter in Arizona... accidents happen...
|
