Springing Forward Once Again

Just when the GG's life is in some semblance of order, along comes Daylight Savings Time to mess everything up. I remember how my father used to hate DST. He was from the old school who believed the daylight hours were for working and the nightime hours were for sleeping, so he was ready for bed as soon as it turned dark, usually around 7:00 p.m. here in Texas. During DST, this meant it was 8:00 when he went to bed, and he hated that. He also hated getting up in the dark in the morning. "If I could get my hands around the man who invented DST, I'd wring the life out of him," he'd say, only he'd throw in a few choice cuss words for emphasis. I feel the same way now. I don't know whether the rationale for DST still exists--that it allows another hour of daylight to get the nation's work done--all I know is that it plays havoc with old geezers like the gg. I for one never know what time it is--every clock in the house or the cars has a different time. The first morning of DST, I "sprang forward" out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen in the dark of the morning. After flicking on the lights, I decided to change the time on the digital clocks on the microwave and the oven. Of course, before I could do that, I had to locate the Operator's instruction book that came with the microwave and oven to see how to change the time. Later, Ms. gg came into the kitchen and, not realizing that I had already set the time forward, set it forward herself one more hour. Luckily, I mentioned to her that I had set them forward earlier or else we would have been late (early?) to wherever we needed to go that day. It's been three days now and we're still finding clocks and watches around the house whose time needs to be changed. Some of those have had the wrong time since last fall when we forgot (or deliberately neglected) to "fall back." At least those timepieces now have the correct time without my having to mess with them. In short, DST is a menace to mankind (at least to older mankind) that needs to be stopped because it makes the gg very grouchy.

GG

Tea for Texas

Lots of political happenings during the GG's sabbatical. Let's start with the gubernatorial race in the GG's own home state of Texas. Here, Rick Perry (the Breck Guy) prevailed over Kay Bailey Hutchison (the Breck girl) and an upstart nurse/tea partier named Debra Medina in the Republican primary. As astute observers know, Texas Republican primaries are increasingly dominated by an almost lunatic fringe of right wing, federal government-hating activists. These are folks who are convinced that the Black Hawks will be coming soon over the nearest horizon to enslave us and turn our free-market economy into a member of the European Union, led of course by the socialist trioka of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. These are the same people who attacked Ron Paul and Kevin Brady FROM THE RIGHT. Attilla the Hun would have his credentials questioned by this group. Perry even went so far in wooing this crowd that he threatened to have Texas secede from the Union. Most of his fans,if given the chance would have voted for that idea. That is, until they discovered that it would mean they'd need a passport to cross the border into Louisiana to gamble; that it would mean an end to their Medicare and Medicaid and that their kids and grandkids could no longer get federally-supported student loans for their college educations; and a whole host of other things they take for granted that they get from the federal government they so love to hate. But I digress. I was talking about the primary election for Governor and there I shall return. Incredibly, Perry won quite handily and, surprisingly, without a run-off. Kay Bailey Hutchison--who had carved a successful senatorial career and had been a staunch advocate and "bacon-bringer" for Texas and Texans in the same tradition as former Texas political legends Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn and Lloyd Bentsen before her--was summarily rejected by these voters. In contrast, and ironically, Perry acted as a hero to the primary voters, not by bringing home any bacon to Texas mind you, but by actually rejecting and turning away any bacon offers, including many that were badly needed and had been gladly accepted by governors in all other states (except Alaska--as why does that not surprise the GG?) Even newcomer and political novice Medina, who had accomplished nothing, nada, zippo for Texas or Texans, was on the way to defeating Hutchison until she imploded by being unable to bring herself to say that the idea of burning one's house down and flying one's airplane into an office building with the intent of killing people inside was a bad thing. I guess that was too much for even some of her fellow tea-partiers (But even after that, she still managed to receive over 20% of the primary vote.) No sooner had the election ended when Perry was out there (and when the GG says "out there" he really means "OUT THERE")complaining about the Obama administrations's proposed budget cuts at Houston-based NASA as well as the cancellation of a military truck assembly plant contract at a plant near Houston in favor of a competitor in Wisconsin. Hmm, hard to imagine how those would have fared in a secessionist Texas as Perry had hinted at during his campaign. Now Rick will face off against Bill White, the Democratic winner, whose style and demeanor are about as boring as his name. Talk about contrasts--White has nary a hair on his head, in contrast to Perry, the Breck guy. Also, I doubt White has ever made a political appearance dressed in camo. No, all White has going for him is proven competence as the successful mayor of Houston. White has long eschewed political labels in favor of simply getting done what needs to get done. As you can tell, the GG is a fan of Bill White. Any why not--there's much to like about him. He makes me smile--Rick Perry makes me grouchy. Besides, at one time Bill White was my Sunday School teacher. I think we need more Sunday School teachers in government.

GG

Return of the Geezer

The GG back is back after a 3-month sabbatical. Thanks to all you readers for hanging in while I was away. Warning: Anyone who thinks the GG might have used this time to relax and perhaps mellow out a bit should beware. I'm the same old grouch, only now I have 3 months of pent up grouchiness looking to be released. It starts here and now.

Before my time off, I had intended to express my displeasure with escalators. Not that I don't find the things useful--heck, at my age I like anything that lets me go up and down with no effort. But that's when they're working, which is something they tend to do infrequently. Last week, I was in a movie theatre where the down escalator working but the up escalator wasn't. Isn't that how it usually is? The one you need to work doesn't and the one you could really get along without works just fine. Here's another thing with escalators: Have you ever noticed that the sharper the incline, the more frequently the things seem to be out of order. I'll bet if I took a poll of my readers, most would have the same or similar experiences with escalators. Let's try it: If you've ever been in a building with escalators where both the up and down escalators were working simultaneously for a period of at least 2 days, let me know. My guess is that no one will reply. I for one have never had such an experience. One thing for sure, the job of an escalator repairman is a lot busier than that of a Maytag repairman.

I know this post of something as bland as escalators might seem disappointing as my first post in 3 months to you grouch-thirsty readers, but be patient my friends--I have lots of things to get off my chest that have built up over this period. It's just that escalators were on the top of my mind when I left off and so I wanted to start with that subject.

GG

Tiger hits every club in the bag and every bag in the club

The gg is back after a longer than intended Thanksgiving sabbatical. During my absence, I took note of several noteworthy developments on the national scene. The first two are related. First was the matter of the White House party crashers; and the second was Obama's decision to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. My reaction to these? Let's see now--how many Al Queda were involved in 9/11? Wasn't it about 16, all wearing business suits and wire-rim glasses? All it took was 16 in our own country to wreak that kind of havoc. So what good is 100,000 soldiers on the far side of the globe when it comes to trying to stop that? It doesn't make sense to the gg. And the party-crashing story proves that one or two people can get into the White House and wreak havoc there if they so chose. These two developments made the gg very grouchy!

The third development during my absence was Tiger Woods "transgressions." My reaction? It looks to the gg that Tiger not only hits every club in the bag but also hits every bag in the club!

Maybe it's the Lipitor clogging my arteries

The gg loves those instructions you get from the pharmacist when he or she fills your prescription. I usually get a kick in particular from those warnings about possible side effects. Today, I picked up a prescription for some creme or ointment to cure this terrible night-time itchy rash on the back of my legs and buttocks. The itch had gotten so bad,it was driving me crazy. The instructions that came with the creme/ointment contained the following (I swear):

"Why is it prescribed? For the treatment of Dermatitis,
Psoriasis and other itchy skin disorders.

"Possible side effects: Itching"

It goes on to give these usage instructions:

"Apply to Buttock Twice a Day for 2 Weeks."

It doesn't indicate which buttock, so the gg can only assume they mean that I should apply it to the itchy one.

This little bit of humor made my day and I couldn't resist sharing it with the readers. A few more instances like this and the gg might make it through a whole day without feeling grouchy. But, alas, it was not to be.

2012: The Movie, Not Sarah Palin

Sine he retired, the gg has been going to the movies fairly frequently. Before that, I rarely had the time. Any movie I watched was from home on DVD. Today, I was in Houston and had the chance to view the eagerly anticipated movie "2012" at Cinemark. No, it is not about Sarah Palin (although, being a disaster movie, one might say the two do have much in common). The gg is a long- time fan of disaster movies, going all the way back to the first of that genre, "Airport". I'll say unhesitatingly that "2012" is the absolute best I've ever seen. It puts all the others to shame, though I'd be the first to acknowledge the distinct advantage given it by virtue of all the modern advancements in visual graphics, etc. I won't reveal any of the story line but will leave that to the readers to see for themselves. Now you might have the impression that seeing this movie made me happy. Well, not quite, and here's why: advertised to begin at 12:00 noon, it didn't get underway until about 12:20 what with all the commercials and previews of future movies, some of them not scheduled until next summer. I could have spent that 20 minutes having a good lunch. Instead, I was stuck with my junior size bag of popcorn and a small coke which, even at the middle of the day, and with my senior discount, came to a whopping and ridiculous $8.00. Had "2012" not turned out to be the blockbuster it was, the gg would have left the theater in a really, really grouchy mood. As it was, I left only partially so.

Can Texas secede from Rick Perry?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I would just as soon not have to post on political issues. Problem is, the gg's governor, Rick Perry, continues to be an endless source of good material. Last week, governor Rick went ballistic on various proposals that would use Presidio, Texas as a sort of way station for the assembling and deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing the border at other locations. Presidio was proposed for this purpose in order to prevent immigrants who otherwise would have been deported at the other border points where they had illegally entered in the first place from simply turning right around and re-crossing the border into the U.S. at that same point. Taking them to a central point like Presidio and deporting them from there would make it much less likely that they would attempt to re-enter the U.S. But Rick would have none of it. Sound hypocritical? Well...duh? No one in America has railed against illegal immigrants more stridently than Rick Perry. Yet,when a program surfaces that would deport at least some of them, the governor is opposed. The gg thinks Rick would like to have it both ways--on the one hand, he wants to be able to don his camoflauge pants and baseball cap and talk macho at tea party events across Texas (this, mind you, from someone who used to be a college cheerleader) about the evils of illegal immigration, but on the other hand he wants to preserve the dirty little secret that is well known in this state. What is that dirty little secret? Well, forget all that braggadacio from governor Perry about how well the Texas economy is doing despite the national recession. (It's actually true, but don't think for a minute it has anything to do with Rick Perry--in Texas, the governor has very little power to influence anything, much less the economy.) The dirty little secret is that the Texas economy is driven by small businesses whose success is dependent on the steady stream of cheap labor provided by illegal immigration. These days, governor Rick (the Breck boy?) will say and do most anything to keep the Breck girl, Kay Bailey Hutchison, from making inroads into conservative turf in Texas. Knowing that, the gg tries to ignore most of his rants and ravings. But some of them, including this latest, makes me so grouchy I wish my great state could secede from him.