A little bit a'this, a little bit a'that

ON THE HOMEFRONT

Brian was in an accident today with a goddamn Potelco truck. I swear, if I am ever elected Queen of the Entire Planet, my first decree will be to force all truck drivers to travel between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. They can sleep during the damn day. I have many other edicts as well but that's a whole other post.

He had the right of way, but he stopped because the truck was pretty much blocking the lane as he attempted to make a left turn out of a coffee stand. The driver never bothered to look in Brian's direction the entire time, he just kept looking to his right at traffic coming in the other lane. By the time Brian realized that the driver had cut the angle too close and was going to hit him, traffic had stopped behind so he couldn't back up. He laid on the horn just as the truck ran over the front panel. Didn't break the lights or crunch the hood up and it's driveable, but this means another repair and another insurance claim, and I shit you not, we just received the settlement check from his accident of April, 2006 last week.

Brian went off on the guy, but because he readily admitted fault, apologized and mused that it was probably going to cost him his job, Brian let up. The Pacific PD came and cited the truck driver for "failure to yield". The truck driver had to stay on the scene until someone from Potelco go there; and I'm sure he was sent for an immediate urine test too. But Brian's back/neck, which have been a mess off and on since 1991, are now all in spasm and he has another blinding headache. He was just kind of getting to the point where he was fixed and stable from the '06 ax and only going for massages/chiro once every 6 weeks or so, and now he has to start all over again, which means having to use his lunch hour or go after work, then getting stuck in rush hour traffic to get home.

Oh, and here's the kicker: Potelco is only located down the street and the driver could have gotten a cup of coffee at work or closer to work...but he stopped at that coffee stand because it features "Bikini Baristas", a somewhat controversial fad that's sweeping the state. Fucking stupid man, thinking with his dick, causes an extremely inconvenient accident with Brian. It's not enough that the two of us are stressed out to the point of physical ailments, and now this. Yeah yeah, it's not serious, and he's not too badly hurt and that IS the important thing. It's the inconvenience of it all that I'm complaining about.

STATEWIDE

But there are people in my state who are truly suffering, and have just been hit with insult added to injury. We had some terrible floods down south, in early December. The storm that destroyed a good part of Lewis, Thurston, Pacific and Grays Harbor Counties is a gift that keeps on giving. People are just beginning to tear out and rebuild their homes. But they forgot that their wiring has been corroding all winter, so now there have been fires that further destory their homes. And an old Eagles Lodge went up in flames in Chehalis yesterday - the United Way was storing tons of donated furniture and appliances to give away to the flood victims as they got their homes rebuilt. The whole fucking inventory is ruined. It sucks. It just sucks and it's not fair. This is exactly the reason why I don't believe in god. The economy down there is very, very bad, and now this happens. And the call has gone out for more donations and help, but with the state of the country right now, falling headlong into a recession the way it is, no one can afford to give anymore. I thought about getting a gift card, which is what the United Way is asking for, but we just found out that Weyerhaeuser sold a good portion of their Oregon mills to International Paper. Brian does Oregon claims. So what happens to his job when they turn the mills over to IP?

NATIONALLY

Snaps to the Boston Red Sox who threatened to boycott the much ballyhooed trip to Japan for their first 2 regular season games. Apparently MLB decided, at the last minute, that the coaches and staff weren't going to get the $40k stipend for the trip, which was promised, and agreed to, last fall. Kudos to the players for standing up for what is right. I can guarantee you the Skankees wouldn't have been so generous. Well it only took about an hour for MLB to realize what a public relations nightmare this would be. The promised stipends will be paid, and the Sox are off to Japan.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

First, a big congrats to Brian on getting Ayaan Hirsi Ali to come onto his radio show for an interview on Sunday, March 30, 2008 from 4-5 pm, Pacific Time. Ayaan was born in Somalia and raised in a strict Muslim home. She fled to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage and became an atheist. She's very outspoken about the fundamentalist Muslims and so she is a target for the extremists. Ayaan made a 10 minute film called "Submission" with Theo van Gogh; and that subsequently cost Theo his life when he was murdered by extremists. This is a huge coup for the Free World Radio Network and they continue to grow with new hosts coming on board.

I'm sure you have all heard about the protests in China, over their forced occupation (and rape) of Tibet lo these many years. It sickens me what they did. Steve gets lots of travel magazines and he brings them in to work, and many of them offer these package tours to "Tibet". The tours promise visits to "monastaries to see the monks". It really chaps my hide to see these ads, because the tours show you only what China wants you to see.

Brian and I are not really "Summer Olympics" fans, but occasionally we'll find ourselves sucked into something. But this year, we are boycotting the Olympics and we're not gonna watch them. I heard about a website today, http://www.iwontwatchtheolympics.com/ and they have a petition going. I am sad that the Dalai Lama stated that he will resign his position if the Tibetan people can't commit to peace and shun violence.

I hate the fact that our country kowtows to China. Can someone please tell me why that is? We have a ridiculous trade embargo against Cuba, supposedly because they are commies. Well, HELLO! So are the Chinese! Instead of keeping Americans working and producing goods, we outsource to China, so that we don't have to pay a living wage or provide benefits. Meanwhile, honest Americans are fighting to survive on unemployment and China's sending us substandard garbage that's poisoning our pets and children alike. I mean seriously man, what the fuck?! If we were making the stuff, unemployment would be way down, the quality of the items would improve substantially, and people would be spending their paychecks and contributing to a booming economy. And now the Air Force decides to outsource planes to France instead of giving the contract to Boeing. Another black eye for Western Washington, thank you very much.

Are we hunkering down for the long haul? You better believe we are. I'm working furiously to reduce our debt as much as possible and keep spending somewhat under control. It's gonna be a looooong year.