Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

March 19, 2008

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.

13 comments:

  1. So sorry about the accident, hope Brian's stress levels go down soon (and yours).

    London does the opposite of what you would like for your state. Big trucks can't go into London overnight.

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  2. The economy scares the shit out of me, we've had 2 factories close here...400 people out of work.

    Sorry about Brians accident. This is why I avoid the interstate, truck drivers act as if they own it. (Which, of course they do)

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Sorry that was me. For some reason my comment posted twice?!

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  5. That sucks!Stupid trucks!We have truck assholes as well,being so close to 95 and 40.

    I am also bother by China and our "policy" toward them vs.other countries. Commies are no-no UNLESS they provide cheap goods and/or services....right?!

    And no I am NOT watching the Olympics.They are also forbidding women from competing in ski jumping in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=38251288

    Happy Easter AND Solstice (today) Jojo (and Brain and the pups).

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  6. Anonymous10:30 AM

    julie...

    I am sorry that all had to happen to Brian. Esp. the part about his physical ailments coming to the forefront again. And, our economy. Fuck, can it get any worse? Why, I'll just pump out another kid.

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  7. i'm sorry for what happened to brian. thankfully it wasn't any worse, but it is still a huge pain in the ass and i hope for you both that the stress level will lower soon and that all the paper work will be done extremely fast this time. i hope he recovers quickly.

    also, congratz again to brian for getting an interview with such an interesting guest, i hope it will go great next sunday.

    and we had some serious flooding in ohio too the last few weeks. the weather right now is so extreme, it's ridiculous.

    i'm sending good vibes and warm thoughts your way.

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  8. fantastic post, jojo!

    sorry about your hubby. as for the rest of the fucked up planet....
    i'm with you. and i swear, if mccain slides into power, we really will try and leave this country. i am sick of high blood pressure!!!

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  9. Anonymous8:46 AM

    I may be naive (unusally for me, I'm usually the world's biggest cynic!) but I'm of the opinion that MOST people on this tiny blue speck at the edge of the universe would truly like to live in something called 'PEACE'and just get on with their lives. It seems to be those in power who 'enjoy' conflict. I saw a documentary a little while ago that eloquently made the case that where once democratically elected Governments ruled by consensus, now they rule by fear i.e. 'if we're not here, something terrible will happen to you all'. Well gee, do ya think it's so great with you lot there anyway?!

    Sorry to hear about Brian's truck encounter. Tess had one of her own a little while back. Annoying tho it is, at least vehicles can be replaced, whereas the people in the them.....

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  10. That's a bummer about Brian's accident. I hope he'll be feeling better soon.
    I think we live in an oligarchy now and that sucks. But if Obama gets elected our taxes will go way up. I'm not for that either.
    Do you think boycotting the olympics will do any good? Oh well what else can we do as we have no other power. Taiwan should be very afraid, they are next on the list for Chinese acquisition.

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  11. ahw tha sucks! i'm sorry. i agree w/ you about the truck drivers. i've seen too much bad driving o/o them. keep us updated on how he's feeling ok??

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  12. Anonymous2:54 PM

    I hope Brian feels better soon and that this is the last accident! Do keep us updated.

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  13. Anonymous1:35 PM

    i know it's a royal pain in the ass, getting into a car accident and then dealing with the fallout, but, thankfully, brian is as ok as he can be. (damned trucks!!!)

    i'm scared about the economy, too, so much so, that i now routinely do not drive around as i used to: it's over 20 miles either way to downtown detroit or out to ann arbor...so i'm becoming the old lady who never goes out, 'cept for work.

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