If Canadian Healthcare…

… is half as good as their money, sign me up!

    

Volkswagen Adventures

In her younger years, Angie had an old VW Beetle.  Those little things were well built and remained virtually unchanged until technology supposedly passed them by and they faded away, at least in this country.

One time she was caught in an underpass in Chicago during a flood.  She floated.  Yep, just like the old commercials, those bugs were water-tight.  She climbed out a window and the darn thing started right up later when rescued.  Bet the new ones wouldn’t do that!

  The final, fatal time, the engine sort of caught fire.  Being the proper young lady she was, Angie proceeded to take the rollers out of her hair and apply mascara before vacating the burning vehicle.  Sayonara, bug.

  This little mention comes from a commercial we just saw featuring an old VW bus, plus I used to have one years ago.  So we got to talkin’.

  My sister had a bug and we all agree; lousy heat, no defrosters, crummy wipers.  But those little suckers always started and would go anywhere.  Easy to work on, cheap, dependable.  Those Krauts (;-)) sure knew what they were doing!

  Related:  VW History

Twilight Zone

Just re-read that last posting and something came to mind.  Totally unrelated but, in my head it is.            

  There was an episode of Twilight Zone (A Matter of Minutes) where the young couple, as usual, wake up in… Strangeville.  Don’t remember the details but it seems that everyone and everything except them was frozen in place, motionless.

  As they wandered around they discovered that they had inadvertently wound up ‘behind the scenes’ as it were.  They learned that a large group of workers are constantly building each upcoming minute from scratch, just before it happens and dismantle the past minute as soon as it’s over.  A constant stage-building and scene  change.  Following this?

Anyway, once in a while the ‘stagehands’ miss a detail; maybe they forget to put the car keys back on the table where you left them a minute ago.  You know you left them there, but they’re not there now.  Ever had that happen?  You turn the house upside down looking for them and they’re nowhere to be found.  Then, they just turn up.  Either where you know you left them, and checked, or maybe nearby, under the table.

  That’s because the ‘stagehands’ realized their error and replaced the keys while constructing the next minute of your life.

  Now tell me, hasn’t this happened to you? 

  You know it has.  So relax, your mind isn’t going.  They just screw up once in a while!

  So, the next time you ‘misplace’ your keys, or glasses, whatever, relax.  Just wait a minute.  Give ‘em a chance to fix things, ok?   Trust me, it works.

A Matter of Minutes

All Twilight Zone Episodes

Read a Book Once…

Part of the story dealt with faries and such.  It was fun.  One of the ideas it brought up was that when God created, well, creation, it was kinda a “Hey, this would be cool!” sort of thing.  After all, you’re God, you can do anything, right?

Then He/She (we’ll just He from now on, easier) decided to add people to the picture.  And they were kinda smart.  After a while they started wondering how things work.  Previously it was easy to just say God, or the gods wanted it that way.

But people wondered how, oh, trees grow.  So God had to come up with a good reason about how they suck water from their roots, etc.  Then they wanted to know about lightning, planets, weather, all that stuff.  So God had to get busy and come up with reasons for all this stuff.

I kinda like this idea, God having to keep coming up with logical explanatins about how things work because his creatures are so inquisitive.

But once in a while God get’s caught in a bind.  Maybe it was nap time.  Things slip through, the cat’s out of the bag and it’s too late to fix it.

Bumblees cannot fly.  Not by rule of nature or physics, no way, no how.  God was napping and got caght with his pants down.  Too late to fix it, lets just leave it as a mystery.

There’s absolutely no reason for this ramble, just popped into my head.  Gonna try for bed now.  Bye!

Obamanation!

  So disappointing, isn’t it?  After all the promises and the hoopla of the Inauguration, nothing has changed.

  We’re still in Iraq, Bin Laden is still on the loose, no national healthcare, homes still being foreclosed on, unemployment on the rise, the list never ends.

  Obama’s our President and the Nation is in the worst place it’s been since the Great Depression.  So much for the big talk, huh?  Where are all the new jobs?  Where’s the help so that we can keep our home?  Why does our son, the almost Marine, still have a war or two to go to?  Nothing’s changed, politics as usual. 

Guess Rush Limbaugh was right, Obama’s just a lot of talk, no action.

Well, maybe we should give him a chance, let’s see what he does in his first full day in office.  But we’ll be watching!

You betcha, guys and gals! 

Nostalgia Lane – Janis, etc.

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll!  Crank the volume, folks…   Janis    Jefferson Airplane    Rolling Stones    Barry McGuire  Dylan & Baez   Pink Floyd   Procol Harem   Arthur Brown     Arlo Guthrie   John Lennon

Not too hard to see why our parents were afraid for us.  Ward and June Cleaver only had to deal with Ricky Nelson. 

We saw a different possible world, it didn’t work out that way.  We got old, got our piece of the action.  We stopped believing in a new future.  A new America.  We got lazy.

Now we, and our children are paying the price.  We have a son who’s joined the Marines to serve his country, and may wind up dying in the Middle East to protect Bush’s oil.

It’s not too late, yet.  Vote Obama, the only chance for a second chance.  Not for hippie-shit, not for kumbia, but for a chance to make this a better nation.  Somewhere that the world will once again admire because we’re trying!   A nation of hope and possibilities, where anyone can hope to make a better life.

Not just for the wealthy to draw money from, not a place to drain resources from for profit.  Not a nation owned and controlled by big money.  A country owned by the people!

Maybe Obama can start us on this direction, maybe not.  If not, we can kick him out in four years, no prob.

Our problem is fear.  Fear of change.  Fear of taking a chance.  We keep the old system because we’re afraid of change.

Our founding fathers weren’t afraid.  They risked everything; their comfortable lives and their very lives to take a chance at something better.  They put their names on it.

Can you not even risk a vote?  Take the chance.  Do it.  The entire world awaits your decision.

And if anything can represent patriotism with change, this might be it.  Jimmy Hendricks

Vote!  Either way, vote!  Own your own country!

Food Fights Back

This is just for fun, a brief respite from all the political stuff going on.  If you remember it, cool.  If it’s new to you, enjoy.  Turn your sound on.  Cows With Guns

Liberals on the Run!

DATELINE: MADISON, WI.

 Citizens of this solidly Liberal city (“the Berkely of the Midwest“) awoke this morning to a sense of disaster and impending doom.  Amidst spreading fear and confusion residents are asking themselves, “How could it happen here?  We caused the end of the Vietnam War, made it an ordinance violation to drop a nuke on us, have a Palestinian Sister City, and more bike owners per capita than any other city in America!”  How, they ask, ”Here?”

Groups of disoriented latte’ drinkers have been wringing their hands, trying to understand what the discovery of a ‘McCain-Palin’ sign on South Park Street might mean to the future of life-as-they-know-it.  They fear for their city.

No one in this staunchly Liberal city ever took the rumors of a closet Righty in their midst seriously before.  Like the Lake Monona Monster, it’s been reported but never confirmed.

But it’s true, this time.   A hand-made sign on a truck at a body shop, right out in plain sight. 

Faced with the awful truth, fear is in the streets.  The Madison PD has issued a statement that they are investigating and that citizens should remain calm and not panic, but it is suggested that until more information is available, people should remain indoors with their doors locked.  Duck taped window and door cracks are optional.

Many public events have been cancelled or postponed and schools are closed for the immediate future.  The local massage parlour is checking I.D.’s

There is a report that a local cab driver, in a fit of panic, drove to Ohio.

The University Board of Regents is in closed session to determine whether to suspend classes, and the Campus Saferider Program has been extended to 24/7.  Stem cell research has ground to a halt but lab animal testing continues uninterrupted.

McCain campaign headquarters has not responded to questions, primarily because no one has staffed it since it opened.  Efforts to find any Rebublican to comment have similarily failed.

The Wisconsin Republican Party has declined comment, citing a lack of spokespersons since everyone there is busy sending out phony voter registration forms with the wrong registrar address to registered Democrats.

Mayor Dave (last name has a lot of c’s & k’s & v’s and is unpronouncable, so locals don’t use it) used his considerable power to attempt to have the Wisconsin National Guard mobilized, but to no avail.  They’re all in Iraq.  There’s a rumor that Hugo Chavez may be sending some of his troops to help out.

As darknes falls and folks huddle in their homes, many wonder how this situation will affect that major event in the near future: the State Street Halloween Party!

Stay tuned for updates.