• I turned 30 this year.  I’m losing more hair and going gray at the same time.
• In April 2008 my wife and I lost a child (stillborn).
  • Yes, that sucks…you’re expecting a child and instead you end up planing a funeral and trying to explain things to the little ones that you already have.
  • Are we “OK”?  Yes and no.  No, if by OK you mean back to “normal”.  Normal has been redefined.  (While not always as drastic, I’d say that normal is constantly being redefined anyway.)  Yes, if by OK you mean are we pressing on.
  • Related to OK, yes, we’re coping and no, we’re not “over it” (I doubt that will ever happen as long as we have a “sound” mind).  I’d say that this is the first time that the concept of “grieving” has “clicked”…don’t get me wrong, I’ve been very sad at the loss of my loved ones in the past, but I have never felt the deep down emotions that have went along with this.  It’s another one of those life experiences that you can’t understand until you have been there yourself.
  • No, there’s not really anything that you can say to us that would really lend comfort.  BUT, just being “there” and not acting like we have some sort of disease or “elephant” is appreciated.  (Seriously, some people avoid you and others give you a look that gives you an idea of what they’re thinking but wanting to avoid.)
  • Yes, we’re willing to talk about it (to some extent anyway), but it probably won’t be something we bring up in normal conversation.  Yes, it may upset us at times, but please know that it’s not you.
  • Please don’t be alarmed when you hear us talk about it or have reminders around the house.
• We went to The Smokies in May and then surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World for close to a two week vacation.
• The kids are getting big…and very funny.
• We’ve became “members” of family things…The Indianapolis Zoo, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Eagle Creek Park.
• Business is doing great.  I have to thank everyone for their support over the past two years.  Some of you may have been thinking I was nuts, but at least you kept that to yourself or to where I couldn’t hear (not that I would have listened anyway since that has been my goal for as long as I can remember).

Share This

While I may lean Republican if only given two choices, I’m not a party loyalist and have voted all across the board…sometimes neither option is good and having a third (or fourth or fifth) party is great. Sure, some will argue that you’re “throwing away” your vote, but I say that’s b.s. since at least I made an effort to vote unlike the apathetic people who don’t exercise the right so many have died to defend. Don’t get me started…if you don’t vote, don’t open your mouth to complain about our representatives or “the system”. Better yet, pack up your bags and move to some politically oppressed foreign land for a while to see how you like that.

Anyway, to today…

Here in Indiana you have to declare Democrat or Republican for primaries. For most of the state the only races that really mattered were Democratic. So guess what? An estimated 80% of voters in a traditionally Republican state declared Democratic.

For my area, that got us a trifecta of Democratic opponents for the fall…President (which hasn’t happened in my lifetime), Governor (many Democrats AND Republicans can’t stand our current Governor, myself included) and Congressman (or woman).

For President it seems that around here most Republicans would rather see Hillary win for at least one of three reasons. 1) She has a better chance of losing to McCain. 2) The other guy talks but doesn’t really say anything. 3) For some reason the thought of the other guy running the country seems downright scary and just asking for trouble.

Honestly, when it comes to the fall elections I’m not sure I could vote for either of those three. And there’s one candidate that there’s no way in the world I’d vote for. At this point I’m just hoping that the Democratic Party and Republican Party ditch all three candidates and run a joint Al Gore/Dan Quayle campaign. Can you imagine how much fun those four years would be? I mean come one, wouldn’t it be nice to find out that those two invented democracy? I guarantee that CSPAN would be the highest rated television station four years running. If we can’t pull that ticket off, Tony Dungy might get my vote as a write-in…in all honesty I’d vote for Tony if he were to ever run.

For the Indiana Governor’s race, I’ll be voting for someone other than the Republican incumbent. The man cut funding for my old job (sure, that turned out great for me and drove home the fact that no job is “secure”, but it still irritated me a bit at the time and put a lot of other people out of work too) and sold one of our roads (he’ll say it’s a “lease”…a lease that will be around beyond my lifetime and probably my kids’ lifetimes). All of the other dumb moves he’s made don’t even need to be considered for me personally. He’s not my man.

For our congressman, well, that’s a tough nut to crack and I have never voted for the person who holds that office. But I keep voting, so maybe one day.

Anyway, there was actually a candidate called “Hippie Joe” who’s a neo-Nazi bartender who was running for the Democratic nod. Seriously, this guy had to sneak in (for a second time) somehow. My guess is that he’s too radical even for the third parties and snuck in as a Democrat. Our district has a huge population of black voters, so it’s no wonder I never even heard of this guy before looking at the ballot (I grabbed the Republican one two years ago)…man, that’d go over well and I’d love to see that debate…the (barely) incumbent Muslim, a few Christians and the neo-Nazi discussing their thoughts on the war in Iraq and terrorism. That might get ugly in a hurry.  [Just to clarify, I wish there wasn't a neo-Nazi running at all for people to accidentally vote for and wish there wasn't such a group in existence...but the oddness of it strikes me as, well, odd.]

So there are my voting rants for the day. I’m not a fan of political arguments and find them pointless since the issues are key and I find the idea of only two “major” parties silly, but feel free to flame away.

* Thank you Andrew Jackson! For those of you who don’t know, “the now-famous Democratic donkey was first associated with Democrat Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign. His opponents called him a jackass (a donkey), and Jackson decided to use the image of the strong-willed animal on his campaign posters.” – FactMonster, Wikipedia and many more

Share This