Saturdays that can be chill moments for everyone are good for the soul. No one was rushing around to get out the door early. Everyone was able to move at their own pace. G worked on a sewing project he started earlier this week in the sewing club. Tipper went over to a friend’s house and hung out most of the afternoon/evening. Kat went to work around 11:30 and then to Brandon’s for the weekend. I got to watch football. If every Saturday this fall can be as restful, we’ll all be a lot healthier. The only one who’s being ornery is Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, who is determined to either sit directly behind me in my office chair, or directly in front of the monitor while I’m typing. Right now, he’s nudging my coffee cup, encouraging me to get a refill so he can take my seat.
Football was exactly what one would expect from the first game of the season. Everyone who was supposed to win, all the top-ranked teams, pretty much blew out their opponents. OU and Oklahoma State both won. IU and Purdue both won. Georgia and Tennessee both won. None of those games were even close past the first quarter. I was a little surprised that UCLA seemed to have a rough time with Hawai’i, winning with one of the lower scores of the day, 16-13. And how the hell did tiny little Abilene Christian manage to stay so close to Texas Tech? Tech won, barely, 52-51. A score like that indicates that neither team had any defense on the field. I kinda felt sorry for Akron’s starting QB. Akron got a 3-0 jump on Ohio State in the first quarter, but then OSU came roaring back and was absolutely pummeling Akron’s QB. After only four plays into the third quarter, the poor dude limped off the field, never to return to the game. I would imagine he’s reconsidering his career choices this morning. Ah, football.
Speaking of football, it’s the first Sunday in September. Why the hell aren’t the pro teams playing today? Oh, I get it, it all has to do with where the season ends and how the playoff games hit the calendar. Still, it seems odd to not have any pro games to watch today. Of course, San Francisco is probably happy about that after rookie Ricky Pearsall was shot during an attempted robbery yesterday afternoon. Pearsall’s in stable condition this morning and the 17-year-old assailant is in jail.
Someone tried calling me at 11:36 last night. I was so dead asleep that I never heard the phone ring, which is saying something since the ringer was set high while Tipper was out. Local number, not in my contacts list. If that is you, please let me know. My guess, however, is that it was a wrong number.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the hot seat this morning after the bodies of six hostages were recovered. Evidence shows that the hostages were all killed shortly before they might have been rescued. Israelis are blaming Netanyahu for not having signed an earlier cease-fire that would have returned the hostages while they were still alive. It seems the world has grown tired of this senseless war. It’s time for the whole thing to end.
There’s a deeply disturbing story in the Sunday Times. Acadia Healthcare has been holding people against their will to maximize insurance payout. Acadia operates a chain of psychiatric hospitals. Their patients are essentially held captive until the hospital decides to let them go. Attempting to leave a psych hospital without proper authorization can get a person arrested in most states. This gives Acadia the leverage they need to hold patients longer than legitimate treatment would require. The story leaves me wondering just how many other psych hospitals utilize the same method. I’m thinking a nationwide investigation is necessary to get to the bottom of the issue.
Labor Day weekend is when we allegedly celebrate the working person and the advantages brought to the workforce by organized labor. Our adoption of the 5-day, 40-hour workweek was a fundamental change for workers around the world. We may be losing our edge, though. Japan wants its hardworking citizens to try a 4-day workweek. As hardworking as US people are, Japanese workers break the scale. They even have a phrase (that doesn’t translate well) for working yourself to death. If Japan ends up embracing the 4-day workweek, that will put pressure on all other industrialized nations, including the US, to match the schedule. While a few US companies have tried adding an extra day to the weekend or other variations, no major company has fully adopted the concept and stayed with it. We’ll all be interested to see how this plays out.
You know, I still haven’t found those readers that disappeared yesterday. I did find an old, wire-rimmed pair that sits loosely on my face, so I’m getting by. I’m still baffled by where they could have gone.
I need to get moving, though. There’s some yard work that needs to get done before the temp gets too high. The humidity is suffocating so putting things off works against us.
I think I need another cup of coffee first, though.
Morning Update: 10/02/24
Slowly, we’re recovering from the power outage. I am amazed by the outpouring of generous help that we’ve received. Hopefully, we’ll have everything restocked by the time the kids go on Fall Break next week and devour everything in sight. Life will remain a bit hectic as we try to get caught up on laundry and other chores. The weather looks decent for the remainder of the week, so perhaps we’ll get the lawn cleaned up and have a chance to make sure we’ve not missed any damage.
Tipper is mad at me this morning because I won’t let her go to a friend’s house after school. Why am I being so mean? She didn’t finish the dishes last night. She was warned multiple times of the consequences. She only made excuses. And, in her 14-year-old mind, it’s all my fault. I’m laughing inside as I type this because what she left are probably the easiest dishes to wash: plastic Rubbermaid containers. None of them were stained with tomato sauce, so it wouldn’t have taken more than five minutes to finish up. But no, I’m a horrible person for asking her to do so much.
We’re trying to finalize arrangements for G to spend his fall break in Florida with a friend. The biggest sticking point at the moment is no one is sure how much damage the area about an hour North of Tampa received. I think we’ll get that figured out, though, and then we get to deal with the anxiety that comes with letting our 15-year-old (almost 16, he would say) go that far from home without us. He’s responsible. The family he’s going with is cool. Still, if Kat and I suddenly disappear next week, you’ll know we got a message and are on our way to pick him up.
Information about the devastation from Hurricane Helene continues to pour in. The death toll stands at 166 this morning and it’s only going to go higher. In the small town of Erwin, TN, 11 workers at a plastics factory were swept away by surprise flood waters. Only five have been found. I’m sure there are going to be more such stories as rescuers make their way into the remote areas of Tennessee and North Carolina. Sadly, first responders who were attempting to help the victims are among the dead. There’s no amount of aid that can fix this. No one can bring back the lives lost, the families whose entire existence was swept away. This was one of those events that reshapes a region. The people and the places may rebuild in time, but nothing will be the same.
Last night’s vice-presidential debate was too polite for aggressive Americans, apparently. Personally, I was in bed and asleep. I think that was a better use of my time. If you’re interested, here are 13 different reviews of the debate. Or, you can jump straight to the required fact-checking. You know politicians lie. You need to know which ones are completely false. The list is always much too long.
Israel, Iran, Jordan, and Gaza are all being controlled by war hawks who have absolutely no concern for the number of innocent lives they are taking. Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least 51 people in southern Gaza overnight, including women and children. India warns its citizens not to travel to Iran, and quite honestly, I think one would be an idiot to be caught in any of the affected countries at this point. Of course, Yemen’s Houthi rebels are looking to gain from continuing conflict in the Middle East because there are far too many people in the world who look to take advantage of others’ suffering. Every last bit of this war is unnecessary and the “leaders” all have blood on their hands.
Suffering is everywhere, though. A Typhoon bringing heavy rain is slowly heading toward Taiwan, where 4,000 have evacuated. In Japan, a WWII-era bomb exploded near an airport runway, canceling 87 flights. And making matters worse for everyone, Fentanyl makers are exploiting holes in US trade law in an effort to kill as many Americans as possible.
There have always been bad people in the world, but the glut of information we now possess gives us the ability to be more aware. There’s a very interesting article in this morning’s NYTimes about the “billionaire preachers” who control Texas. For me, the phrase “billionaire preachers” is a rage-inducing oxymoron. If preachers are billionaires, then they’re obviously not taking care of people in the manner scripture demands. This isn’t new for Texas, though. Religious leaders have been taking control of the political scene in that state since 1972. That’s one of the reasons I could never live there and one of the reasons I don’t want anything to do with Christianity.
After looking through all the news this morning, the one thing that stands out is the need to hold government leaders in every country to a higher moral standard. Not a religious standard, mind you, but one that puts human rights at the top of everyone’s focus. Governments should help, not hurt. Governments should enhance life, not delete it. Governments should make lives better, not try to make a profit off of pain. You and I must make this standard a priority when we vote, and object like hell when our government steps out of bounds.
I started early with the coffee this morning. I’m in no mood to put up with political bullshit.
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