Given the current state of things in the world I thought I'd offer up a few suggestions that might solve some of the problems we humans are facing:

1) Gas prices. Since 2003, everyone in the world (except for Argentina & the Middle East) has been fed a line of crap about the reasons behind the price gouging in the oil industrty. If it rains in Paris, gas goes up another 80c a gallon; if a fly farts near an oil rig in the Red Sea, gas goes up $1 a gallon; and if some horn rimmed glasses wearing "expert analyst" says that he predicts oil will rise to $150 per barrel, it will.

• The solution(s): First of all, deregulate the oil industry here in the US. Secondly, slap the hell out of the militant tree huggers who prevent oil drilling in the US for fear that some damn bird is going to lose his home. Last, take that "expert" and all of those like him and dump their asses off in the middle of the ocean. {Hmm..that sounded even better to my comment on Belle's blog discussing the same thing!}

2) The War on Terrorism. Since Comrade Bush assumed control of the United States and started what I predict will end up being World War 3, we've been subjected to thousands of military men being sent home in body bags and innocent citizens being beheaded. The United States has also now become one of the most hated countries in the world and there are few countries out there that have kept how they feel about us a secret.

• The solution(s): Obviously the first course of action would be to withdraw our troops from the Middle East. Clearly these people are going to blow each other into orbit whether we're there or not, so I say let them have at it. We should use our resources to protect OURSELVES....that way when everyone in the Middle East has blown themselves up, we wouldn't have to worry about the stragglers trying to blow US up!! As for those countries that hate us? Fine. Hate us. But let us give those countries VALID reasons to hate us....let's take away every last PENNY in aid that we send to these people, along with offers to go and rebuild their country when half of it gets wiped off the map by a cyclone. Oh, and as for the beheading thing: that's an easy one. Take all of those terrorists we've been holding in Cuba for the last couple of years and start chopping them up into little bits and then dump them into the ocean.
  

3) Politicians. Part of the reason why this country is wrecked is because our "elected" officials just aren't doing what they say they're going to do. Promises of tax cuts equal to tax INCREASES. Promises of ANYTHING lead to NOTHING.

• The solution: Gather every citizen in the country (the legal ones) and have them pass a law that mandates that when a politician makes a promise to DO something, he/she actually DOES it, and if they don't live up to their promises, throw their sorry asses in jail.
  

   And that wraps up the first part of my entry!

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In other news:

----> I got quite a shocking call from my sister this morning. It seems that she'd discovered recently that mail was coming up missing from her mailbox. So she calls the postmaster and complains...which of course resulted in absolutely nothing. Then it dawns on her that she'd not yet gotten a check from AFLAC for having been out of work for a couple of weeks when she had a severe back problem pop up. She calls AFLAC and they tell her that the check was sent several weeks ago and has already been cashed, so she asks them for a copy of the endorsed check. They send it and she sees it was cashed at a local Stop-N-Stab, so she goes to the store to talk to the clerk who'd cashed the check. What she found out completely floored her. It turns out that it was her SISTER IN LAW who'd cashed the check!!! She'd stolen the check from the mailbox, signed my sister's name, and then cashed it!! Naturally the next step was to file a police report...and who do you think was on duty when she went to the Sherrif's office? Her husband!! Imagine how hard it is to be a cop and have to file a police report on your brother's wife! Anyway, once the sister in law is arrested, she comes to my sister's house to give her the money and proceeds to give my sister some BS about not having enough money to pay her electric bill. When my sister didn't show her the sympathy she was looking for, she THEN proceeds to tell my sister that she'll go into court and say that my sis was giving her Ambien in exchange for Percoset!!   There is no word in the English language that could describe how INFURIATED that I was when I heard that!!! I was tempted to go straight to this woman's house and just punch her in the nose! The very idea that this bitch would even THREATEN to get up in court and smear my sister's name is almost more than I can take!! Of course my sister told her that given her PRIOR arrest record, it's not likely that anyone would believe her AND if she WERE to get up in court and say that, my sister would sue her for slander afterwards. Of course MY suggestion was for my sister to just beat the bitch's ass on the steps of the courthouse!!

Well, it's been a LONG day, so I'm off to bed! Tomorrow is I suspect going to be WTF Wednesday!! Hehehe Yes, someone suggested the title!

I started work at 8:30 this morning. By 10:00, I was telling my supervisor not to be surprised if I flung myself off the top of our building.


Yep. It was another typical Monday! The first incident of the day was when my boss comes over to me and asks, "when you schedule an appointment, do you send an email or a meeting request through Outlook?" My response was, "I send an email. Why?" He comes back with the statement that "a lot" of the guys in the field are complaining because I was sending email instead of the meeting request. The difference in the two is minimal...one is well, email. The other goes into their calendar. Either way, in order for them to actually SEE either one, they have to open their Outlook program, which very FEW of them do. Keep THIS in mind as well...I've been in this position for NINE months and for the entire time, I've been sending the emails when something gets set up for the guys because that's what I was told to do. Now, all of a sudden sending the email is wrong and I should have an explanation as to WHY it is that I've been doing this. You will NEVER believe what happened next though----

While my boss was explaining this to me, two of the hens in the barnyard stood up and DEFENDED me!! Not only did they take up for what I'd been doing, BUT they also pointed out that no matter WHAT I've done for these guys, it's NEVER been good enough!! They also said that it's the same with everyone in our work group...we bend over backwards to help these guys out and they continually stab us in the back....AND there is NO ONE in management that ever takes OUR side in ANY of the issues we bring up. WOW. I thought I was going to pass out cold right there!! No, really, I thought I was going to pass out.

If you'll recall, not long ago I was diagnosed as having Vertigo. I haven't been overly concerned since the diagnosis because at least now I've had an idea of what's going on when I've had the 'dizzy spells'....but today a grim reality hit me. I go SO upset over this whole deal that I got REALLY.....and I do mean REALLY....dizzy. The last time that I got THAT dizzy was shortly before I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. You can't imagine how upset THAT got me!!

Incident number two was a little later in the day when one of the field guys calls me up and proceeds to rake me over the coals because I'd done something that HIS boss told me to do. So this bonehead tells me that he's going to undo the whole thing....of course this required ME calling the customer, which I flat out refused to do. I told him that if he wanted to go against his boss he was more than welcome to, but I was not going to be a party to it. After I get off the phone with him, I call up his manager and tell him what's happened. Naturally he took up for his guy, but he did say that I was right in saying I wouldn't be the one to contact the customer. Well just the fact that yet again I'd gotten my butt chewed for doing something I was told to do got me in a tizzy AGAIN....this time though I almost got up and left for the day!!

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Of course all of this was just complicated by the fact that yet again our air conditioning in the office went out again!!

I hate Mondays!

It's been yet ANOTHER day of camping out in the house with all of the blinds shut tight, three fans going [on high speed], the a/c chugging along...all to avoid the 100+ temps outside today!!                                                   I did venture out a couple times this weekend....yesterday morning I attempted to help Cindy with doing the vacuum thing on her pool [we failed miserably because neither of us knew what we were doing!]...we were both sizzling after just half an hour so she went back inside her house and I went back to mine! Later in the evening, Chris and I headed out for dinner at my favorite Japanese/Chinese Buffet restaurant. The food AND service was horrible, so it's now no longer tops on my list of eateries! Even in the evening it was still muggy as hell outside!! I don't think the temperature ever dipped below 85, even overnight!                                                                          

  At around 6:00 this evening, I had no choice but to head into town....I had realized Friday night that I was out of TylenolPM and I knew that if I didn't get any today I'd be up until the wee hours---AGAIN. That's not a big deal when I don't have to be at work the next morning, but let's just say that I'm not very pleasant to be around at work when I've only had a couple of hours of sleep!    I don't know what's going on with me the last several months....up until shortly before Christmas, I had no problems laying down and going right to sleep, but since then I've had a very VERY hard time unless I take something. It's really strange because it literally happend just like that....one night I laid down and couldn't get to sleep, so I got back up for what I thought would be just a "bit"....well that bit turned into 6am! Ever since then, it's been a battle to get those zzzzzz's coming! Yes, I know...after this long of a time, it's probably a good idea to see the doctor about it, but I just dread that conversation. I always feel like I'm a junkie trying to get a 'fix' when I ask them for a prescription...for ANYTHING. Plus I've also heard that taking this PM stuff can wreak havoc on my liver if taken for an extended amount of time....UGH. An illness is the very LAST thing I need right now!

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I found out today that animals DO dream when they sleep.....at least in the case of MY cat, Miss Bigglesworth. She was asleep on the couch today, with Chris sitting beside her. I was at the computer just a few feet away when Chris whispers to me, "hey look at your retarded cat!" So I look and all four of her paws are going crazy..as though she was running from something in her sleep! The next thing I know, she pops her eyes open, hops up onto the back of the couch, hisses, and then takes off like a bat out of hell towards the other side of the house!   It was the funniest thing I've ever seen her do!! Well, except for the time when I saw a mouse chase her! Yes folks, even my animals are as strange as I am!!

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As y'all can see, I did some revamping to the look of the ol' blog here! Not that I didn't like the last design, but it was getting to the point that I was having to strain just to see my own posts! So I dropped the whole picture background deal and made things look a lot cleaner! Trust me when I say that it was a labor of love to get the new look too----I'm always on the lookout for new ways of desigining blogs, webpages, etc. I *REALLY, REALLY* wanted to do something in flash for my design but y'all just don't want to know what the results look like when you try and put a flash design in the pallette here!!

While I was at doing all these changes, I also decided that it was time to update the slideshow thingy on my profile page. Anyone who uses Photobucket to do a "remix" listen up: if you add music to your slideshow, be warned that 99% of the music SUCKS!! I think mine turned out ok though:
             

I'm getting old. And blind.
  [note proof of the above by the depiction of my smileys!]

Anyway, it was time for a change of design here because it was getting to the point where even I could barely make out some of the text here! So I've ditched the fancy picture background and gone with the clean and simple look.

That is until I get bored with THAT!!

I'll post more later! Right now I have to bear the 104 [yes, it's that hot here today!] degree weather and head to the store for some Tylenol PM...otherwise I won't get ANY sleep tonight!

First up, the bad news.....
When I compose an entry that I know is going to be very lengthy, I use a program called "Kompozer"...it doesn't peter out on me after 10 seconds like the Blogstream editor and I have the ability to save the entry and edit it as necessary for posting at a later date. Such was the case with my "Blogstream Memorial Day" party entry that I've been working on for the last few weeks. It was VERY long, and I was doing some tweaking to get it down to a reasonable size [although it was still going to be a THREE parter!!]....well.....apparently something went wrong either with my computer or the Kompozer program itself because ALL of my saved entries are gone.      

  So....unfortunately, there is no Memorial Day entry...if anyone out there knows of a decent editor that doesn't cost an arm, a leg, and two gonads...please let me know! Ugh and please don't suggest Microsoft word--it's terrible for blog entries!

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Next up....a really cool [true] story:

Josh is a friend that I've known for quite a few years now. I first met him about 7 years ago when he was still just a teenager working at a shop owned by a friend of mine. At first, he appeared to be like most any other teenager....easily bored when he wasn't hanging out with his friends & desperately trying to make enough money to buy the latest version of the "Grand Theft Auto" video game. After I got to know him though, I found out that Josh was anything BUT a "typical" teenager.....

At the age of 6, his mother- who was what's referred to as a 'functional illiterate'- unwittingly gave up custody of Josh, his younger brother, and his younger sister after a visit to the hospital that had resulted from being smacked around by Josh's dad. The hospital had reported the incident to the police, who in turn reported that there were 3 little kids in the house to Child Protection, who in turn saw fit to "remove" the children from the home. The agent who was in charge of the case brought the paperwork releasing parental rights to the mother and since she had no clue what they said, she just signed her "X".....so the next thing this poor lady knows, her 3 kids are sent to 3 different homes in 3 different cities. Can you imagine being a 6 year old kid and being torn away from your younger brother and sister with NO idea of what's going on??!!

Fortunately, several months later Josh's uncle was able to get custody of him and his younger brother. The sister ended up living with another family member who was able to get custody of her after quite a long battle. Anyway, while it was a good thing that Josh & the brother were being raised together their environment left a LOT to be desired. Long story short, he had a HORRIBLE childhood.

About a  year after I met Josh, he found himself in quite a jam. He'd gotten into trouble with the police, and because of the company he kept [friends], he ended up being the subject of many inquiries when anything in town happened such as a burglary, drugs, etc. Even though he was never INVOLVED in any of those things, he learned what the term "guilt by association" meant! It was this concept that would lead to another really bad incident----

My friend who owned the shop Josh worked in came in one morning and found that the store had been robbed overnight, and because a friend of Josh's had been in the store earlier the previous day my friend assumed that he was the culprit. So he calls the police, they dust for prints, etc and my friend tells them about his suspicions. Chris also has his suspicions, but I'm the one who doesn't buy the theory that Josh was involved...he and the shop owner got along great--sort of a father/son thing. Another long story short, Josh & his friend are eventually found not to be the robbers, but by this time the friendship between the shop owner and him was ruined.

Fast forward 4 years. Out of the blue, I get a friend request on MySpace---it's Josh! I hadn't seen or heard from him since the whole robbery thing! After a series of talking over the internet & phone conversations, I come home from work one evening last year and find him sitting on my couch! Too cool huh? So since that reunion, we've stayed in touch [he travels a lot for his job] off and on, but I hadn't heard from him for several months until this evening. So we're talking and he tells me the most amazing story----

Remember the deal with his mom? I'd never gotten ALL of the details because it was a subject he didn't talk about very often. It turns out that when he was 'adopted' by his uncle after all of those months of being in a foster home, his mom had during that time just up and left town without a word to anyone. For many years, Josh never knew if his mom was alive or dead. So a few months ago, he's at this bar having some drinks when he starts talking to a guy sitting next to him. The guy says, "damn, you look VERY familiar to me for some reason!" The guy then asks Josh some questions, and lo and behold....the guy DOES know Josh....because he'd dated Josh's mom for NINE years!!! The reason that he recognized Josh is because of the pictures that his mother had of him, his brother, & sister all over her house!! As the story goes, she felt like such a horrible mother for having unwittingly given up her kids that she felt they'd be better off without her in their lives at all, so she left town and started a new life. She never stopped loving her kids or regretting what'd happened, but just felt as though they'd hate her for what she'd done.

Now being in the same situation of having grown up in a horrible home because of the actions of one's own mother [unwittingly or not], I'm not sure that most people would be very quick to forgive and forget. Especially when you're only 24 years old and you haven't seen your mom since you were 6....but listen to what Josh told his mom when he spoke to her for the first time in all those years: "my childhood sucked because of what happened, and a lot of my adult years have sucked because of the things that happened in that childhood, but to tell you the truth, if those things hadn't happened to me I wouldn't be the man that I am today. I'm not a perfect man, but I'm a smart man. Smart enough to know that I can't change anything that happened and that being angry about it is a waste of time. We missed a lot of years and opportunities for good memories, but we've got a chance to make some new ones, so why don't you forgive yourself so that we can get on with being a mother and son again, because I forgave you a long time ago."

Does that not just make your heart stop??!! I was speechless--literally!! I don't think I've ever been so impressed-or PROUD-of anyone as I was when he told me that story! It's nice to see that there's SOMEONE out there who's had a really crappy story all his life have not a happy ENDING, but a happy BEGINNING.....

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And on that note....I'm off to bed. I hope everyone has a great Sunday!