Posted 12:24 am Sunday, September 30, 2012
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Spring cleaning becomes Fall fixing and then some
By Nelson Clyde
isitjustme@tylerpaper.com
Can I tell you a story? If you came to book club last Sunday this could have special meaning to you.
isitjustme@tylerpaper.com
Can I tell you a story? If you came to book club last Sunday this could have special meaning to you.
There is an old joke that if you play a country song backwards you get your wife back, your dog back, your truck back and anything else important to you back. Some weeks feel like a country song. If our dishwasher wasn’t on the fritz, it was that we needed a new microwave. Then it seemed every other project I had been putting off came to the top of the list. Re-doing the pool is a messy business.
It also does not move the needle much on impact to your life. One woman I know likens it to buying fancy French lingerie. Her theory is she knows she has it and how expensive it was but no one else does. And I’m not talking about my wife.
With all the fuss over the environment of the last generation some of the unanticipated impact of our actions came to visit my dishwasher. No matter how much Cascade or Jet Dry we use, the darn thing just doesn’t seem to get the dishes clean. My fixit man says the strength of the soap has been so “watered down” with all the new environmental attention that the only thing a dishwasher is much good for is to sterilize your dishes.
I’m beginning to wonder if we’d be better off taking them to the banks of mud creek and scouring them with sand. Who knows?
Back in the Spring I was cleaning everything. Now it seems we are fixing everything. I still have a few loose ends on the list such as the book in my trunk I promised Virgil two years ago and the one on my desk I’ve been telling Brother Paul about for a while now.
I usually spend Labor Day weekend cleaning out and dusting my closet but it was already clean this year so I just napped all weekend instead.
As far as short-term goals go I would like to lose another 12 pounds and break the 245-pound barrier by the end of the year. But all-in-all, if I don’t make it, life will go on and we’ll set our sights on what we do about those with next year’s goals.
The only thing other than some visits with my out-of-town children that I can say I am looking forward to more than almost anything is the end of this infernal presidential election.
I’m beginning to wonder if we’d be better off taking them to the banks of mud creek and scouring them with sand. Who knows?
Back in the Spring I was cleaning everything. Now it seems we are fixing everything. I still have a few loose ends on the list such as the book in my trunk I promised Virgil two years ago and the one on my desk I’ve been telling Brother Paul about for a while now.
I usually spend Labor Day weekend cleaning out and dusting my closet but it was already clean this year so I just napped all weekend instead.
As far as short-term goals go I would like to lose another 12 pounds and break the 245-pound barrier by the end of the year. But all-in-all, if I don’t make it, life will go on and we’ll set our sights on what we do about those with next year’s goals.
The only thing other than some visits with my out-of-town children that I can say I am looking forward to more than almost anything is the end of this infernal presidential election.
It’s time to change the rules. For one thing, those guys spend so much time campaigning how could they possibly get any of the work done they were originally elected to do in the first place?
Campaigns should be strictly limited to the 50 days preceding an election. As far as the billions spent on television advertising, it should be eliminated. In fact, if you think about the situation as it applies to broadcasters, between the FCC regulating ad rates and the bonanza of ad money going to stations, they have really become government-controlled for all practical purposes.
Let’s restrict the number of “commercials” run strictly by the candidates to four minutes per day and put on several debates on PBS. This would be fair and spare us from the barrage of PAC attacks for those billionaires out there who run ads that can be at best characterized as disingenuous.
To be more fair, other media should provide adequate space to hear from the candidates with the forums moderated to give the people, who are really in charge of the country (its citizens), the most complete and unbiased view.
Thankfully, we can all breathe a sigh of relief when it’s all over in early November.
Maybe Chloe and I can sit in a lotus position and light a fire by the pool and bask in the post election silence.
Our next book club meeting will be Sunday Nov. 11. We will discuss A Fist Full Of Collars by Spencer Quinn and The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor.
Campaigns should be strictly limited to the 50 days preceding an election. As far as the billions spent on television advertising, it should be eliminated. In fact, if you think about the situation as it applies to broadcasters, between the FCC regulating ad rates and the bonanza of ad money going to stations, they have really become government-controlled for all practical purposes.
Let’s restrict the number of “commercials” run strictly by the candidates to four minutes per day and put on several debates on PBS. This would be fair and spare us from the barrage of PAC attacks for those billionaires out there who run ads that can be at best characterized as disingenuous.
To be more fair, other media should provide adequate space to hear from the candidates with the forums moderated to give the people, who are really in charge of the country (its citizens), the most complete and unbiased view.
Thankfully, we can all breathe a sigh of relief when it’s all over in early November.
Maybe Chloe and I can sit in a lotus position and light a fire by the pool and bask in the post election silence.
Our next book club meeting will be Sunday Nov. 11. We will discuss A Fist Full Of Collars by Spencer Quinn and The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor.
