Awaysick.

Okay, I confess, I'm awaysick. I wish I were back in New York.

Colorado is wonderful and our house is really nice, but things were so much simpler in our little apartment. I've been home almost 3 weeks now, and my brain is ready to fry. I've been really good about working, except for one day when Skee-Ball and Angry Birds somehow took control. But still there are piles of "things" all over that need to be put away or thrown away or sold on eBay. One of the pinball machines is halfway through a repair and the stupid yard is getting green already - very soon it will be growing like weeds. (Not surprising, I suppose, since that's what our yard is, unwatered and unfed weeds. Nice weeds, though, mostly.)

In Tarrytown I didn't have much "stuff" and I didn't miss it. I didn't miss playing pinball and I didn't miss mowing the lawn (we didn't have one). I didn't miss having to threaten to sue the company that tried to fix our driveways three years ago. I was happy with what I had, although another bathroom would have been nice. Who ever thought I would get nostalgic about Tarrytown? (Getting nostalgic about NYC was a given.)

Here are my stairs, which were my exercise routine for 8 months:

Here is my office, just before I left it for the last time:

BWAAAAAAAAAA!

Flickage.

I have learned that being away from home for almost 9 months and then returning creates a very big TO DO list. There are still piles of "stuff" all over and my Twilight Zone pinball machine is 1/2 way through a repair. There are 6 other items on my current TO DO list, and they seem to get added faster than they disappear. I finally got all my tax data ready for Twila, and that was really a PITA. Today I sent a 3-page letter to the CEO and chairman of UPS complaining about broken boxes. Tomorrow I have to write a letter to the company that worked on our driveway the last couple of years, threatening to sue them in Small Claims Court. So I need to unwind and relax, when I can. Thus, flickage.

Readers of our NYC blog might recall that flickage refers to the game of Skee-Ball on my iPhone. Yes, I'm still doing it, but in moderation, and it has a very useful purpose. I use it for meditation. Yep, I no longer have to think about strategy or how to shoot, I just turn it on and zone out, my finger flicking Skee-Balls into a 100-point hole. My mind goes completely blank, which is the essence of meditation (I used to meditate in meetings a lot). Often I sit in my special chair, which massages my calves or feet, and wear a device that massages and buzzes my head.

The chair could also massage my back, but that bumps me around too much and I miss shots.

In a way, the game has become more interesting. At the very beginning I was ranked 18,000th or something. It took weeks to accumulate 50,000 tickets and move up in the rankings. Now I'm ranked 124th, and the air is rarified. I can't see the names of other players, but I can tell who they are. Instead of being separated by a few tickets, the places are now several thousand apart. At the moment I have almost 2 million tickets. I'm 20,000 tickets behind the person in front of me, and 55,000 tickets ahead of the person behind me. We are the pros of iPhone Skee-Ball, but 55,000 should intimidate the weaker among us.

Sometimes I play a few games and then notice that the score of the player ahead of me or behind me is changing. Then the race is on, because I know he or she can see my score changing, too. So far I've won these head-to-head competitions, but I can't really compete with people who play all day. It doesn't matter, though - I play to mediate and relax, and it works.

A conundrum.

It was really a nice surprise for me to realize that I enjoy retirement. I was out of work for about 6 months in 1981 and it was horrible - I lost my sense of who I was. But now I enjoy having time to myself and I think I'm growing as a person. There is one big problem, though. The income is horrible.

The NuSTAR job was great and now I have a new car, so I don't have to worry about that for a long time. (But I'm thinking about gas prices for the first time in 10 years.) I sell things on eBay now and then, both fun and a bit of cash. Other than that, it's Social Security, which isn't exactly a bonanza, as our Republican friends suggest (okay, no more politics, for the moment). And I have some savings, thanks to Twila, who got on my case about it 20 years ago.

Twila, being a financial genius, did a cash flow projection for me, and that's where the conundrum lies. These are made-up numbers, but you'll get the idea. I now have $100,000 in assets, savings and stocks. Twila said that if I'm frugal and maybe a little bit lucky and if the damn Repub... no, let's just say if Social Security doesn't get ripped away (and Medicare, which I'm close to having), I could still have $80,000 in assets when I'm 90.

YAY!

But YAY? I suppose I'd be happy to get to 90, but I doubt I'll be tripping the light fantastic if I do. And I could go down like a sack of beans anytime, and my $80,000 wouldn't be much use to me then. Now, though, I'm still sprightly and energetic and having fun, so shouldn't I spend my money now, even though it means those precious assets disappear? Adios, frugal? It's scary, because what if I'm 75 and still sprightly and energetic and able to have fun, but broke?

My inclination is to go for it now. I've long imagined that at the end I'll be wasting away and drunk on cheap wine and lying in a gutter somewhere, so at least it wouldn't come as a huge surprise. And who really wants to outlive everyone they know? But when times arise when money is a factor, like, "Hey, want to go on vacation?", I freeze.

It's a conundrum.

Health care.

It's obvious to all Americans... well, those over 30... that we have a health care crisis. Compared to other industrialized nations our health care system is mediocre while being by far the most expensive in the world, and tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance at all. Every year thousands of Americans die because their health insurance ran out, their condition wasn't covered, or they just didn't have insurance. Do health insurance companies care? On the contrary, they look for policy nits to deny coverage whenever possible.

Compare that mess to, say, France. If you go to Paris tomorrow on vacation and have a health issue, you don't need to figure out whether Kaiser will pay anything - just go to a doctor and they'll take care of you for free. Even though you aren't a citizen. Gosh, isn't that civilized?

Unless you've been comatose for three years (no insurance?), you know that the Obama administration is trying to improve our health care situation. The first anniversary of the enactment of the health care reform bill was just a few days ago.

YAY!

It is a terribly flawed bill, but it's a start. It's the first meaningful health care legislation in over 60 years. So why are Republicans groaning and moaning and pissing all over themselves to get it repealed? Why, because it was signed into law by a Democratic president.

The GOP and some lily-livered Democrats defeated the single payer option, aka Medicare for all, and are now in a tizzy over the individual mandate, which says that everyone must purchase insurance. Who proposed an individual mandate first, before Obama took office? Why, Republicans! But now they say that Big Government should not force citizens to spend "their" money (back to that sometime) on anything. Instead, they suggest health savings accounts. They rejected the single payer option, which is by far the best and least expensive solution, because it would be paid for by higher taxes. And they, of course, vigorously support insurance companies.

The most hypocritical thing about all of that is that insurance basically means putting away small amounts of money now to pay for large expenses in the future. Health saving accounts? The same. The single payer option? The same. So it comes down to the GOP backing health insurance companies, who give them millions of dollars in "campaign contributions" (bribes).

Almost everyone is going to face high medical expenses in their lifetime. That's why the single payer option is by far the best deal. Twenty-somethings might not want to pay higher taxes now to support it, but really they're putting away money for their future needs. If we all were paying a relatively small amount in taxes, much less than health insurance, and we didn't have to worry about getting medical care, and if we could legitimately think of ourselves as a compassionate country, wouldn't that be nice?

Getting upset.

It happens all the time. Any time someone does something, people get upset. It's automatic.

I was just reading my mail and one item said, "Recent decisions removing obstacles to genetically engineered crops have upset supporters of organics." Naturally.

Tax Day is fast approaching and people will be walking around everywhere with tea bags hanging from their hats.

Some people complain that their lattes are too hot and others that they're too cold. If you want a hot latte in NY, you have to specify "extra hot". I guess that means they don't add a little cold water to keep from being sued.

In short, [ACTION] --> [WHINE]

What's this thing that makes people get their panties all in a bunch no matter what happens? Why is everyone primed to be upset at the slightest provocation? Whatever happened to people liking each other?

NuSTAR redux.

In case you missed it (I did), here is a link to more NuSTAR info in Scientific American.

Flying fish.

In the NYC blog, Ed mentioned "Jimbo's fish" in a comment. This morning I had email from Jim, aka Jimbo, the first contact I've had with him in 6 years or so. (A result of learning that email sent to durf[at]gleaningmeaning since 2008 was not being downloaded by my email clients - now fixed.) So this is probably a good time to tell you about the fish.

When I first started working at Lam Research in 1983, Jim was the guy who showed me the ropes. We became good friends. Not that he couldn't be annoying at times - one of his favorite tricks was gluing our coffee cups to our work benches. One Friday I decided to get even.

After work that day, Twila and I went to a store and I bought the largest fish they had. It was fat and about 2 feet long. We went back to Lam. I emptied the top of Jim's toolbox and laid the fish inside, then closed the top.

The next Monday morning, Jim and about 4 other guys were sitting at his worksite, talking and drinking coffee. I thought it wiser to stay at my own area, which was about 20' away. I kept watching Jim out of the corner of my eye. After a while I saw the guys nodding and looking around, and then Jim suddenly jumped up, rotting fish in hand, and ran toward me. I zipped away into the office area just as quickly and, just before I turned a corner, I saw the fish fly over my right shoulder and onto someone's desk.

That didn't stop Jim's practical jokes, but no more fish appeared. We didn't even get in trouble for the flying fish incident. Things were a lot looser at Lam in those early days.

Gender confusion.

Ever since the '60s, when we manly men stepped forward and stood behind women... I mean, behind the feminist cause... a lot of things have flowed in the female direction. But guys still have some advantages, so it puzzles me when we fail to use them.

Here's one example. Women spend a lot of time every day on their appearance. At night they try to figure out what they'll wear in the morning, but that's subject to change depending on their mood when they awaken. Before bed they put on lotion and other potions that guys know nothing about. When they get up they shower, blow dry their hair, brush their hair, brush their teeth, decide what they really want to wear, including shoes (!), then put on makeup, etc.

For a guy it's a lot easier. On a casual day a guy gets up, puts on some jeans, smells the armpits of a few T-shirts to find one that isn't too grotty, brushes his teeth, and he's ready. On a more formal day he puts on a newer pair of jeans and a sport shirt. It's an advantage.

So I don't get this thing about having a 3-day growth of facial hair. I think it started with Dr. McDreamy, or whatever his name is, on "Gray's Anatomy", and now a lot of movie stars are doing it. Yeah, I get it, women go for the animalistic look - GRRRRR! But how does a guy affect a 3-day beard? He isn't going to shave and wait three days before he leaves the house. So he has to stand in front of a mirror every day, probably with hair clippers, and primp. Like a woman.

Yuck.

The world is going crazy, IMO, and this hairy face thing is just another example of it.

Welcome to Oui-Sez!

We'rrrrrre back!


Twila and I are still mulling over our "He Sez, She Sez" idea, and that's complicated by Tax Season. So this is a possibly-interim and possibly-permanent blog that is open to posts on any subject - and all of our friends are invited to participate! If you would like to blog here - not as a guest, but as a full-fledged blogista - send your email address to boopiblog[at]xemaps.com (somewhat encrypted for anti-spam purposes) and we'll invite you. You'll be able to blog (or not blog) anytime you want about anything you want. Also, if you would like to be notified when new blogs or comments appear, send an email to the same address.


Well, here goes!