Category: Life

  • Shared Aches and Pains (Uneditied)

    We all had a bad night of sleep. Me, the wife, and the kid. We all woke up late, and each had a different ache and pain. The kids feet hurt, the wife’s hip hurt, and I had knee and hip pain. I mean, we are all better now that we are up and moving, but this morning, man, we were all moving slow.

    Can you have communal aches and pains?

    I guess that is possible, but still seems odd.

    I know why I feel the way I do, because I stayed up too late and fell asleep on the couch, which isn’t the best place to sleep. Normally the sofa causes back pain, but every day is a new discovery. For this reason, I am skipping going to the gym.

    I have been going to the gym for nine weeks now, and the best I can tell, I have lost 6 lbs. other than that, I don’t feel better. I don’t feel that I am thinking clearer, or have a more positive attitude. What I have is a new item on my schedule, that I do four times a week. I know that they say you need to do something 90 days for it to become a habit, and I guess I am closing in on it, but I don’t seem to be getting the rewards that are claimed.

    This doesn’t mean I’m quitting. No, I need to work out to stay healthy, even if that means I’m not losing weight, or thinking clearer, or having positive attitude. I need my heart to work properly for the next thirty or so years. That’s what keeps me going. I was just hoping to lose my middle-aged man gut.

    I’ll be back tomorrow.

  • ODDS and ENDS: KBJ, Anti-Rent Protests, Tottenham, and Hiking

    (I drink coffee and know things.)

    Ketanji Brown Jackson will be on the Supreme Court. That’s a pretty big fucking deal. I like it when American institutions start looking more like America. The process was pretty disgraceful, but I want to focus on the fact that we are a step closer to getting to RBG’s dream, which was an all-woman Supreme Court. Come this Summer, there will be four women on the Court. I think the next Justice should also be a woman, and this way one of the three Branches of Government will be Woman majority. But, I do digress. What I keep thinking about is how representation matters. My daughter is seeing more women in leadership roles in the nation. And I also know, there are a bunch of little girls that are going to school today, and their teachers are going to show them a picture of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and those little girls are going to see someone who looks like them, doing important and great things. That matters. That’s huge.

    I just found this out today, but in upstate New York, back in the 1840’s, there was an Anti-Rent War. It had to do with back rent being owed under the manor system that traced back to the old Dutch Colony days of New Amsterdam. Reading up on it, I had two thoughts. First, early America really didn’t like the rule of law, and took up arms pretty quick. Second, if you protest enough, you can get the law changed in your favor. Basically, people broke a 200-year-old system of land ownership and leasing because the rent was too damn high. It happened in the past, so what’s to say that it can’t happen again.

    Tottenham has found a way to get to fourth place in the Premiere League. There is no way they will catch Man City or Liverpool, but if things got really crazy, they could pass Chelsea for third by the end of the season. But, this is Tottenham we are talking about. They do have problems closing out. They need to beat Aston Villa if they want to keep ahead of Arsenal. I will say this, if the Spurs can stay up and qualify for the Champions League, there is a chance Harry Kane might stick around. Just saying.

    Anyone want to go hiking? I know I do.

  • Wise or Just Really, Really Cynical

    I always thought of myself as a very wise man. I think the wisest I have ever been was when I was between the age of 17 to 19. Just ask my parents. Sadly, it’s been downhill since then.

    Being that I am 45, an outsider might look at me, or really just my age, and ask, “What wisdom have you learned in all of your years?”

    And the only true bit of wisdom that I have, which I can pass on, is that if, on a weekend, you are going to cross the George Washington Bridge back into Manhattan, then you got to do it before 4pm. You can take that to the bank. Rock solid advice that I gained through experience, and has yet to let me down.

    But wisdom can lead to cynicism.

    And I say all of this because of a drug commercial that I saw on tv early this morning, you know with the morning news shows that try to cheer you up. In the commercial, a middle-aged woman, and due to the gray hair, I would say that they are implying that she is closer to 60 than 50, is working at a grocery store. She has a condition of unintentional body movements due to mental health. Luckily, there is a drug for that now.

    Even though I have watched this commercial without giving it much thought, for what seems like a month, something dawned on me today; This ad is implying that a late middle-aged woman, who is a stocker at a local grocery store, is somehow earning enough money from this job to afford health insurance, either through her company or the market place, and the insurance is the type that will cover the cost of this drug. And she is doing all of this while, and I know this to be true because she is using this drug, she is dealing with mental health issues.

    I said all of this to my wife, while following up by asking her, “Am I reading too much into this, or is my cynicism justified?”

    Just so you know, the drugs name is AUSTEDO, and 60 pills will cost you, with a coupon at CVS, $6,810. Without the coupon, it’s $10,706.94. AND just so you also know, the parent company that makes AUSTEDO is Teva Pharmaceuticals, which has been sued for price fixing, and for over prescribing opioids. They have settled a bunch of law suits for hundreds of millions of dollars. They don’t have a stellar track record of late.

    My cynicism is the evidence of my wisdom. Though, I can admit, it does lead me to have a pessimistic view of the world. But, it could be worse. I could be in the marketing department of Teva, trying to push an overpriced, bankrupt educing drug on the world.

  • ODDS and ENDS: FIFA Men’s World Cup, Easter, and Soup

    (Things I think…)

    The Men’s World Cup teams are pretty much locked in now. I know there are three play-off matches left to go, but, on the whole, the World Cup is set. I am glad that Team USA was able to make it in this time around. All they had to do was not lose to Costa Rica by more than six goals, so Team USA lost by two goals. It would have been nice to qualify with a win, but I’ll take what I can get. Also, it’s kind’a cool that all of North America will be represented; Canada, USA and Mexico will all be there. Which is a little bit funny as that Continental Trifecta will be hosting the 2026 Cup, and means they all get automatic bids as the host nations. I will be rooting for Team USA, but will also follow England. And I will keep my eye on Senegal; I got a good feeling about them. The only downside to all of this is that the tournament doesn’t kick off until November. I got eight months to sit on this, and do a grand amount of speculating.

    When my daughter got up this morning, she asked me, how soon till Easter? It’s almost here, and we, the wife and I that is, haven’t hand a single thought about it. We did talk, at the start of the year of getting out of town for that weekend, but I don’t think that’s likely. The kid, on the other hand, is ready for bunnies, and eggs, and going to see farm animals, and flowers, and candy. Lots and lots of candy. In my kid’s mind, I think she believes the year is divided up into periods where she receives candy.

    I like soup now.

  • The Return of the Cold

    The wife has a cold, and is laid up in bed today. She was laid up in bed yesterday, too, so I feel like we are repeating ourselves. This cold came from our child. I hate to be like that, but it’s true. The kid was the carrier monkey, as she had this exact same thing a week ago. The kid had a sore throat on the past Thursday night, so we kept her home from school on the next day. About half way through Friday, she was pretty much back to normal. She was still a little groggy, but the sore throat was gone. Today, my wife doesn’t have the sore throat, but she feels like crap. Furthermore, this leads me to believe that I will be sick next week.

    As annoying as all of this is, this is the way life used to be. The kid would go to school, get a cold, then we all would get it in the house. It’s amazing that once we stopped isolating, and wearing a mask, the old cycle of disease has returned. Good or bad, the rhinovirus cycle was a part of the old normal.

    On a small level, it has been rewarding taking care of my wife and kid through their little colds. It’s always nice to be needed, not that they haven’t made me feel needed. It’s nice to take care of something you love.

    The funny part of all of this, is that I started to remember back when I worked in the very toxic office, how I would look forward to getting sick, so I wouldn’t have to go in to work. When I would get that first weird feeling of being rundown, I would celebrate a little in my mind. Yet again, another sign that I should have quit that job sooner. You live, you learn.