Hey, Ya’ll –

Yes, Virginia, I am writing a book about the flu. Well, not exactly about the flu – yes, that figures into it, but … too soon to talk about it. I’m posting the outline – section by section – on a daily basis. Check out the “Writing” tab to see what’s up thus far. Then – talk to me!

Later…

Thus far, I think I’ve demonstrated great restraint in not commenting on the debate performance of the Republican candidates. When the Dems were going thru the same thing four years ago, there were some interesting characters saying interesting things too. You just have to wait for the pack to thin, and then comment on what the genuine candidates say and do. So it would appear we’re down to the “Final Four”. In alpha order, that would be Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

What do these four candidates have in common? Let’s start with the mundane (and we might end up with the ridiculous!) First, all have 1 syllable names. Gee, the Dems had at least two syllables (Bar/Ack); or three (Hil/La/Ry)…the one syllablers (Joe/Bill) came out before the final rounds. Successful Republicans with one syllable names: Dick (?)…nah – he was on his way to getting impeached and quit before he could be convicted; oh, OK technically his name was Richard, but we all knew and loved him as… ah..Dick – tricky Dick. George (?) The current pack don’t even mention his name. No, the successful ones had at least two syllable names (Ron/Ald) Reagan. Then there was the finest Republican of all – Ab/Ra/Ham – three syllables!

So there you have it: the hidden code for successful Republican candidates. Whatever happened to really great Republicans? Why can’t we have someone like Dick Cheney? Ohh..no, only one syllable and another … Dick …
Ulysses S. Grant? Ohh..no, great general but lousy president – administration full of graft & corruption…Dwight Eisenhower? He was a pretty good president, but he let Tailgunner Joe McCarthy go off the leash for waayyy too long…OK – I pretty much give up. Hasn’t been a really good Republican president since Reagan, who went balmy after he got shot, poor sod..which reminds me: Nancy Reagan ran the country with her astrologer for the better part of four years – can we bring her back? At least there are two syllables in her name!

All for now

I have sold three of Emily’s stocks in the past ten days, as they met her criteria for sale. Which criteria is that, you ask? Why, the value of the stock increased by 50%. So I take this as an indication that things are, in fact, looking up for the stock market, which – as we all know – is a forward indicator of improvements in the economy. These days, improvement in the economy has to mean world, not just US. Everything affects everything any more, so either it’s a lull before the next storm or – in fact – things are looking up. Being the eternal optimist, I prefer the latter interpretation.

Now, of course, the challenge is to find new, quality investments in which to put her hard-earned, hard-saved money for college. She has to file a tax return this year because we moved some money from her mutual fund account to the e-trade account. Imagine, an 8 year old having to file a tax return…

Tomorrow is my birthday, Sunday, January 15th, 2012. I will be 62 years old tomorrow – old enough to retire (if I want to live penuriously for the remainder of my 38 years – hey, it could happen that I live to be 100!)

But all of that is backdrop to today’s topic – Erik is leaving Afghanistan tomorrow – never to be deployed to the middle east or anywhere else – again. As I am, in fact, superstitious about ‘counting my chickens before they hatch’, I write this with fear & trepidation, but feel compelled to say it on the eve of his return: Thank God. Wow, you say, superstitious and religious. OK, get all that out of your system and let’s move on, because that isn’t the point either.

When your only son is deployed in the armpit of the world, on the front lines, getting blasted on a daily basis, and he lives to leave it – you Thank God. He has had scores of people praying for his safe return, because I have foisted my story on everyone I know, meet or in any way come into contact with. As such, scores of prayers have been answered with his safe return. Now, you say, he isn’t coming home until tomorrow – nothing is certain until it’s done – thanks for reminding me. But indulge me while I whisper a repeated mantra: Thanks to God he is safe, whole and coming home.

A thousand years ago, I asked three things of the government, on the eve of his departure: here they were:

1) Give him meaningful work to do (nobody likes to think of themselves as cord wood in a life & death situation)
2) Give him protective gear to at least give him a fighting chance to survive; and
3) Oh, damn – I forgot the third one! What do you expect from a 62 year old?

Back to the point, from which I keep drifting: Erik is coming home to a woman he loves, and who loves him, two daughters that also fit into that classification and an army that – at last! – will compensate him for everything he’s endured since January 2008. At last, we can inhale, exhale, and somewhere in between – not have to pray for his safe return from that miserable place.

Amen.

The outlook has changed a lot in the past two weeks. Rick Perry is toast, and the market is up. Europe is out of denial and Rajaratnam got 11 years for corrupting fellow southeast Asians in furtherance of outrageous insider trading. The updated jobs data for July and August is better. I’m starting to get the sense that the economy is on an upswing. Dividend-paying stocks are becoming in vogue since we’re still seeing market swings. I expect to see little shoots of life everywhere in the economy, despite the Republicans in Congress and their attempts to kill the economy to prevent OB1’s re-election. Well, like many other things, that is clearly going to backfire. Isn’t it interesting how a post about the economy can morph into one on politics? Remember Che…the art of the possible…hard to control the possible…

BTW: I wrote this post on my I-phone using the WordPress app John told me about – so when inspiration strikes, I don’t have to wait to get to my PC to bloviate – aren’t you glad?

Title says it all – check it out and then let’s talk about politics, when I begin to understand anything about what’s happening on the national stage…I think we’ve all lost our cotton pickin’ minds here…

Boy, time flies when you’re having fun (not). It’s been a hectic couple of weeks – work sucks, and I am ready to make a change (yes, Virginia, there is life after 7 years at one place). Last weekend (the 9th thru the 11th) we journeyed to Atlanta to attend Sarah Jeanne’s wedding to Sam Cox. It’s a 9 hour trip up (and, true to the laws of nature, gravity and time), 9 hours back. We went with Robin, Colter and Emily – which actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Five people in a Honda pilot, driven by Erik who has his accustomed places to stop and need to GET THERE (who needs to go to the bathroom?) We had reasonable meals along the way, a reasonable room at a reasonable hotel, and relatively few mishaps. There was a short time when we thought we lost Colter’s video camera. Yes, Colter has become our resident videographer, and I must say he’s quite diligent about it, with lots of spontaneity and stealth…necessary ingredients for good video making. Emily was as well behaved as an almost 8 year old can be on a long trip. But the one thing that became clear was: Susan, alias Grandma, needs a new I-phone. Trying to navigate around Roswell with an Iphone’s GPS that takes about a week to load because the phone is 3 1/2 years old and has about ten thousand apps on it (hey! Most of them belong to Emily), is not good. But – we made it to the wedding and it was, of course, beautiful and terrific and the bride was beautiful, and the groom actually looking happy to be there! We reconnected (isn’t that a modern word – gawwwly!) with old friends Steve and Ethel Hurst. It’s been 11 years since we’ve seen each other, and we all agreed we should make it more often than weddings and funerals. They look the same – never age – and of course are doing well with 7 grandchildren and a happy marriage. I had 3 (yes, count them 3) glasses of Pinot Grigio, but the food was good at the reception so I did not swing from the chandeliers. The parents of the bride looked great, got to speak briefly (very briefly) with nephew Aaron and nephew Matt … so all in all, a good time was had by all. Next day we stopped by for a light breakfast at Richard & Janet’s, and I had another brief conversation with Aaron. We talked about the business plan for Erik’s company (Aaron has come up with another name – which I forget at the moment). This is the company designed to sell stuff in northern Iraq when Erik returns from Afghanistan. Speaking of Erik – he’s due for leave next month, so for the next month, keep him in your prayers as we await the winding down of current hostile activities in that God-forsaken corner of the world. That’s enough for today.

Yesterday was September 4th, the 3 year anniversary of the death of our brother, Robert.  Mom had to remind me of that fact this morning at breakfast.  There wasn’t much comment on this anniversary from any of us, least of all Erik.   I started to think about John and Carol taking care of Bob in his last weeks of life.  That kind of commitment is extraordinary, and selfless, because of all the demands that a dying person places on the caregiver.  Keeping him at home, rather than hospice or the hospital, interacting with him with love and yes, with parental scolding at times – could any of us say we could do that?  I for one would say I could not.  I lack the emphathy and the confidence to pull off such a gift.  But then, I doubt John realized he had the capacity when he went to see Bob, fully unaware of what he was about to undertake.  He temporarily gave up his job (and his pay), his children and all of life’s responsibilities to perform this last chore for his brother.  Carol has a perfectly natural way of assuming that kind of responsibility – I marvel at that, and wish she had more of that self-possession now to show the world.  Maybe she takes that talent for granted – I guess, when it seems natural, that’s what you do.  But all I – we – can hope for is whatever good deeds we perform on earth somehow go to the big ledger in the sky when it’s our turn to die.

Eight more days until 9/11’s 10th anniversary…every time I watch another episode of “Rising” on either Discovery or the Science channel, I am so proud of my country and its inhabitants.  What terrorists did to those buildings full of innocent people and their savers was unspeakable.  What has arisen from the ashes is emblematic of this country.  So, off hand, I’d say their intention to draw us into a bloody war in the middle east was successful, but only as an interim step.  Where they grossly underestimated us was in our response to disaster.  Instead of watching reruns of Pearl Harbor (remember those great CGI shots of planes diving?) they watched Black Hawk Down, and drew the wrong conclusions.  Guess Osama wouldn’t get an “A” on his MBA case study for this one.  Oh, yeah – that’s right – he’s dead.  I wonder if anyone in his family – maybe his mom – mourns his passing.  Porno-watching, egomaniacal, false prophet.  What kind of a man follows such a man?   Porno-watching, insecure losers looking to follow anyone that says they know the way.  That’s a sad indictment of an entire culture.  But then the Arab spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya – maybe Iran next? – says maybe that’s no longer the vision young, middle-eastern men want to have for themselves.  Contrary to my son’s opinions, I have great hopes for the Arab spring – maybe the times they are a changin’ for those young people.  We can only hope.

After dinner.  Getting my bathing suit on to go to the gym to ride the stationery bike and swim to work my arm.  There’s a knock on the door.  Ask me how often someone knocks on the door at 6:45 in the evening – like never…so my mind immediately goes to the dudes in the green uniforms and my stomach tightens into a knot.  I go to the door and peer thru the peephole (can we ever be prepared?  And what would I have done if they’d been there?)  But no – it was our gentle neighbor from down the street with a couple of copies of “Our Daily Bread”, with an admonition that today is the 2nd, so we’d better catch up.  I’ve never been so glad to see someone – at least not lately.  By then Erik has come to the door too, and we both thank him for his watching out for our souls.  The second of September’s entry is “The trouble with Heroes”.  Hmph – how apt

Waiting for something to happen and wanting it not to happen but dreading that it will – enough to make anyone nuts.  And it’s not like it’s the first time – this is a chronic thing when you have children that you love – no matter how old they are.  Looking at pictures in “The Atlantic” brings it home to me – they have some really good photographers working for Getty Images – and it provides a tangible manifestation of those fears made flesh.  This one says it all for me as a mom.

Please God, take care of my boy - don't let him end up like this