My son in law – and the rest of the 256th – will be home from Iraq in time for Christmas.

Life sometimes takes an unexpected turn. In this case, a sudden trip to the hospital and an unexpected stay.  I’ve been sick for a while but things got bad in a hurry.  A couple of observations:

Thank God for dilaudid. That is an amazing, awesome medication. We should have a parade in honor of the inventor. And celebrate his birthday every year. (Yes, the pain was that bad, and the relief correspondingly incredible.) Also oxycodone, to which I stepped down after the dilaudid.

Thank God for medical technology and testing, and a system under which I was able to avail myself of both, very quickly. If I were Canadian, I’d probably still be waiting for the tests which provided the answer.  Ah, the wonders of “free.”

Thank God for pharmaceutical companies and the capitalist system under which they develop and distribute drugs. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than what any other country currently offers? Yes, a resounding YES.

I’ll be fine, though I’m a bit grumpy after going most of the year with almost no medical expenses, and then meeting our $5,000 deductible in mid-November. Well, comme ci, comme ça… call it 2% grumpy and 98% grateful, because in spite of the unexpected, it’s been a really good week. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Regular blogging will resume mañana, an announcement which I’m sure will relieve the minds of dozens of people. 

I really should own this shirt.

I am doing somewhat better today – so much so that I’ve spent most of the day upright in a chair (thank you, God, for icepacks and modern pharmaceuticals). Well enough, in fact, to do battle with the beast that is Microsoft on behalf of a friend.  And I do love my friends.

Curse you, Bill Gates!  Well, in all fairness, it’s not just Windows.  Every OS sucks.  I’m may go the Linux route of “elitist nerdy schmucks” because a change, as they say, is as good as a rest.

Aside from that, I swear, if James Dobson or David Vitter calls my house just one more time to remind me to vote, I will… what?  Vote Democrat?  They know they have me where they want me, the jerks.  For now.  But so help me, if the GOP doesn’t pull themselves together and get serious about shrinking the government, they’ll be a footnote in the history books just like the Whigs, whom the GOP replaced, are.  And on the topic of elections, may I just say that I <3 Nick Popaditch?

We’ve got a lot of “citizen candidates” this year and while some are better qualified or more well spoken than others, it’s still a fantastic trend.  America was not designed for a ruling class – professional politicians whose life work is government service.  The concept that we are not bright enough to rule ourselves – that it’s too hard, too complicated for our little brains – is a concept that we need to take out back, beat into unconsciousness, dismember, burn to ash, and scatter so widely it can never be reassembled.

We have the government that we deserve, because sometime after WWII America decided to take a vacation from history and civic responsibility.  In a Presidential election, about a third of the people eligible to vote just don’t bother.  On local issues like referendums that aren’t attached to bigger issues, as many as 80% sit out and refuse to take responsibility for ruling themselves.  Small wonder government is out of control.  We permit it to be.  So far, we cain’t say no to government encroachment into our lives, but I think this election may be the time we finally start.

I’m a multi-tasker. I’ve got two monitors on my main workstation, and I’ll typically have some background noise going while I work.  I usually have five or six windows open, and ten or more browser tabs.  I have a third monitor, but it’s mounted on my treadmill so that I can work and walk.  (I can type accurately at up to 2mph.)  Experts used to claim multitasking was a highly effective way of working; now they claim the opposite.

There’s something wonderfully clarifying about pain.  When you’re in pain, you just think of the one thing.  If you try very hard, and focus very carefully, you can think about something else, but it’s a challenge.  So after I threw my back out the other day, I’ve had ample opportunity to focus and make plans (and thank God for ice packs and the electricity to keep a supply of them cold).  My running schedule is off – I’m still working on that whole Couch to 5k thing – but as for the rest…. big changes ahead.  Should be interesting.