So far no news about my grandmother. Hospice actually came out again today and said that she looked better today than yesterday. Now the roller coaster ride begins again. Ultimately no one but God knows when her time is really going to be up, but it takes a lot out of you to watch her get so close to the end and then fight her way back a little bit. She truly wants it to be over and has said as much. She's extremely uncomfortable all the time and on so many drugs to help with the pain that though she's alive, she's not living if you know what I mean.

The hospice nurse speculated that she might be trying to hang on for Thanksgiving. I don't know. No one does.

Hospice came out today for what is most likely the last time. They said that my grandmother has only hours left.

I thought I had already grieved for her, but when I got that news it hit me pretty hard. There's a big difference between knowing a loved one is going to pass and coming to the finality of that fact.

I'm thankful that I was able to say my goodbye today. She's been sleeping almost the entire time for about a week now. She wakes up for a minute or two every once in a while. I went downstairs and asked to be alone with her. I sat next to her bed and held her hand and was talking to her and she actually woke up during that time. I know what I felt but I didn't know what to say, if that makes sense. What do you say to someone that's been a second mother to you? I told her I loved her and told her I'd miss her. I wasn't easy to do that, but I'm grateful I was given the chance.

I am almost healed. The plague has almost vanished. The concerning thing is that I took my last dose of antibiotics today. Hopefully I continue to improve because I've had quite enough of being sick.

I stayed home from work again today. I feel like crap. I have no energy. I'm taking a handful of pills every day. It sucks.

Well, surprise surprise, it's that time of year for me to get sick. I stayed home yesterday and went to the doctor. They stole my blood from its rightful place and proceeded to analyze it. The only one that I was interested in still hasn't come back.

The doctor said that I may have recurrent mono. It sure felt like it yesterday. I was wiped. Now I just feel generally tired and have a sore throat. I guess the 16 hours of sleep yesterday did some good.

Hey everyone! There's a big problem in the financial markets right now. They need help. Let's pass this $700 billion package to help them.

Congress: No thanks. We want it to pass, we just don't want to be the ones on the record as having voted for it. Fail!

Hey, c'mon guys. We're in bad shape. Please?

Congress: Ok. Can you at least tell us what you're going to do with it first?

Um. Sure. Yeah. Uh... we're going to uh. Help. Yeah. That's it. We're going to help!

Congress: Oh? You're going to help? Well here you go. That's good enough for us. Enjoy the $700 billion with a B.

Oh thanks. By the way. We're not helping very much. Too bad, so sad. Sorry about your luck. Um, but by the way, we actually do need an additional 1.8 TRILLION FREAKING DOLLARS to uh, help. Yeah, help.

Congress: Oh? Ok. Sounds good to us. Everyone likes help.

Lastly, we're not sure what the real cost is going to be and we're just pretty much going to give money to people we like so that they can throw big parties. Is that alright with you?

Congress: Sure! We love to party....


That's my interpretation of the past events detailed in this article.

Effectively, they're not doing anything they said they would, and the amount has almost quadrupled in cost. Good effing idea. Doesn't anyone in this country care about our huge debt? Anyone? I really seriously think we are beyond help. We will NEVER get out of this debt. Ever. We're completely and totally screwed as a nation and not more than one single person in power cares.

I said that we should not have passed the bill. I'm on record for stating that the weak companies SHOULD die. They should not be rescued. What bubbles up must crash down. If the system grinds to a halt, then so be it. That's what is needed. We cannot continue to simply flush money down the toilet like we're doing now.

The article says "Critics are concerned that banks, which are getting $250 billion through government purchases of their stock, are not using the money to boost lending to customers, one of the main reasons why the economy is in a crisis." No kidding. The banks are using the taxpayers money to buy out competitors. For evidence of this see the PNC buyout of National City Bank. PNC outright stated that since they were given $7.7 billion, they were going to use some of that to purchase (at fire sale prices no less) National City. Oh, why didn't National City get money too? Interesting. Nat City is/was one of the ten largest banks in the country, but PNC got money and they did not. Could it be because PNC has a large number of shares held by Goldman Sachs and the former head of GS is freaking running the treasury now? Oh, just maybe. And by maybe I of course mean definitely.

This freaking drives me crazy.

The first snow of the year happened today. I had not yet made the switch over to my winter tires either. On Thursday it was 72 degrees. We went out of town for the weekend and today it snowed. I had to make the trip to the tire place on my summer tires, and let me tell you, that's pretty harrowing.

I couldn't make it up one hill, so I had to reverse down the hill into oncoming traffic lanes because the other lanes were filled with slush. I made it across a slushy section, though there was some difficulty doing even that, and managed to get into the parking lot without sliding into anyone else.

Then after work I picked it back up with the winter wheels and tires on it and it was just fine to drive. Of course, now it looks like crap because I just have steel wheels for the winter, but at least I can drive it.

It's Friday so you know what that means... we're heading out of town. Again. Let the traveling circus renew it's course across the country.

This time we're going to Maryland. We'll be back on Sunday.

At least I'll be gone during the Purdue loss. Err, game.

I just got done watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. What a huge disappointment! It was easily the worst of the 4 movies. Even worse than Temple of Doom, if you can believe that.

There was very little of the trademark humor, and what there was seemed very forced.

The acting seemed stiff. The "fun" of the movie just wasn't there. Combine all that with a crappy story and you've got a bad movie.

So the nation elected Obama as President last night. How did he do it? By following the tried and true Democratic election script. Promise everything, commit to nothing.

No one, including his supporters, really know what Obama thinks or stands for. He's avoided most of the tough issues and has done his best to not take any firm stances on anything.

The other night there was a show about Obama and McCain on Frontline. They where interviewing one of Obama's strategists. Essentially the guy said that their strategy during the campaign was to not take a stance on anything. That way he would never have to defend it later. Their campaign bet right that experience and really knowing where someone stood on an issue apparently doesn't matter to Americans as long as you talk about change and issue vague promises of giving stuff to people.

What it really amounts to is that people don't care about anything except "change." We want "change." Well, is that change for the good? We don't care. We just want "change."

It's election day and as citizens of the United States of America, it is our responsibility to make informed decisions as to who to vote for.

Voting down the party line (either one) like an ignorant lemming is one of the greatest disservices you could do to yourself.

The "Get Out and Vote" saying should be changed to "Get Out and Learn, then Vote."

There should be a test before you're allowed to vote. If you don't know anything about the candidates then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. I guarantee you that most Americans know more about Angelina Jolie's kids than they do about the specific politics of the presidential candidates.

We got our new mattress (again) this weekend. We hated the first new mattress we had, so we took it back. Due to a very good return policy, there were no problems doing so. We like our new mattress significantly better. It's firm, but still comfortable. That's what she said.

I also had fun cleaning out the gutters. Thankfully it had been dry for a few days in a row, so the leaves were very easy to get out. It rained all day today, but it's supposed to be dry for most of the rest of the week, so that's good, considering that we get at least 30 lawn bags full of leaves in our yard every year. Dry leaves are much easier to work with. Especially since I have to keep the new seeded lawn clear of debris as much as possible.

I watched V for Vendetta tonight. I liked it quite a bit. I thought it was a good political commentary of the slippery slope that the world is headed down.