Here, everything is better.

I was in the Oak Park H.E.B. supermarket at lunch-time today. As a young mother approached the check-out behind me, her pre-school child pivoted WAY too quickly and ran face-first into the shopping cart. A bloody lip and much loud emoting resulted. A red-shirted Rachel with an H.E.B. badge quickly stepped up to help. She got the mother a fresh tissue to hold against the split lip and efficiently unloaded the full cart onto the check out belt freeing the mother to comfort her son. In a moment, Dora-Lee, also with H.E.B. badge appeared with brightly colored balloons for the young man. All without missing a beat during the store's normal excellent service. I later learned that Rachel was off-duty, waiting in line with her own shopping. I love H.E.B., and the more I shop other places, the better H.E.B. and the folks who work there seem.

Something smells about this...

This morning around five A.M., shortly after arising, I decided that some time in the outdoor jacuzzi was just what my aching back needed. The jets and the 105-degree F. water should soothe tight muscles. So, I grabbed a towel and, under the light of only the moon, headed for the back yard spa. As I walked the sidewalk that parallels the back of the house and leads to the patio where the spa is located, for a second, I thought I sensed something else in the yard, also moving. I stopped. If there was something else there, it stopped too. I started walking. So did it! There surely was something small and four-legged moving the same direction as I, about 5 yards away, paralleling the alley fence. I stopped to allow my eyes to accommodate to the pre-dawn light. Yes, there is a small patch of white fur clearly visible. Oh, oh, there is also the sheen of dark and shiny fur. Ack! It's a skunk! Now, I wondered, what do I do? After another second I once again began walking toward the spa. The skunk began walking, too, still keeping its distance between me and the fence. And that's the way it went. I reached the spa, the skunk reached an open spot under the fence. He (or she) went out of the yard, I stayed in the yard and was able to enjoy my hot soak odor-free. While even using the spa may not be as EZ as it should be, I just have to be thankful for some blessings.

25 hours a day!

I am absolutely reveling in the extra hour that I now have in my life five days a week. We now live 2 miles from my office. I don't even have to get onto a freeway to get to work. This morning, the drive took less than 15 minutes, and that included a stop to drop shirts at the dry cleaners and another stop to pick up breakfast tacos! My former commute was taking a minimum of 45 minutes each way to cover the 14 miles of which 13 were on a freeway. Oh, newfound freedom, how I love thee!

Slamming! Call the FCC.

OK, AT&T, I've about had it. Every month now for several months some unauthorized third party is hijacking some part of my phone service and charging me $20 - $30 for essentially nothing. This has happened repeatedly on both my home account and my business account. No one except me is authorized to make changes to my phone service. I have NOT authorized any changes. Now, this morning, I cannot place a long-distance call but get a recording referring me to a known scam phone number.

Understand this, AT&T: If this happens just one more time, you have lost me. I will change to VOIP at both locations where the hijacking cannot happen. I do understand that the FCC requires you to make your lines available to anyone and to act as a billing agent for them. I do NOT understand how and why you allow changes to be made to my service without my written authorization when I have asked repeatedly that slamming locks be placed on my account. I am tired of spending hours each month dealing with the problems.

On my most recent call, "Monica" with AT&T promises to fix the problem. We shall see. The FCC regulations authorize me to "lock" my account so no changes can be made without my written approval. Why has this been so hard to accomplish.

Christmas in San Antonio

I have often read of peaceful and quiet Christmas interludes. One person, alone, in the still of a late Christmas eve or an early Christmas morn surveys a still and serene landscape. Often the ground is pristine white with snow and the heavens are clearly ablaze with brilliant stars. A time for introspection, for remembrance, for reverence.

Christmas time is generally different here in San Antonio. Our sub-tropical clime very rarely brings us snow; warm, muggy, and misty is often the natural backdrop for our holiday celebrations. The bustle and crowds of a city and dense suburban neighborhoods can push away the serene and the quiet. Still, the holiday season and Christmas time are a time for celebration, a time for family.

This evening I got a rare treat. A Christmas-eve cold front has brought a crisp, clear night to bless us. My dog and I walked our neighborhood at about 7:30 tonight and found the sky alight with stars; the heavy vehicle traffic on the freeway, one mile away, muffled—barely there; yards and eves ablaze with Christmas lights and decorations.

It was still. It was peaceful. For a few moments I could enjoy the chill weather, remember northern Christmases past, reflect on the heavens and the love and sacrifice of God’s own son for us. In this spirit, as we, my dog and I, returned to our home and the cozy Yule-time fire, Christmas future seemed very bright, indeed.

Merry Christmas to those who share my faith. Whatever your faith, I wish you all a Happy New Year and the very best for you and for yours. May peace be with you, now and always.

The U.S. Senate Health Control Plan...I mean Health "Care" Plan.

The only "entitlement" is life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and equal treatment under the law. We PAY for everything else: police to protect us, highways to drive on, the FAA to monitor air safety, the schools that educate us, we that pay taxes pay for it all. The representatives who pass our laws? They are our employees, not vice-versa, we pay their salaries and expenses. When I show up sick at the ER and cannot pay, the rest of you will pay through taxes or higher insurance. There is no free lunch. I think health care is something that we, as a society, should choose to pay for. An online acquaintance put it to me this way through a quote from a renowned American Jurist: "I like paying taxes; with them, I buy civilization." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Seems my opinions are considered strange by both extremes: I'd like to see a national single-payer system available for all (and I do mean all) which would include good health maintenance (including encouraging people to take appropriate responsibility for their own health -- liberal social engineering at its finest that this near-libertarian loves) as well as routine, emergency, and catastrophic care. This should be paid for through taxes, and it should be administered by a not-for-profit agency accountable to congress. All this, while at the same time allowing people who can and choose to do so to pay for care above and beyond -- like for purely cosmetic, experimental, or luxury-spa-type clinics and hospitals which are allowed to operate on a for-profit basis--call it a hybrid between public and privately funded systems. Our streets and highways are an analogy: The government (local, state, national) builds and maintains the roads with our tax money where we as individuals could not do so. Each person then can buy the compatible transportation module of his/her choice and means from many for-profit sources. I can drive my eco-friendly ultra-low-emissions econobox or a scooter while a person who can and wishes to pay more for the vehicle itself (and more in highway costs through sales taxes and fuel taxes) can drive the luxury boat of their choice. States run their own highway programs, meeting Federal standards. One difference from highway funds -- I'd like to see the states collect ALL the tax money for health care and manage the single-payer health care within their states -- meeting, of course, Federal standards. On the plus side, this builds incentive (and competition) for efficient management. On the minus side, it opens up more opportunities for fraud and would have to be closely monitored as we do now with the collection and management of employment taxes and sales taxes.

How about the Constitutional issues of requiring everyone to have coverage and the issues of how to fairly collect the taxes that would pay for universal health care? These are two topics worthy and needful of discussion on their own merit but are much too involved to touch here.

Are we all racists?

The House has rebuked South Carolina's Republican U.S. Representative Joe Wilson for a breach of decorum. Not, apparently, simply because he broke decorum, but because he refused to publicly apologize to the House. Never mind that Mr. Wilson had apologized personally to the man he called a liar, and that man had graciously accepted his apology. Never mind that liberal House members have never apologized for booing our last president.

The Congressional Black Caucus has branded Mr. Wilson's act of calling President Obama a liar as an act of racism. Former president Jimmy Carter says that Mr. Wilson's comments are "based on racism." What is racist about one man calling another a liar? Would it have been an act of racism if President Obama had called Mr. Wilson rude, as did nearly everyone else? (Even Mr. Wilson admitted his act was rude). Would it have been a racist act if Mr. Wilson had called Kanye West a "jackass" as President Obama apparently did? Why must every unpleasant interaction between two people of different color be labeled a racist incident with assumed motives of hate when the same interaction between people of the same color is just a disagreement? Why must insecure and paranoid people imagine motives? And why do we, as a nation, allow them to make political hay of their own ignorant brayings? In the words of Rodney King, "Why can't we just all get along?"

Meanwhile, testing the truth of Brendan Behan's statement that "There is no such thing as bad publicity...", Mr. Wilson may be wearing the House's rebuke as a badge of honor. We note that his home state campaign contributions have surged by well over $1,000,000 in the past few days. Living in our society surely is not EZ.