Sunday Morning Coming Down

Just got back from four road trips that started in Miami, Florida and ended in Miami, Florida with a round trips from Altoona, Iowa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Leg one from Miami to Altoona.  The trip started on a Sunday Night.  The trip was mostly uneventful except for a passenger in a wheel chair.  Taking the bus for any distance is arduous, taking a six hundred mile trip in a wheel chair is kind of hard to imagine. I'm sure the drivers kind of dread this kind of passenger because of the extra work it requires and all the complications possible. There are lots potential problems and the only thing I had to say to my self over and over was: "I'm glad I'm not in that chair.  And in a related matter, mobility for the disabled is something a lot of folks would just like to ignore unless it applies to them. Bus stations are multi modal transportation hubs but sadly they are not very comfortable and can be kind of scary places if you don't travel by bus often. The...

September 9th, 2001 Gladys left Hope Hospice in Fort Myers and on the 10th was on her way back to Bensenville. I was in Fort Myers when she passed away and by the evening I was on my way back to Miami to return to work. There were a few things that needed to be taken care of before another trip to Bensenville to bury someone. You can never quite prepare for the death of a parent or close family members. At my desk I fumbled through some paperwork, listened to voice mail messages, and started looking at the e-mail to see what needed to be answered and what could wait till the afternoon. Then someone came into the office and started talking about a plane crashing into the WTC. It was almost immediately felt that this was an act of terrorism as a second plane crashed into the second tower. I wondered what could be next. Your mind does strange things at times like this. My first thought was that Mom had known something was going to happen and she wanted to get the hell out o...

Weather hardly ever delays football games.  They say only lighting will get a game delayed. It doesn't matter how cold or how hot or how rainy it might be. But no lightning please. There were more than a few college and high school football games delayed by lightning last night The stadiums these days are equipped with technology that can detect lightning that is over 40 miles away.  The weather applications on just about everybody's phones can also tell you when lightning is close by. Yet somehow or other when the tickets have been bought, folks will go to the games they have bought and paid for and it hardly matters whether they will be comfortable. If it's a big game, the faithful will be there and that is almost guaranteed if the game isn't on the cable or internet. I, myself in the days before lightning detectors have sat through weather that would have qualified for tropical storm classifications and been named.  I remember a Notre Dame Football game th...

Tom Brady dodged the underinflated footballs yesterday, but the NFL is appealing the decision, meanwhile Brady will be able to play in the league opener. The Kentucky Clerk who still refuses to issues marriage licenses is sitting in jail for being in contempt of court.  From the AP: "I just want the licenses given out. I don't want her in jail. No one wanted her in jail," Yates said. During a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Bunning had offered to release Davis if she promised not to interfere with her employees issuing licenses, but she refused, citing her Christian beliefs. And in Miami a drive in window guy at Arby's has been suspended indefinitely and the shift manager fired because a police office was allegedly refused service at the drive in window. The police officer complained to the manger because she was worried about the condition of her order.  The Arby's corporate office has apologized and offered to feed police for free today. Tom...

I've never thought a clerk in any court in the nation was filling a religious office when they gave out marriage licenses to folks that wanted to get married.  On the contrary, a clerk in a bureaucracy is more like a tax collector than a minister. If the job description says you look at a form to make sure it is filled out correctly, collect the required fee and issue the license, that's the job. The honorable thing to do if you can no longer abide by the requirements of the job, is to resign your position. You can always explain your reason for leaving your last position.  In fact, this Kentucky clerk has probably raised enough sand regarding the issue to get a job that pays more and will be able to raise enough money to cover the related legal expenses.  If one is to believe her position politically is popular, martyrdom  isn't always a big sacrifice.