Thursday, June 5, 2008

A Random Thursday

This Thursday has begun as a rather cold, dank day. We’ve seen much of the gamut of weather so far. It’s been foggy, cloudy, drizzly, yucky. I love the “cold” label. The temperature in my little corner of the world is in the upper 60s. Just a few weeks ago, I’d have been calling that temperature “warm.” It’s all in the state of mind. We're just a couple weeks shy of the astrological summer so the upper 60s must be cold. In the winter we say it’s getting warm as the temperature climbs into the upper 30s. The mind adjusts much better than the body. I thought the sun was trying to come out a bit ago, but it was just playing with my emotions. We might see some this afternoon.

A month ago I was expecting the water district to come by to change my water meter from a stop and read to a drive by read one. They tell me the new meter is to save money, but, of course, my water rate went up to pay for the new meters. Some saving. They didn’t come that day. They did call to postpone and that postponement date is tomorrow. I wonder if I’ll get a call today or tomorrow with another change.

If they do come, I’m told I’ll be without my water for a while. I have to be home so they can come into the house to shut it off, even though my meter is some 375 feet down the driveway. And I have to hang around all morning because they gave me a four hour window for the change. When they’re finished, they have to return to the house to make sure the water is running O.K. I have nothing planned for tomorrow except be here when the district people arrive. The part I don’t like is that I can’t make plans for tomorrow. I’d be here anyway, but now I have to stay home.

But that’s all tomorrow. Today I began as always with a trip to the therapy center for my senior fitness session. As I said Tuesday, I like those sessions.

When I got home my wife was already at work finishing the cleaning of the kitchen. I did some of the work yesterday for her while she was working, but I guess most women like to be in control of their kitchens so she’s been doing the bulk of the work. My task would have been to polish/clean/wax, whatever, the cabinets and help move some stuff around. To my pleasant surprise she did that work while I was at therapy. There isn’t a whole lot left to be done and I suspected it will be by noontime.

No special trips are planned this noon for lunch. At least I don’t know of any right now. We will be going out this afternoon for some light shopping, but I don’t think it will take too long.

We did get some much needed light rain during much of yesterday. The total amount wasn’t impressive, but it was a good kind that could soak into the ground and not the heavy downpour kind that just runs off before it does any good. Now some heat is expected for the weekend so the rain and heat will join forces to make me have to mow the lawn again. I know WG’s veggies were all screaming, “Yum. Yum. Thanks for that nice drink.” yesterday.

I heard a couple items on the news this morning that I find interesting. Most of the thousands of dollars that are being spent by a coalition of agencies to influence people not to sign a citizen’s petition to repeal a massive tax increase are coming from out of state. That means that people who are not affected by the tax increases are taking away the opportunity for Mainers to decide their own futures. Those taxes were designed to pay for the state sponsored Dirigo Health Plan.

The other piece of news was that Dirigo with somewhere between 13- and 18-thousand Mainers is closed to enrollment. If the tax passes, it will then open to only small businesses and not individuals. Those people opposing the petition drive do not mention Dirigo in their advertisements. I guess even they honestly realize it is a failure and don’t want to be associated with it. What they apparently do want is for Maine to join socialized, state controlled health insurance.

I’m hoping there will be petitions at my polling place Tuesday. I really want to sign one.

GiM

No comments: