That Darn Ball! A Call from Democrats! Another Commercial!

Have you ever tried to stand on a ball? Or at least a half ball? I’ve been doing it for about a year now. The purpose of the ball is to gain better balance, and balance remains one of my major problems. That ball work is by far the most exhausting part of my entire Senior Fitness routine. The ball has a diameter of about three feet and the routine for me is to stand on it for three reps of a minute each. I’m generally O.K. for the first 30 seconds, but once I have to move for the first time to correct a balance issue, it just plain goes downhill as I bounce all over the place.

Today one of the interns from the Physical Therapy center where I do my Senior Fitness came over to me to give me some help and some ideas on changing my routine around a little. I was a-huffin’ and a-puffin’ and sweating profusely when I finished. Now that was some routine on the ball this morning. I’ll have to give it another go Thursday.

I got a fascinating telephone call last night. My caller I.D. said it was from the Democrat Party and indeed the person identified himself by name and that he was a volunteer for the Democrat Party. This may come as a surprise to you who have read this site for a while but I’m not a Democrat. I tried to be pleasant and said I’d find it hard to support a Democrat considering that since they took over in Congress, gas has gone up two bucks a gallon, heating oil is out of sight, I’m having a hard time paying for groceries and I could go on and on, but won’t.

“Oh, I understand completely,” he said.

So I quickly added just a little and pointed out that here in Maine we are the highest taxed state in the nation and that health care costs are prohibitive. Neighboring New Hampshire has the same insurance policies for half as much. We honestly don’t need any more Democrats.

“Oh, yes, I understand,” he said.

I jumped in again before he could start his pitch. Since you agree with what I’m saying, I guess the purpose of your call is simply to convince me not to support Democrats. Wow! You’ve been a total success. I certainly won’t. Now you can tell your leader you were a complete success on this call. He gave a very lame chuckle and thanked me for my time and the call abruptly ended.

The next two paragraphs just might be a little objectionable to some readers, so be forewarned. You might want to skip them altogether.

Periodically I make a comment on a commercial I’ve seen. There is one currently running on television for a sandwich shop. Although I’m not totally sure of which one, I think it might be Subway. Since I can’t absolutely say which, it gives a hint on how effective I find the commercial. I think you already know I have a hearing problem and do wear hearing aids. I have a particularly difficult time picking up the female voice because most are in the pitch range that I have lost. I’ve heard all the jokes about selective hearing so I can ignore my wife, but the simple fact is I have a hard time.

This particular commercial has a car at the drive-through order window. The male driver orders three or four items of just plain fat. Then the female passenger leans over and says something like, “I’ll have the same, except instead of the blubber can I substitute thunder thighs and a donkey donk part?” I can’t swear that’s a direct quote but it is what I hear. She must be hungry. The commercial ultimately goes on to say that the sandwich shop doesn’t really have those things and that most of its food is extremely healthy and very low in fat.

The Maine Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Independent senatorial candidate Herbert Hoffman could not appear on the November ballot because of petition irregularities. Hoffman had been a Democrat but switched to Independent to run for the Senate. He would be an anti-war candidate and chose to run because Democrat Tom Allen didn’t fit his ideals. The Democrat Party challenged his petitions and won yesterday. But until their challenge, not many people had even heard of Hoffman so what the Democrats did was give him a lot of name recognition.

Hoffman won’t do it, but I think if I were in his shoes, I just might start campaigning for Susan Collins, the Republican candidate, just to spite his former party. The diversion has kept the party from having to answer one question: Just what has Tom Allen accomplished in Congress, especially for Maine? They now need another diversion.

My wife has informed me today will be a shopping day so we’re off for a round of catching up on some stuff we’ve been needing for a while. You have a great Tuesday.

GiM