Just one of "those" days!

We started this day a little earlier than usual. There’s no particular reason for that, I guess; it just happened. Dawn is dawning with a beautiful sunshine. But the day is expected to be cooler than normal for this time of year and we are told the winds this afternoon have the potential of power outages, especially in all but the southwest coastal areas.

The air is dry, though, so that means my senior fitness session went well. I now am regularly riding the stationary bike for 30 minutes, a far cry from the three or four minutes I was able to ride it just a few weeks ago. I do get somewhat bored even though we are watching either The Today Show on NBC or SportsCenter on ESPN, depending who turns the TV on first. My legs continue to get tired, but I don’t get winded. The rest of my routine also went well this morning, and I’ll credit the sunny, dry weather for that. (For honesty’s sake, I must tell you I added this one paragraph after I got home. The rest was written before I left.)

Today is one of those really bad ones for me. I tried last night to get motivated on something, anything, but nothing came. I awoke during the night and again tried to find some motivation. None came. Senior Fitness didn’t help. Driving to the session, during it, and coming home left my “think” vacant.

Oh, oh! I have a friend down in Florida who will grab that last line and gently ask me, “When wasn’t it vacant?” Perhaps I’ll defuse that one and send him an email telling him not to bother reading today. That should do it.

It’s not like nothing has happened locally, in Augusta, or in Washington that’s worth discussing. It’s just that nothing has grabbed my attention. Earlier this week, I had planned an essay on a foolish Maine legislature proposal to ban RVs from parking overnight free in various parking lots like the ones at Wal-Marts. The legislature beat me to the punch and killed the bill.

Always on the slate is the Maine budget which is in terrible shape with a huge revenue shortfall. But hearings and discussions are continuing on it in Augusta and I’m not there. I could listen to it on line, but just sitting here trying to follow a budget debate which I can’t see just doesn’t sound like too much of an exciting time.

The Maine House did kill a bill yesterday that would have allowed Mainers to seek health insurance out of state. Proponents of that proposal say it would lower our staggering health insurance costs by allowing people to shop around. Opponents said it would take protections away from Mainers if they ran into problems with an out-of-state carrier. That’s about all I know about that one.

The legislature is saying state workers must take cuts, including paying for part of their insurance and taking unpaid holidays. There’s more to the discussion, but seems to me there just might be a contract issue with the plan so I don’t feel I can adequately discuss it. I’m not a lawyer but I do recall reading about an attempted change in a contract between a Maine town and its employees. The court said, “Unh-unh” on that one.

Washington is so screwed up I can’t add anything to that debacle. But we’re going to be paying big time when universal health comes about. You’ll be taxed almost out of existence to pay for it. Ask your Canadian friends how much they pay in taxes.

A little bird flew over last evening and dropped a note suggesting I put my college major to use and discuss the plight of American newspapers and news outlets. The note did remind me I’ve touched upon the subject in the past, but to do any justice to a topic like that would really require a lot more research than I have time for this morning. I think I can say simply, “There are precious few real news organizations around anymore. About all that’s left, with the exception of a few local weeklies, are one-sided liberal, socialized repeaters.”

There is one really good piece of news that interests me. Tomorrow is D-Day for my Fearless Friend and his wife. They’ll begin the trek back home to Maine with a short stop to attend a wedding and another short stop to visit with his sister along the way, but FF and Mrs. FF should be home next week. It’s going to be really good to have them home. I’ll bet their kids will find it even more so.

That will complete the homecomings of my snow bird friends. My other Wednesday Lunch Group friend who lives in Florida arrived home earlier this week. It’ll be good to have the full complement of retirees at the next last Wednesday of the Month luncheon.

No promises, but I’ll try to do better tomorrow.

GiM