From the Super 8 Motel just off Highway 101

Good grief! I go off to my second week of “How to be a Better Person School” and the rest of the persons on the planet seem to have gone crazy (again). [Note: I’m not permitted to divulge my actual full-time job or the actual six-week school that I’m attending, but most of you probably know both anyway.] One way or the other, I was away from my trusty PC for the whole lousy week and I managed to watch a most incredible week unfold on television in front of my Super 8 Motel bed from eight until midnight each week and wonder now just what it was all about.

Fortunately, my cell phone was charged and my brother Richard in Connecticut explained to me on Thursday night that the Democrats didn’t really vote against supporting our troops in Iraq and that polls aside, the election process in America is truly both out of whack and far too long.

I watched Larry King Live on Thursday night while Tammy Faye Messner [formerly Tammy Faye Bakker] gave us all a lesson in courage, humility and faith. I listened sadly today on my car radio as her death was announced—only days after she spoke to Larry and all of us last week. Whatta combination downer-and-lifter! She inspired me as a Christian and honest-to-goodness believer in the Power of her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I never did understand why Larry King chose to have Deepak Chopra on later and why he avoided even using the name of Jesus in his own commentary.

The C-Span-2 all-nighter with the US Senate on Tuesday-night-Wednesday-morning was almost more than my body could take, what with the defensive tactics cum aerobics class that I had suffered through the day before and the lengthy lectures and depressing [sometimes, stomach-retching] videos of the next day. Thanks to an overdose of No-Doze and Claritan-D I went for 48 hours without sleep on Wednesday through Thursday night, but at least didn’t fall asleep during my “classes.” For those of you who prayed that the lengthy caughs, sneezing and runny nose would leave my stuffed up head/sinuses, THANKS!! I feel much better today.

As regards that crazy all-nighter with C-Cpan, there seemed to be more interest in the House of Representatives in such weapons as MRAP whenever I switched channels for comedy relief. Strange bed-fellows—and I really needed the No-Dose that the next day, even though it kept me awake for 48 hours the next day.

I wondered why the six hundred or so millions of dollars that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles gave some 500 former alter boys and girls was still in the headlines, but I guess that will drag on for as long as the Roman Catholic Church still has “deep pockets.” My own personal take runs along the lines of “God loves every one of those priests—and those persons (now grown) whose lives were broken … and God even loves me, but I honestly don’t know why!”

In looking over the past week, the honest-to-goodness most invigorating and positive news was that President Bush acted seriously presidential in taking a lead in getting the Israel-Palestinian talks under way (again) and providing some money (and support) where his mouth was/is. His speech on Tuesday was his best ever, IMHO.

But as for the past week as a whole, I guess it was (as always) some good, some bad … but for this old curmudgeon, it’s back to school tomorrow and hopefully, some better moves than I learned last week in the two upcoming mid-eek classes in self-defense and controlled body movement. There are times that I wish I was not 72-going-on-73 and more … well, more like the uniformed 21-year old on my “team” in the class.

And yes, the picture below is the actual bed on which I have spent the weekdays for the past two weeks.