99.9% Complete

Yippee!  Our house is complete minus some minor straightening up of the kitchen.  That’s a tough one.  We have stuff on the counters that doesn’t have a home and the real estate agent says it’s best to have the bare minimum exposed to sight.  So with very little work left we’ll have the kitchen completed and I can call the agent and tell her we’re ready.  We worked on the outside today and it was disappointing to say the least.  The pressure washing of the vinyl went great, but cleaning the bottom of the house where mud has splattered onto the outer walls was where the results were less than stellar.  It’s like the mud dyed the walls a funky shade of reddish-brown.  But they are as clean as they’re going to be so we’re just going to have to suck it up and drive on (to put it in Army terms). 

This is it.  This is our house that is for sale.  Yes, we’re on a bit of a hill, but it’s not bad.  I enjoy it.  See the brownish stain on the bottom of the wall underneath the stairs/front porch?  That’s the part that didn’t come off.  It’s a good house.  If it were possible to take this house with us out west, I would.  Almost the entire bottom floor is garage and work space.  On a plus note, anyone who buys this house is going to have lots of wild blackberries.  They are super yummy!  So if you don’t want to purchase this property for the house, do it for the blackberries. Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it………  Listen to that little voice in your head. 

Unbelievable

Peggy West, an elected official in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin said in an interview earlier this week about the Arizona law SB1070 that if we were talking about Texas and they had passed an immigration law similar to Arizona’s law, that she would have to look twice at it because Texas shares a border with Mexico.  But Arizona, she states, is a state a ways removed from the Mexico border.  I’m not making this up.  Thankfully a fellow councilmember who obviously paid attention in geography in school informed her that Arizona does in deed share a border with Mexico.  Even Jon Kyl of Arizona got wind of this and sent her a letter and a map to prove to her she was oh so wrong.  So in West’s own words, I guess she needs to think twice about this law in Arizona—SB1070. 

That’s a huge part of the problem with all the dems supporting boycotts of Arizona.  Most of them don’t have a damn clue what they are talking about.  Most of them haven’t read the bill for themselves.  I have read it and I can tell you that the Arizona law is more restrictive on law enforcement officials than the federal law on the same issue.  Not only that, but 35 years ago, the Supreme Court decided that it is within states rights to impose their own laws regarding immigration so long as the state law does not try to remove power for the federal law.  And in this case it doesn’t.  In fact, this law strengthens the federal law.  Why are we so afraid to enforce our own laws regarding immigration?  You keep hearing that our immigration system is broken.  How so?  The only thing that is broken is that we don’t do anything to enforce the laws once we find illegal immigrants on our soil.  I have a dozen friends or more from Mexico and Spain that are here legally which proves that our immigration system works.  Open your eyes people!  I’m not saying we shouldn’t let immigrants in.  We need them in our country.  That’s what makes our country great.  But it needs to be done in accordance with the laws that are already on the books. 

If you have a beef with Arizona’s law SB1070, please take the time to sit down and read it.  I promise you’ll be surprised that all this commotion was raised by such a mundane law.  It takes about 10-20 minutes to read, depending on how fast you read.  19 pages on most websites.  You can do and should do it if you are going to speak out against it. 

And what’s with Obama planning on suing the state?  What a fool.  It’s not the place of the federal government to tell states what laws they can or can’t pass.  Not only that, but once again the president finds himself at odds with the American people since all polls show that a whopping 70% of the people in this country approve of this new law in Arizona. 

No Love Lost

Everyone who knows anything about me knows that I have no love for Obama.  However I feel the need to stick up for him a little bit concerning this current oil spill in the gulf.  The same way Bush was not responsible for the hurricane that slammed New Orleans, Obama had nothing to do with this oil spill.  It is BP’s fault and BP’s fault along.  What do you expect?  Do you think Obama is supposed to don a scuba tank and go down and plug the hole himself?   That’s a little absurd.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  He is responsible for not pressing BP to get their butt in gear and use every resource available to them to clean up the oil before it reached the shore.  But that’s it.

As for BP being criminally liable, I don’t think so.  This is hurting them immensely and they are losing untold millions of dollars.  Boycotting BP isn’t going to help the situation at all.  The individual citizens that own BP franchises are the only ones that will be hurt by a boycott and that’s not fair to them.  BP is going to pay dearly for this oil spill and we should just leave it at that.  The more fines and financial losses they experience, the less money they’ll have to clean up the mess in the gulf.  What we should do, is find a way to communicate to BP and the president how important it is to use every technique available to clean up the oil.  There are hundreds of great ideas out there that they can be taking advantage of but for whatever reason have chosen to ignore.

So let’s be a little slower to judge when it comes to the oil spill.  I know a lot of you aren’t going to agree with me and that’s ok.  We are allowed to have differing opinions.  That’s what makes friendships unique and worthwhile.  I do welcome and encourage your thoughts. 

To the Dentist

Today I went to the dentist after a full night of horrid nightmares concerning them.  It was a rough night.  The visit went pretty well.  The doc prescribed a mild sedative to calm my nerves and the fillings went pretty well.  Unfortunately he found 2 teeth that need root canals.  I go to an endodontist (I’ve never been to one of those) next week for both root canals.  They don’t offer valium there, but they do use nitrous oxide.  I’m very pleased about that.  I’ve only ever had one root canal in my life and it was a rough experience. 

Now you may be wondering why my teeth are so bad.  It’s not from lack of brushing.  In fact, every time I go for a cleaning the hygienist comments on how clean and white my are.  However, I take pain killers on a regular basis so any minor tooth problem is completely masked.  I don’t feel the pain so I don’t know to go to the dentist to get things fixed until the problem is major.  So I have 2 root canals and 5 crowns scheduled.  Thank God for good dental insurance. 

Another note—I have been told by 3 dentists now that I brush my teeth too much.  I’m sort of OCD when it comes to a clean mouth.  Brushing so frequently has weakened my enamel allowing for easier formation of cavities.  So between the pain meds and the excessive brushing, all the problems are my own fault. 

A Day in the Life…

Well I went to the dentist as promised.  It was not as good a visit as I had been hoping for.  It turns out that I broke my tooth down below the gum line and it was not savable.   So with just a local, the dentist grabbed my tooth with a pair of pliers and yanked it out.  It took a full 20 seconds from start to finish.  It took longer to give me all the shots to numb the thing up than it did to pull it out.  Now I have a gaping hole in the very back of my mouth.  Tomorrow I get to go back to the dentist to have the 1st of 4 legs of oral repair done. 

The worst part of the whole visit was the anxiety.  I am terrified about the dentist and by the time he was done I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  Thankfully they noticed my intense anxiety and offered to give me a mild sedative for future visits.  I find out tomorrow if it works.  The only downside to taking this sedative is that I cannot drive myself to the appointment.  That means that Melinda has to take the time off to drive me there and back.  Bummer. 

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing tomorrow.  She got a little jealous of all the attention I was getting and decided to go ahead and break one of her teeth.  I’m not kidding!  It was the night before last and she bit down into a meatball and there was something hard in it, possibly a bone fragment or a tough piece of gristle, and her took just snapped.  It broke the entire side of her tooth off.  So she is not going to just have to sit there, she' gets to be a patient there as well. 

So much excitement, so much drama, so much fun.  But that’s a day in the life of Jasen and Melinda. 

Let here be Food

So yesterday the doc said I could be on solid food as tolerated.  Not too bad.  It took awhile but I finally got up the nerve to eat something this morning.  The breakfast of champions—egg and cheese English muffin.  On one of the last bites of the muffin, I broke a tooth.  Go figure.  I go nearly a month without being able to eat and the first time I do, I hurt myself.  I go to the dentist tomorrow to have things repaired.

On a happier note, food seems to be going good with me right now.  I can’t complain yet and with any luck, won’t be able to complain at all.  So to all of you who sent their prayers and happy thoughts, I say thank you.  You are the best.  God bless all of you.

10 Days and Counting

Today marks the 10th day that I’ve been on a soft/bland food diet.  This in response to my little bout with a partial intestinal blockage a few weeks back.  But after 10 days things are still not 100%.  I have had a few problems of feeling excessively bloated after meals and it unfortunately lasts for several hours.  But on a positive note, the signs of the blockage have disappeared.  So tomorrow the doc is supposed to call with instructions on what to do next.  Along with the soft/bland flood diet, I have been on a high dose of steroids.  Steroids, for those who don’t know, are the bane to my existence.  It’s because of the steroids, prednisone to be exact, that I have osteoporosis and have broken 18 bones in the last 6 years.  So it’s imperative that I get off this stuff as soon as possible.  A special thanks to my doctor for keeping me out of surgery.