A happy Tuesday to you all. I had written the framework of this post back when Sarge was somewhat laid up due to a ballooning knee and thought that he might be in need of some emergency postings in case of his absence. Turns out he didn't miss a beat so this wasn't needed. It's been sitting on my computer for almost a month so it's time to put it out there before it becomes stale. I've updated it and written more since then so here goes.
At the time I didn't really know what this post was going to look like, but being the part-time pithy political poster on staff here, and it being election season, I knew I would rant a bit with some stream-of-consciousness to dictate what's going on in my world.
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Earlier this month I went in for a little bit of artery cleaning. I thought I was going to have an angioplasty, but the Cardiologist decided to put in a stent. That was the result of a cardiac CT following my incident in June. You can read about that here if you'd like. I was actually in pretty good health, but since the doctor found a little bit of blockage (50% on a smaller than standard artery) following that episode leading to a spike in blood pressure, he thought it might be some good preventative medicine. Being a former aviator and trained to conduct a thorough preflight to find maintenance problems before they occur, I am all for that when it comes to taking care of health problems before they occur. That has been SOP for me for a long time, doing PMS* on myself, or other efforts to provide myself with some peace of mind. These include being slightly over-insured, paying for long-term care, and prepaid maintenance or extended warranties on the car. Having that stent put in seems like a good investment of my time and a great use of the medical care I'm offered at the VA.
It was an interesting experience. Several people on the surgery team asked if this was my first time. I guess there are plenty of repeat customers who get multiple stents. I'd prefer to never need to come back, and maybe I won't if the new statin drug and a new-found interest in eating better starts doing more for me. It was a minimally invasive procedure- in-and-out on the same day, through the wrist, and I was awake the whole time. If you happen to need this type of PMS, I guess I'd recommend it? It's not really something that deserves a google review, but it wasn't all that big of a deal and should help me as I age.
A few days before the procedure, I was supposed to have jury duty, but in case I actually wound up on a jury, I wouldn't be able to serve, so I had it postponed to a couple weeks later. First time in 4 tries I actually got called up to a courtroom for questioning, along with over 100 of us. This case was expected to last 5 weeks and was a capital murder case, with an additional charge of conspiracy and lying in wait. It was a gangland murder, with 3 defendants accused of murdering a 21 year old. The initial questions were all in a 24 page questionnaire, asking all sorts of stuff, including about how comfortable I would be hearing technical jargon regarding cell phone location data, text messaging and such; probably all to prove the prosecution's case for for those special circumstances. I also had to answer that I have a brother who is a Sheriff's Deputy, and a cousin who is a San Diego County Sheriff. That's what probably resulted in my being released on day 3 of jury selection. It was very interesting, but probably a waste of my time considering I'm not who the defense would want on a jury.**
It appears that this midterm election season is shaping up like all the others. I have no idea if the GOP will retain the House and Senate, but I'm not sure the Dems have any money to mount a real challenge. When USAID was closed down, the DNC interestingly enough had to declare bankruptcy. The RNC is in a far better position than the DNC to promote their candidates, but the left is making hay with the high gas prices and every other issue they can use in their favor. Meanwhile, the GOP doesn't really seem to care what the American people want when it comes to securing our elections. And it appears that all the news coming out regarding how unsecure our elections were in past seasons is amounting to nothing. We may again have a bunch of crazy election results, just like they did in LA with the mayoral election, and in Michigan with last-minute votes that were found on thumb drives changing the outcomes.
Have you noticed that there always seems to be a crisis? Be it the Red Scare in the '50s, the threat of nuclear war in the '60s, acid rain in the '70s and '80s, or climate change and rising sea levels for the past few decades, coupled with terrorism, and most recently, the fear of various pandemics. These threats, real or contrived, all seem to be used by our politicians to gain more power and spend more of our money. Looking back on all of this in my advancing age, I can see it for the pattern that it is. It makes me more cynical, but it also makes me less interested in my ability to do anything about it.
I will continue to follow Juvat's voting rubric, and voting for the conservative candidates who claim to want smaller government. Many of them probably believe in that ideal before they are elected, but then they become part of the machine and work solely on enriching themselves and getting reelected. There are some truly good ones in Washington, I think—Josh Hawley, John Kennedy, and Congressman Brandon Gill from Texas. That man is just two years older than my son and he's quite impressive. Rubio and Vance too, of course. Men like that do give me hope that my votes will mean something someday. But in the meantime, I will continue my slightly more than passing interest in politics while living a full life.
Speaking of a full life, I'm still about four years away from retirement, but my wife and I are not letting the grass grow under our feet. We continue to travel, and we have an extensive destination wish list. We will be going to Machu Picchu in May, and we would like to do another river cruise in Europe. Edinburgh Scotland, and Northern Ireland are also on the list. I am sure we will continue to visit Hawaii periodically, as there are direct flights from San Diego to all the major tourist islands in the chain. The November F1 race in Vegas is another trip for me. We will also keep Cancun on the list since it's a lovely destination where we can use our timeshare points, and it's very easy to get to for us. We just cross through the border expressway in San Diego to enter the Tijuana airport and fly out for a steal.
Sarge and Juvat spend plenty of time with their grandkids, and as much as my wife and I hope for that for ourselves, we don't believe it's in the cards. Our son is not really capable of raising a family, and our daughter doesn't seem to be on that path, seemingly content with her dog, her work, and limited social interaction with others. I blame college for that situation. She went in as a bright-eyed, innocent high school graduate and came out a woke, fearful, angry person without hope that she would ever be able to buy a home and afford a family—the perfect victim who will continue to keep those in power who promise her continued victimhood and offer false promises that taxing the rich will solve all the problems of the world.
I would expect that most of the Chanters here are no longer in a place to influence their own children's decisions on whether to go to college or not, but if you are, try to discourage it unless they're interested in skilled occupations. Universities are full of those victims that I described above—communists and professors who will poison their minds.
While I don't know if things will get better on the political front, I have learned to accept and embrace the chaos. No longer clutching any pearls, I find my own peace in the world by not allowing the world to affect me too much. Politicians will be politicians, and liberals, at least these days, will be socialists and communists—jealous of what greater men have accomplished and envious to the point of fighting to take what they have away.
So, there you have it. A little heart maintenance, a missed murder trial, and a healthy dose of reality regarding the political circus and the modern university system. We can't change these overnight, if at all, but I'll continue to try in my own little ways. What we can do is control how much of our own peace we surrender to them. I choose to keep my focus on the horizon, my family, and the next flight out of San Diego or Tijuana.
Over to you- what's your SOP for maintaining peace and sanity?
*PMS: Planned Maintenance System. Regular maintenance on systems so they don't break unexpectedly.
**A coworker just throws the jury summons in the trash now after being called 6 times and never been seated. He knows they'll never seat him due to his conservative views and strong support of law enforcement. He's never faced any backlash. Might be something to consider, although civil trials might be a different animal.
