My Hero

Colin Powell has always been a hero of mine. The interview he gave on Meet The Press today was one of the best political interviews I have ever heard. If you missed it, go to MSNBC.com where you can see it in its entirety. If you are one of the undecided voters out there, this should give you clear direction for your choice.

Tom Brokaw ask some very hard questions and Powell hit every one of them out of the park (sorry, I have been watching baseball). His reasoning for his choice of Obama for President is sound and well thought out. Many have come to the same conclusions but Colin Powell puts in into words the best I have ever heard.

We Voted

Yesterday we voted our absentee ballots. We have had them for a couple of weeks but there are several amendments with confusing language so it took some time to understand them (wanted to be very careful and get it right). Also there are lots of judges to be retained and information on them is scarce. We finally waded through it all and completed the ballot.

We then drove to the Supervisor of Elections office to hand deliver them. Not trusting the mail with such an important item. In the lobby of the elections office is a giant trash can with a sign that reads "place all ballots here". Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Biden vs Palin

Joe Biden. Joe Biden is Joe Biden. What you see is what you get and what you get is good.

Sarah Palin did not embarrass herself last night. She did announce. early on, that she would not be following the rules (not a good sign in a leader). She would talk about what she wanted to talk about - and she did - repeatedly. All in all she did not do to bad.

But (you knew there would be a but)

I considerate myself to be a somewhat intelligent middle class American. I resent being called "Joe Six-pack". Does she think all middle class Americans sit around drinking beer and scratching themselves all day? Also, we could do without the gosh darn folksiness. I'm capable of understanding the King's English. I'm not sure the candidates do though. When are they going to stop using the double negative "have got"?

If you want my vote - don't talk down to me and don't insult me.

A Ghost Story

The Country Doctor’s Wife related a story about her husband’s nurse picking up her mother’s ashes at the post office. This reminded me of a story that happened at the law firm I used to work for.

Long before I went to work at the law firm, they had a German client that died. In his will he requested that he be cremated and his ashes sent to relatives in Germany for burial. The probate paralegal notified the family in Germany that we would be sending his ashes to them and we received a letter back saying they didn’t want him. The paralegal thought it was her duty to carry out his last wishes so she boxed him up and sent him on his way. After all, what are they going to do? Once he’s there they will have to keep him. Right? She closed the file and sent it to storage and forgot about him.

Several months later the mail man delivers a package and lo and behold – it’s the dead German sent back to us. Apparently, he was not a very nice man and when the relatives in German said they didn’t want him, they really meant it.

By this time no one can remember his name so we can't find his file. What to do with the dead German? Finally the paralegal stuck him on a shelf in the storage room and everyone forgot about him.

Years and years went by and the dead German became more of an urban legend than a reality. Strange things would happen from time to time in the office. My boss and some paralegals, working late at night would hear doors shutting when there was no reason for it and lights that would come on or go off by themselves. They all thought the place was haunted - by the dead German in the closet.

One day, a few years ago, someone attempted to put something very heavy on one of the shelving units in the back of the storage closet and the whole thing gave way and fell down. Guess who came tumbling out? The long forgotten dead German.

For some reason he ended up on my desk. One of the Attorneys’s said to just throw him in the trash. I didn’t think that was such a good idea. What if some one found him? So, I said I would take him home with me and scatter him in the creek near my house. On second thought I decided it would probably be breaking some kind of pollution laws (who know what was in that guy) so I just put him on the work bench in the garage.

One day my son came home for a visit and I said “sweetheart, there’s a dead German in the garage, would you please bury him in the back yard”? And he did.