Well...yesterday was fun. Or at least interesting. Or something.
Let's put this in order from the morning.
While I was writing the whole TSA thing happened.
I heard from my father...from China. He'd had quite an adventure. As the plane arrived over Beijing, they hit bad weather. So, they circled. And ran out of fuel. So, they diverted to an airport like 75 miles away. But, it was only a domestic airport. So they could not get off the plane to go through customs. To make it fun, the airport doesn't normally handle 777's. So, they had to send for fuel from Beijing. That took a while. After gassing up, they noticed that the oil was low. Back to Beijing for oil. His 13 1/2 hour flight took 23 hours.
Then, later on, the phone rang (the work line). It was some recorded message from a politician running for Congress down here. They babbled at me about how the other guy was Satan and then broke into song...The Beverly Hillbillies' theme. Of course, it poked fun at Liberals and gays and stuff. Well, for some reason, I became incensed. The song really made me mad. So, I hung up, went to the guy's site, found the "Contact us" link and fired off an email.
Here it is:
----- Original Message -----
From: NoGoodDaddy
To: DudeRunningForCongress
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 2:02 PM
Subject: you just called me
I'm not pleased about that fact. How is some recorded message where someone is singing to the Beverly Hillbillies' theme supposed to make me think you and your campaign are serious about helping our country?
Maybe, and I'm just throwing this out there because what the heck do I know anyway?, you could try to be intelligent about your message and not lower yourself to singing songs about your opponent. How am I supposed to respond to such a call other than to be disgusted?
I'm not voting for you and I'm a Republican for the Love of all things Holy. I'd sooner vote for Cynthia McKinney (not that she's able to run in NC) than for you.
"Liberal judges have re-written the Constitution" They have? Fascinating stuff. The Constitution has not been amended since 1992 and that one, and I quote, says "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened." Let me guess. Liberal Judges wrote that? Or, is there a secret society charged with "rewriting the Constitution" that we, the unsuspecting public, don't know about?
Like I needed this on my birthday.
Thanks for making my decision for me.
NoGoodDaddy
A little heavy-handed? Maybe. But, I was pissed. I was beyond pissed. I actually toned down the email a lot from the first draft. I tried to keep it as 'professional" as possible while showing how ludicrous I thought the call and ad was.
So, I went back to work for a few hours. At 3:00, I decided to call it quits and headed to Lowe's.
We need a new water heater. The one we have is old and I know that the second the plane leaves RDU it will explode. It's just bound to happen. Guess how much it's going to cost to buy a new one and get it installed? Did you guess $1100? No? Neither had I. $1100 to buy and install this thing. And, no, it's not 57 bazillion gallons nor made of molybdenum or anything. The good folks of Raleigh have made new laws for water heaters. You now need an expansion tank, special electric work done and permits for all the work. It's a $280 heater and needs $800 of installation. Sweet. Or should I say FUCK? Which one?
Oh wait...before this I nearly killed Shmuppie. She's having somewhat of a relapse with the peeing thing. She keeps pissing her pants. Her problem is that she won't go unless we tell her or unless she does the peepee dance and we see it. So, yesterday, she totally pissed all over the bathroom floor. Just soaked it. I was livid. She's doing this like 2 or 3 times a day now. We have no idea, but we think the culprit just bought a house down here in NC. Grammy tells her it's OK to pee in her pants. (We'll get more into my mother later (That's what she said))
OK...back at home from Lowe's. We're going to the pool and the phone rings. It's someone from the campaign offices of the guy I emailed. He had been forwarded the email and wanted to talk about it.
Him: So, NoGoodDaddy, you got the call. Then, you went to the website, found out how to contact us, watched the Ad, researched the Constitution and then...emailed us
Me: Sir...I have a lot of time on my hands and I believe in being thorough.
So, we spoke for a while. We went back and forth. Essentially, we disagreed about everything, especially how to campaign. My complaint was that the song and the ad do nothing more than push buttons like "Gays are evil" "Illegal immigrant Mexicans are evil" "The guy in office kills babies". I said that the ad does nothing more than rile people up to "Vote for the guy with the song who's running against the guy who kills babies". He laughed at that (because he knew I was right). He asked me if I was a "conservative" and I told him that, in his eyes, I probably wasn't because I detest political labels.
I'm not a "conservative" as it's currently defined. I'm more in the middle. I like to have a choice and not just go with the party line. I really told him that ads like the one they're running are part of the reason why the vast middle (of which I am a member) is so tired of politics. I told him, that despite being Catholic, I'm probably not a "Christian". We discussed a little religion. We went all over the map and kept disagreeing. The guy said it was very nice to not just get an email saying "You suck" and that it was good to see that I cared. He then asked me if I really meant it when I said I'd vote for Cynthia McKinney. I told him I was obviously kidding because...come on...Cynthia McKinney.
Having discussed politics... (JewelrySlut said I sounded very intelligent over the phone) we went for a swim.
Then, we came home and I made my awesome birthday steaks. They rocked. Shmuppie got no cake because she decided not to eat dinner. So, no cake for her. And, she missed out because the cake was awesome.
Did you know that ALL Fudgie The Whale cakes must say "To a whale of a Dad"? It's true
And I got cool stuff.
Now it's today and it's a sticky, humid day. I'm all sweaty. I think we're getting a quote soon to AC the basement. It may be a good idea for next summer.