Lighten up, dude.

OK, in response to yesterday's mind-numbing post on the current sorry state of organized religion, I'll lighten it up a little.

Politics. Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was in town the other day, and had this to say about our sitting president:

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

I'll tell you what. It's still early, but I'm starting to listen to Dennis. For most of my life we've elected television candidtates. That is, guys (guys, that's another story) who look or act nice on the TV. The ones we perceive as dull and boring (e.g. Al Gore) get kicked to the curb. I think it's about time we elected a dull guy with a brain in his head.

Wednesday is some sort of secular holiday where kids dress up and go out begging for candy. It's one of those days where devilish behavior is loosely tolerated, and when I was a kid, encouraged. Mischief Night is largely a relic of a bygone age, since now it is considered vandalism. In the 1960s, where I come from, it was a juvenile prank and at best, it was irritating to the mischief victim. Now, your parents are being called to the local police station.

At work, they are "allowing" us to wear "our favorite Halloween themed sweatshirt - but no jeans". That's right, we can come to a professional office wearing an orange sweatshirt with a carved pumpkin on it, but we can't wear jeans. I hear that all my supervisors attended college.

If you're looking for some bright new music, I offer up Band of Horses' latest CD called Cease to Begin. Borrow or steal it, or even buy it if you have to, but I think you'll find it as uplifting and energetic as I did. I've had it for 2 days and I've already listened to it a half dozen times. Stop me. The only irritating thing about it is that I found that I could have bought the CD for a dollar less than I paid to download it. Bastards.

I think the proper term for it is power pop, but I might be mistaken. It's as smooth as glass and powerful as a punch in the stomach at times.

I'm working on figuring out the lyrics, but from what I read they don't always sing the same line the same way twice, so we're free to interpret it as we wish. I'm making up my own words, then.

It's cold in the mornings now. I'm back to scraping frost off my windshield. Then, the inside fogs up before I'm out of the driveway. It's like driving a submarine through an inner tube. Lucky for me the kids waiting for the school bus are standing on the sidewalk. So far, I've stayed on the road.

The best thing about the cold nights is that the cat curls up and sleeps in bed with me. I know, that's kind of pathetic, but he's warm and furry, and so far he's the only warm furry thing I've got going on. [make up your own jokes].

The better news is that his bloodwork came back and his kidney numbers have stabilized, and one even went down. Daddy's taking good care of his little furry son.