My Sick Mind

You may not be hearing from me for a couple of days. Check the obituaries, because I'm venturing out to the big city. Not Philadelphia - New York, which, next to Tokyo is the really big city. Here's the rundown of my next two days (or so): Friday : Pick up my friend and take him to New York City, where we are to see a Yankees game on Friday night with 11 of his best friends as a celebration of his pending nuptials. The civilized among us call this a "Bachelor Party". The game should be over by 10:30, at which time we will venture back to the city to do [God knows what] and retire to the Roosevelt Hotel where [thank God] I will collapse in a heap in whatever BAC I am in at the time. I'm guessing 20%. For $135 a person, I figure I can be near death and still make it out for check-out time. That's the goal. Saturday: I check out, they drive my friend back to Philadelphia, where I will [eventually] meet them for dinner at the City Tavern, a fine establishment in...

It was April 1, 2006 . The first My Sick Mind post. I probably should have celebrated my Blogiversary yesterday, but I'm kinda strange. I think it was in memory of the last birthday that I had when I was married - 1994. Can I hold a grudge or what? It was a Sunday . Those of you savants or calendar freaks can look it up. I'm not a big birthday guy, mostly because I don't have the people around to celebrate, but when you're married, you figure that there'd be at least some acknowledgement. I remember getting up in the morning and waiting. You know that waiting . The waiting that you're figuring is going to have some little surprise at the end. Like when you watch the TV and they're picking the lottery numbers. But, like the lottery, the numbers wouldn't come out. The in-laws showed up with a little gift. They were on their way to one of their camping trips and stopped by to let me know that it should be a happy birthday. I don't remember what the g...

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." - Pogo So, you think gasoline prices are high now? Well, they are , but they're just about the same price they were in June of 2006, when I wrote about the greedy oil companies. That's when oil company executives were busy defending their record profits. Sound familiar? How about April of 2006? They were high then , too. I'm seeing a trend. WASHINGTON - Don't blame us, oil industry chiefs told a skeptical Congress. Top executives of the country's five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it's not their fault and their huge profits are in line with other industries. Appearing before a House committee, the executives were pressed to explain why they should continue to get billions of dollars in tax breaks when they made $123 billion last year and motorists are paying record gasoline prices at the pump. "On April Fool's Day, the biggest joke o...

MURRIETA, California - When the light starts to flash, you had better have the cash. That's the reality for millions of subprime borrowers whose used car purchase is contingent upon having an unusual option: a little box mounted underneath the dashboard that forces them to make their payments on time. A light on the plastic box flashes when a payment is due. If the payment isn't made and the resulting code punched in to reset the box, the vehicle won't start. The next step is a visit from the repo man . Finally, somebody is using their head. There are already devices to keep drunks from starting a car, now this. Next, let's build an insulated car that keeps cell phone signals out. It's beyond ridiculous now with the phones. Who are these people talking to? I see them leaving their driveways on the phone. Couldn't they make the call from the house? How did we ever survive without being able to chat while driving? My life was so empty 15 years ago. There are ant...

Between the soy milk and the orange juice lies the heart of an idiot. Blithering Idiot, the fine Barley-Wine Style Ale produced by the Weyerbacher Company of Easton, PA. I'd better hurry and finish this post before I'm a reflection of the container. 11.1% ABV ya know. Meanwhile , here's some info on Davidson College for those of you who had them in your ... ahem ... Bracket Pool ... Davidson College is a liberal arts institution founded in 1837 by ministers of the Concord Presbytery. Its 1,700 students come from almost every state in the nation and many foreign countries. A highly selective admission process brings students who are proven scholars and leaders to a close campus community in the small town of Davidson, North Carolina . There it is, just north of Charlotte and west of Kannapolis, North Carolina - hotbed of college basketball and hometown of Dale Earnhardt. They'll have to know how to get back home, now that their Final Four (not really final) hopes hav...