Wall Street? What About Pro Sports Pay?

Let's see...

Redskins land Haynesworth for 7 years, $100 Million

The Dodgers and Manny are fighting over $25 Million (for 1 year)

Jayson Werth's winter contract is worth $10 Million for 2 years.

$20 Million here, $10 Million there. Where's the outrage when sports stars ask for such money? Sure, they aren't responsible for the economy. But the players & the people who employ them are just as guilty of milking us. We can't watch most of their games without paid television services. The tickets, parking & food is too expensive for a family of one. We're forced to fund their new stadiums with local tax dollars under the threat that they'll move somewhere else.

When the owner of Lowes Motor Speedway wanted to build a drag strip, the town of Concord, NC didn't want it. So, he just threatened to move. Next thing you know, not only did he get to build his drag strip, the town helped.

We're so enthralled with and dependent on our sports that they have a strangle-hold on us. Yet, as we sink players like Manny Ramirez can demand millions. A-Rod, Bonds, Big-Mac. They cheated, but A-Rod is still playing. And you can bet that Bonds & Big-Mac would be too if they were still young enough.

Marbury acts like a complete jackass in New York and what does he get? He gets to join the world champion Celtics for a $20 Million contract buyout & a minimum veteran's salary of $1.3 Million.

The players aren't the only ones I blame here. They are just one part of the great sports machine that's milking us for all we're worth. Will the economy get bad enough that fans stop paying for their fancy channels & cramped seats? What then? Will the NFL be asking for a bail-out? Will NASCAR be begging for fuel-subsidies?

I've grown weary of it. Maybe I should start following my local little-league teams.

Squirrel Chasing Injury

My dog is limping. Seems he hurt his left-front paw or the dog-equivalent of a wrist. As best I can tell, it happened Saturday when we were cleaning the kitchen floor. The dog saw a squirrel out by the bird feeders, raced to the back door, and lost traction. It definitely hurt because he stopped chasing the squirrel for a moment...but just for a moment.

And then he seemed fine. My in-laws arrived - why else would we be cleaning - with their dog. Max & Stewie played. Everything seemed fine. Sometime between Sunday & Monday we noticed that he was limping a bit. Otherwise, he seemed great. By Tuesday, the limp would come and go. Once he started moving around, it would disappear. If he sat for a while, it came back. Sprain right?

And now, suddenly today, he's really limping. Except of course when there's something to do. Every time Stewie barks at kids, Max runs over to help. Every time Max sees a squirrel in the yard, he runs after it. Then, when it's all over, he's pathetic again. If he couldn't use it at all or if he wouldn't let me touch it, I would have taken him to the vet days ago. Instead, I'm in limbo with it. My gut tells me that all this extra activity is aggravating it. How long do I hold out? If it's "just" a sprain, then dealing with a vet trip will only make it worse. If it's not just a sprain...

For now, I'm making him hang out in the computer room with me and not letting him run around barking at stuff. It sucks for him. It kind of sucks for me.

Stupid squirrels...

Mm...Fail He Does

Muppet Fail Theory & Star Wars from PvP. It's funny because it's true.

“Wait, I was just thinking that Yoda is a muppet. As with all muppets, everything he does fails. He talks about how Anakin is troubled, but still lets him become a padawan and a Jedi. He works closely with Palpatine AKA Darth Sideous without ever so much as thinking twice. He’s the general of the so-called Clone Army, which kills all of his Jedi but Obi-Wan. He effs up the fight against Sideous.

He doesn’t want to train Luke. Then, when he does want to train Luke, he doesn’t want Luke to leave. If Luke hadn’t left, the whole rebellion could have fallen.

Not until Yoda dies do things go right for the rebellion against the Empire. Yoda’s rise is the rise of the Empire.

Dude is a muppet through and through.”

When $300 Doesn't Seem Like a Lot of Money

There are a lot of good things about being a home-owner. It's been nearly 7 years since my wife dragged me kicking & screaming into our first home & I don't regret it. Having a home means having a dog, a garage with tools & room for all my crap. I like being handy even if my health has curtailed my projects a bit. Still, there's one thing about home-ownership that's not fun: The ever-present fear of that major repair. Today, was one of those days.

Our downstairs toilet & the dishwasher have been backing up. I finally had someone come in and snake the sewer line to the tune of $300. The line is right next to a tree. The guy had a really hard time snaking the line. Yipe! He told me to call the county because the problem spot is where the line meets the street and that it was probably tree roots. If the county won't fix it, the price will start at $1,000 because his boss would have to come out with a team & a camera. Visions of heavy machinery, trenches in my yard, a felled tree filled my head. So much for our savings.

Except, everything is "fine" now. They came out. The blockage is clear. It's all good. Well, it might not be great. It's possible that the snaking is only a temporary fix. It's likely that I'll have to have work done in the future. For now, however, I'll pay my $300 & know that I got off easy.

Where Did I Go?

The silence on this blog is deafening. Don't think I haven't noticed. I'm here, just not posting.

Over the last several years, my medical problems have developed a certain ebb & flow. My Doctor & I are well aware of the seasonal element of things. February & March have been especially bad times for me. Why? Well, that's a story for another day.

The story today is one I've told you many times.

One mistake we made early in my treatment was to vigorously fight my symptoms as things that could be "cured" through aggressive medicating. We also fought many of the symptoms at once. This was partly because I had not been fully diagnosed. Why would anyone assume that a slightly overweight man in his early 30's have Fybromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue? Treat the sinus headaches, migraine symptoms, the severe muscle pain, chills, depression and gastrointestinal problems all as separate conditions. Ignore the possibility that the mix of high-octane medications could be compound these issues. Why would medicine make things worse?

It took my current Doctor to put it all together. That's mostly why he's the "current" one. It took us a while to come up with a strategy to manage/reduce my symptoms through a mix of diet, exercise & medication. Yeah, I take several "controlled substances."

The story isn't over yet though.

In January, we upped the dose of Lyrica. It's having a net-positive effect on me. However, I also tend to take longer than others to adjust to side-effects. My energy level - which is never good to begin with - has been very low.

This isn't a bad thing. This time of year my energy is always low. If the medications improve all my other symptoms - which they have been - then I'll eventually get used to the side-effects & my energy will improve. Fingers crossed.

I've had other problems of late, all related to my fybro & sinus conditions. What to do with those? The current plan is to not repeat mistakes of the past. We're not introducing new medication into the mix unless I get very sick. I need to manage them with existing strategies until I've been taking the max dose of Lyrica for a month or two.

So, the silence on this blog has been a point of frustration for me, but we've got to just accept it. I'm "fine." This could be my best Winter in years. That doesn't mean it's going to be a productive time. I'm surviving with a lot of low-impact leisure activities mixed with small, targeted periods of productivity. This is my usual strategy, but right now it's magnified.

I'm focused, as always, in managing my health & become a more active person. I'm hopeful about the advances in Fybromyalgia treatments. The Lyrica has definitely been a good step.

Anyway, that's where I'm at right now. My short-term goal in this blog is to keep it up to date with fun stuff I find & mini-updates from me. Don't expect a lot of deep & reflective posts for a few weeks.

What's So Hard About Paying Taxes?

I've had a number of conversations with people about the tax issues surrounding Obama appointees. I thought this post on the Freakonomics blog sums it up nicely.

Tax Cheats or Tax Idiots?

Nova: The Spy Factory

Tonight on PBS, Nova is showing a special on the NSA's eavesdropping practices.