Farewell

We're watching the Keith Oberman show and sadly, were forced to watch the 'Farewell Address' of George W. Hard to listen to his same old rhetoric over and over. Loved Rachel Maddow's show where she would insert a 'pause' button and make 'sidebar' comments about the ironies, falsehoods and misrepresentations of reality throughout the address. Why should tonight be any different than the last 8 eight years of bull-crap he spouts? We resisted (just barely) the urge to take our shoes off and throw them at the screen. Welcoming change and new hope...

Though all evidence of hope appears to be lacking in the stock market again today, particularly the banking sector. We watched J's employer drop another $3 - in one day. Holy Crap. Trying not to look but can't help seeing the close price on my 'stock watch' on my Yahoo page. Damn. Damn. Damn. It's ok....it will bounce back, eventually. Though B of A asking for more bail out money is certainly not a good sign. Crap.

H. called me right at 8AM to say 'there's a big fire at school and we've all been evacuated and we're on the field'. I said 'am I supposed to come get you'? He said 'no, I don't think so - I just wanted to call you in case you hear there's a fire to tell you I'm ok'. Thank goodness for that - I hadn't heard and knowing how we practice fire drills and evacuations (and lock downs and all sorts of other potential disasters) on a regular basis, I wouldn't have been too worried. Still, glad he called. I think he was hoping he would be getting a 'no school' day - but thankfully, it was just smoke from an HVAC unit on the roof and it was quickly resolved. The building is brand new so I know the facilities folks at the school aren't too happy - and the kids weren't too happy realizing that in fact, there would be school today (they had just entered the building and were immediately evacuated so they had 15 minutes of hope that school would be cancelled) - but everyone was fine. Gave our little town paper something to post on their website.

Tomorrow, I go to Monterey for an all day meeting. Might spend the night - taking a change of clothes and a nightgown and toothbrush just in case I'm too tired for the two hour drive home. But I will probably just drive home. I don't want to spend the $$ and I also want to just be home. It's a 3 day weekend - though I plan to work all day Monday, pretty much. I can always stop for a strong latte on the way home and make it home before dark, I hope. If there weren't so much budget stuff happening, I would have skipped it - a 4 hour round trip drive for a 5 hour meeting makes for a long day. But we get together in Monterey annually and it really is a lot of fun. I know I will enjoy it - and it's a pretty drive.

J. and I have a 'date' to drive to Brentwood on Saturday - I want to get the Alice Music 12 CD and it's only carried by 'Bay Area' Best Buy stores - not here in Tracy. So we're going on an excursion to pick it up. And then we're going to the Modesto Costco in search of the Starbucks cards they had at Christmas - Modesto still has some, apparently, while our Tracy store is sold out. We are trying to spend more time 'alone' - preparing for 'empty nest' (which honestly can't come soon enough for either of us).

And closing with the miracle of the quick-thinking pilot who landed a jet with no engines in the Hudson River in NY after the plane lost both engines after running into a gaggle of geese. Chesley B. Sullenberger, III, from Danville, CA (not far from us), thank you! From a US citizen who is reeling daily from all the 'stuff' happening in our country and our world, I really would not have coped well with a tragic plane crash. You pulled off an absolute miracle - and for that, thank you. You did an amazingly heroic thing - and have my deepest thanks and awe. You, sir, are one hell of a pilot.