Feeling the Grrrrr in Disgruntled American

Okay, I get that we are in the middle of an election year.  I get that the candidates, even the president, needs to put that somewhat first on his agenda.  I get it.  I don't like it, but I get it.  What I really can't abide is a theme I keep hearing on all the news and political pundit shows:

"Nothing will get passed until after the election."

If nothing truly is going to get passed until after November then why oh why are we paying them then?  Some say it's strategy, some say it's cowardice, some say it's just politics at it's worst.  But seriously, if they aren't going to work couldn't we save some money if we put the House and the Senate along with all their staff and toadies on furlough?  That's been the solution for the smaller government groups like the States and Cities, isn't it?  I know there will still be a need to have some people there, the paper doesn't push itself.  However the rest of them that are just waiting for the Elephant or the Ass to take up residence before they do anything.  The concept is equally repugnant and mind-numbingly inane that we shouldn't have to pay for it.  Both sides are screaming for reduction in spending, here's one way they can cut the fat, trim the gristle and maybe show the voters they are willing to go from a fillet mignon diet to chicken for a few months.

This would actually be a good time to put in a reliable, secure BYOD (as in they bring their own device they've paid for instead up upgrading on the tax-payers dime) so they can be just as mobile and responsive to their constituents as we have to be to our subordinates, peers and management.  (I'm not saying we need to run the country like a business, because seriously, you can't lay off the voters).

What are my political views, you might wonder:  I'm undecided.  I call myself a free-thinker because I look at both sides, see which one can do the most good, get the most done and then I vote for the lesser of the two evils.

P.O.T.s (Pockets Of Time)

I've come to the conclusion that I will never have a stretch of time that I can write now that I'm back in the salt mines with the rest of the working world.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.....much.  I miss being able to spend my time working on intricate plot twists, figuring out unique and un-written ways to kill people.  There's not a lot of need for that mining for nuggets of revenue in a virtual gold mine.  Between Job 1, 2, and 3, there isn't any time left for work.  Well, there is time, but my mind is completely blaaahhhh when it comes to anything creative.  Well, except sarcasm, I'm always game for sarcasm.

On Saturday last I was running late to the dentist grumbling because I had planned to spend the whole day just me.  Maybe a movie, get a manicure, do tea, a nice dinner...you get the idea, but that got changed because of family plans.  So, to my surprise and welcome my dentist had an emergency and was running way later than I was.  So, I went across the street to the SBux and got a protein drink and banana and pulled out my editing.  It hit me like a lightning bolt.  I can't have days any more, or even set hours per se, but I can carve out pockets of time.  Time to write.  Time to plot and plan and work on the exact way to kill someone where no one needs to know. In my Franklin now (Yes, I went back to a paper planner) I am penciling blocks of POTs.  No one need know what they are, I can erase them out when plans change, and they always change.  I think it was L.W. Lynett who said "The most effective way to cope with change is to help create it."  Well, I'm creating POTs for change.  This means more posting, more journal writing, more just being who I am.  I am a WRITER, and writers WRITE.

A Murder of Crows

In the Santa Clara County I was told we are over-run by crows and there is talk afoot about culling the murder (which is the proper term for a flock of crows) down to a more reasonable number.  I thought it was much ado about nothing.  Yea, I normally see five or six on my street at one time.  Crows are part of the Corvid family of birds.  Corvids are Ravens, Blue Jays and Crows.  They are the smartest birds, I would wager that there are some Ravens and even Crows out there smarter than some of our, well most of, our elected officials.  And as snarky as that sounds, you know I'm right.  "poor people just need jobs in order to stop being poor."  I read of a raven that could, on the second try, figure out how to pull up a bit of meat through an intricate set of pulleys.  Being omnivores they will clean up the roadkill faster than the street cleaners, that due to budget cuts, come once every other year it seems like (In my neighborhood anyway).

I was driving home from work and was watching the greying rainy sky wondering when the next downpour would break when I noticed several, like forty or more,  crows crossing over the freeway over to a small cluster of trees to roost for the night.  I enjoy watching birds fly with just a little green in my eyes because I've always wanted to fly like them.  I inched along with the traffic but I never took my eyes off the sky.  Forty quickly turned into eighty and then hundred and then more and more, it never seemed to end.  My mind flashed to those scenes in vampire movies when the unsuspecting dinner guests disturb Vlad's pets, blocking the moonlight in an ominous warning of pending doom.  I actually had to drive out from under the winged migration but it was still going long after I drove away.  As much as I hate the idea of killing something intelligent and beautiful, it might just be time for a murder of crows.