Lazy Hazy Crazy Days

"The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid."
-- Art Spander

"The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling."
-- Paula Poundstone

With the advent of Global Warming the old song, Roll Out those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer has an entirely new meaning. Even at this Latitude the heat is sufficient to kill, the air is unfit to breathe, and the news is filled with people killing one another--we have indeed entered the Dog Days of Summer. Over a week later I'm still scratching my head over the idea that anyone in their right mind would pay a cheque cashing outlet over $ 60.00 to have their welfare cheque cashed when a bank will do it for free. Of course that presupposes that one keeps enough money on hand to actually have a bank account. I come from a family that never took in enough money to have attracted the attentions of the Income Tax Department but we weren't poor, at least as we saw it, it's called living within one's means. I suppose someone whose net worth approaches one million may have trouble conceiving of the difficulties faced by a third or fourth generation welfare family but I would still resent giving 10% of my living wage to such a usurious institution.

In my working world every long weekend comes at the price of a hectic week following and this past one was no exception. Afternoon naps continue to be a source of great comfort though arising at 9 in the evening makes cooking supper an novel task. Somehow this week I managed to stay awake long enough to get within 40 pages of finishing my novel by Jack Whyte, The Eagle, which is the conclusion of his series on Arthurian Legend told from the point of view of Clothar, otherwise known as Lancelot. I have finished several books of poetry in the interim. My penpals continue to be terrible letter writers so keeping up with my correspondence has not been onerous. I've also kept ahead of my E-mail though keeping my podcast file from growing ever bigger seems to be a lost cause.

Ordered my personal file this week to see what kind of dirt Canada Post has kept on me these past 36 years. It finally showed up Friday and I didn't have time to peruse it. Fortunately delivering it didn't require a forty foot tractor trailer. Managed to get my shopping in at Longos before the screaming masses could clutter the aisles. I'm still struggling to find where they've hid my favourites since someone decided they needed to totally confuse their customers by completely re-arranging the entire store.
Every day seems to bring another series of suicide bombings in Baghdad and Afghanistan along with more dead Canadian Boys. The legal world is holding its collective breath to hear the decision of the jury in the case of Conrad Black. Given the millions he's already filched God forbid we have to pay for his incarceration. Out west the pig farmer's trial drags on interminably. South of the border a black boy continues to rot in jail because he had his male member orally stimulated by a underage female. The cases of the Guantanamo detainees continue to create useless editorial ink while an uncaring Executive Branch tramples on basic human rights. What moral authority do they have to challenge the Chinese? With such news filling the airwaves I've given up listening to the news. Lacking interest in soccer or as the rest of the world refers to it, football I've steered clear of TV and I similarly lack interest in Live-Aid, whatever it may be nominally in support of this time round along with Bill and Henry's concert honouring Diana.

At the moment I'm trying to decide whether I go have an afternoon nap or start my monthly laundry.