Politics As Usual

Well, the upcoming presidential election is shaping up to be anything but. I had typed up a long post musing about the election and the candidates, but Firefox froze up on me and most of it was erased. I don't feel like retyping it now (it's bedtime!), but I will post some thoughts on it over the next few days. I am a bit of a political junkie for all of my cynicism about the issue.

The one candidate I can really support right now is Barack Obama. Andrew Sullivan had a great post on his blog today about a recent speech of Obama's. It is exactly the reason I find myself supporting him more and more (Obama, not Sullivan). I support Sullivan staying right where he is and writing more.

"It's waiting for the master's touch."

I picked up my car from the shop today. Was it fixed? Of course not. This mechanic, just as the last one, was unable to find the problem. It never died for them. He told me they drove it around the city a few times and left it running for a few hours three times in the shop. It never died. He tested a few parts and they checked out. He told me that without knowing what the problem was, the only thing he could really do is start replacing various parts and see if that worked. Obviously, that would be expensive and I respectfully declined his offer.

He jokingly said that my car might not like me and that maybe "it's waiting for the master's touch." When I told him that my sister's vehicle did the same thing to me the other day, he laughed, but he had that look on his fact that said, "Yeah, it probably is you, you kook."

So, I have my car back and it's still not fixed. I don't know whether to get upset or laugh at the absurdity of it.

It's a Conspiracy

There is some sort of secret car society actively working to make my life difficult.

The shop called me about my car today. They told me they were having trouble finding anything wrong with my vehicle. It started right up for them. It didn't die. The manager told me he was going to try a few more things, but he was stumped.

I've been borrowing my sister's vehicle, an Isuzu Trooper. What did it do to me tonight when I went to get dinner? That's right. It died on me. A few times. I'm just driving down the road and it dies. I got it home if barely.

Why do cars hate me?

UPDATE: Okay, the vehicle is a Toyota 4Runner, not an Isuzu. I don't know why I had that stuck in my head. Regardless of what it is, the car doesn't like me.

"I know!"

I really wonder about some churches out there.

At my job, I am responsible for everyone who comes to the hospital for business that is not a staff person. That includes vendors, contractors, and students. I put them through a brief orientation, verify their identity and employment, and keep track of them while they are here.

I also do this for clergy and parish visitors who come to the hospital to visit members of their church. More than any other group (excepting doctors), they have been the most difficult to deal with. That includes the director of our Spiritual Care department. I could go on for awhile with various stories about this, but I'll save them for another day.

A couple of months ago I gave her a list of clergy and parish visitors that had been through orientation with me. It was organized alphabetically by church and then by last name. She emailed me last week and said that was not working because "sometimes people don't know the name of the church." I wanted to ask who doesn't know, the people from the church, her and her staff, the volunteers who assist her, but I refrained. For a number of reasons, I just nod and agree whenever she says anything. Anyway, she wanted a list organized by denomination. So, I have had to go into my database and list a denomination for the nearly 200 churches I have listed.

Most are easy. If I don't know it, I can find it under the Yellow Pages of the phone book which lists churches by denomination. Sometimes, the church is not listed, however, and so I get on teh Interwebs and use the Google to find the answer. That led to an amusing find this morning.

I was looking up the Cornerstone Community church. While browsing the website of one of their branches, I found this beautiful nugget:

When one begins to study the Bible it doesn’t take long to determine what God values the most: he values himself above all else...

So apparently, God is like this guy:



I think God just became a lot cooler in my book. I do wonder about that church, though.

Is There No Truth In Beauty?

I know that this is what our fashion/beauty industry does, but it's still amazing to actually watch it in action.

Weekly Secret

PostSecret

Car Problems II: Son of Car Problems

Apparently, the feeling is mutual when it comes to my hatred of my car. The day after I wrote about it stalling on me while I was coming home from work, it did it again. Four times. In the same trip. Argh!

So, it's at the shop now. They've had it since Tuesday and I haven't heard from them, yet. I'm getting nervous that they will come back and tell me it's going to cost me some outrageous amount to get it fixed. I have such a burning desire to drive it off a cliff (without me in it).

In the meantime, I am borrowing my sister, Shawna's, vehicle. She just spent some $1500 or whatever getting it fixed. It will probably break down on me, too. I've already had the knob on the gear shift fall off and refuse to be put back on. Shifting without it is rather a pain.

Where's Scotty when I need him?