And this part of the country (Well, I guess it’s the whole country, eh?) is all geared up for the Patriots to vanquish the Giants (although I guess there are a FEW Giants fans out there…:-) )and emerge (as is now becoming the norm, it seems) the champions yet again. What is refreshing to me is that I haven’t seen this mentioned AT ALL here on 3FC. Now it may be that I only, in fact, visit a few forums on the site, and only read a small number of blogs, but nonetheless, I see none of the frenzy that seems to exist in the *real* world here, and for that, I am incomprehensibly thankful.

I should probably say that DH is not a sports fan, so we won’t be hosting - or rushing off to - a super bowl party, so I really have nothing (personal) to complain about, but the whole thing annoys me nonetheless. And, of course, it’s an impotent annoyance - I mean, it’s not like a group of anti-fans is about to rise up in protest or anything - but all the same, the way people spend thousands of dollars for tickets, for travel, for accomodations, for “official” jackets and caps and headbands and bumper stickers and for all I know, toilet paper with their team’s logo (Okay, maybe not. Maybe that would be disrespectful of their hero-players) is downright scary to me. Okay, I know I can’t really offer up any intelligent sociological commentary because I haven’t, after all, done an in-depth study of this phenomenon, and they (national games) have certainly been around for kazillions of years; the Mayans and Aztecs we know had a ball game that attracted the entire populace (I think they may have thrown the loser off the top of a temple or something, but I don’t remember what I read about that) and most likely something similar existed in the Sumerian civilizations. Some fuzzy, yet persistent buzzing in the back of my brain keeps jabbing me with the thought that sports (like most forms of mass entertainment) are designed to DIVERT OUR ATTENTION from the fact that we are living out our lives in service to huge corporate conglomerates…working every day to contribute to the massive flow of money and resources that leave the pockets of the *little folks* and, quick as a wink - quick as the click of a mouse - line the pockets of the modern equivalent of the old “robber barons”. I heard recently on the radio that Exxon made a $40 BILLION dollar profit last year. We pay exhorbitantly at the gas pump because, we are told, the cost of a barrel of oil has risen exponentially. Really? If that’s the case - if we’re paying more because they’re paying more, then why have their profits soared through the roof like that while our wallets grow ever flatter? But it’s not just oil by any means. <looking around> I’m betting that everyone who reads this is paying more for health insurance than they were a few years ago. Well, I know I certainly am. And, again, listening to the radio on my way into work in the morning while driving over the Mass turnpike (for which I pay a total of $7.50 a day despite the fact that these millions of dollars in tolls every year still don’t seem to be enough to for them fill the huge potholes or create a traffic flow pattern that doesn’t have us all backed up for mile after mile) I have learned that the CEO of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a principal NON-PROFIT HMO here in Massachusetts earns over  $1 Million a year, but beyond THAT, the chairman of their board is earning upwards of $20 Mil! And at the same time, they are denying women procedures that could help them survive, rather than die of breast cancer…and of course they are denying many other claims as well. While they pay themselves enough to live lives of what, to any human being with even the slightest inkling of a social conscience would be embarrassing luxury. The irony of people in limousines driving past other people struggling to keep warm by wrapping themselves in layers of newspaper and rags and living beneath a cardboard box never fails to make me wonder about the future of humanity.

Okay, okay, I can’t address EVERY social inequity here in this blog, so let  me get back to my original rant about sports. In truth, I have nothing against sports, per se. Healthy minds in healthy bodies - that’s the ideal, yes? But the way we start training our kids practically from birth to excell at sports - the way colleges offer WAY better scholarships and perks to athletes than to just good students, just the money that is generated by professional sports and the few people that actually ever benefit from it - what? Players who are making multi-million dollar salaries, living lives of luxury and ease off the sweat-stained dollar bills that are handed over by “the little people” - the working class - in order to be entertained; in order to have hope that in some way, in some very vicarious way, they can drink a few beers, nosh on a some chips and dip, and momentarily identify with the “champions” before slogging back to work Monday morning so they can pay the rent and have some food on the table. Oh, sure, a lot of these players - and the teams themselves - give to charity. Very little, in comparison to their earnings of course, but enough so that they don’t have to worry too much about taxes.

Blah. Double blah.

Rant over.  My apologies to sports fans everywhere.

And now, my schizoid self will jump from THAT diatribe to talking about what DH & I did last night. Wonderful evening, really. A group of friends up in New Hampshire - I’ve mentioned them before; we usually get together for several long weekends every summer - had a little “gathering”. Pot luck, and come prepared for long, fervent discussions about all the typically “off limits” subjects - religion & politics, for example, and if you have any sort of talent whatsoever - singing, dancing, juggling, recitation, reading, storytelling, poetry (anything) be ready to burst into song, spring out of your seat and tapdance, or assume a totally foreign persona (Like Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire”) and perform for the assemblage, in between which you might find yourself chatting with a rocket scientist (really) whose claim to fame, at least in our circles, is her brownies, which are delicious, and whenever she is asked for the recipe, she casually throws out, “Oh, it takes a rocket scientist to make those…”, a quantum physicist (really) who “plays with light” for a living, or Wylda, a retired corporate lawyer who chucked it all when she was ahead, bought 30 acres of virginal forest up in northern NH, and built a castle for herself overlooking a ravine. She’s had new business cards printed for herself that list her address as “Utopia”.

Great fun. Home at midnight, and a bit dead on my feet this morning, but still energized enough to finish off the few touch-ups of painting in my bathroom-spa and take out pork chops to thaw for dinner.

Daisy, our big, furry gray lethargic diva of a cat is stretched out across my bed - and when I blinked, I SWEAR I saw fishnet stockings on her hind legs, a feathered boa around her neck and a box of bon-bons within paws reach. Some people (cats) have the life, eh? Oh, gawd, Ruby Jean! I don’t know WHAT we’d do if there were a whole herd of them outside our front door…actually, I’ve heard that they dislike vinegar, too. I hope that works for you. That, and keeping yours inside for the duration. I tell you, it’s just not safe out there anymore….even the CATS are forming street gangs, for pity sake! Years ago, I had two great big black cats - brothers from the same litter; they looked like panthers and easily weighed 30+ pounds apiece - and they refused to be kept in the house. They were gone all day, came home in the evening for their supper and a warm bed, and were perfectly congenial and valued members of our family in that they kept the field mouse population within manageable limits and allowed themselves to be pampered and petted when they felt like it. No herds out there, though. My suspicion is that they may have been the eqivalents of the neighorhood’s “junkyard dogs”, scaring away any potential contenders for the title. Cats are tremendously independent. It may be that they are best kept indoors (as we do with the ones we have now) but there are those who have a wanderlust about them, and keeping them in would be downright cruel. You’ll get no lectures from THIS quarter, Ruby m’luv.

Had a long chat with my sis this morning, and other than feeling like a truck has run over her chest, and still having oxygen tubes “stuck up her nose in a very unflattering manner”, she seems in good spirits and recovering well.

Are there Kohl’s stores all over the country? Hmmm. Well, I really like them - their clothes - and Oh, MY, they are having some amazing sales! When I went grocery shopping yesterday, my car just automatically took me the extra few miles to Kohl’s where they were advertising “early bird” sales until 1:00 in the afternoon with “up to 80% off!” Now, they are one store that typically really does have drastc reductions when they say they are going to, unlike some places that advertise these huge sales, and then when you get there, there are three things on sale, none of which you’d have your dog wear, and they’ve only knocked the price down by a dollar or two anyway. I bought a GORGEOUS black velvet jacket at Kohl’s yesterday - fitted, beautiful cut, looks great and makes me look at least a few sizes smaller than I really am - and I already have a calf-length black velvet skirt AND palazzo pants with a different top. so this expands my “dress up” wardrobe considerably. The price? $15.  80% off. Just like they advertised. In total, I ended up spending a little over $70 and got about $400 worth of clothes. Well, $400 at the original price, which I would never in my life pay anyway, because I know that the mark-up on clothes is downright over the top. Anyway, some of you may remember a few blogs back when DH lost his freaking glasses (which he has since found) and had to replace them for more than $300, and I vowed to indulge myself a little in protest. I have followed through on that commitment, folks, and feel ever so much better for having done it!

I start COUNTING CALORIES again tomorrow. Ugh. But I must…one of the women actually did a belly dance last night, and I was struck by the fact that although my belly doesn’t stick out a lot or anything (control-top panty hose seem to be all I need to keep it well….controlled) I STILL couldn’t bare it in public like that without feeling horribly exposed and embarrassed. Maybe I’m too old for it to matter, but I really would rather be an agile old fart than a sedentery one, so I guess <sigh> that I’ll be back to dieting tomorrow - and back on my bike as soon as the weather pemits.

Life is okay. There was a bouquet of daffodils on the table last night. It cheered me considerably for some reason.

Love,

Z