The Zeroes

I think "The Zeroes" is a fine name for the decade just now passing.

It makes more sense to me than "The Aughts," because we don't really say the word "aught" that much.

My dad used to say it a lot, like in an old time voice, "I remember the summer of Aught Three," even though he wasn't that old. He might be telling a story. And of course we used it in reference to a famous gun, the "Thirty Aught Six."

It has an old fashioned sound to it. Whereas "zero" is exactly what the main number is from 2000-2009. So "The Zeroes" makes a lot of sense, and sounds good too.

As for everyone saying the Zeroes were terrible, yes, they had their bad side. One, we suffered with George W. Bush for most of them. Those were gruesome, terrible political times. Now we have the execrable Republicans trying to make a comeback (God forbid). Please, don't let them spoil the next decade like they did the past one!

Our big hope for the 2010s is that the Democrats rule and reign as Democrats, not Joe Lieberman- Ben Nelson-Republican wannabes. And that the Democrats always have a spine of steel when it comes to sticking up for themselves against the shameless, worthless, miserable Republicans. The Republicans, after all, are completely and totally disgusting.

May President Obama keep his head about him when the Republicans are crowing about the latest thing, whatever their hypocrisy didn't allow them to crow about when Bush was president. Wow, they're worthless.

Let's get the 21st century kicked off again, a restart, and make actual progress in the country and world. We can do it. We can make the next 10 years better than the last!

Personally, the last 10 years were basically OK for me. Not the Golden Years, but, like always, I was happy enough.

God was good, let's say. And will still be good tomorrow.

Happy New Year. The first decade I really remember turning over on was the '70s. I was a bit young to think about it that much in 1959. But I surely knew. It's tough to believe it's been 40 years ago that it was 1970, but that's the way time flies!

Have a great one!

The Next Month

It seems like it was just yesterday that it was Halloween. But of course it's been an entire month. Time flies.

A month from today will also come, at least for those who are still living when it gets here. If history is any guide, I will also be here. Even though it's true I could be hit by a train, a car, a flying bullet or something and not be here. If I'm not here, thinking how the last nine billion years of history simply flew by, future time will fly by even faster than it does with me here.

December's always a hugely busy month for me, with Christmas and everything associated with it. We'll be traveling some -- that's busy. Staying here, staying there, in a motel, eating in restaurants, etc. Very busy stuff.

By the time a month from today gets here I won't be done with it yet. Because some of my traveling will also be on New Year's Eve. So I'll only be almost done, not entirely done.

What a lot there is that I have to do in the next month! And it's going to fly by and for a lot of it I'm going to be flying by the seat of my pants. But all this, too, shall pass.

It's A Matter Of Time

All my chores have overrun my life. It seems like that. They definitely take my time.

To mow the yard, over a half hour right there. No way to make it faster unless I was running. If I had one of those robot mowers that's always out there munching, of course it would go haywire and would be eating the neighbor's field. So I mow on!

Then the dishes. Then the catbox. Then the dog out for the last time today, which I haven't done yet, now that I think of it. Then the garbage. Then some exercises. Then get a little cleaned up (from mowing the yard). Then to bed. The day's shot right there.

Too much time gets chewed up.

Ten Minutes Here And There

"I only got four minutes to save the world!" What could I do with 10?

The minutes are counting down. No matter how much stuff I get done in advance, when this moment gets here I'm always pressed for time. Unexpected stuff pops up, taking people places, doing errands for people, helping to guide the irresponsible back to the path of a tolerable existence.

And that's what's on tap for this morning. It makes me wonder, is your existence really hanging by the thread called me? So I have approximately 10 minutes till I'm off, like Superman, to the rescue.

In 10 minutes I could listen to a couple songs. But I'm writing this, although I could listen to songs at the same time. Except I'm not. I could go double check everything to make sure I'm really ready, except I think I am. I could read a couple pages of something, maybe a few verses of something to help guide my thinking. I've already done that, so I think I'm good to go.

The time's ticking down, except there's about five minutes left, more or less. It's still not too late to do something super productive in those five minutes.