Ill

I'm finally feeling normal again. What a relief!

For the past several days I've felt rather ill. Some kind of cold, or flu-like thing. I always relish feeling better after a minor illness like this. I feel as of I could take over the world.

Being sick, and having a baby in the house is an odd thing. For one, you can't just build a bubble around the child; it's just not practical. You don't want to get your child sick, but at the same time you need to take care of the baby and make sure he's fed, entertained, and clean. Entertaining baby is usually easy, but becomes a chore when all you want to do is sleep, and find some way of clearing your sinuses. I sympathize with my wife, who has had the brunt of taking care of the baby since I've been sick.

Interestingly, while my wife is now showing signs of the flu of doom, baby is just as well as can be. Odd, I figured it was a sure thing that he would get it. I'll count my blessings for that one.

Yesterday I realized we ran out of daytime cold medicine, so I figured I'd grab one of those 2-dose sample packs at the convenience store on the way to work. They didn't have anything I needed, so I headed to the local 24-hour drugstore. They have what I'm looking for, but it boasts "Now psuedoephedrine free". Fine, I'll go to the pharmacy counter and inquire about the real stuff. They have Nyquil with the real stuff, but not Dayquil. So, I grab a pack of the lesser stuff. The new decongestant isn't nearly as effective as the original kind, and I'm willing to sign a log book that will be examined by the DEA just to get the most effective medication.

Travelin'

We decided long ago that over the labor day weekend we would go up to Oklahoma City to visit my grandmother. This was our first time traveling with the baby, so this will be an interesting experiment. The way up wasn't too bad, and we had a rather nice visit. One of my aunts also arrived, and brought KFC for dinner. We had dinner then headed home. The way back was a bit more challenging as it was getting late, and the baby was entering his trademark fussy time of the day, which meant most of the trip home was punctuated with crying, and constant discussion as to whether we stop now or wait. He quieted, we waited. We passed one potential stopping area, and he'd start up again.

I also, on a wild lark decided to try stopping at one of those scenic turnouts. Now I understand why my dad never stopped at one when I begged him to. It was rather boring and the scenery was nothing to write home about. I took pictures anyway. We stopped at the Texas visitors center at around dusk and got a couple nice pictures, though, which sort of made up for it.

How to get people to vote your way

There's an ad spot airing right now which urges you to contact congress or face gas shortages like the 1970's. This law sounds bad right? What does it amount to? Stricter controls on the pricing of gasoline. As I have blogged about multiple times the petroleum companies are getting filthy rich while the rest of us are having to pay exorbitant prices for gasoline. They use varied excuses ranging everywhere from an imminent hurricane about to hit the shore (which never materialized), taxes (Yes, taxes have jumped sharply in a few days has been one of their excuses), changeover from winter to summer formula, and various others. The list goes on.

This latest ad makes the idea of price control, lower fuel tax and holding the petroleum industry accountable sound like a bad thing. This is an industry that keeps bringing in record profits. Don't listen to the ad, vote with your mind, not with your fears. This is also the industry that artificially adjusts supply, while demand remains virtually constant using a variety of excuses. Supply goes down, prices go up.

The petroleum industry is a cartel. For more examples of what a cartel can do for you, I suggest you visit your local jewlery store. Those shiny transparent things? They aren't so rare. Industrial diamonds are cheap, but the cartel would have you believe the diamond is a rare thing, and demand a high price. Not so, you see, they control the supply ...