October 1, 2012

October 1st today...everyone has their favorite time of year, and this is mine.  The sports calendar is just perfect...football is starting, and baseball is moving into the postseason.  There is nothing like flopping on the couch in your sarong and catching some awesome drama while it unfolds.  On more personal and obscure sports, Australian Rules Grand Final was this past Saturday (amazing amazing) and in my youth, the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita would kick into gear.  My buddy Norm Facebooked an update from there the other day and the memory of many happy, mostly losing, days spent there came flooding back.  There may be no finer sporting event to watch than a turf race from the top of the hill at Santa Anita on the last race of the card, when the weather of a warm Fall day in So Cal is cooling down and you get that smell of the marine layer mixed with smog.  Then you have your last few bucks on a longshot that has to come in for you to be able to have dinner and drinks that night, but doesn't, yet your buddy who just one big takes you out anyway.  The northern hemisphere gets back into gear after a lazy summer and something big always happens.   The weather is both warm and cool, and you get to break out your entire wardrobe, many times in the same day.  And there is no question that the color scheme I am most comfortable (and look best) wearing is Autumn.

Am happy to report that the love of Fall seems to be continuing here.  Most importantly, the weather is turning...the last 2.5 months have been nothing short of Hell.  I was never cool...never...not with the AC blowing, or taking a shower with the faucet turned all the way to the right, or at the water park or beach.  From a body heat index, truly miserable.  The last few days have seen days in the 80's and nights in the 70's.  Carolyn and Betty (typically the coolest in body temperatures) were complaining of being cold at times the last couple of days.  Glorious.  Fall also finds the nastiness of Ghost Month completing and all the Evil Dead have been appeased for another year.  New happenings and reasons to celebrate are available too.  Last Friday was Confucius' b-day (Happy 2,563 big guy).  It was also the Mid-Autumn Festival last few days and there are a lot of good times and activities associated with it.  BBQ's, Dragon dances, fireworks and such all about town.  There have been fires galore as people that don't usually BBQ, break them out and end up setting their places on fire.  We recently purchased a BBQ and had our first one at home with family...American food, no fire, and nice to entertain and have family and friends in the house.  Most of Betty's family came (hilarious as always) and we were able to meet the niece of our good friends Megan and Stephen.  Tiffany is here for a semester studying and she came along with a new friend of hers from Paris to enjoy our hodgepodge of cultures while adding their own.  Hope they weren't too shocked by the locals penchant for honesty on the subjects of differing cultures ("Italians make the food, the Jews handle the money", etc.)  The girls left our place to go out dancing at some electo-dance party...how fun to be young and free and seeing the world with wide open eyes. 

So will definitely be adding the Confucius B-day BBQ to the list of must celebrate occasions going forward.  Not only is it the perfect time of year to throw a party, but I get to bust out two of my favorite bits of his philosophy:

The man who farts in church, sits in his own pew...

The man who drops his watch in the toilet has a crappy time...

Not sure if that second one is truly something he preached as they didn't have watches in 551BC, but still...

Just sent in my November ballot today...voted on all the Washington State stuff as well as President.  The first time I was able to vote for President was 1984 and my choices have been:

1984 - Reagan
1988 - Bush
1992 - Did not vote
1996 - Clinton
2000 - Bush
2004 - Bush
2008 - Obama

I did vote in 1992, but I could not decide between Bush, Clinton or Perot.  Walked into the voting booth still undecided, voted the full slate thinking I would go back to Prez and then forgot to do so.  To this day, am still not sure who I wanted then, but it turned out OK. 

My vote this time went to 4 more years of Obama.  He has certainly not been perfect, and am enjoying watching all the people that were convinced he was going to save the world squirm a little bit (and trust me you people were SO annoying in 2008), but this 2012 version of the GOP is way beyond anything that I've ever seen.  The candidate is the new definition of flip-flopper...I sorta thought he was moderate before, but his blatant cow-towing to the Tea Party ultra-conservative wing of the party has been disingenuuous at best, and more often just obsecene.  The GOP platform on social issues doesn't reflect many of my beliefs and I miss the days when the terms Compassionate and Moderate were used in conjunction with the term Conservative.  The day I finally decided to cast my vote for Obama came when Romney grandstanded on the riots in Egypt and Libya over that stupid video (note to the Muslims...knock it off).  Proved to me he was not only very un-Presidential, but downright dangerous.  The worst part is the characterization of Obama as totally incompetent (how?) and is both a Nazi and Communist (really...both?)  I really cannot understand a vote for that party right now and pray that the message that is sent on November 6th is that we have had enough of the anti-gay/women, uncompromising stance on any issue , Fox News propaganda mantra.  I want my GOP back.