A Stream of Consciousness Before Heading to the Pond...

• By: Mo Morrissey
• On: 07/12/2008 01:03:02
• In: Random
• Comments: 5

I've missed quite a bit over the last week.  I wanted to write my own statement denying a relationship with Alex Rodriguez, but the spirit really didn't move me on Monday.  I mean if Madonna can deny a relationship with A-Rod, so can I.  In fact, I think it would be great if the 300 Million other people in this country who don't maintain any sort of relationship with him should release a statement to the press.

I LOVE Madonna's statement too.  She doesn't say she loves her husband, doesn't say that they're sticking together no matter what their problems may be - no, she says they're not planning to get divorced.  Oh.  THAT, my friends, is where the real tabloid story is. 

If you thought mail service in the US stinks, how about what the post offices in the Netherlands smell like with a couple of months worth of rancid milk hanging around - about 10,000 liters of the stuff.  Seems Germans farmers have decided it is a good idea to mail milk along to the EU parliment to protest low prices.  Apparently as milk expires, it expands, causing cartons to break open.  Oh man, is there much worse than the smell of rancid milk?  Jimminy Crickets - that smell is awful.  And how long would it have to be there for the cartons to break?  The whole thing is just so...bizarre.

For the readers of my blog, you know why the spirit didn't really move me on Monday to write.  It just so happens that today  in the Freakonomics blog, an article of some relevance to my own past week was published.  Called "End of Days," it is a discussion of end-of-life medical care.  Of particular interest to me was the tid-bit on Susan Sontag, who passed away from MDS - the same disease my father had.  Just that little bit of the story told me all I really needed to know about my father and his character.  How he handled himself and his final days with grace and aplomb.  I am so proud of him after reading that...as if I needed another reason to be proud of him.

His character was such that once you commited to a course of action, you stick with it.  If you say you're going to retire, you should do so.  Mr. Favre would do well not to commit to one course of action without first making sure it's what he wants in his heart - once you ring a bell, you can't unring it.  By asking for his release, Favre places the Packers in a really difficult bind: after having spent several seasons on Favre watch - giving him whatever time he needed to reach a decision, he finallly made the decision to retire and the organization responded appropriately...only to now be placed in a no win situation.  I've long been a Brett Favre fan, but I have to say how disappointed I am in him today.

Last, sometime back, I wrote an article on increasing gas prices and what the break even point would be for me to take the train to work: Gas at about $4.50 a gallon.  I will say, however, that if on the Fitchburg line there was some 26-year old doing pole dances, while not accepting tips no less, to protest....whatever, who cares...I'd probably buy a "charlie card" tomorrow.  (the Charlie Card, is the fare collection system now in place).   I have to believe that while my dad would strenuously disapprove of Mr. Favre's turnabout, and while he was not much for the odd protest here and there, he would most certainly have approved of this one.

Speaking of tomorrow, the Mo family heads to New Hampshire for our yearly getway, this year a little sadder, and desperately in need of some emotional healing and together time.  I expect we will spend ample time remembering our Dad/Father-in-Law/Papa and processing our own sense of loss.  We've spent this past week in bereavement, we will spend next week in healing.  This is good.  If I can get a post or two written from the keyboard of a BlackBerry,  I will, but let's not count on it shall we?  I might be overly enthralled with one of the two television stations we get there - from Maine...

Cheers folks.  Thank you for your kind words, expressions of sympathy, and all around good vibes I've received all week.  They mean so much to me, and I will cherish them always.