In a couple hours at about 8 AM I’m going to let the doctors check to see if that polyp they found six years ago has got any company now. It’s up there in that special area where so many politicians stick their heads. I was supposed to go back a year ago but I almost skipped the third time because its so unpleasant. Not the oscopy part but the part that requires drinking a gallon of salt water beforehand to flush out anthing that will interfere with good visibility. I don’t even mind the purge that much. Sure that aspect of the flu is unpleasant but at least it doesn’t kick in the the gag reflex.
I’ve had a couple of anonymous people call me a liberal hack recently. I agree with the first half of that accusation. Hell, Abe Lincoln was a liberal by my definition. He was open and tolerant of Irish, Germans, Indians, Blacks, Catholics and everyone under the umbrella of the Declaration of Independence’s cry that “all men are created equal. Sure that phase seems to leave women out but I’ve always read it as all humans….. It just took a hundred 142 years for a majority of men to catch up with that thinking. There is still a lot of mental processing going on in both men’s and women’s heads about their respective roles in our still evolving democracy.
Its been a week of emptying myself out. On Thursday I donated my 99th pint of blood. I avoided work that day as per instructions but I helped set up four stages of scaffolding on my church Friday and on Saturday helped put up six oddly shaped protective storm windows to protect some fancy windows on the bell tower. I had helped make paper templates of them last spring for the window factory. I’ve been nervous all summer about whether I got them right. I did.
Since returning to Duluth from France I’ve resumed studying French. Now its more for the challenge than any plans to return to France. I heard a lot from Duluth’s students over the past four years about our language program cut backs while sitting on the School Board. I have to say that I think I’ve learned as much on my cell phone over the past nine months as most kids learn in their first two years. That seems to me to be a very good and inexpensive model to follow.
I’ve taken some stabs writing a book since I’ve gotten back. I still keep vacillating over just what to write. Al lot of it may depend on the outcome of the midterm elections. Will the Trump discredited Republican Party own all three branches of our government when the dust settles. I don’t think so. I hope not. The blue collar anti NAFTA voters who went for Trump may not realize that it was his Republican Party that treated their union jobs so cavalierly in the name of free trade. Or maybe they do. Their support of Trump has turned all the free trade Republicans into hypocrites who know they have to side with Trump or be run over in a primary.
This morning I confirmed what a few friends had told me. I won 10% of the Republican primary votes against Hockey Saint Stauber with virtually no campaigning. I’m not sure if Ballotopedia has the actual latest results or not but its good enough for me. The results weren’t available the day after the election so I forgot about them to turn my full attention on getting ready for my trip to France. Still, I am happy with myself for stating my objections to any Trump lap dog.
The latest New York Times survey shows Stauber pulling away from the democrat Radinovich. I’ve always said the race was Stauber’s to lose. The only issue will be who turns out to vote. In the primary all the DFL congressional candidates out polled both Stauber and me on the Republican side by 69,000 votes to 50,000 votes. That suggests to me that Radinovich isn’t out of the picture yet but all those Koch Brother ads I see ten of everyday on Facebook may be turning voters around to Stauber. If he’s elected I’m counting on his being in the minority….until I can take a crack at him again in the next primary. I haven’t ruled that out. If I do it will be a full court press not a rose garden campaign.
I’ll proof read this later. Gotta get to the clinic.
