Nordic Track. Rhymes with Laundry Rack.

Coincidence? I don't think so. But we have one. Now we can add that to the list of things we'll soon have in common with most Good American Consumers: we've owned, neglected, and then un-owned a Nordic Track. THANK GOODNESS we didn't pay one red cent for it. That lessens the sting a little. I am still mortally, morally, physically, spiritually and otherwise'ally opposed to Freecycle in all of it's hidden evil perpetuating our consumer crap culture. Inamajeezcrisamen.

NSSEA took up most of my week. After 8 years attending almost every Bike Week, I end up in the Educational Furniture industry. And where do they hold their hugest convention? Orlando. When? Bike week. Aside from a few Harley jackets on the plane, there was no actual Bike Week experienced, but I thought it strange. I DID love/miss the near-daily short torrential downpours in Florida. Florida is such a strange landscape, so overcast (I'm always there in March) and so eerily flat in every direction. And so soggy. Stomp on the ground and you'll have a little shoe-shaped lake come up. I give the whole state 10 years. Then Gainesville will be beachfront property and only fishes will be clubbin' in Miami. Global Warming 1, Timeshare Owners 0.

I painfully and miserably missed my newest and longest and most bestest friends (my wife & sons) all. Week. Long. I had to travel on a Saturday, see. So I'm wondering if anyone's going to offer me a comp. day, see. Then it occurs to me that I ALWAYS traveled/worked events on weekends for Honda. And I never asked for the days back. I always got some SWAG or tickets to a race or something and never ever ever even once balanced the value of that special treat against the value of the time I was missing with my family. I guess today I wouldn't be nearly the rep I was then, huh? Weird how things change.

I'm so grateful that I ran over that rabbitt and made those changes 3.5 years ago. And here we are in the midst of another great change, with me ending one career and starting another. And AK is finally thinking it's time for her too to make a change. And I'm finding the Pointy Haired Boss thing less-than-rewarding. My gripe is surely influenced by all the tradeshow work I just did, but still I'm thinking of seeing what it'd take to become a schoolteacher. It probably pays the same as I'm getting now to start. BUT SUMMERS OFF, PEOPLE! Sum. Mers.

Off.

Field trips. Waterslides. Camping. Memories to last a lifetime. Memories to keep me company in my old age low-rent care facility, because no matter WHAT I do when I grow up it's getting a little late for 401K Palm Beach retirement fantasies.

S'what I'm saying. Know what I'm saying? Just saying.

Weather landed all up in the USA today, making travel home inconvenient and interesting, but not as bad as it could have been. Heaven help those going to or through Ohio today. When I finally got home it was just wet and icky, most all of the snow being melted. Pennsylvania was looking butt-ugly for sure. But by evening it had cooled enough that all ugliness was being coated in white. I hope it lasts!

AK is giddy with excitement about Spring and all the things she will grow this year. I must admit I'm excited about our own CROP of super ultimate mega fresh sweet corn. Anything more than last year would be a bonus. AK did so much work, yet our canning shelves are sparsely populated.

Politics AK put a Hillary sticker on "our" Taurus :(. Also an optimistic "Clinton/Obama '08" sticker. On one hand, it doesn't get much lefter than a college town, so we're not likely to get run off the road for this (I had my life threatened in rural Oregon one time, and was told most likely it was due to me a)riding a motorcycle and b)having a CA plate on the motorcycle). But I've never ever ever put a bumper sticker on any vehicle so I'm a little confuzzled and conflicted about it. Regardless of the whole "you don't discuss religion or politics" (and wasn't money part of that too?) thing . . . they are tacky and hard to clean off! But back on what to discuss or not discuss -- it's just someplace I'm not comfortable going lately. More than any other time in my life, I'm confident enough in who I am and where I stand to not need to talk about it with anyone. I talk about it to my wife because I'm an extrovert and still need the words coming out of my mouth to solidify/clarify the ideas. But otherwise, even with all the new people in my life at work and at church, even with such exciting things going on in politics, I'm quite content to talk about it (or not) with no statement or commitment to one side, candidate or party. It's sad, but saying "I'm a democrat" is giving people one more excuse to generalize about me or otherwise pigeonhole me as this-or-that type of person. And you just KNOW I'm not saying the word "Mormon" to anyone! I think I've said "Latter Day Saints" at work in passing once or twice. But I don't think they make that connection in Philipsburg. By the look on their faces, I might have said "New Ministry of Presbyterian Unified Unitariate Methodarians".

(so I just said how I don't want to talk about it? Now commences the talking about it. Good thing no one reads this blog. . . .)

I don't know where I stand in the Dem primaries, but I am registered that way and PA might make a difference for the first time in awhile so I'd better figure it out. I have much to say about all the candidates' presentation skills and speechwriters :). And I do listen to NPR's "On Point" everyday. The show is just as likely to be about a Portuguese dissident Haiku-writing performance artist as it is likely to be about the elections. But it's still 20 minutes more of in-depth coverage than I'd get otherwise.

I just deleted 3 paragraphs here. To be concise, I think Obama is more electable vs. McCain but I think Hillary would be a better president. What to do come primaries?

Maybe I should become a republican because I have more faith in capitalism than I do in bureaucracy most days? Or maybe I should be a libertarian because I'd like to keep all the money I earn and think I'm more capable of putting it where it belongs than the government is? As with most things in life, I'll have to be what I am for reasons that go deeper than sound-bytes or doctrine. Deep deep down, down where I can't really even argue the point, I believe we are who we are because of money or the lack of money. I tend to see all strife & conflict in the world as a result of financial conditions more than political or religious struggles. So I understand why I have this chip on my shoulder about people with money (and I had it even when I was one of those people. . . ). But for all my maturity and business education and rock-solid faith in markets and Ayn Rand fantasies and even family-values'ism . . . I started out po'. That chip on my shoulder is awfully small anymore -- but I imagine it will always be there. And that's what puts me where I am.

Like our decision on who to vote for, in the end it's little to do with policy or stances on issues. It's who we like. And while we're given masterminded sound bytes to explain WHY we like one or the other, we like who we like for those reasons that are hardest to understand and sometimes harder to acknowledge. My chip doesn't make any sense, and my chip has NO IDEA what's best for the future of our country, and I wish I could be more objective. I hope to teach my progeny that the objective work is of utmost importance, it must be done, and all arguments must be considered on their rational merits. Because then we're best prepared to see -- and embrace -- the other part of our vote.