Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Posted by Hello


This is Cat. If you know her you will notice 2 very important things.
1) She is wearing a dress and
2) She is wearing a corset.

Now I know you are thinking that this is a sign of the apocalypse, but just calm down. Take a deep breath. It will be ok... just relax...

No wait, we're doomed, she's wearing a freakin' corset! (Thanks for being a good sport cat.)

Short and sweet

I need to stay at home more because the government seems to do some dumb-ass things whenever I leave town. Last time, a war broke out. This time, the Federal government passed a law it had no right to pass. In a remarkable display of hypocrisy and heartstrings Congress passed a (unconstitutional)law to take the Terri Schiavo case to the federal level, despite it being gone over ad infinitum in the Florida court system.

Despite the fact that Terri's husband is her guardian, despite the fact that she is a vegetable (as determined by 5 doctors), despite the fact that she stated she would not want to live that way, her family and many lawmakers and religious zealots feel that this woman is simply needs the right kind of treatment and would rather spend the rest of her life lying in a bed, fed by a tube as she has for the past 15 years.

They state that removing the tube is cruel, as she is essentially dying of dehydration. In this I am in agreement. This is not the way to go. She is able to breathe and her heart functions on its own. There is no 'plug' to pull. The answer is simple. A massive morphine dose. This is quick and painless.

Allow me to take a moment here and make a statement, witnessed by you the public. In the event I am injured in such a way as my brain functions are destroyed or damaged beyond recovery, I DO NOT wish to be kept on ANY form of life support. I am gone already. The bed I am lying in and the resources used to keep me alive could go to someone else who might recover. My organs could help save a dozen lives. Further, if my autonomic functions are still functioning, I DEMAND that someone take me out. Morphine, pillow over the face, whatever it takes. I, nor any member of my family will press charges (the state is another mater).

Doctors are limited by the Hippocratic oath, which forbids them from doing harm. But what is more harmful? A non-life in a vegetative state? Starvation/dehydration? Or morphine? Let me even expand this. I firmly believe in the right to die. I support Dr. Kevorkian and his attemots to let people take their own life with dignity in cases where there is no cure and death will be slow and agonizing. Have you ever heard of Lou Gehrigs disease? Take a look and tell me that sounds like fun. Life for the sake of life is a truly naive and stupid way to look at the world.

I know that some people feel very passionately about this on both sides. If I have offended you I am sorry. I love life. I strive every day to enjoy it to the fullest. But I feel that once the quality of my life is significantly diminished, it is an insult to prolong it. And if you feel the same way, you better write it down and get it witnessed. You better make sure someone other than your wife/husband knows your wishes. Rossana and I have already done so.

As one congressman said "I estimate the cost of casting this special vote to be about 5 million dollars, I wonder how much healthcare we could have spent that on, how much education."

Here endeth the rant...

The Return of the KING baby...

We arrived home to a cold house. We had turned off all the heaters and it took a while to get the place back up to temperature. We kept a fire going most of the day and it felt great. There aren't a large number of campfires at Gulf Wars for reasons that elude me.

We have just enough time to do some laundry, fight our way through a massive stack of bills and mail and repack for our trip to North Carolina for a Ren-Faire. I did manage to steal a few hours yesterday to work with Grim on the shower/trailer project for this years Pennsic. The idea here is to convert a big-ass wooden box trailer I have into a portable showerhouse. The current process involves lots of different parts, plastic tubes and hoses which get taken home by different people at the end of the event. I have a van now so I'm donating the trailer to the camp. The idea is to make the entire shebang a self contained unit. Pull it up, hook up hoses and we're go od-to-go.
We dragged the trialer into the shop to see how bad things were. They were not pretty. I bought this trailer about 10 years ago and it has served me well. But weather and many miles have taken their toll. A leaf spring has broken and that has caused the axle to shift and a tire to be destroyed. We (and by 'we' I mean mostly Grim)used a grinder and my impact wrench (TOOLS!!)to remove tire and spring and make some inquiries for replacement part costs. Once the trailer is in rolling condition, we can begin to design the shower part of this thing in earnest.

Also, while we were gone, the guys we hired to do some drywalling finished a 24 foot Moorish Arch in the Moroccan room. It looks super cool. I can;t wait to paint it and begin decorating the room.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Fun mcfunfun

Fun mcfunfun

We're on our way home now. The event was a success. Wednesday and
Thursday were brutal, with the temperature dropping to 37 degrees. The
weather warmed up on friday and we pulled in some good sales. I got to
see the start of a fortress battle that made use of ballista and
catapults which was pretty damn cool.

We packed up Saturday night and tried to put some miles under our
wheels. On sunday we were slowed by a large chunk of metal that pierced
our rear tire, causing some tense driving moments. I managed to limp the
van to an exit where we learned that no one ever gets flat tires on
sunday, so there's no reason for any of the four tire places to be open.
(Insert swearing here).

I swapped out the crucified tire and got the spare on without too much
trouble. It was an unwelcome delay. We still need to stop at the Ohio
ren booth to see if it survived the winter unscathed. Its getting cold
again the further we go north. Where the hell is spring?