Random Thoughts – 3/7

There is no worse non-life-threatening affliction in my opinion than allergies. I have been fortunate in my life to suffer nothing more than the occasional cold or flu or fever and nothing worse than some assorted broken bones. I left New Mexico and lived in Arizona from 2001-2005 and when I returned to the Albuquerque area I was met with severe allergies that I never before experienced. My reactions have returned this weekend and have been quite crippling. I have not been able to breathe through my nose, have a sore throat and headache. Zyrtec, Allegra and Zicam, nothing has helped. I hope that I can get this taken care of in a Doctor’s appointment I have scheduled later this week.

Heather Wilson is running for U.S. Senator next year. I still prefer the not as of yet running Doug Turner but Wilson is definitely candidate 1a and will make an excellent Senator if elected. Congressman Heinrich is supposedly running and would be a horrible Senator if elected and we can only hope that he abandons his House seat to run only to lose in the end.

All the talk about potential 2012 presidential candidates huddling in Iowa or New Hampshire makes me very politically grumpy. It is asinine that these two states effectively determine the general election candidates for president. The voting rights act, a relic from a much different time and place, is renewed even though it’s only purpose is to allow meddling lawyers in the justice department to micro-manage imaginary problems while two states get to pick from the full palette of candidates forcing their preferences on the rest of the country. I don’t care what ridiculous reason is given; no state should be allowed to have their primary so much earlier than other states. If these states want to hold their primary incredibly early they should be barred from releasing results until the rest of the states can.

When ever, in a business sense, is it acceptable to answer a question with a repeated statement that has nothing to do with the question or with the response ‘I guess’? I spent almost an hour today on the phone asking what I thought was a simple question and receiving an irrelevant statement containing information that I already know as a response. So I had to restate and re-wrap and finally restated what I thought and when I sought agreement was told ‘I guess”. I already knew what I already knew and didn’t know what I didn’t know so I asked the question and belligerent responses containing what I already know was all I got. Maybe it’s the allergies causing me to not say what I think I’m saying, making it so that I am asking something that is basically incomprehensible. Being allergic certainly does make me even grumpier in my dealings with people who absolutely refuse to write anything down or answer what should be a simple question definitively.