Countdown to Gage & Taylor

Work, work, work and work. That's all I seem to do anymore.

Although, it should be noted that work is now considered an out-dated concept in this fast-flailing country. Why, if I had my sh*t together, I'd be a card-carrying Democrat sitting here waiting on my thrice-extended unemployment benefits. Or my electronic welfare transfer.

In less than 24 hours (I hope), I will be on vacation. More accurately, I will be enjoying what they now call a stay cation. In most cases, Americans eschew a traditional vacation for the stay-at-home variety because they're broke, unemployed, about to be foreclosed upon or all of the above.

But in my case, I'm staying home for a week because my first-born, Peace Rebecca, her hard-working, devoted husband, Scott (who sucks at fantasy football) and the firstborn grandkids, Gage Andrew & Taylor Kate, will be arriving in Wilkes-Barre direct from Tennessee sometime on Saturday.

In a word, I'm excited. I'm excited not by the breaching of the distance that divides us, or by the many months that have passed since last I had laid eyes on them. I'm excited because, in my mind, they'll be back where they belong...with me.

For those of you not new to my usual madness, you'll remember Gage as the first toddler to ever grow up on the localized Internet. Literally.

Before he made his escape from Pennsylvania, his picture and his blog-recorded exploits appeared on the local Internet more often than did the mainstream press. If I had a dime for every time a complete stranger recognized him and acknowledged with a smile and a hello, I'd be able to bribe every Democrat congressman this side of the Silver Springs bath houses into voting against ther own self interests again. And much unlike what has gone on of late, they'd all be bribed with my money, not your money taken from you against your will, and without your consent.

Smarmy? Yeah, perhaps.

But this is the lead-in to an event I'm supposed to attend tomorrow night, wherein the self-appointed preachers will preach to the loving and adoring choir, and then the loving and adoring choir will preach back at the self-appointed preachers. And the end result will be that being easily-led will score some serious, but vacuously hollow popularity points with the like minded. And believe it or not, in this long-depressed and long-repressed culm pile, they call that being progressive. As if.

One other aspect of that event will be the schmoozing with the elected and the folks hoping to be elected later this year. To be honest, except for the few, I have no stomach for talking to the elected about much of anything. The Fedrule Govmint is expanding, out of control and bankrupt. The State of Pennsylvania is down $2 billion in revenues from 2008 to 2009. And all of the locally elected, 'cept for the rarest of the rare--the ethical--are headed off to the hoosegow.

Seems to me that the best thing I have going for me in the hours ahead is the arrival of the amazing grandkids, Taylor & Gage. And I'm all good with that. Real good.

Speaking of the NEPA Choir event, I talked to Mayor Tom Leighton earlier today and he said he's in, but only from 5-6 pm. Sorry, but he has another event to attend.

As for the local choir boys, I'm looking forward to hanging with them.

Why? Well, because we put ourselves far out there. Good, bad, indifferent or insufferably unintelligent, we do what the faint-of-heart anonymous don't have necessary the gonads to do. We paint a target on ourselves.

We blog.

Buh-bye