A River's water of thoughts

My mom went to Kerrville Monday because my grandma was having surgery on Tuesday.

My grandpa had checkups and a colonoscopy a few months back and they removed some pallups(?) and discovered something in his stomach. It turned out to be a tumor so they scheduled a surgery to remove it before it caused cancer.

The surgery was supposed to be early Tuesday morning but because of setbacks, being overrun with other issues and stuff the surgery didn't take place until 5:30pm.

Mom called me and the surgery went good and he went into recovery. This afternoon I called to see how things went. Last night was bad. He was in a lot of pain because of the bloating/gas that they did because of the type of surgery?

Mom and grandma had stayed at the hospital over the night and they got up and walking to help expell things.

I just got off the phone with mom and he is doing better...but still this was major surgery, even if it was done larscoptically, and he is 81 years old. Grandma is staying with him in the hospital and mom went to their place to sleep.

Good news is that my mom's sick computer got fixed by the marine buddy of my brothers AND he's offered to put the ram into my computer if I buy it.

So my mom kidnapped me early Sunday morning to take me to go visit some relatives that flew in to visit my grandparents.

I was in a bitchy mood and I wanted to stay home and play on the computer but I got talked into it. Basically it was because my grandparents are 80 years old and I don't know when I will see them again. So I went, it wasn't that bad.

I plan on making a post with pictures later on. The RV resort my grandparents live in is really nice and while they bought the mobile house they live in they pay only 200 bucks a month for renting the land it rests on.

I had to play nice with my great aunt sue, she's a Methodist preacher and AVID watcher of FoxNews...so you know where she stands on issues. Yesterday, before we left, was the most time I spent with her since I was young. The majority of the time that my mom's cousins (the relatives who came to visit grandma and grandpa) were there she was at her little trailer or with her boyfriend. Which considering how grandma and aunt sue get in political fights (grandma likes Obama and aunt Sue likes Palin) it was probably for the best.

Yet I do wonder what she thought of this:


I know that is a Methodist preacher, she officiated one my cousins wedding, and she is peaceful. But she is so far to the right about things...for instance, she is one of those 'birther' people.

I have four sections of my family who are right-wingers. My mom's sister and her husband and kids (except one cousin is liberal like me), my mom's brother and his wife and kids, my grandma's sister and her husband, my eldest brother and his family (he's career navy...but he's a bit radical as well) and maybe my youngest brother (hard to tell if he really believes this stuff or not).

It seems as if the only ones who are liberal are my grandparents, my mom's cousins who visited, my mom and me and my stepdad and my second eldest brother and his wife. We are the 'sane' ones in the family.

So in this these times of abortion doctors getting murdered, this holocaust museum shooting, the Obama 'birthers' who are now getting more radical (how many death threats has the President received?), Iran's presidential election, Pakistan's newest bombing, Iraq getting more violent, Afghanistan, North Korea....it feels daunting and to be honest a bit scary.

To prevent fighting in the family there's a rule about not speaking about politics (my eldest brother is currently not speaking to my grandmother)...but isn't the time to speak out?

I saw a newspaper the other day about Texas' Gubernatorial election. We have four candidates, Rick Perry (our current governor), Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson (she was one of McCain's top picks for VP), Richard 'Kinky' Friedman (a pot friend of Willie Nelson, I voted for him last time), and some guy I don't know named Tom Schieffer.

This is the result of the last election, we had six people running, Rick Perry (Republican) 39.03%, Carole Keeton Strayhorn (was Republican but went Independent for election) 18.13%, Kinky Friedman (Independent) 12.43%, Chris Bell (Democrat) 29.79%. Texas doesn't do run-off elections so even though 60% of Texas voted for someone else, Perry won because he had the majority of the votes (ala the fucking Realtors Association lobbyists because of a new bill that would effect them if passed and the rich white GOPers). So we were stuck with Rick Perry for another four years.

Chris Bell would have won if we had a run-off election or if a bunch of people (women and college students) didn't vote for the Independent candidates.

So now Texas is in a pickle. Who should we vote for? The Democrat or the Independents? We want Perry (who has the endorsement of Palin) out of the office but Hutchinson (who has the endorsement of Dick Armey) will be just as bad as him.

Kinky is our dream candidate, he's green, liberal and supports socialist programs... But the guy got trounced last time.

Nobody has officially been chosen yet, so far its all prelimary speculation. Kinky's been in since he lost last time but it seems he's going as a Democrat this time. Maybe we have hope this time?

Can we turn this state Blue?

STATE POLITICAL PARTIES:

Texas Communist Party
Constitution Party of Texas
Texas Democratic Party
Texas Green Party
Libertarian Party of Texas
Reform Party of Texas
Republican Party of Texas
Socialist Party of Texas
Southern Independence Party of Texas


The oddest thing about Texas is that it is the Lieutenant Governor who has all the power.

I forgot that today is the day of the Kentucky Derby. We sometimes watch it. It's interesting. But for the last couple of years it has been disapointing. The huge heartbreak of the filly Eight Belles and Big Brown.

I'm not sure who to root for. There is Friesan Fire (whose name sounds like Frienze. ;d There's the Nile one as well.

...damn, Jerry Jones is on NBC, the Dallas Cowboys training facility in Texas got hit by a tornado. One of the buildings completely colapsed and there are injuries. So far no deaths. This happened just minutes ago.

I can't find any 'official' news about this. On Twitter I found under taglist that Plano's tornado alarms have gone off.

I got family there.

I hate making subject titles...I'm just horrible at it.

Okay, so since Pushing Daisies is being canceled but coming back in comic book form. I'm thinking that if we, the fans, make the comic book series a success they might bring them back for a movie. Kinda like how Firefly came back as Serenity. ;d In the meantime, the People's Choice Awards are up for voting, and if we, the fans, join the site and vote, we might be able to vote PD as a winner. And how badly will that look to ABC to cancel a PCA winning show?

Btw, Dirty Sexy Money is the only ABC show that did not get renewed that has not released its cast. So they might be able to bring back that show.

My paper is going really slow. It's stuck at 7 pages and that last is just a bunch of sentence starters and concluding paragraph starters for me to fill out. I'm thinking of doing a couple of block quotes...but I already have two and I'm worried about weakening my paper by doing that so often... But then again I need to make the 15 page quota.

Typically, I'm good at writing papers...but this semester...it's just been hell. I think three classes a semester is a bit much. Grad school is just so much harder than undergrad.

( family update )

Here's me dragons. I got four new eggs.


P.S. This is where you go to sign up for X-Mas/Holiday Cards. I got a bunch of cards. So just go ahead and sign up already. ;d Just check the post and it seems it got unscreened, I re-screened it, so everything should show up commentless.

P.S. 2, anyone know where you can get some christmas/wintery themes at?