Sean Bossinger’s Doings

No, not as in Peter Cetera, as in his brother Et.  Okay, okay… it was a lame joke, but it's Monday after Thanksgiving, and I'm still recovering from the tryptophan in the turkey that makes you fall asleep.

Went up to the Mom's in Sebastian, this was my first visit since the two storms hit that area back in August.  Things seem to be recovering nicely.  Damage WAS widespread, but there didn't seem to be the level of devastation that was experienced with Andrew.  Not that either of the storms that hit were nearly as powerful, but some of the media might have you believe that that area was totally wiped out.  Granted, some of the businesses there were, but the vast majority (and by vast majority, I mean a truly vast majority, not a George W. Bush-style vast majority, which is actually a minority) of the homes and businesses were left with relatively minor damage.  Yes, it'll take some time to get back to normal, but probably not as long as we've tried in south Miami-Dade county to get back to normal.

We had a lovely time with our relatives, some of whom we haven't seen in years.  My cousin Becky, who is four years younger than me, has two precocious little ones.  Her husband, Rob, seems to be a cool dude.  Haven't seen Becky in about ten years.  Also present were my sister Jenny (Jenny Wren!) and her husband Jon, my brother Evan, and his wife Stephanie, and my mom.  Dad was in absentia this year, and had his dinner at the Cracker Barrel somewhere near Salem, New Jersey, where he is working on a nuclear power plant outage as an itinerant electrical supervisor.  Something that brings a boat load of cash along with it, but means he has to be away.  Most of the rest of my local (Florida) family had Thanksgiving at my aunt Pat's on Miami Beach.

This Thanksgiving was tricky as far as transportation was concerned.  We were able to hitch rides with my mom (thanks mom!) and my sister (thanks Jenny!) We've been without a car for about two weeks now, due to some numb nuts not watching what he was doing upon exiting the WalMart in Florida City.  Luckily, the Saturn took one for the team, and behaved quite well, even though portions of the front of the vehicle came within about a foot, maybe two, of compromising the driving cabin.  Tracy was driving at the time, I was home with the kids.  She got out of it with a bump.  The Saturn was totaled.  We're doing surprisingly well without a vehicle, and we're getting more exercise than we ever thought possible.  Is there another vehicle on our horizon?  Yeah, I think so - probably in the early part of 2005.  Can we wait that long?  Most people say we can't - we think we can.  Funny, the amount of pressure put on us to get a car.  But then if they wanted us to have one that bad, they'd buy one for us.

In one of my “recent” (so quoted because the post isn't really recent) posts, I noted that I would be working on something where you could keep track of your legislation at a local and national level.  Well, I didn't have to look far.  I actually found a site that does just this, called “Project Vote Smart”.  It is an unbiased look at legislation, with summaries, and information as to how your elected officials voted for said legislation.  You can reach the site at this link.  My development project is done.  ;-)  But seriously - if you're upset in any way, shape, or form, about the outcome of our most recent general election, don't do what did, and move to Canada, just keep tabs on your elected officials, and, most importantly, let them know what you feel.  They are duty-bound to vote the way their constituency wants them to - not what they feel - at least the representatives are.  Senators are in a different class altogether, and that's about all I'll say about that.

Well, it's about time for me to get back to work.

When I get my stats exam back tomorrow, I'll tell you all what I did on THIS exam without studying.

If you follow my posts, you know that my candidate for President of the United States did not win.  Nor did my candidate for state senator to replace Bob Graham.  One thing has become clear to me in this election:  We now have three branches of government with political leanings that sway decidedly to the right-of-center.  This concerns me for a number of reasons, which I will not enumerate here.

The purpose of this post is to announce that I have decided to take action of my own, not necessarily to sway my fellow countrymen to change their opinion, but rather to inform them what their elected officials are truly doing in Washington.  True, it is that this information can be gotten from a number of sources; however, that's one of the biggest issues: there are a number of sources.

My goal will be go create an on line forum where you can see what your elected representatives, your senators, the President, and the Supreme Court are all doing.  Yes, you can get it from the Federal Register, also, but who wades through that?

Thoughts on what you might like to see in this sort of summary system would be much appreciated.

My goal is to have this site on line within the next couple months.

and I were on the way to lunch today at the local Taco Bell, when we were discussing my mother-in-law not wanting Kerry lawn signs on her lawn because it offends her best friend. See, Grace, her best friend, who is referred to in the audio clip, is a staunch Bushie (one of those who “just likes him” for no specific reason). She had lawn signs up, but my mother-in-law who lives next door to her did not allow for Kerry lawn signs to be posted on the lawn by my father-in-law who is steadfastly unpatriotic (read: Anti-Bush… I'm being facetious with the “unpatriotic” moniker there).

For risk of offending the sensibilities of our listeners and readers, I will not transcribe the audio clip. You'll need an OGG player to play it. (Winamp is a recommended one.)