Nice day... Summer temps are edging up... may get to 100 tomorrow. Welcome to Central Maryland.
01. Random Kindness
The Carroll County Times has a cover story today about a nice blogger named Amanda Costley (sweetlemons.net), who invites all people to do one random act of kindness every day for 30 day. Very nice, Amanda, but there are already people who do so every day of their lives. Some of us have been trying to do nice things for many years.. why? Because we are members of the human race. For those to whom doing kind things is something new.. let me recommend it.. you will feel much better for yourself and feel that you are contributing to the betterment of the world. Amanda, keep up the good work.
02. Drug Deaths
The newspaper also reports that heroin overdose deaths have risen 88% in three years. A lot of these deaths are attributed to heroin users finishing their jail terms and going back to their addictive ways. Unfortunately for them, when their addictions ended in jail, they also lost their tolerance for the amount of dope they took before incarceration.. and so.. they die of overdosing.
Also, addicts may be combining drugs these days.. especially with potent stuff like fentanyl. When I had constant 10 level pain with my legs, I took oxycodone and also had a very strong fentanyl patch. When Hopkins cured my legs, I had to endure a long period of drug withdrawal so that I would not get addicted. During the withdrawal period, I also lost 30 pounds of weight. Guess what.... its back.
03. Yum Yum!
I saw an ad today for Lobster Tail Stew. This stew is a so-called "fish and seafood stew" guaranteed to please. It is served on Tuesdays at the Shamrock Restaurant in Thurmont, Maryland. The telephone number is 301-271-2912. The cost? $21.50. Not a bad price for lobster lovers like Elaine and me. (or is it Elaine and I? Get out the grammar book, Joe.)
04. Sasquatch?
I can hear loud Sasquatch yelling on TV. Elaine is watching one of her favorite shows... something like "In Search of Bigfoot." The searchers are always upbeat and seem to just miss finding their prey by a few hours or days. They have been searching for years... surely somebody will have bumped into one of these 8 feet tall behemoths in their travels by now. Maybe he only comes out late at night and early in the morning jumps into a lake and travels through underwater caves and tunnels to where he spends time with Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.
05. Older Drivers
First, let me give you my credentials. For seven years, I taught safe driving for AARP. Toward the end of that time, one of the leaders realized that I was not having my students prepare action plans to carry in their cars and refer to as needed. As I do now and did then, I thought that was a ridiculous thing to require adults to do. But, since I didn't do it.. they fired me. A few days later, they called me up and asked me to be in charge of all the AARP driving instructors in Maryland. Go figure.
However, the AARP Driver Safety Course is a good one, and I would recommend it to any driver, regardless of age.
An opinion piece in today's paper talked about older drivers and suggested that their relatives should discuss driving with them if they feel the older driver is not performing properly when behind the wheel. This is, of course, a good idea, except, what older driver who has been driving for 60 years without an accident is going to listen to a young whippersnapper who hasn't anywhere near as much experience?
This has been a problem for years. The Maryland legislature studies the situation almost every session and sometimes comes up with the idea of a test for drivers aged 65 or older. The idea of a test goes nowhere because how many older voters would vote for one of their representatives who suggested they didn't know how to drive.
Well, what most people do not know is that all State Police Officers are given a red-colored brochure that lists things to look for as automobiles drive by. Some of the "things" relate to how people are driving. State Police are allowed to stop drivers they suspect of erratic driving and investigate. If they feel that the person is too old or disabled to be driving, they can make a recommendation to the MVA for them to ask the driver to attend driving classes. (I may not have the details exactly right on this.. but you get the picture.)
06. Lots of Boomers
Baby boomers, those people born between 1946 and 1964 (like Elaine) now represent 24% of Maryland's population.
07. Decoration
One of Carroll County's "most wanted" has an identifying feature.. a skull tattoo on his stomach.
08. Five Year Term
Five years ago today, Bowe Bergdahl went missing from his base in Eastern Afghanistan and was captured by insurgents. He's home now, and facing another five year imprisonment.
09. North Korean High-jinx
Two American "tourists" are about to be "tried" by North Korea for "hostile acts against the Country".. perhaps they laughed too loudly at the stupid action of their "fearless leader."
10. Bow Down
A new Islamic Caliphate was created today by Radicals who expect Muslims worldwide to support it. This action caught even our Government by surprise and more information is needed before the US would know how to handle it.
11. Guns
During a gun fire duel in New Orleans yesterday, sixteen people were caught in the crossfire and nine died. When? When? When? When?
12. The Supremes Rule
a. Hobby Lobby wins a 5 to 4 "very limited, closely held decision".. whatever that means..
The issue: Can a for-profit corporation claim that its religious freedom allows it to be exempt from a law?
Ruling: Certain not for profit companies can claim a religious exemption to the Obamacare requirement that they provide health insurance coverage for contraception.
b. Unions lose in another 5 to 4 decision that non-union employees do not have to pay union dues, even though they will profit by union initiated management changes.
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