Altius, Fortius, and Whatever.

I know I haven't blogged (a new verb?) for a few days, but I've really been busy formatting Vol. III of Pater Noster. I received a complaint from my daughter about the blog vacuum and I wrote a comment saying she was spoiled. Her response was that yes, she was spoiled because she's a JAP and blamed me for making her one! How true that is, is not for me to say. But a father's love is to give the daughters anything they ask for and for the sons--well, give them rules and a lawnmower. Speaking of sons, Rhoda's son, Jon--who recently married again (2)--is having financial problems. He's a Supervisor at a car wash in Virginia, and I suppose people are washing their own cars to save on gas. Consequently Jon's salary has been cut down, but bills have to be paid, and we sent him some cash and suggested he dump the credit card and the Internet service for awhile. But Jon is just one who is suffering from America's economic problems. President Bush is going to leave Obama or McCain with a tremendous debt and a headache. When he took office there was no debt. Who would have guessed that before election day in 2008 the price of gas would be over $4 a gallon? And now you have to look for bargains when you shop for groceries. Hey, I remember when, on Saturday nights I used to eat six hot dogs for 30 cents...no charge for the mustard or the sauerkraut. Then I would down them with a Mission Orange soda. Well, why am I writing like this? There is not much that can be done about what's happening in the U.S. these days...and in the world.

The Olympic Games will be coming on August 8, and I, for one, am looking forward to them. I particularly want to see the swimming, the gymnastics, the boxing, the soccer, and the track and field. I know China is about 10 hours ahead of us, so what the TV schedule will be is a puzzle--but I get the TV Guide, and that should help. The games are supposed to be politically free, but since when has that happened? And it's certainly not going to happen in China. I'm sure there will be demonstrations somewhere complaining about the violation of human rights. It's going to be a very interesting couple of weeks.

As for Rhoda's bout with pneumonia, she is about 90% better. She has been very good taking care of herself with her medications and for using the nebulizer that we have from the time a couple of years ago when she was in need of it. Right now, I'm feeling very healthy. Just had some blood work at the V.A. and my primary doctor called and said my cholesterol was 146 and my triglycerides (whatever that is) was 130 something. All the rest of the stuff in the report was pretty good according to him. My big problem is walking...I do it like a sailor who is three sheets to the wind. Nothing of vital interest to write about now. Yesterday we saw "Mama Mia" and I thought it was 100% filled with joy and music. In fact I feel it was one of the top five movies I ever saw. ABBA deserves a lot of credit for that. Then tomorrow morning we are going on a City of Hope excursion to the Mardi Gras, a casino in Hallandale. Slot machines are Vegas style and you can play for pennies, nickels, dimes, etc. Will give the results in the next blog--if I remember.