Happy Halloween!

I'm in a strange mood. Marie is home in Las Vegas so I'm not planning on celebrating All Hallow's Eve by doing anything except going to Collegium Musicum rehearsal. At the same time, it's going to be a stressful week at work, and my boss is in town. I made a major breakthrough in my skating today. I'm in a very unsettled mood...

So President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. This looks like a good solid choice. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine is now clerking for Alito in New Jersey. No word on if he'll get to move up or not if Alito is confirmed... talk about being in the right place at the right time, though!

I'm rather amused at the hysteria coming from Planned Parenthood. Some person signed me up for their email newsletter and I've stayed subscribed since it's entertaining. With each nominee they've come out with all kinds of stuff -- mostly (of course) a plea for donations. The thing that I've never gotten a good answer for is, if the American public supports abortion as PP claims, then what's the big deal? If Roe v. Wade were overturned, surely that broad base of public support would ensure that legislatures would enshrine the Right to Abortion as PP wishes?

I had another letter to the editor published in today's Star, in response to a story about a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for "emergency contraception". Here's the letter:

Customers and pharmacists have rights

The editorial states, "Employers should require that pharmacists park their personal religious beliefs at the door when dealing with consumers."

It's hard to believe I live in America when I hear such statements. What is freedom of religion if not the freedom from being compelled to violate our conscience? Every soldier has this right, even in wartime. No one should have a right to compel another to violate his conscience by telling him to just follow an order.

It's ironic the left, the so-called champions of choice, are the ones trying to force pharmacists to act in this way. A woman's right to a prescription doesn't mean the right to force another to fill it.

In a multicultural society, it's important we respect the values of others, even if we disagree with them. In a free market, there should be plenty of people whose consciences read the morality of such acts differently. A more constructive approach would find a way to compromise between the consciences of some and the demands of others.

Gordon Zaft

Tucson

I wish I had saved a copy of what I originally wrote so I could show the effect of the editing. I know there was some but I can't say precisely what it was.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday since I've been sick. While there he ordered another round of bloodwork since it's been a few months. Good news -- my weight is down to 210 (which makes me "overweight" on the BMI instead of "obese" --yay!) and my blood pressure is 112/80. My comparative bloodwork:

	June	Oct
Hgb A1c		5.5
Cholesterol	202	188
Triglycerides	222	115
HDL	36	33
LDL	129	132

I don't quite understand the cholesterol numbers. The triglycerides are the first time they've been in an acceptable range -- thanks to Marie's cooking and the near-total absence of fast food from my diet.

The doctor prescribed me antibiotics and eyedrops since he decided I had both generic "creeping crud" and conjunctivitis. Unfortunately, I lost both prescriptions and called and called to get them replaced. Finally they called in the eyedrop prescription on Thursday but not the antibiotics, and I was back at work on Friday and got so busy I forgot to call. End result -- my eyes feel much better, but my throat is still killing me. *sigh*

It's been a long weekend, mostly because I've been sick as a dog. I'm slowly feeling better.

A nice article in today's paper on the local Benedictine monastery -- Nun's haven struggles with age, money woes. I hope that the nuns find a way to stay; the monastery is a beautiful, peaceful place.

I attended the UA football game yesterday -- it was disturbing. Once again the Wildcats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. We could have, should have won this game, but again it was the same old litany of penalties, fumbles, and interceptions.

*bleah*! I've been sick for a couple of days, had to stay home from work yesterday. Just a cold, I think, but I was pretty miserable. Marie took good care of me though, bless her heart :-).

An interesting article in today's Star -- UA nuke security lax, ABC News says. People always seem to get inordinately excited when they find out UA has a reactor, until they actually look at it. It's very small. It's been there almost 50 years, and it's pretty harmless.

So Marie came home on Wednesday and we had a long talk about our future and some of the issues we have. We were both relieved (and maybe a little surprised) that we were able to come to agreement about them and we can move forward in our relationship. I'm really happy.

There's a collector from Sierra Vista who has been willing to take some of my "classic" machines off of my hands, in my ongoing quest to get the house in some semblance of order. Today I was able to give away my 9-track tape drive and a Q-bus controller for it, as well as an AT&T Unix PC with a bunch of docs and some other miscellaneous docs. I'm still hoping to give away my IBM PC RT and some other smaller stuff to this guy if he's willing.

Of course that still leaves me with quite a lot of stuff to get rid of, but I am making progress. Yay!

Founder's Day

On this day in 1898, 13 young men at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston met to consider establishing an organization to work to build up the men of the Conservatory as musicians and as men. That meeting eventually resulted in the formation of what is now known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, a fraternity for men in music.

I joined Phi Mu Alpha in 1983 as a re-founding member of the Alpha Upsilon Chapter at The University of Arizona®. Sinfonia has had a profound influence on my life, and I'm proud to call myself a member.

Happy Founder's Day to all my brothers in Phi, Mu, and Alpha!

Tired

I'm very tired... mentally, physically, spiritually. It's been a very exhausting few weeks. I'm feeling very poor -- the litany of things that have come up wearies me -- had to get my car fixed ($900), my washing machine just broke, my kitchen sink needs a plumber, and I just discovered that the pipes for my hot water heating (radiators) are leaking at the furnace. I was anticipating getting a raise in July, but didn't get it.

I've not been sleeping very well, it's still too darn warm, and Marie has been gone for 3 weeks. She's coming home in the morning, but when I talked to her just now (she was getting on the bus to come home) she sounded sad and said she was sorry to be leaving her family again.

The rink is still closed (though I've heard it may be open soon) so I've not been skating, which is okay since I'm feeling poor, except that not skating makes me feel cranky, lethargic and fat.

I just feel like I need a break, or something good.

Dutch Legalize Polygamy

Another under-reported story -- apparently a Dutch threesome have engaged in a legal civil union.

Thanks to Catholic Light for the link.