There's work, and there's politics. Maybe I should turn to religion...oh...no!

I was back at work today, grumping along and failing to shake my annoyance at needing to keep working at the age of 52+ despite my keen interest in retiring early to a life of free choice and financial independence.

There were many phone calls, many mindless email messages, many things that someone considered important but that I considered interruptions and no more. The day plodded along like an arthritic tortoise, focusing attention on every excruciating detail of the actions involved in getting from the start of the workday to the distant end.

It was a Monday of immense proportions. My Mondays should involve weekend endeavors. That's my perspective, anyway. I read a bit, sometime during the epoch that began early this morning, about achieving financial independence in seven years. Some guy who has achieve financial independence by writing books about financial independence apparently needed cash to buy a real estate development in Costa Rica, so he wrote a book about it. I should do that. Find something I want desperately (a craving that others no doubt share), write a book about how to achieve it, then sell the book for lots of money...thereby achieving the means to attain my dream. Amway on steroids, I think.

Yesterday, I squandered more than $50 on something I have long "wished" for, but which I could never justify. I bought an acrylic artist's "starter kit" which includes paint, jesso, a couple of brushes, etc. and I bought some canvasses. Since I was a very young kid, I have always loved the idea of painting, sculpting, etc. When I was much younger, I tried my hand at pottery, sculpture, painting, drawing, etc., only to realize I have no skill. But I have always wanted to keep doing it. I supposed I have this idea that, someday, my hidden talent will burst forth. Anyway, I finally succumbed to this desire. I have tried to remember just how long I have been wanting to buy these things...and I go back to a time before I was married. So, it's been at least 26 years, probably considerably longer. I'm not putting it off any longer! I have paint, I have a brush, I have a canvass. Next time the mood strikes me, I will have the tools!

I try to write...putter, play at it, then decide I have inadequate skill and do it only to satisfy myself. I suppose I will do the same with painting...putter, play at it, then decide I will do it only to satisfy myself. That's an expensive self-satisfaction process!

OK, now to politics. I am a deep, deep skeptic. Bush & company desperately needed something to take the public's mind off their ineptitude and bungling. What happens? Let's look at Israel and Lebanon! I know, it's beyond comprehension that the current crisis in the Middle East could have been manufactured as a political favor to Bush. But then it's not too far-fetched, after all. The Middle Eastern issues could contribute to many gestapo-based Bush ideas. I do not trust him, anyone in his administration, and 99% of the House and Senate. We're regularly lied to and I don't doubt lies are being fed to us today. Maybe the current crisis is not an exercise in manipulation...but I think it probably is. Damn Bush, damn the people who stole and ruined ballots to get him into office and keep him there.