Do gooder.

I don’t know how all the do gooders out there do it. You all know those people out there who are always helping someone out, volunteering someplace for someone in need, and are always available and willing to do whatever, whenever, whereever. It has to be completely exhausting. I’ve been wanting to make the effort to be a better person and do that sort of thing, you know… make the world make the world a less shitty place to be and all that? It’s just difficult I guess. I’m not the most natural Helpy McHelpington that was ever put out on this earth that’s for sure. It just feels like I am pretty overwhelmed just with keeping things running correctly in my own life and every second that I’m doing something else is time that I’m not getting my own stuff done (even though if I was more organized and proactive I could easily get more done in my own life, I can be lazy). Earlier this year I volunteered at the homeless shelter, serving food and cleaning up afterward and that was an eye opening experience. It really made me thankful for how good I have it, and how good I’ve always had it. Even when I was down and out and at my lowest point during my divorce and when I lost my house I never reached the point where these people were at, although I was damn close. There have been many other times where I could have volunteered there again but during the summertime when Jessica was working the schedule didn’t work out because I had to watch the youngling, and now that she is off work again for the winter I just haven’t made the effort to do it.

I did do a bit of do gooding lately when I heard that someone that I work with was having trouble with her car, basically steam and fog was coming out of the vents and the heat wasn’t really working. I saw that and I was like, “Hey… I know what the problem is… the heater core under the dash is leaking. I’ve fixed that before!” Basically it’s a little radiator under the dash that engine coolant runs through and your heater fan blows air through it to make you warm. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to fix because it’s pretty messy and hard to keep engine coolant off the interior of the car but I decided to volunteer to fix the thing for the cost of the part because it’s getting cold and it sucks to not have a heater or defroster in your car. It turned out to be a lot easier to fix in a Saturn than it was in my S-10. All I had to do was pull off a velcroed panel and I had all the access I needed and after wrestling with it for a bit it slid right out. All in all it took about an hour and fifteen minutes start to finish, the biggest hassle being draining the coolant from the car. Of course driving there and back a couple times, researching the part and what I needed to do to fix it and going to the parts store added up on the overall time it took but I’m glad that everything went pretty well and I didn’t get myself into a can of worms, messing something up and breaking her car and got the heat working again.

I’ve got my turducken ordered! This year we are actually hosting a Christmas gathering at our new home instead of going to my parents house. I finally get to have the turducken that I’ve been wanting for years. It’s basically a solid mass of bird, a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck inside a deboned turkey all sewn up and stuffed with sausage stuffing. I’m having it shipped in from the place that is generally credited with coming up with the modern era turducken, Hebert’s Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana (pronounced A-Bears thank you very much!). I’m expecting big things here, it better be since the damn thing costs over $100 bucks when you add in the shipping to get one to us here in Nebraska!

Election is finally over, thank goodness. You know what spending six BILLION dollars nationwide gets you? The same president, two more or less senators, and four more or less congressmen depending on what side of the fence you stand on. That’s about a BILLION dollars per elected official that got successfully changed from one party to another. Huge waste of money for more gridlock if you ask me. Plus most of the money was spent on the losing side. I hope the Republicans change course somewhat and meet in the middle a bit more because it looks like the strategy of saying no to everything and seizing up the entire works in hopes that the general public will blame the administration wasn’t all that successful because they lost the presidency and lost ground in both the house and senate. I mostly want them to change course because I don’t want it to become the norm in government. I don’t want it to become “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Elections go in cycles and eventually the Republicans will regain power and I doubt it very much if they would like it if Democrats blocked everything they try to do and not even come to the table. Government then ends up becoming a never ending cycle of do nothing until it becomes a complete crisis and then pass a two month extension kicking the can down the road and never solving this nation’s problems. Half of the people in this country are conservative and half aren’t. Everyone stop being assholes and come to the table and meet in the middle and get shit done. Stop listening to your most extreme supporters so much. I want a future where I can comfortably retire before I die of old age and I want my son to have a future PERIOD. All you numbnuts are jeopardizing that.

I think in one of these upcoming elections I’m going to get myself on the ballot for city council. I noticed that on my ballot there were three slots and three names to choose from so they were basically running unopposed. All they had to do was vote for themselves and they would get the job with that lone vote. That sucks. That’s not democracy. It was like that for a lot of the local stuff and for a lot of them I chose to not vote for them at all, not that it mattered. I figure I will do whatever I need to do to get on the ballot and then not campaign or spend any money or anything. Hell, it worked for my grandfather, he was in the city council in Columbus when he was in his late twenties I think. Never campaigned or anything. Local politics are dirty politics though so it may piss off the people who are shoo ins already and they may send the city workers to do things like butcher my beautiful trees along the street (AGAIN) or dig holes in the yard that never get filled like at my neighbors house…