I was having a bad day

I mentioned exactly why a little earlier in the day. I figured it could only get better, and I was right.

I got home to discover that the painter, after doing some preliminary work on the patio last evening and promising to be here in the morning today before I left for work, had in fact not been here. At all.

At which point I couldn't decide which response was better; calling him up and screaming, or shrugging it off and chalking it up to a really bad day. It didn't stop there though.

In the course of his patio work last evening, he emptied every thing out from under the covered area; plants, plant stands, barbecue(s), garden tools, the kitchen sink...everything and left it out in the rest of the yard. Ostensibly so that he could finish the patio today.

Not more than 10 minutes after I get home we get our first good monsoon storm of the season. So all my patio is sitting out in the yard getting doused in a thunderstorm.

Great. On the bright side, there were no heavy winds to blow it all into the neighbor's yard.

Just as I'm prepared to spend the evening reveling in self-pity, I'm reminded that the realtor is coming over to discuss offers on the house. There is hope after all!

Sure enough, that alone was enough to turn the day around. Details will follow tomorrow. So after this I'm thinking that, on the whole, I can live with the day. Good news, bad news...such is life.

About eight o'clock I realize I haven't picked up the mail yet so I hoof it out to the mailbox and there it was! The one thing most responsible for turning me around...a fundraising mailer from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the National Resources Defense Council.

I know, strange sense of humor but I was so punchy from the rest of the day it didn't take much to push me over the edge. Kennedy should run for President of Moronica. Calling this hyperbole is understating things just a tad.

To wit (this is the teaser quote on the envelope, never mind the stuff in the letter!):

The Bush Administration is quietly putting radical new policies in place that will let its corporate allies poison our air, foul our water and devastate our wildlands for decades to come.

Later when I read the letter I learned this is not hyperbole; it's fact. How you ask? Well, Bob told me so: It took thirty years to put these vital protections in place. But by the end of this year, this Administration will be close to wiping them out.

That's not exaggeration. That's not hyperbole. It's a fact.

As an aside, I've got to think that if Bob and his boys feel the need to tell us that they're not using over-the-top rhetoric, chances are good that they're using over-the-top rhetoric. If they weren't, what would there be to wonder about? What would require reassurance as to the veracity of their claim(s)?

Getting back to the evil corporate polluters, I've always wondered something. Do these people live on the moon, or maybe on Mars? Maybe they live in a super-secret underwater city.

Point being of course, how do they escape the ill effects of their evil corporate pollution? How does their own little Johnny avoid breathing that poisoned air or drinking fouled water?

Bob, are you truly asking me to believe that Lee Raymond thinks that water that is undrinkable and air that is unbreathable is a good idea? Are you asking me to think that corporate officers don't care that their own children live in this same world, subject to the same wanton environmental destruction you fear for the rest of us, all-the-while not-caring and full speed ahead!? I don't know if that's what you really think, but that appears to be what your rhetoric is saying.

That's why the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is now mobilizing one million Americans to send the President and Senate a message loud and clear:

We refuse to go back to a time when corporations could poison our air and water at will...destroy our forests without regard for wildlife...and ravage our most beloved landscapes for profit.

Frankly, that's the best laugh I've had all day!