Long summer...

But a hell of a good one.

New job, sold a condo, bought a house, coached two great baseball teams...

Oh yeah, and having a baby girl! Well, my wife is HAVING her, but you know.

So, my lack of posting is a severe dereliction of duty to the ________ and I feel that the outcry from the ________ is justified. Well, I can't think of anything that actually goes into those two blanks, it isn't that big of a deal to miss a couple of months. However, don't be suprised if I take a few more months off... but I'll be back sometime, or so I can hope.

Yet one more czar...

or tsar, or csar... is to be created by Obama soon. I really wonder how many czars one country can have. Under my understanding of the primary and secondary definitions of czar, we would seemingly be limited to some extent. But hey, what's one more czar when we already have a border czar, homeland security czar, and health and family services czar... What? A health czar? Apparently so, and it isn't the Secretary of DHFS...

President Barack Obama filled out his health-care overhaul team Monday by naming Nancy-Ann DeParle, a veteran of the Clinton administration, as the White House health czar.

DeParle will join Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary

Now I'm confused. From any of the definitions linked above, it would seem unlikely that someone who is a czar would be a member of a team... Alas, another example of our cultural obsession with overusing a word because it sounds cool.

Also, for those three readers out there, I apologize for my long dry spell of posting. It has been a busy couple of months... coaching little league (2 teams), buying a house, selling a house... a lot going on. I guess I need a blogging czar to keep me on track.

Lazy blogger...

That's me! But at least I have something to try and get me out of my slump...

I'm collaborating with some friends at Political Liability.

I hope to be able to get back in the swing of things as the weather turns, which I know makes no sense, because all winter I've pretty well just sat around doing nothing. For some reason, however, blogging comes much easier during the warmer months...

our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea...

Someone once said, "Blogger's blog," which makes me something else entirely. I'll not delve into what that may be, but you know -- live (and shit) happens. So, while I keep the pause button on my e-stream of consciousness, please enjoy the music*.



*Neutral Milk Hotel has been very much in my head this winter... Hard to believe it has been ten years since this album. The video montage to Anne Frank is, I think, an interesting touch, especially when thinking of the unwritten novels and unborn ideas of the eighty year old (in June) Ms. Frank.

A long December...

to steal a line from a song I used to enjoy... and there's reason to believe...

Thus far in December, I have:
1. Severely sprained my ankle -- damaging nearly every ligament in the joint... leaving me with very limited mobility on crutches...
2. Fallen down due to this limited mobility in combination with Madison already having received a blistering 16.5 inches of snowfall for the season. (This is only marginally below the pace from last year's 100+ inch winter)...
3. Had a violent case of stomach illness that has pretty much insured I won't ever desire the Asian Noodle dish from Noodles again...
4. The aforementioned ankle injury occurred during a heated basketball game, which given the severity of the sprain, may be the last truly reckless and wild bball game I will ever play... a dream smashed :-(
5. Gotten very far behind in my reading and blogging... which given all of the time away from work seems somewhat hard to believe, but as I age, I start to understand and grasp at what all this "being sick" truck is about.

So a shitty month, huh? Well, actually, it isn't that bad. Given my fortunate position in the job market, I have not missed being paid a single day though I've been out as much as in the office this month. On top of that, I haven't had to worry about the medical bills associated with this injury and illness, as I am fortunate to be covered by good health insurance. I haven't felt insecure about losing my job in the current economic crisis and I haven't had to worry about my place at work being undermined by being out ill... Honestly, lying at home this past week, I realized how lucky I am. It is a tough world out there... hope you each are finding your way through...



As I walk on
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know:
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

And as I walk on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry.
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace love & understanding?

The American Donkey!!!!!

In honor of America, I have changed the color scheme of the Donkey mother ship...

In case you were wondering, AM does not neccesarily stand for American... but if it fits at the moment, I'll take it.

In all honesty, I'm just bored today and the color scheme matches my little league team (I'm coaching, not playing wiseasses...

Additionally, today marks the official demise of Donkey Behind the Times, of the Donkey Directorate. Another concept blog may come along at some point, but for the moment I'm going to focus my energy here at the home plate of Donkey bloggers.

Spring is on the way...

Or maybe it is already here, at least in Madison - where we do things a little differently. Though it snowed a bit yesterday, I do believe things are looking up, as we are slated to see the mid-40's for three consecutive days. This has not happened since mid-November and many are ready for the change. I've often said I appreciate all four seasons and the interludes between each, but after living through this 90+ inch winter -- I'll be happy to move straight away into full fledged spring.

In blogging news, I am officially canning the under performing and most unsatisfying unit of the Donkey Directorate, CardsDonkey. It shall be labeled as defunct from henceforth.

A Tip of the Cap...

To all those amateurs in the blogosphere who keep up with their posting while having lots of other priorities on their living agenda. Keeping up the motivation to blog on a regular basis is proving much more difficult than I envisioned. Of course, the weather and being under it have not helped matters for me. Nor has primary fatigue been as easy to deal with as in the past, but then again I don't know if we have ever seen a campaign quite like this before.

In order to break this frozen monotony of February, I've just booked a trip to Florida in March. I know that for those of you familiar with my overall disdain for the Sunshine state this may come as a suprise, but one of my goals has always been to attend Cardinal spring training and I thought I might as well check one of the hundreds of things of of my life list in 2008. So away the wife and I will go to sunny West Palm Beach / Jupiter. Which, to highlight some of my problems with Florida, really doesn't have many beaches and is one of the tweny most dangerous cities in America. Oh well, I've always liked going to St. Louis and it isn't exactly the safest of places.

On the blog front, the Executive Committee of the Donkey Directorate are meeting this weekend (me and a glass of whiskey) to discuss organizational changes and how to best allocate resources amongst the four blogs. It is likely that Critical Donkey will continue to run as a below the radar and seldom updated component, but Behind the Times and CardsDonkey are on the verge of being made officially defunct. The Behind the Times blog has been undercut by Friedman's book leave and Krugman's incessant columns on why Hillary is so much better than Obama. The Billy Kristol addition to the Op-Ed staff has also hurt my sensibilities. CardsDonkey, never really took off and I think most of it's posts could be put here without significant problems. The other reality is that I don't follow sports as well as I did when I was twelve. Wow, what I would have done with the Internet then...