Not really. In fact, I had hoped to be on vacation about this time, if not earlier. Since last April I’ve been completing the renovation of my house — repairing drywall, installing fans and fixtures, sanding and refinishing the floors, repairing brickwork, and painting, painting, painting and more painting. Not to mention, moving, disposing of, and assembling furniture. And, except for the brickwork and sanding and refinishing the floors — I hired a couple men to do that — I did all of the work myself.

And I vastly underestimated how long all this would take. Back in April I had guessed that renovating the first floor (except for the floor refinishing) would take me about a month. It took me three. And the basement took more than a month.

The good news is that this renovation project that I began two years ago with the installation of a new driveway, porch and front walk is done (although I still have to put something in my flower beds other than weeds).

The bad news is that it took a physical toll on me. At some point during this process I injured my knee, and the pain is now so bad I can barely walk. For the past month I’ve been going to physical therapy twice a week and doing all the assigned exercises, but there has been little improvement. It appears to be a meniscus tear (I’ll know for sure when the orthopedic surgeon reads the MRI results Tuesday) and it probably will have to be surgically repaired. Hopefully the death panels haven’t kicked in yet and Medicare will cover it.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t posted anything to this blog since last April. After a full day of work on my house I was too exhausted to do anything at night except plop myself down in front of the TV. A lot has happened since last April and I would have loved to comment on it, but researching and writing about this stuff takes time and energy that I just didn’t have. If there’s any good to come from my knee injury it is that my enforced leisure has given me the opportunity to get back to writing.

Happy Veterans Day!

We didn’t start the wars or choose the enemies we were asked to fight, but we did what we had to do.

I’m pleased to see that Lt. Col. Allen West won his race for Congress.  I probably would disagree with him about the wisdom of going to war against Iraq, but I’m in 100 percent agreement with what he did in Taji on August 20, 2003 when he fired a shot past a detainee’s head in order to get him to reveal plans for an ambush against his unit. In doing so, he put the safety of the men under his command ahead of his own career. Although the detainee was not harmed, Col. West was charged with assault and put through an Article 32 hearing, which ended his career.

But this is what we do in war — we take care of each other. Col. West is the kind of officer most of us would be glad to serve under. I’m glad he has finally been vindicated. (And I hope the officers who ran him out of the Army will have to come before his committee to beg for funds…it will be fun watching them them squirm!)

So, to Colonel and now Congressman-elect West, and to all my other fellow veterans out there, celebrate your day!

I’ve been giving my house a long overdue overhaul. And it is taking up virtually all of my time.

However, I do have something for you to read. Thomas Sowell has written a four-part series, “Dismantling America”, which makes a lot of the points I would be making if I had time to write anything these days.

Here are the links:

Dismantling America — Part 1

Dismantling America — Part 2

Dismantling America — Part 3

Dismantling America — Part 4

Those are the installments as of this morning — there may be more. I’d love to expand on this discussion, but I just don’t have the time, and probably won’t have the time for at least three more weeks.

For the curious, so far I’ve had all of my entry doors replaced, my old roof ripped off and a new one installed, new gutters installed, the soffits covered, and the exterior trim wrapped in aluminum. A crew is arriving on Monday to gut and completely replace my kitchen and both bathrooms, install new windows and replace some living room drywall that was damaged during last winter’s snow storm.

This week I’ve been shopping for appliances. The big ones are being delivered today, and I’ve been working feverishly to make some space for them, as well as for all the stuff I’ll have to remove from the kitchen before Monday.

After these jobs are done, all I have to do is paint the interior walls and woodwork and refinish the floors. I’m not at all looking forward to doing the latter, so if anybody has any ideas on how to make it easier, I’m all ears.

Ever since I had some very expensive dental work done back in the early ’90s, I have flossed my teeth every day with an almost religious devotion. I usually do this around 8 p.m., after the dishes are put away and I’m ready to wind down.

It takes me about a half hour and two hands to do a really thorough flossing job so, to keep my mind occupied while leaving my hands free for sawing and scraping, I plop myself down in front of the TV and switch on the O’Reilly Factor. I watch O’Reilly because I don’t want to start a movie I’ll probably never finish, and because all the other offerings in the eight o’clock time slot are so dreadful.

One thing I don’t watch Bill O’Reilly for is Bill O’Reilly. I like his regular contributors — Bernard Goldberg, Dennis Miller, Laura Ingraham, Megyn Kelly, John Stossel, etc. — but O’Reilly himself comes across as a boorish know-it-all. He is supposed to be a conservative, but he is neither a libertarian nor a Constitutionalist. His “conservatism” is like that of the lout at the corner bar who spends the evening annoying bar patrons who are trying to watch the hockey game that’s playing on the big screen TV, ranting about a government that has no business telling him what to do, and then winding up his tirade with the proclamation, “There ought to be a law!”. Read more »

Ever since we first heard the news that 16-year-old Abby Sunderland had lost communications and set off rescue beacons somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean last week, we’ve also been hearing about what lousy, irresponsible parents she has. Mostly from people no sane person would want as his or her own parents.

Abby was attempting to become the youngest person to complete a non-stop solo circumnavigation of the world when, halfway through her voyage, she ran into high winds and heavy seas. Her mast snapped off at the base, leaving her helpless and adrift without communications.

From what we’ve been hearing from various commentators, allowing her to go was the most abusive, reckless thing parents could possibly do. But their commentary says less about Laurence and Marianne Sunderland’s parenting skills than it does about their own. Read more »