Post 2876 - Tuesday

Just past 8pm.

I read in the last few minutes about how Jon Stewart is going to leave The Early Show later on in 2015. This may be heresy. People may rain down holy frigging hell on me for stating this, but I never found him or the show all that entertaining. I seldom laughed at it or him. I will always wonder how many folks hearing his caustic comments about politicians decided not to try to seek public office, because they didn't need the hassle or aggravation associated with pursuing and then attaining such an office? For what it is worth, I feel the same way about Rick Mercer and his smarmy commentaries about elected officials. Politicians are not beyond criticism, of course; it is just that there is a fine line between honest criticism and being mean and cruel to people who put themselves out there, who have their hearts in the right place. And most of us have our hearts in the right place, most of the time, regardless of what we do for a living.

But that is not what I wanted to write about. I wanted to tell you about my day.

First of all, Patricia has been sick for several days. She saw her doctor on Monday afternoon, and was told that she has pneumonia. She has been booked off work for the balance of this week. Since Viola Desmond Day is on the 16th, she is effectively off work until the 17th, next Tuesday. She will need most of those days to get better. I am not sure how communicable pneumonia is, so I am not getting too close to her.

Before I went to work this morning I went to the bank and paid off the full balance of my mother's line of credit account. That account no longer exists as of 8:20 or so this morning.

A couple of people have written to ask me why I did this. It was her debt, and the bank may not have been able to get its money. That is debatable. What is not debatable is that we were brought up to pay our debts. Paying off this line of credit was important to Mom, and therefore was important to me. My sisters did not offer to help me pay off this debt, nor did I expect them to. It fell to me in the same way that paying 47% of the funeral costs last week fell to me: because if I hadn't done it, it wouldn't have been done. Period. Full stop. Just like all those years I drove my parents to the city for doctor's appointments: if I hadn't done it, it wouldn't have been done. Put that in your bong and drink it. Or smoke it. Or inhale it. Or whatever it is you do with bongs.

I am unaware of any significant bill still out there. Her taxes for 2014 will have to be done, but that will not cost much. There may be some money coming back from the place that provided her medications, so that bill may be near or at zero. And my sister will be returning those hearing aid batteries and get a few bucks for them.

I have started work on my next Frank column.  Deadline in just over a week. Feel nervous writing it after taking the last month off from it.

That is it for this evening, my lovelies. See you tomorrow.

Bevboy