jimmygo.com

Jenn and I went to Mexico a little while ago. It was a great trip that consisted mostly of sitting on beaches, drinking, and visiting Mayan Ruins (Tulum, Coba, & Chitzen Itza). We mostly stayed at the beach in Tulum at cabanas that ranged in price from $15 USD (if you have your own hammock) to $20USD (Low season prices October).

The area has grown a LOT since I last drove through in December 2003. You can really see the effects that the cruise lines bring with them (there is now a Wal-Mart in Playa del Carmen). I suppose this influx of money is good for the area’s population, but it is a bit disheartening to see the quiet easy area turn into another Cancun. That’s the way of the world though.

Incidentally, there used to be a little cabana place just south of the military area (or whatever it is) that is south of the Tulum ruins. As of October 2007, these (along with the associated restaurant on the hill) have been wiped out - and according to the man that worked there there weren’t any plans to rebuild. This is really a bummer because those particular cabanas attracted a really neat sort of traveler. Ahh well - at least I have fond memories.

As for this trip - it was really a good time. Very relaxing. Jenn got to practice her Spanish… which was particularly fun for me because she is not at all shy about trying. In the smaller towns the locals were amazingly patient and would help her along with a smile. We made it a point to get to the ruins that we visited before anyone from the cruise lines could get there (generally 0800 is when they open), really magical when you are the only one there.

I have posted some of the pictures we have posted at my Picasa site.

I’d like to start this blog by insisting that I am not an idiot. I don’t expect MENSA to spontaneously knock my door down or anything along those lines, but despite my dull moments I think I am at least as mentally capable as your average American. That’s an important point to remember as I muddle my way through this fun little story.

Two Fridays ago I found myself in excruciating pain from what I later found out was a stomach virus. Since I’m not the type to bother our medical system with small problems I decided to just ride out the symptoms. But as I lay by the commode weeping softly between the waves of pain I began to weigh the pros and cons of medical intervention.

I had some strong reasons for not going:

• I was inexplicably proud of the doctor-free streak I had going (no medical care since 2001!)
• All my friends tell me horror stories of huge bills that follow doctor’s visits (regardless of their insurance status)

I also had some strong reasons for going:

• I happened to have employer based health insurance at the time
• Judging from my pain and symptoms I really thought my life may be on the line

Being the rational man that I am I decided against going to the hospital. Unlucky for me my girlfriend is far less rational than myself. She took advantage of me in my confused state and strong armed me to the ER. After all was said and done I racked up over $12,000 in expenses in about 8 hours (this included IV drugs, time in a bed, and a CAT scan). I am personally responsible for $1,000 of that bill.

My takeaway from this escapade?

• Don’t go to the hospital unless my situation is many times worse.
  
• If I find myself at a hospital I will REFUSE ALL SERVICES UNTIL I SEE AN ITEMIZED LIST OF COSTS. I will call at least one other hospital and compare costs.

I realize that my decisions in this area are detrimental to my health, but being deep in debt is also detrimental to my health. I don’t do anything in my life without regard for cost. Vacations, hobbies, car repair, cloths, food, anything, EVERYTHING… I consider the cost of EVERYTHING before I do it. If we are going to insist on our current model for medical care I am going to avoid medical care at all costs. Should ‘avoiding’ fail I will insist on knowing the price of every service I receive. I will deny services that I deem to be medically unnecessary (despite the fact that I know nothing about what is best for me medically).

It really makes you wonder about the state of medical affairs in this great country if a relatively intelligent, insured, healthy, and financially stable person has decided that the system doesn’t work for him. I shudder to think what it must be like for the poor, uneducated, uninsured, or unhealthy. I don’t know what the solution is, but I can attest that there is a problem.

The tomatoes are getting bigger… I need to probably cut back on all of the leaves that are half hidden from the sun. It seems to me that leaves hidden from sun/lamp light must be a net drain on a plant. Also, if I trim everything back, the plant might focus more on growing fruit than growing more leaves.

I know that almost nobody will want to read this, but Congressman Miller keeps sending out worthless tattle tale emails instead of doing his job. I am also replying to his office email address, but I assume that whatever I send there gets junked fairly quickly… so just to insure that I’ll put a copy up here.  I have an opinion about most of the stuff coming out of his weak PR machine, but usually his content and my thought process are very much along the lines of the following:

Congressman Miller’s 22 June email:

In November 2006, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi assured the American people that she would make this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history and will give the American people the leadership they deserve. The leadership they deserve? Is that leadership a broken promise to the American people as the Democrats change the rules to allow earmarks to be stuffed into spending bills behind closed doors after the bill has passed the House.

Taxpayers work too hard for their paychecks to be frivolously spent by the federal government on the bridge to nowhere type of earmarks. With more than 32,000 earmarks turned into the Appropriations Committee, we can only imagine how many more earmarks were requested of Congress that were never submitted.

I believe in transparency of the process, of people taking responsibility for the requests they make. I would like to see not just a handful, but every member of Congress publish the appropriation requests that they made so that the taxpayers are made aware of how their tax dollars may be spent.

Members of Congress who choose to fund Trout Genome Mapping, the Please Touch Museum , Women’s World Soccer Cups, Rock n’ Roll museums, and other pork projects are choosing to put their political gains before the best interests of the American people. A true representative of the people will work tirelessly to cut the wasteful discretionary spending and reduce the deficit; thus strengthening the national economy and creating jobs. Americans are not taxed too little; Washington just spends entirely too much. The best way to get Congress to stop wasteful spending is to let those who earn it, keep it.

While the Democratic controlled Congress is going back on their pledge of openness and transparency, their underhanded attempts at passing pork-filled spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year must be stopped.

Now more than ever, Congress must work diligently to craft appropriation bills for the next fiscal year that not only enable us to carry out our missions abroad but also maintain and improve the lives of our citizens.

Either we tie the hands of Washington or it will tie the hands of our children and grandchildren. That is an easy choice for me to make. Now is the critical time for Congress to step up to the plate and do what is necessary to control earmarking that has gone awry. If not now then when? That’s what I think. What do you think? Email me at http://jeffmiller.house.gov.

My whiny response (22 June 2007):

Mr. Miller,

Once again you have sent me an email detailing the deplorable deeds of the Democrat Party. Once again you have written me in the role of “tattle tale” instead of “Congressman”. I know that the Democrats are using earmarks to fund pet projects, I also know that your own party has been known to fund a little pork (incidentally, most of the earmark examples you have mentioned - the bridge to nowhere, the Hard Rock Cafe Museum - were for Republican Controlled districts). You claim to seek transparency; but despite requests you haven’t made your own pet projects publicly available (your website would be a great place to do so).

Your email strikes me as a thinly veiled political tattling. I applaud you for acknowledging the obvious: earmarks are bad. Now, instead of whining about something most of the U.S. hates, how about writing some legislation banning the practice? A report on action you’ve taken: thats the kind of email I’d like to receive.

Respectfully,
Jim O’Loughlin

OK. The lamp is up and the plants are spread out and pruned (probably too pruned). The whole set up is rather rickety… but I think it’ll hold.

In any event, there is a lot more space for the leaves to get light now. Also, the basil isn’t getting crushed at all any more (although the basil seems to want to shy away from the lamp - even from the ceiling).

Some good news: spreading the tomato vines out let me see that I actually have tomatoes!

I think that I’m only weeks away from red romas!

You may not really be able to tell from the below picture… but the plants are really growing like crazy.

Instead of growing like they should, the tomatoes and squash are clobbering each other and the basil. I finally have all the materials to make a really crummy and fragile means of hanging the lights AND the plants from the ceiling. I’m sort of excited to see just how big the tomato vines really are.

I couldn’t help myself. It was too big to be ignored.

It didn’t really have much taste though… as I said before, I think I really need to make sure that nutrients are getting to the roots. Water alone doesn’t seem like it will do the trick.

Out of nowhere we’ve got squash… and a big one. It came and rested under a leaf on the shelf of the window so I’ve missed it until now. It is a little white (as opposed to the yellow that I would expect), that is probably because I’ve been lax on making sure the water source has food in it. Still pretty exciting.

In other news, the plants are threatening to start really competing for sunlight. I haven’t been turning the light on much because as soon as I do everything overheats. I really need to do two things: put the light up on the ceiling, and put in supports for the plants. That’s all a little easier said than done because I can’t drill anything into the ceiling (metal fire shielding that I can’t get through). I suppose I’ll procrastinate until the problem can no longer be ignored. We’ll see.

I recently moved away from NW Florida, but I still get email updates from Congressman Jeff Miller. Today I got the below message from him. It irked me, so the message below his is my open response to the gentleman.

From: “millernewsletter@mail.house.gov”
Subject: Miller Message - May 1, 2007

Last week, Army General David Petraeus personally briefed any interested Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate on current operations in Iraq . General Petraeus is responsible for all military forces in Iraq, and is implementing the new plan to secure Baghdad and the rest of the country. The brief was a Members only brief given at the highest possible security classification in order to give us better insight into what specifically is going on in Iraq.

Soon after giving the brief, the General prepared to return to Iraq . I am personally grateful he traveled to Washington from the war zone to discuss these important issues with myself and other elected officials.

Due to the classification of the material, I am not able to get into specifics but I would like to address some general issues about his brief and also discuss some troubling events that surrounded his trip from Iraq to Washington . The General was not biased in his assessment, but stated the facts. He also let the Congress know that the current surge will buy us time but is not the only solution.

I commend my nearly 220 colleagues who attended the brief, but I must express my strong disappointment and surprise at the Speaker of the House. It was widely reported that Nancy Pelosi initially declined to even meet with General Petraeus and that her office along with the Democratic leadership of the House Armed Services Committee, of which I am a Member also, initially declined to even allow the General to speak to the House of Representatives. They allegedly stated they were too busy.

It was only after intense public criticism due to the reported refusal to meet with the General that the House meeting was reluctantly scheduled by Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic allies. Adding insult to injury, Nancy Pelosi and her allies then scheduled a series of votes at the exact time General Petraeus was to be speaking to Members of Congress. Once again, only after public criticism and media attention did the scheduled votes mysteriously get suspended.

Our national security, our nation’s General Officers and our military are too valuable to be used for political gamesmanship. I understand that some in the opposing party believe their standing will continue to increase with every American killed in Iraq and therefore welcome continued chaos and in fact passed judgment on the brief General Petraeus gave before he gave it and in some cases, did not even attend. I will not support such a defeatist position and will continue to keep you informed of the facts as I know them.

My response:

Sir,

From your above email: “I… will continue to keep you informed of the facts as I know them.”

The only facts you have relayed here are that the democrats are playing political games, and that the rising death toll in Iraq is only buying us time. Well, what are we doing with this expensive time? I realize that we (your electorate) aren’t important enough to know the details, but is there progress being made? If everyone (including General Petraeus) thinks this war can not be won solely with the military, what do you propose we change about our strategy?

While I certainly don’t agree that bringing the troops home tomorrow is a good idea, I also don’t believe that Congress should hand an infinite number of blank checks to the Executive Branch. Your job is to provide oversight. You should be scrutinizing the President’s plans and spending. If you disagree with the Democrats, and you agree that the war cannot be won with the military alone, how do you propose we proceed?

You are whining about the Democrats playing political games, but what was your purpose in sending this message? You didn’t relay any novel information, so it seems to me that you are playing a political game of your own (the tattle tail game). The Democrats are doing their best to represent those who elected them. That is their job. You have the same job with constituents of a different mind, but instead of doing your job you have decided to “keep [us] informed of the facts as [you] know them.” If you want to keep me informed, become a journalist. If you want to represent us then keep us posted on what you are doing to represent us.

Respectfully,
James O’Loughlin

The tomatoes have been trudging along. They didn’t pop up fast, or grow very quick, but they are steadily getting taller and taller. Their neighbor (the squash) is sort of encroaching on their space, but it hasn’t been too much of a problem yet.

I know that I need to prune these things, I’ve heard that the suckers have to go, but I don’t know what is a sucker and what will eventually be a tomato. I need to call my uncle again. Or do some researching.

Anyway, they are coming along nicely as far as I can tell.