I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of hearing teabagger apologists whining that the IRS gave them a little extra scrutiny in determining whether sympathetic political operations masquerading as “social welfare groups” (or whatever the hell they call them) should get tax exempt status. Fuck ’em. None of them – on either side – should be tax exempt if they only reason they exist is to run political ads. While we’re at it, take away tax exempt status for churches and get rid of tax deductions for donations to those churches. If they run charities that actually do some good, then fine, exempt those entities. But there’s no reason some cult shouldn’t have to pay property taxes while they make money hand over fist while fleecing the flock. And I shouldn’t have to subsidize the flock for their fleecing, either.

I’m also tired of hearing the name Benghazi (for one thing, it makes me think of Ben Gazarra – not that I have anything against Ben Gazarra). I always thought Darryl Issa was an asshole, and seeing him get so much attention these days is just plain annoying. If Bill Maher ever has him on again, I might have to kick in my teevee screen (or maybe just not watch).

And now this whole DOJ vs. the AP thing. It’s all just too annoying. I even had to switch to one of the two “classic rock” stations on the way home from work last night. Which wasn’t bad, since I’m not as familiar with their playlist, and I even got to hear a Steve Earle song (it was his “hit” but what the hell). Shame they killed him off in Treme.

Oh well, I guess I’d better get back to work and keep trying to ignore the news.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers. Here, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, with highs today only expected to be in the 50s, and it looks kinda windy out there. It’s not the worst weather we’ve even had on Mother’s Day, though. I recall one year when we got eight inches of snow.

There hasn’t been much new going on around here. Yesterday was Fritzi’s turn to go to the vet for a checkup and a lepto shot. Poor guy was very nervous, but we managed to get through it all, and he’s in good shape. Another $64 down the money sink hole. My other big accomplishment yesterday was cutting the grass, which had gotten quite high since last week. One of the nice things about the tractor is that it could be over my head, and I’d still be able to go right through it. Now that spring seems to be fully kicked in, I have some serious weed whacking to do. I’m really tired of farting around with my 2-stroke gas weed eaters. To go trim stuff out near the road usually involves about an hour of trying to get one or the other to start and stay running, and then ten seconds of actually whacking (the weeds). Of course, I’m lucky if I can actually walk all the way to the road at this point, but that’s another story. Plus the damn things are noisy and spew nasty shit into the air. So yesterday I ordered a cordless one that gets good reviews. It should be fine for the bulk of what I do, and at least it’ll be quiet. It only comes with one battery, but I figure my foot will give out before I have to recharge it, so that should work out OK.

My goal for today is to do the rear brakes on my car. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but since something almost always goes wrong (or at least pops up to complicate things), I’m not overly optimistic. Looks like a good day for garage work, at any rate.

Those of you with mothers out there be sure and do something nice for your ma today. And for one day a year, can you just do what she tells you to without an argument for once?

It was an expectantly pleasant ride into work this morning, thanks to the fact that NPR was having an issue with its satellite feed of Morning Edition. This led to my local NPR station switching over to the BBC World feed, which meant I didn’t have to hear Cokie Roberts (assuming she was on, as she is most Mondays). Things rapidly deteriorated from there, though, as I arrived at work and had to abandon yet another gorgeous day (the weather’s been amazing – everybody in Central New York is sunburned today) to go and sit in my dark cave of an office.

We opened the pool on Saturday. Well, we took the cover off. Calling it “open” is a bit ambitious, as the water was pea soup green. I really need to figure out why that is – I dumped a lot of chemicals in there at the end of last year in order to prevent that. 10 gallons of sodium hypochlorite seems to have killed off the algae, but the water’s quite cloudy. And a little on the chilly side. Hopefully things will be cleared (and warmed) up by Memorial Day. On the bright side, the new pump motor is so quite it’s amazing. I kept thinking it shut off for some reason.

All the walking up and down stairs and carrying shit and squatting really set my foot off, though. Yesterday was kind of a waste, as all I managed to do was cut the grass. I could have used another day off, and am really looking to getting the hell out of here.

But then, what else is new?

So, don’t forget that the new IFC show “Maron” starts tonight at 10:00 (the first show isn’t the “possum” episode that Vernon posted the other day, so this will be one most of us haven’t seen). And of course his new book, “Attempting Normal” is also out now, too. In support if these two endeavors, Marc has been out there all over the place lately, including appearances on “Fresh Air“, CNET’s “404” Podcast/Vidcast, and on the Howard Stern show. Suddenly (well, maybe not so suddenly) the man is everywhere. Yes, it’s the beginning of a new Maron Era.

And to think, it seems like just yesterday he was getting bumped off the air in favor of LA Clippers’ basketball games and having to secretly use Stephanie Miller’s 800 number to take non-local calls. Hard to believe that was, what, like seven years ago? My how things have changed.

Other things haven’t changed much at all. For instance, I just had to listen to John McCain explain how we need to go to war with Syria now because they (maybe) have used chemical weapons (actually he doesn’t really give a shit about that – he just wants him some regime change). He says we can take out their “air assets” with long-range cruise missiles, and then enforce a “no-fly” zone (now that the weather’s warm I’d like to establish a no-fly – especially black fly – zone in my back yard).

Never mind that nobody (except the military industrial complex) wants us involved in yet another war.

You no what question they didn’t ask old Johnny? “How much?” Yeah, how much is his plan to liberate Syria gonna cost? Aren’t we all kinds of worried about deficits (as long as they don’t interfere with air travel)? A single tomahawk missile costs $1.4 million (back in 2011, anyway). How many of them are we gonna need to take out Syria’s Air assets? Back during Bush Jr’s Iraq war, they were planning on using 800 in the first two days (and Iraq was already pretty well devastated after daddy’s war, so they were a lot easier to deal with) of “shock and awe.” That’d be, what? About $1.1 trillion?

Seems like that would put a nice dent in the deficit.

I’m officially putting amputation on the table when it comes to my foot. By the end of the day yesterday, it was so swollen and painful, I could only laugh as I hobbled out to my car. I’m the sort of person who really hates to draw attention to myself, so I felt particularly ridiculous (not that anybody else would give a shit, I’m sure). This was only made worse by my decision to go get a new set of tires for the car after work (the thought of waiting ’til the weekend, driving 40 miles round trip per day on the really crappy ones I had was just too scary a thought – and I don’t generally scare all that easy; I must be getting old).

I was able to get an “appointment” for five o’clock, but what with it being the last day of the month and everybody apparently trying to get their last minute NY State inspections in, I wound up sitting there (on a beautiful warm and sunny day) for an hour and 45 minutes before I could finally start my 35 minute drive home. All the while, I could feel my foot swelling up more and more. And I couldn’t even go walk around outside, ‘cuz my foot hurt so bad. So instead I sat there and watched the same half-hour lo-cal news three and a half times. Pretty sucky.

On the bright side, it’s nice to know I have four good tires again – though I’d just as soon have been able to use the money for something “fun.” Or at least on a vet bill (been racking them up pretty good lately).

So, being horizontal for a few hours helped the foot some (slightly less swollen, but it still feel like somebody is jamming an ice pick in it whenever I bend my big toe up or down – which makes it hurt to drive, let alone walk). And I can feel it swelling up in my shoe as I sit here at my desk in this dark cave of an office.

To make matters worse, this is stupid meeting day, and as the last couple were cancelled, I’m not holding out hope that we won’t have one today. So that’ll be a thrill.

On the bright side, I got a really good night’s sleep last night. One of the best I’ve had in quite a while (by my standards, at least; I long for the days when I could sleep a whole night through – though I suppose I’ll be entering the eternal sleep soon enough, so I ought to make the most of my awake time while I have it).

Except for work, which I wish I could just sleep through.