The Things Left Out July 28, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

Yesterday, when I left my apartment in the morning a construction worker said to me, “Don’t even bother. Go back inside.” At that time the temperature was about 95 degrees. I told him I was going to the gym, and he says, “Oh God.” I should have listened to him. The Y was fine, with its AC comforted weight rooms, and I did a 20 mintute elliptical machine and then another half hour or so of weights. Push yourself, I said, because I’d been slack lately, do another rep, up the weight. Well, I was fine and randy until I hit the lobby, which devoid of AC, was probably soaring in the near 100 mark. A little faint, I said, “Let me just get a gatorade. I’ll feel better.” Nope. So I went downstairs thinking that in the locker room I could splash water on my face. That only made it worse because the locker room was even hotter. So there I am on the floor of the men’s locker room, black stars before my face and these kids coming up to me. “Get your boss,” I said to them, unable to articulate the correct word for their counselor. Eventually, a man named Chris helped me upstairs into the AC’d lounge where I suddenly felt 1000 percent better. But the Y would not let me leave, having me fill out an incident report. “It was just the heat,” I said. “And I overdid it a bit in the gym.” They gave me a scarf doused with water to walk home with, and it dried in about 5 minutes outside. People were looking at me wondering why I was walking around with a scarf in such temperatures. I called my cousin, and after telling him what happened, he said, “Well, you’re in good company. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to pass out all the time when he was training for Mr. Olympia.” And I said, “But I’m not doing nearly as much as him.” And he said, “Exactly.”

Yesterday, too, I read this article about the AFL-CIO and their recent vote for the “rapid return” of the soldiers from Iraq. Funny thing was, as monumental as such a decision is coming from such a large union, both the supposedly liberal New York Times and NPR posted stories attacking the AFL-CIO yesterday, almost as if to lessen the impact of their decision. Here’s the NY Times article. And here’s the NPR audio clip one and two. Here’s a brief summary from The Institute for Public Accuracy about the historic AFL-CIO decision. It is my opinion that there is no such thing as “trusted” media, and even such respected giants of NPR and NY Times are not immune to “witholding” information (another term for lying, in my opinion) when it suits their political aims (i.e. continued use of troops in Iraq). Shame on you both.

Here’s a nice yellow ribbon you can put on all those gas guzzling SUVs you see.

Finally, I read that NASA plans to ground the space shuttles yet again because even after two years of study and research, they still can’t get rid of the debris falling from the nose cone! Burt Rutan and friends, now’s your time to shine, buddies!