When your lovely wife asks you if there’s anything you want her to do today, the correct response is “Whatever you want to do, sweetheart”. Then stop talking.

Last year, I replaced the starter motor on my mini-van. Actually, it was almost exactly one year ago.

At the time, I chalked it up to normal wear and tear. Hey, things wear out. No biggee.

Yes, it was a pain to replace it, and an expense that I hadn’t planned for. But these things happen.

On Friday night, it happened again.

Turn key, everything works, I can hear whirring from under the car, but no cranking. Exact same symptoms as last fall.

So I got it towed home. I should ask if they have a frequent flyer program.

I called around, and have to special order a starter from the dealer. It’ll be here sometime this week.

I guess I could rehash my rant about Chryslers, but I won’t. I just plan on paying this thing off, then driving it until something major breaks. Then I’ll trade it in on a Ford.

Here’s what’s been going on here at Case de Oso.

Baby Bear is getting bigger. He’s comfortably in 24 month size clothes, and he’s not even 18 months old yet. I think he’ll follow the same curve that Junior Bear followed growth wise. Which means I need to start getting bids on bulk beef products now. His fever has subsided, and he’s back to being a normal little guy.

Irish Woman is coming back around. She is able to drive again, and is able to do light stuff around the house. She still can’t lift up Baby Bear. She goes back in for a follow-up this week, so I imagine she’ll be back to work soon.

Girlie Bear ended up with a severe double ear infection. Yet another round of anti-biotics and she’s feeling better. She missed tryouts on Monday, but the coach let her try out on Wednesday. She still didn’t make it. Oh well, better luck next year.

Little Bear is doing well in school, and has entered that phase of life when he can be a tenor in the morning and a baritone by evening.

Junior Bear is still alive. He’s doing OK in school. He’s currently on super double secret probation at the moment. He got accepted to his first choice for college, so we’re discussing how he wants to proceed from here.

I’m me. Some days are easier than others, but it’s football and hunting season. I can at least relax a bit now.

Detroit won a football game!

What’s next, dogs and cats living together?

If this isn’t a sign of the end times, I don’t know what is.

Local congresscritter Baron Hill has decided that no-one can tape his town hall meetings. Ostensibly this is so that highly edited versions of the events don’t end up on YouTube, and embarrass the good congressman.

Recently, a couple of students from Indiana University were told to stop taping at a town hall meeting Congressman Hill was holding, even though they apparently had cleared their activities with Hill’s assistants prior to the meeting.

Congressman Hill says it’s his right to not be videotaped, and if he was just any other citizen, I’d say he was right. He does have the right to demand to not be taped in purely personal settings, such as when he is out with his family or such.

But when he’s acting as a representative of the people and holding a public meeting with his constituents, he has no right to privacy. His first amendment rights as a citizen are trumped by the right of his constituents to know where he stands on issues, even if they can’t make it to the meetings. They need to know not only his opinions on the issues, but also how he and his supporters treat those who disagree with him.

They could even help him out. If dissenters act unreasonably at his meeting, then a video of their conduct could be beneficial when justifying ejecting them.

If Congressman Hill is worried that his words might be taken out of context, he should tape the meeting himself and be able to release the full, unedited video and shut down anyone trying to pull a fast one.

Disclaimer: I don’t live in Indiana, and I only know about Baron Hill because his district uses the same media outlets as Louisville, and he and his opponent in the last couple of elections made it nasty early in the campaign.

Come on, Congressman, a little sunlight in your meetings will go a long way in getting people to trust your word without a lot of effort on your part. Let your constituents make tapes of their meetings with you so that disputes don’t come down to a he-said-she-said argument.

OK, here we go, just in time (again):

Cleveland at Baltimore – I love a rivalry. Cleveland
Tennessee at New York Jets – New York Jets
New York Giants at Tampa Bay – New York Giants
Green Bay at Saint Louis – Green Bay
Kansas City at Philadelphia – Kansas City
Atlanta at New England – Atlanta
Washington at Detroit – Washington. Go Skins!
San Fransisco at Minnesota – Minnesota
Jacksonville at Houston – Houston
New Orleans at Buffalo – New Orleans
Chicago at Seattle – Chicago. Da Bears
Pittsburg at Cinci – Pittsburg
Miami at San Diego – Miami
Denver at Oakland – Oakland. RAIDERS!!!
Indiana at Arizona – Arizona
Carolina at Dallas – Carolina. Dallas SUX.

Hope I can do better than .500 this week. It’s getting to be a pattern.

OK, so a divinity school graduate who also does reality TV has been arrested on suspicion of strangling his former porn star girlfriend. Boy, there’s a lot going on there.

Apparently the young lady appeared in a few mainstream movies, but since I’ve never seen the Fast and the Furious or Rush Hour 2, I didn’t recognize her.

Here’s the paragraph that stuck with me:

According to Randone’s Web site, he also traveled the world as a Christian mime, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Christian mime?

If you have an all-night video game party at your school, and your father has already told you you cannot participate, it is not conducive to your happiness and well being to email your father with a “I’m going, you can either accept that or not” take on the situation.

You should also not roll in at 7:30 AM the next morning expecting warm cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate.

It would also add to your chance of surviving the weekend if you just accepted that your father is not going to let you sleep it off. Think yard work, lots and lots of yard work. And your father is well aware that it’s raining, so what?

I’ve made a decision.

If you get shot in Louisville, and the only picture they can find to show of you on the news is your mugshot, then I don’t care.

That is all.

An Anglo-Saxon horde of gold in Stafforshire, England, has been found by a man with a hand held metal detector.

So the graves of my Viking ancestors are desecrated again.

This poor princeling worked hard his entire life to pillage and burn enough villages and monastaries to gather his treasure for Valhalla, and now this schlub walks around in black socks and sandles and finds it.

All kidding aside, the find is enormous, and will teach us a lot about that period of English history. The Scandinavian settlers/invaders of Britain brought a lot with them, and got back as much as they contributed.

Good on him for finding something this important.