"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water." Ray Charles

Made it back and we are up and running on this Monday, February 4, 2013. Okay. Let me clarify. I am back. I am up. And, the running part is mostly metaphorical, but, I am present. I started to say and accounted for but that would require another explanation since I'm the only one here. I will go ahead and tell you something. I buy cheap water at the super duper big box store, as in bottles for use here at work. That's what I use to cook up the Community and it is what I drink. I don't know how cheap the stuff I'm currently using really is but I did notice something interesting on the Nutrition Facts label. It has this little ditty included: Minerals added for a pure taste. According to the label, the source is the Fort Worth, Texas municipal water system. But, you get the water, and as I read it, it has all the proper zeroes for the calories, fat, sodium, carbs, and protein. Yet, in order for it to taste pure they have to add some minerals. It doesn't describe the minerals they use. That begs the question. How does one determine a pure taste? What's that? You know it's a slow day when I start reading the water bottle labels? Good observation. But, you might just want to check out your own water, it may not have that pure taste included. Fort Worth? Really? I threw that in for my cousin and his wife. He's a manager for the city of Fort Worth if he hasn't retired. I wonder if he drinks the water there?

You've heard of distracted driving. And, generally, we all know what it means to be somewhat distracted as we make our way through life. However, I came up with a new one the other day. Distracted coffee making. My little one cup maker does a really good job. It doesn't make the coffee as hot as I like but it's close enough for government work, and I worked for Uncle Sam once upon a time, therefore, I am entitled to the use of that metaphor. It's noisy, mostly because I leave it on which seems to help make it a little hotter. Because it is already hot, when you add the water it sounds a lot like a tiny steam locomotive spitting, sputtering, and belching. The other day I was interrupted two or three times while in the process of making me another cup. I became distracted I suppose. I wasn't keeping up with how much of whatever it was I was putting into my little cooking machine. Or, I may have placed a half full cup under the spigot, or something. Who knows? My little 'I think I can, I think I can' machine can do what it can do but it cannot keep itself from overflowing the cup. I did have a mess. I cleaned it up. I certainly couldn't hold it against the little dude because he only did what I told him to do. Coffee running here, there, and everywhere is not the outcome I was expecting but what was left in the cup still tasted pretty good. All's well that ends well, or something like that.

The IRS has published their estimate for what it will cost a family under the new health care law. This is the amount they believe it will cost for a family who will be required to buy insurance that has none today. I don't need a drum roll. It is $20,000 per year. Now you know why so many will likely opt to pay the penalty for not buying because it will be much less than the cost of the insurance that they already can't afford. In fact, many of them can't afford the penalty, therefore, we will have another ration of dealing with a government mandate that could involve jail. I may not be smart enough to figure out what should be done but I think all of us know that coming up with a mandated coverage for folks who can't afford insurance and pricing it at $20,000 does not compute. But, since when would the does not compute apply to the typical government approach? Of course the estimate did come from the IRS and I'm sure that needs to be a part of the consideration. I'll close with this little ditty: Late one night, a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs. "Give me your money", he demanded. Indignant, the affluent man replied, "Hey, watch it - I'm a United States Congressman!" "In that case," replied the mugger, "give me MY money." Okay. I'll quit before I really get wound up. Have a great rest of the day and may God bless. Amen. .....More later.