"Life goes on..."

...2/17/02: Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Sunday vowed stern justice for the person(s) in his own government who he said assassinated one of the country's ministers. Karzai has blamed the minister's death on a personal vendetta among government officials despite initial reports that said he was killed by a mob of would-be Islamic pilgrims furious over flight delays to Saudi Arabia. This year's hajj - the annual pilgrimage to Mecca - has become a source of contention as the government tries to restore order in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans are unable to make the journey because of a lack of flights and, in the case of a U.S.-controlled airport in southern Afghanistan, delays in repairing bombed runways. Britain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were sending planes to pick up thousands of pilgrims. Bad weather caused some of those planes to be diverted to the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Karachi, Karzai said Sunday. But he said tough work is continuing to get the pilgrims there. Peacekeepers say 7,000 pilgrims were issued Saudi visas, but only several hundred have been able to travel. Hajj flights are being given absolute priority over coalition aircraft in using Afghan airspace, said a spokesman for Afghanistan's international peacekeeping force...

...2/15/02: Geri left sick, and Ann worked for a half-day, then continued with volunteer work at the hospital...which meant I had no idea where to find my pay stub, asking a co-worker proved futile...I finally discovered it the following Tuesday...the future may be too clear for Miss Cleo...there have been 2,000 complaints regarding her Psychic Hot Line...the average call is $60, because people are put on hold with a $4.99 charge for each minute after the first three, and the clock starts before the reading begins...NM has one of the highest teen fatility accident rate in the country...it may receive 1"-3" of snow in areas over 7500'; the ski resorts could get an additional 7 inches early Monday morning...2/18/02: it was 47 degrees at 5:45 AM, with winter storm warnings (including thundersnow) for the NW, and wind warnings in the SW...since there is no snow cover in most of the US, this prevents arctic air from dropping south...2/21/02: light snow showers expected in NE NM...on 2/23/02, the temps may climb near 70 degrees (it reached 67 degrees)...2/24/02 began with a 50 degree temp at 7:15 AM, the day was quite warm but there will be a steady decline, back to the lower fifties by early in the week... the Long & Winding Moan...the Dow was up to 9900, but is down to 9700, more or less...the NASDAQ has dropped to 1750...Hey, Vern, ya know what I mean?...United Airlines stock went up by 14% due to the strike settlement...Boeing slashed 1,000 jobs now, 30,000 by the end of 2002...

...2/16/02: Silvergate or Olympic gate; the Canadian skaters watch silver turn to gold as they are awarded the top honors for their performance...they may keep the silver trophy...a French judge acted improperly...but there is ill will between Canada & Russia, who stated that Canada stole the award...public pressure was not a factor in the revised decision (?!)...the black leather baseball jacket cannot be worn when the temperature exceeds 50 degrees...a feline was cloned at a Texas university, named Copied Cat...US troops will remain in AFG until all al-Qaida have been captured...2/17/02: a helicopter crashed in N AFG, no details...5 Middle East men got fake TN licenses; the seller was found burned in her car on 2/16/02...12 additional detainees in Camp X-ray, it is now at full capacity...

...gas has gone up 4 cents during the week of 2/18/02...but it was 99 cents at Coors & Central on 2/23/02...Put your body in motion...wow, baby!...Prince's When Doves Fly....NM Gov. Johnson will sign the budget when pigs fly as he so proved with his flying pig toy...that remark is making him look like a jackass, because there will soon be no "new" budget for New Mexico!...Ann reminded me how to find a doctor's numerical code, plus how to directly access medical records...there was an ethical debate about having surgery; Mom's mother has breast cancer; Ann says she should have the surgery...her mother has doubts & fear about a hospital...3/5/02: Ann's mother went for a mammogram...a NM couple had a con business called Medi-Oxygen, which brought in lots of money, so much so that they had homes throughout central NM, including a 14,000 sq. ft. home in ABQ...they gave houses to people as gifts...they were caught when a government agency asked a patient about Medi-Oxygen's services...the person had no idea what they were talking about...the wife was jailed for 5 years; the husband, for 2.8 years (?)...now the wife is too ill to speak with reporters...all property has been seized, items are being sold at auctions, but they still have to pay back over $20 million (how?)...2/22/02: it was 65 degrees on Menaul at 4:15 PM, the buses had their windows open, and snow could be seen at the top of Sandia Peak!...Cold Comfort Farm...the second hand store near Tenley Circle...

...2/18/02: the Federal Gov't now employs the security personnel of the 15 largest airports in the USA...there will be no changes, just a new boss...these people used to report to the respective airlines...go by train? a water boiler blew up on AMTRAK's SuperChief near Raton on 2/16/02 in the PM...there is now a possible threat to the Liberty Bell...

...this is a true story, aired by the major networks...Noble, GA, more than 3 dozen corpses were found stacked behind Tri-State Crematory...the bodies were in boxes or caskets, some more than 3 years old...the owner says that the business has not in operation for several years...2/18/02: the story gets better...the governor of GA has declared a state of emergency...15 acres are under scrutiny by the EPA for possible water contamination...the body count reached 200 by mid afternoon, and exceeded 300 by the time the investigationn was finished...plus there are numerous body parts thrown around...people walked through this area to go fishing, so where were those bodies then?...some bodies may have died 10 years ago, so it may take months for positive IDs'...the owner's son has been charged with theft by deception...2/22/02: in NM, a person was cremated by mistake (?)...in Vancouver, BC a man is accused of killing & burying about 50 prostitutes in his back yard...

...2/19/02: train accident killed 366 people, as it became an inferno, speeding for 4 miles, blazing down the tracks...a cooking gas cylinder ignited in the fourth car, spreading fire through the seven coaches behind it...the passengers were on a religious journey from Cairo to Luxor, Egypt, and the train was filled beyond capacity...security sources said all the dead were believed to be Egyptians...the train had been overcrowded with people heading for the countryside to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday, the Feast of the Sacrifice, with their families...it begins on Friday, February 22, and is the biggest of the Muslim year...

...let them have money; the Franc is dead; long live the Euro!...

...would anyone like to have breakfast with the Channel 7 morning weatherman?...

...the 'clumsy' cholesterol commercials...the NYSE was closed on Presidents' Day, and UNM was open...3/1/02: Kraig Bromwell's last day at PBP...Brad has created delicious mushroom soup & Brunswick stew...2/18/02: learned how to verify St. Joseph's Hospital delivery services...2/19/02: learned how to handle cardiology requests...the culture in this city loves their family & their fashion; caring for others & clothing for themselves...had to keep Ann awake; she was congested, and the medication was causing her to doze, so she bought a Coke, which slightly helped matters...Sprint will cut 3,000 jobs...Southwest Airlines will hire 4,000 people; they never fired any employee, and have maintained a profit since the Sept. 11 attacks...in the spring of 2002, they offered a buy one get one ticket to anywhere Southwest flew!...the restaurants in SunPort have increased their profits due to the security delays...2/20/02: had one data entry on-line and two returns; they were goofs!...2/21/02: had 3 goofs, one which had Ann & myself searching in the Medical Records area, that place in the lower depths of the first floor...

...2/15/02: Roseann called at 3:10 PM, saying there was a 3:30 meeting; I was to call Rosie to get a ride...called, no answer...tried again to reach Roseann, no answer, kept calling her every 5 minutes...gave up, started working again...l called Roseann at 4:30, saying I was done for the day and what I did during the last hour...2/18/02: Roseann apologized for the mix-up, and did so again on 2/19/02...

...people complain about congestion & transportation problems...ABQ does not know that DC does not have any interstates that go completely through the city...all traffic has to get on the Beltway, which is cursed with the Mixing Bowl & the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction projects...only in the last decade has METROrail run during most of the day; to do so the fares have doubled in less than twenty years...and it does not reach to the new suburbs or Dulles Airport...

...2/21/02: for reasons that I cannot explain or understand, I actually had an inkling of missing the life we led in DC...I do not miss the weather or the crowded conditions, just familiar routines that have not been replaced here...I guess I would like to see a friendly (or maybe not so friendly) face...and take a ride on METRO to who knows where...which means Dupont Circle & Pan Asian...probably the hard times have finally caused me to wonder if this move was the right thing to do...at the time the answer was Yes, because without jobs & a home, life in DC would have been quite challenging...oh, well, it was just a thought!...and, maybe, in spite of the job, plus the recent turbulent times in our lives, that I am still lonely...

"Don't piss the pussy, or the pussy will piss on you!"

...in LaHabra Heights, CA a car going 70 mph lands on the roof of a house; no one in the house or the car were injured...2 insurance companies are trying to deny payment for losses sustained by ENRON executives in the recent crisis...our 16-year old brown leather chair & ottoman, purchased at Hecht's...a raid on a terrorists' hideout in Rome, Italy yielded a white powder plus plans to the American Embassy and the water pipeline in its neighborhood...it is time to tune out on TV...currently I do not like weekends, and my cynicism is returning!...