…1/27-09: there’s more to life than money

33º in ABQ; 58% humidity at 6A…GAQ; Sustiva dream with Frank, Steve & Yana; $685K paid by ABQ Police for failing to respond in a timely manner, considered a low priority at the time: money paid from ‘risk MGMT fund’; cameras at legislative sessions?; another bank robbery yesterday, more than a dozen in the past three weeks; Rail Runner riders are reducing; NM artist creating paintings of cottage currently at the NATL Mall; protests for Wal-Mart being built in another part of ABQ; Duke City may see decline in city taxes; NMSU Job Fair in Carlsbad; film crew parked in Downtown lots at 6A, scene being filmed at Downtown Inn at 4P; electronic medical records being mandated by NM GOV, an era of health care reforms; very cold in E NM, below zero wind-chill; roadwork repairs on I-40 & San Mateo; 66K acre Melrose Air Force Range will get more use this year, helping Cannon AFB, as an air to ground combat training area; the end of EDO?; price of gas is $1.75 per gallon; have ‘sleeping weekends’, just serve me food between naps; windy evening; are we ‘outsourcing retirement’?: retired ABQ couple have moved to MX, where everything is cheaper, including assisted living centers;

O/T is irrelevant; hundreds of charges lost [how?]; the three I/P Coders are politely irritable; UNM PRES speaks to students & staff, stating ways to cut energy costs, starting by turning off lights, capping high salaries; finished revised Rounds by 7:30A; brought forms to PICN & PICU; all these people, have all this time, to have Frito Pie lunch sales; used Intelicode today; too many phone calls & E-mails today; everyone must E-mail Carolyn when arriving and leaving work, and when they take lunch; asked today about a meeting on Thursday that my other two ‘team’ members knew about, but no one had told me anything; I am still listed as a user on 3-M Coding software, have not heard that name in years; Code Purple by 11A, and the rest of the day;

20s on Nantucket; Winter Storm warnings across PA, NY, OH, New England, IN, caused by high pressures; dense fog in SE US & FL; temps from 10s to 80s; icy conditions: OK, N AR, TN, KY; already, five traffic deaths from the storm; power outages also reported; MO sleet; freezing mix in Dallas, flurries in other parts of TX; INDY needs snow; snow on I-64/I-77 in Charleston, WV; car slid into MO home: car is OK, house is destroyed; warm in Orlando & New Orleans; cell phones are useless during storms; TX under ice;

Etch–a–Sketch drawings of Obama & Las Vegas; one CA mother gave birth to eight babies: six boys, two girls, all born in ten minutes; ‘economic day is darkening’; the ‘point of NATL challenge’; when it comes to foreign affairs, Obama says: start by listening, not dictating; worst holiday shopping season in decades; NATL AVG price of gas is $1.84 per gallon; now, Fannie Mae wants more money; people are seeing videos, spending more time, and entertaining themselves at home; super safety before the Super Bowl; murder-suicide of seven people in a Los Angeles suburb; CA has $42 billion dollar budget; Blagojevich escaped IL; tapes don’t tell the entire story; suppose they debated an impeachment, and the main guest did not arrive; sign of the times: Brandeis selling its art collection?; video games outsell DVD & Blu-ray movies; reduce the growth & repairs of the French Quarter in New Orleans; John Updike has died from lung cancer at the age of 76; [R] creating its own surplus plan, focusing on tax cuts; Fed-Ex plane skids on TX runway, catches fire, injures two of its crew; ABQ ‘cheese sandwich’ debate makes CNN News; Sean Penn proud to portray Harvey Milk; Obama popularity slipping; record low consumer confidence; 11.5K people lost jobs today; the $4 trillion bank bailout; CEO bought a $35K commode, and an $87K rug for his executive office; another sold his million dollar house to his wife for $100; would cost stations millions of they did not ‘go analog’ on 2/17/09; Merrill Lynch saw billion dollar fourth quarter loss; although there will be no political catfight, the [R] are upset they were not asked to help create the current stimulus package; nine weeks early, and only the second time in US history has there been that many multiple births, and the mother will breastfeed all her children; OR nightclub killed has committed suicide; missing FL hedge MGR turned himself in; Citigroup nixed the jet purchase; another sign of the times: the end of some zoos & casinos; is $5 enough of a settlement for the US Airways passengers?; fifth CA family suicide in the past year; the DOW ends up;

in Berlin, car crashes, bounces into church roof; PRES says Americans are not Muslim enemies; 140º on Australian tennis court; mixed foreign markets; a reality Robocop?; the Israel–Gaza battles that will not end: roadside bombing in Palestine state; Arab TV station Al Arabia got the first Obama formal interview, Obama said that Israel was also an ally of the US: hopefully, this conversation will not lead to a ‘massive sense of letdown’;