We got a great deal on the Bill Clinton autobiography ... at the grocery store! Both Candy and I are threatening to read it but the 900+ page size is daunting, to say the least. I was most impressed to find out that Clinton literally penned the book (hand wrote the book) himself - without ghost writers.

I'm impressed. I cleared the entire things to do list plus re-routed the newspaper subscription yesterday morning. I hate being on the phone but once I got going, it wasn't so bad.

There's little else to report on. We're just marching in place at this point, waiting for Monday and the closing on the new house. We are finding that homes are listing for more and more. I'd initially thought we'd be putting this place up for something on the order of $130-135K. After out initial talks with Mary (real estate agent) we concluded putting this house up for $154K was not unreasonable. Yesterday, Mary faxed over two new listings from this neighborhood. One house, 2 doors down, is being listed at $229K. I find that unbelievable! Granted, it's four bedroom, there's a pool & jacuzzi in the back and about 500 square feet more of living space - BUT ... The upshot is that we're probably going to list this place at something like $160K. Already that number is a strain on my credulity.

Insomnia is a way of life. In bed by 11pm, sleep until about 2 or 3am, up until after sunrise then back to bed for another hour or two.

There are no great philosophical debates or moral dilemmas keeping me awake. There are thoughts that chase each other around in my brain. However many thoughts it seems there are as I lie there in the dark, they always resolve into only four or five when I rise to sort them out with the lights on.

The things to do list:

• Call Tucson Water, get service for new house
  
• Call the gas company, get service for new house
  
• Call the electric company, get service for the new house
  
• Call the insurance company, check on health insurance options now that we've been rejected by BCBS
  
• Try to find a face plate that fits the circuit breaker box in the workshop
  

It's a managable list in the end. I'd rather be shooting.

Got an e-mail from a model agency in New Mexico, probably as a result of listing my travel plans to Chaco Canyon this fall. I'd mentioned that I was interested in doing a TFP with any model interested in tagging along. I don't really need a model for anything other than to add some human scale to the photographs of the ruins. I'll send them a note - it would be working with an agency that actually tries to get something going for its models and that should be encouraged.

Here's their letter:

Greetings:

I would like to welcome you to your New Mexico visit. The land of enchantment certainly holds many magnificent quailities around the state!

As I read, you will be visiting the Gallup & Chaco areas. I invite you to see some of our local models; Saja (teen Model) and Stacey (www.stmaureen21.com), these models are the sage talent mgmt site here on muse cube. We are open to your TFP/CD work basis.

Should you have any7 questions, please feel free to give me a call at 505/368-1104.

Best Regards,

Roy J. Tso
www.geocities.com/sagemodelsltd

The house deal is coming together. I had to dig out the ten year old divorve decree in order to demonstarte that Ali is "of age" and I am no longer subject to child support. I still have to contact water, gas and electric. Even tomorrow will be cutting it close. I keep forgetting to do anything about those utilities.

I'm feeling very discouraged. Sometimes life just gets a little overwhelming and this is one of those moments. We are trying to move from health insurance provided through my former employer and governed under the terms and conditions of the COBRA provisions to health insurance that we pay for - with the same basic network - Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). We have been paying into BCBS for years - via payments from my company and through payroll deductions. We've had few claims - at least I've not had many, but now that we're getting older and in need of insurance, we've been denied for the reasonably priced spread. How many thousands of dollars in profit have I represented? Keep in mind that insurance companies are among the most profitable on the planet!

I have an appointment with Ron H. later this morning. The bank needs a litter from me indicating that the new house will be our primary residence (as opposed to a rental property). Not a problem - it's just another detail in an inundation of details.

We watched "A Concert for George" - a gathering of friends to send off a fellow musician - and couldn't help wonder how small a closed it will be when all of our friends gather for those final good-byes. What does it matter? Who will care 100 years from now -or- 1,000 years from now? It was great music, thought. It's easy to forget how much music emanated from those four people (The Beatles). They have been a good part of the sound track of our lives.

We agreed that we simply haven't made the effort to have other people in our lives. We agreed that we simply don't have enough people in our lives.

I'd thought it might be a fun idea to do a "once-a-month" model, photographer "meet and greet" (cameras not welcome). I know we both miss the monthly get-togethers we used to have in Pennsylvania before we moved. It was good fellowship and laughter. Of course, as good as those things can be, we all forget each other once they are over. In any case, we're considering giving that a try.

Candy had some dental surgery yesterday - I guess some bone was spliced in to make up from some gingivitis bone loss. She's in pain and I guess she will be for quite a while as it all heals. We need to take care of the major things while we still have insurance coverage - it ends at the end of November.

Candy is doing orthodontic surgery today. I don't think she's going to be interested in talk to anyone when she gets out. The mortgage guy is chasing me for a copy of my daughter's birth certificate. I have a physical coming up ... and we're closing on the new house next Monday. We were complaining that we don't have enough things going on quite recently.

I watched Clinton on 60 Minutes last night. Nostalgia for the old days was the most prominent feeling I experienced while watching. I wonder if Evan watched. Evan, our "adopted son" in the Secret Service, has a history for being a knee jerk Republican ... Not so much for having thought through the issues (he's young) but more for the fact that his father is a kneejerk Republican. Our recent conversations indicate that the winds of change are in the air with Evan - mostly over the Iraq war and surrounding shit storm. Last time I checked, Evan was having trouble supporting either candidate for president.

I'm listening to a piece about blogging on NPR. The thing that strikes me; puzzles me is why do young people feel such a need to talk so fast. It's like if they don't rush through their ideas, they'll loose them. It seems so little is done with circumspection anymore. People drive fast, walk fast, talk fast ... All at the expense of thinking ... particularly critical thought. It's all a function of emotion; they are emoting. Conversation has been reduced to a series of emoticons, little type written faces made up of sideways letters. :-)

Flame wars fraught with circular reasoning plague MuseCube. I've gotten involved with a couple of them but there's no payoff.

In the meantime, Mary has come up with a web site that will allow me to expedite a request for Ali's birth certificate in response to Ron's (Wells Fargo's) request in counter to a credit report item indicating that I have some child support due. Yes, it's that convoluted.

Candy has dental surgery on Monday and I have a physical later in the week. We've been turned down by Blue Cross Blue Shield for insurance leaving us with the very expensive transfer option. I could do a whole rant on insurance.