Lots going on in the news of late and each morning newspaper brings new opportunities for some positive comments and also for some irritations. Here’s what’s been spinning around in my head recently:

+  Our heat bill just arrived and it appears that we are providing comfort to everyone in the neighborhood! It sure seems that way what with the amount of energy our supplier states we consumed! Our mortgage payment used to be smaller! On the other hand our next-door neighbor was away on vacation when their furnace failed and all the pipes in the house burst causing over $100,000 in damage! So our monthly heat bill now seems like a pittance.

+  Been trying to secure a pair of Presidential cuff links for some time now. Back in the 80’s I was cleared by the FBI to jog with President Clinton on one of my trips to the nation’s capital when I worked in the Engler Administration. At the last minute Clinton had a conflict and thus my chance to ask for cufflinks went by the roadside. So now I have written to Former First Lady Laura Bush at their new address in Dallas. Maybe she can just swipe a pair of cufflinks from George and send them to me. I’ll keep you apprised of developments.

+  We have so much snow here that there is no place to pile it up anymore. The roar of snow blowers continues to break the early morning silence here in our subdivision. We once had a neighbor who never cleared his snow. His rational was that in the spring everyone’s property looked the same whether one cleared the snow or not! With the record snowfall we are having, wonder if he ever got out of his house this year! And don’t even get me started on the numerous potholes that dot our roads!

+  Seems most of the talk after the Inauguration is about what First Lady Michelle Obama was wearing. Wonder what it would be like to have someone critique your wardrobe each time you go out? As a retiree since 2003 I have worn a suit only about five times. And during the summer socks are not in my wardrobe perhaps a Grosse Pointe thing, our previous residence. So if someone wants to comment on my wardrobe, have at it!

+  A teenager in Ann Arbor had a dispute with his girlfriend over her destroying his marihuana materials. So he slapped her and then killed her pet rabbit. Now he faces four years in jail for cruelty to an animal and 90 days in jail for assaulting her. Is there something wrong with this picture when a rabbit is held in higher regard than a human? Maybe he should have just donned some hunting garb and shot the rabbit and then he could have avoided jail. Seems we are living in a bizzarro world where human life has become like a throwaway soda pop can!

+  What’s with people walking around with cell phones jutting out of their ears! Are these people that important that every call is critical? You would think that they are somehow hooked up to a Strategic Air Command Missile Silo and thus their input is needed for launch! Many of these earphone fanatics look as if an insect is crawling out of their ear!

+  Are you as tired as me about “going green”? Green cars, green offices, green buildings. OK fine, we have to cut back on polluting the planet but as Kermit the Frog said: “It’s not easy being green”.

+  On a positive note, I continue to be cancer free after prostate surgery last June. My PSA continues to be 0.0 and evidently I have become the poster boy for successful surgery a great place to be!

+  Another great place to be is with my wife Mary of 45 years! We just celebrated our anniversary. Can’t imagine being anywhere else but with her. And I’m green with envy for having such a wonderful, beautiful wife. So maybe being green isn’t so bad after all. Take that Kermit!