Help! I'm on Drugs, and I need more.

I had an interesting thought about the role of government, and in my thinking of this, I wandered over to thoughts about its role in medicine. And so, I did a quick Google search: “how do pharmaceutical companies make money?”

Here is the site at the top of the hit results:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/truth-about-drug-companies

One hand we have conservatives, who say that the role of the government is to stay the heck out of socialized programs (healthcare) because it is anti-capitalism, or "anti-free market." However, I find a contradiction here, which is partly the same point that the Mother Jones article makes: The same industries, as well as their constituents, who are crying foul about government intervention in medicine want the government to protect them by keeping cheaper medicine out of the country and by supporting longer waiting periods before generic drugs can compete (in a free-market system).

And isn’t it odd that the argument is because of the cost of the research is costly, which is subsidized by a socialist structure (yes, the US government - see motherjones.com article above)? If the government gets out of funding altogether how much more sympathy will the drug companies request?

My late brother Jimmy left his son Jason some money and Jason was kind enough to send me a few hundred dollars. I wasn't sure what to do with the money. Part of me wanted to pay bills, part of me wanted to give it back, part of me wanted to give it away, and part of me wanted to do something special.

Ultimately, I decided to buy something significant with it. I wanted to buy something that would remind me of Jimmy, something that would be special -- peaceful and loving. Almost immediately, I began to think about a fountain.

And so, last week while Heidi and I were out "dreaming" with the kids, which we love to do ["Dreaming" usually takes place at the end of the month when we don't have money. Usually, we drive around and look at fancy houses and big pieces of land. Or we go to Sam's club or Lowe's and see what's there, to see what we would buy to place in our "dream" house] we saw a very nice, elegant fountain. It was simple.

There were no cascading tiers, no loud splashing sounds. There was only a rippling effect on the surface of the tall vase as the water gently sheeted down. I loved it and Heidi thought it was a good fit for what I sought.

I bought it, and after trying it out in several locations throughout the yard, we decided that it would look best in the front. It was a place where we could see it each day and where others could enjoy it as they walked by our house.

After several trips to Lowe's and The Home Depot with the family, I finally set up the fountain today. I worked on removing the sod this morning, and then this afternoon, I placed the foundation rocks for the fountain. I considered waiting for the solar pump to arrive before I set up the actual fountain, but the girls were excited. After all, they did "help." ; ) And so, we placed the fountain, filled it up with water, and plugged it in.

The fountain looks nice.

Jimmy would have liked it.

What to do in this blog...

I have no idea what is supposed to happen in these blogs. In fact, this 2nd entry is my 4th attempt. I keep trying to imagine someone reading this and I'm worried I might over share!

The three previous entries (that don't really exist because I've typed over them) were over the health benefits of organic food (thanks to an article I read on the BBC), how Heidi and I are trying to get out of debt, and the other was just a bunch of this:

;alkdj fa;lkj ;lakjf d;laksjfd ;lak fj;alksdfj a;lkf

;lkajf;lkadsj f;laksjdf ;alskdf ;alskdf j;alksfdj a;lfkj

fa;ldkfja ;lksdfja;lskfj a;lskfdja;lfkdj a;lskfd a;lsfkj

Okay, so that last one really wasn't an entry, but I counted it as one because I actually typed into the little text box and then typed over it again.

The funny thing about this blog thing stuff, though, is that during the busiest times of the day I have what seem like hundreds of ideas running through my mind and I don't have time to jot them down. For example, today I thought about writing a book (because of prodding from some facebook users), I thought about whether or not we should get rid of our saltwater fishtank (it's a money pit; sorry to Fishy Business if any of you are reading this), and I thought about a fountain that I bought that I intend to set up some time..... oh goodness, there isn't any time.

I better go check my facebook to see what others are doing.

The Beginning

Well, here is my first post ever to this blog. I've thought about doing this for some time, but I just didn't know what I would post. Actually, I knew what I wanted to post, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually say what I was thinking.

But, if you notice the title of my blog, it's fairly accurate of what I want to capture here: I want to capture those thoughts that are caught up in my mind, those that are constantly there, those that flit in and out, and those that are more spontaneous. And so, the topics will range from the personal to the public, from philosophy and religion to humor and wit.

It will be a way to catalogue what I have experienced in the distant past, what I have experienced today, and what I think I might experience in the future.

I hope to post daily, but I hope that it does not consume my day.