Up Early, Am-Way Presentation, Medical Visit, Later Plans

 Jane came to be one of my sweetheart wife Melissa's good friends in the 1990s.  She always had a sweet and gentle disposition.  One morning Jane invited me to attend a "recruitment" meeting regarding a multi-level marketing project called Am-Way, to which I complied and was shocked by its aggressive nature.  Turns out  that, starting out, I would be on the bottom, under other Am-Way members.  Over time my sales and recruitment efforts would pay off in my gradual elevation and enrichment, and my wealth and reknown had the potential of becoming possibly legendary, like that of "the" Bubba Pratt, the company's star multi-millionaire.  The not-so-subtle dig at those who choose not to engage with Am-Way is that they are hum-drum losers who are missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime...why, I could be off somewhere ice-fishing with my big-shot mentor instead of working shifts on the clock!  Ron, one of my former USPS co-workers who was eventually fired for insubordination, used to even insult me and colleague Rick about our so-called dead-end jobs.  I always believed that being a postal service clerk was an honorable undertaking, and over the years appreciated the respect and esteeem directed my way for consistently showing up and properly performing my duties.   Melissa and I both demurred on Jane's offer, but God blessed our humble little lives just the same...we still enjoyed that trip to Dahlonega, Georgia.  I never was very materialistic about wanting "stuff", and for me spending money was something I felt some caution about avoiding building up too much financial debt. Now it's nearly 3:30 on Wednesday morning, and I have an 11:00 appointment to see my prostate cancer oncologist at UF Health Davis Cancer Pavilion. After brewing some coffee I ran in place for 8 minutes and see myself extending that "run" a while longer.  Well, I still have that horrid Joshua Khan Shadow Magic book and want to read a little bit further into it before I lay it down in disgust.  Protagonist boy Thorn is always fighting and offending people, and the narrative never seems to have any "down" moments for folks to just get together and talk things out.  Let's see, I think I'll post today's article, shut down the computer, and head on back.  Good morning, all...   

Checked YouTube about Theme Park Rides in General Vicinity

The other day I did a search on various theme park rides.  My all-time favorite one is Power Surge, a circular ride moving around an axis that lifts you up and tosses you around, upside-down and all, in your seat high off the ground as it rotates...satisfyingly disorienting you for its approximately two minutes of duration.  When my kids were growing up, two theme parks we visited had Power Surge: Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Georgia and the renovated Cypress Gardens in Polk County, Florida. It was one of the several then-scary rides at the former on that fateful Sunday in March, 2003 that I braved myself to ride on as a challenge to myself: after all, Will and Rebecca had no problem with them!  Since that time I've completely flip-flopped on theme park rides and became an ardent fan, but the children are grown and going to these parks just hasn't been high on our agenda in recent years.  I think the last roller coaster I've ridden was the Dania Beach Hurricane wooden coaster off Stirling Road on the north side of Hollywood in southern Florida where I grew up and would later visit my father. Now the Hurricane is no more and...correct me if I'm wrong...there are ZERO coasters remaining down there. On YouTube I found a posting that shows POV on all of Busch Garden's major rides, including several newer ones I've yet to experience. I think they're the best Theme Park when I consider their distance from my Gainesville home (they're in Tampa), the number of quality rides, price and their shows and amenities.  But for now I'm glad to see the rides on YouTube.  By the way, Montu, Busch Garden's hanging steel roller coaster, is still my all-time favorite coaster and number two all-around ride, behind Power Surge (which you can also "kind-of" experience in a virtual way on YouTube).     

On the Day of John Lewis' Passing, Georgia Governor and Mayors Need to Negotiate

On this day in which the great civil rights advocate and long-time Atlanta congressman John Lewis died after a seven-month struggle against pancreatic cancer, his home state of Georgia...where I was born...is in the thick of a legal and political struggle concerning how the COVID-19 pandemic is handled there.  The governor, Brian Kemp, has proclaimed a statewide mandate that opens businesses and encourages (but doesn't require) masks in public settings...the recent sharp resurgence in cases has caused several local mayors to enact public face covering mandates in violation of Kemp's rule.  And now he is suing the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, to rescind that locality's law.  The Georgia governor has been thoroughly trashed in the media for this policy of his in the middle of a public health emergency, but I think he has a point that most media pundits have conveniently chosen to overlook.  You see, these cities that are mandating masks are also considering shutting down their businesses again, like what happened earlier this spring across the country.  Kemp is making it clear in his speeches that he is determined to keep Georgia's economy running and feels that the mayors choosing to defy his policy about masks will...if not checked...then proceed to once again close their city's businesses.  This is what totally frustrates me about this political wrangling: many people at-large automatically associate mask wearing with economic shutdown while in actual policy the former, if universally practiced, will enable businesses to flourish at close to maximal capacity.  Governor Kemp wants Georgians to wear masks but he does not want his state to go into an economic depression with mass-ordered shutdowns...it seems that there should be room for negotiation here: grant the mayors and counties the right to impose and enforce mask mandates while they agree that they will not close down businesses.  Georgia businesses staying open and everybody wearing masks isn't going to make a lot of people happy but it's the obvious solution to this standoff...