Eighty Years (or so) To The Big Zero

So I didn’t get home in time to do my walk/run tonight. It wasn’t raining tonight either like it was yesterday but yesterday was a rest day.

So I did extra sit-ups and both push-ups and dips to kinda make up for it. I know it’s not the same but unless I purchase a treadmill for the house I’m subject to the effects of weather and other obligations.

Besides while a treadmill would be nice part of walking/running is to get outside and enjoy the air. I’m shooting for tomorrow for the walk. Hopefully the weather will hold.

BTW - Talk about a freak out. I walked out of Publix the other day and there was a voice mail on my cell phone.

I listened to the voice mail and it started like this, “Hello this is Mr. Garcia from the Department of Homeland Security.” You know how your mind can run really fast and dozens of thoughts can go through it in a split second. Well I started thinking… hmmm I guess they finally caught me. Shouldn’t have downloaded Loose Change and Zeitgeist.

Then the message continued, “We’re conducting an invesigation…” great! Now I mentally started thinking of what else I might have or had done in the past that was now under review. Then the words, “on xxx yyy” Wow. They were invesigtating a friend of mine. What? How’d they get my cell phone number? Who are these people?

Well it turns out my friend is going for a position and will be working with/under/around computers used by the DHS. They were doing a background check. So a couple phone tag messages later they finally call me back at school while I was in class. I ask them to call me back in a hour. I could tell he was getting annoyed, and I really wanted to help my friend get the job, but I was in class with students. What could I do?

Later the interview was routine but there were an awful lot of “Do you , or have you ever known XXX to be a part of a subversive group that seeks to undermine the security of the US Government?” “Do you or have you ever heard XXX mention they would rather live in another country than the US?”, “Do you know or can think of ways XXX could be blackmailed?” and things like that. It was very interesting.

Then they wanted to know my mailing address. If I had said no that probably would have looked bad for my friend so I gave them an address that wasn’t my home address but a dead drop PO BOX I use in emergencies. Looks like I’ll never be able to go there again. 8^(

I hope my friend gets the job. He owes me a favor now. 8^)

A Whole New You, Thinking out loud