Hmm, so much for remembering to blog ...

I thought maybe if I had a blog, I'd do a better job of journaling. Apparently that isn't the case since it's been well over a month since my last post.

For the last week and a bit, I at least have an excuse - frankly, I just haven't had the heart to post much on Katrina and 9/11. Katrina's been done to death (I feel slightly guilty about being in Katrina Burnout mode) and I am just not interested in 9/11 anymore. It was tragic, but Bush's own hijacking has diminished it - and by that, I mean using 9/11 as the reasoning for the invasion of a country with no conclusive connection to the event. It's disrespectful to those who died and I'm afraid that has made me want to push it aside. I must also admit other distances - geographically I am nowhere near New York. Personally, although I am in the brokerage industry, the people who worked for my company were in the bottom of WTC5 and were all safe. The closest I got was a good friend and co-worker whose uncle, Jason Dahl, was the Captain of Flight 93. I did not know the man.

So. As for the last week and a half, it has been quite an eye opener. We have made some changes in our household already.

- Bill and I had already decided to buy bikes a few weeks ago and both cut out some local driving and add some more healthy time wasters to our schedules (riding instead of watching TV). That move seems even more sensible now that gas prices are up.

- I find myself feeling even more animosity towards the SUV crowd, except when I see them at the gas stations. That sight gives me a little perverse pleasure, especially when I see a mom with school aged kids and can picture her sitting in a carpool lane. My hatred of SUV's with "Support Our Troops" stickers on the back has reached an all time high.

- I feel more of an urge to get healthy than I've felt in a long time. There is some twisted Katrina logic going on here, some survivalist feelings and some realization that I'm incredibly fortunate to be in good health, living in a nice place, relatively well off in just about every manner ... and I'm wasting it. It's selfish.

- The TV has got to go. Ms. Coulter, if you read this - that's not a decision I made after the list's discussion today, it's something that has been simmering for a while. It's a waste of time and I'm of the mind that I'm just not a good parent if I let the boys watch this stuff. This weekend sealed the deal - I let the boys watch a Yu-Gi-Yo DVD we got at the library. I can't stand those shows, but Jake likes them. I realized that they were incredibly knowledgable about the rules of the Yu-Gi-Yo battles, and it made me sick to think that Jake can tell me what damned near every card means but hasn't mastered reading yet.

So - as tragic as Katrina was and as much as I wish it had never happened, I hope that I can at least hold on to the feeling of being so very, very fortunate because that's what's pushing this urge to change.