Yesterday was an interesting day. My big blue and gold macaw, Sammy, came to the office with me so we could more conveniently get him to an afternoon grooming appointment.
It was quite an adventure. I was late to work because of all the preparation. The porta-perch had to be washed and disassembled for the trip, water and food needed to be brought along, the carrier needed to be prepped, and Sammy had to be convinced that going into that box was in his best interest. He was unhappy but managed not to inflict any serious injuries to me or himself during the hour drive to my office. Once he was here, porta-perch assembled, newspapers spread out on every poop-imperiled surface, he finally relaxed. I put the webcam on him for the day, so the world missed a day of my silly facial expressions and got a day of wing-stretching and yapping and chewing instead. The bird, not me.
When we finally arrived at the appointed place at the appointed time, the woman who had promised to be available to do his grooming was nowhere to be found. When we called her on the phone, she simply said she’d changed her mind and was going home. Sammy spent two hours in a box and seven hours in my boring office for essentially no reason. I believe we’ll be finding another groomer … it’s not easy to find one who’s competent and worthy of trust, but this one is a flake for sure.
Speaking of flakes, I really don’t understand people who idolize Teresa Heinz-Kerry. I don’t usually make snap judgements about people, and when I do they’re usually positive ones, but I really think that Mrs. Kerry isn’t the sort of person I’d like to see become our First Lady.
I’m remembering the incident in July where she made a speech calling for a more civil tone:
“We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics,” she said.
A reporter for a Pittsburgh newspaper asked her afterward what she meant by “un-American,” in an encounter caught on tape by a nearby TV crew. She said “I didn’t say that” repeatedly. A moment later, the reporter tried again and she replied, “You said something I didn’t say. Now shove it.”
What does this exchange say about Mrs. Kerry? For starters, it shows she’s not only dishonest, but comfortable about lying. She repeatedly states that she “didn’t say that”, even when videotape and thousands of eyewitnesses confirm that she did.
The exchange also shows that while she’s confident when she speaks publicly, and seems to make her points dramatically, she’s clearly not prepared to support, explain, or even justify her words in an unscripted conversation. This is probably because they’re not her words, but a speechwriter’s. Still, most political figures tend to deflect direct questions in a more graceful manner.
Finally, in my opinion, she’s shown herself to be a bad-tempered, unpleasant woman. Even under ordinary circumstances, I would have expected more self-restraint from a woman of her supposed status and maturity. If she can’t even rein in her foul mouth when her husband is running for the nation’s highest office, if she can’t present herself in public as a woman worthy to be called First _Lady_, then I have to wonder about her judgment in other situations, perhaps more important, diplomatically crucial ones.
The battle for the Presidency may not yet be over, but if there were a battle of the first ladies, Laura Bush (quite a lady in anyone’s book) would have already won.
Pistachio stats: NONE yesterday (hands were too busy keeping the bird from eating the office), NONE yet today.