Big Brother, The TV Show or My Favorite Government?

I haven't been gone from the UAE for very long, but in so many ways it seems like forever...I left on March 27th in less than 3 months I have returned to my normal American life, in other ways the adjustment has been rough...Believe it or not, one of the tougher adjustments is weekends. I pretty much worked 6 days a week in Dubai (especially at Barakat), I am now definitely on a Monday through Friday schedule. I am a creature of habit, and I made myself get used to getting my errands and projects done in Dubai on Fridays, and then right back at it on Saturday mornings. I find myself still hustling around on Saturday here, and now I find myself a little bored on Sundays...I know, what a hard adjustment...lol. I do have a Saturday Morning ritual, head to Waffle House around 9 am for my breakfast (same thing every Saturday morning, Bacon, egg and cheese on toast, hash browns, scattered, covered, and smothered(Onions and cheese) and yes don't forget that breakfast drink that I love...an iced cold Diet Coke.
I enjoy my breakfast, and then I head to my dry cleaner (yes - it cost more in Springfield than in Dubai $2.25 per shirt and $3.99 for slacks....). Then I fill up with gas, run my car through the car wash (unlimited monthly washings for $30), go to the grocery store and then head home (usually around 11:15). I do my household chores (I need a house keeper...sigh) and then I am done around noon with the rest of the weekend free. Yes, I am a creature of habit, but that doesn't bother me, it is comforting when I am in my comfort zone.

If you follow the weather in the states, you will have heard and read a lot about the Tornado outbreak that has dominated the region that I live in.

Springfield is in the Southwest corner of Missouri and it is less than an hour drive away from Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. The storms that spawn the tornado's that have decimated parts of Oklahoma, usually head right up through Southwest Missouri. The city of Joplin that was leveled by a F5 Tornado (winds peaked at 250 mph -400 kmh, leveling a mile wide area) and killed 162 people in 2011. Well two weeks ago we were under a tornado watch in Springfield, so I decided to travel up to St. Louis for a weekend of gaming fun at Hollywood Casino Hotel, supposedly out of the danger cone for tornadic activity that weekend. You guessed it, Springfield was spared with no tornado's and the hotel that I was staying in St. Louis took a hit. Nobody was killed, but many cars were destroyed and windows were blown out of several of the hotel rooms. The power was knocked off and sweltering 90 plus degree heat on Saturday with no air conditioning or power was brutal The worse part was showering in ice cold water with no lights...sigh...now that was bad luck at a casino...

The NSA "spying scandal" that has hit the US this June has gotten me to thinking. The American Government has admitted that they have gathered and collected the phone records of almost all calls in the US in the last few years. As I have read more about it, they did do some focusing and listening in to calls made between America and the Middle East. It suddenly dawned on me, that my calls from Dubai back to America were probably monitored. I think back to some of the venom I spewed to Fred about the Obama administration and their handling of Benghazi (even this blog was a place that I ranted) and other things. I wonder if poor Fred will receive an IRS audit now...lol. Big Brother is alive and well in America, The book "1984" has re-hit the best seller list...Some of the stuff going on is hard to believe....I mentioned joking to Muzzy about terrorism on the phone in my last blog, I haven't heard from him....hopefully he is not locked up in Guantanamo (just an attempt at humor, they wouldn't lock Muzzy up - they would get him with a drone).

I haven't heard from my Middle Eastern friends (well, Joseph emailed me, Kelly is ready for a Skype date, and Rodz...well she either wants to move to Springfield or to the Philippines, every day is a challenge...sigh.

Work is going well, I am beginning to make friends and of course I get to work for a very good friend. RK's warehouse should have opened for business this weekend...I can't wait to hear. Shift Leasing apologized for the delay in my Dubai car lease refund and promised to process it on June 11th, well so far no money...I guess its time for threats...I bet you that my bank will have my partial refund in it before the next blog!

I will work on getting things to blog about in the coming weeks...see you back here on the 1st of July. Have a great weekend!