One of my anniversary gifts from WifeGeeding was a surprise lunch at Hutching BBQ in Frisco. I took the day off so we could spend some time together. The last couple of times we had BBQ were at subpar places with terrible brisket, and this is our favorite. The last time we went to Hutchins they were closed for a private event, so it’s been something we’ve been craving. As we got close to our destination and I recognized where we were heading, I told WifeGeeding I appreciated the gesture but Hutchins is closed on Tuesdays. She thought I was kidding and didn’t believe me until we parked the car and noticed the lights were off inside. The poor thing felt terrible (but I’ll be sure to make it a source of jokes for years to come). We then decided to drive a half-hour away to the McKinney location and had to wait in line for a good 40-minutes.
Her second gift to me was a surprise trip to the National Video Game Museum in Frisco. I came close to buying a modern version of the Intellivision which had all the games already in it, but I wasn’t sure if it came with those plastic inserts which went in the numbered controllers and informed you what button did what.
My gift to her were Dixie Chicks concert tickets.
One lesson I thought I’d have to teach my kids but is no longer a concern is how to start a car when the engine is flooded. Modern cars no longer have that problem.
While watching the ‘Person of Interest’ series finale, a man named Lionel was riding on a train, which made me think of Lionel Trains, which made me laugh, which lead me to remember the time rocker Neil Young was on Letterman talking about how his investment group bought the toy train company and his love for the product
Part of the ‘Person of Interest’ finale storyline took place in the New York Federal Reserve which reminded me of the time I was locked in a room all by myself in the Fed for about half an hour. One of my college classes took a New York field trip, and the dean of our business school used to be a vice president for the Federal Reserve, so he was able to arrange a special tour. Our class was in this one particular area full of financial and monetary artifacts and while everyone shuffled along, my attention got wrapped up in one display and some related reading material next to it. I thought everyone was an aisle or two over but they actually left the room and the tour guide locked the door. Luckily for me, a security guard found me and when I was returned to my group, everyone stated they had no idea I was gone. I tend to go unnoticed quite easily. Remember, I don’t function well with crowds or relating to people.
The local news mentioned we had a Strawberry Moon last night. The last time that happened was in June 1967 and won’t happen again until 2067. A Strawberry Moon happens when there’s a full moon on the summer solstice and got its name from Algonquin tribes singling the time to gather fruit, such as strawberries.
Some of you made some great points about Dallas District Attorney Susan Hawk stating if she were sick with a physical ailment rather than a mental one, the public would be hailing her courage. For a while, I totally agreed, and then after some thought felt different about it. For such a job, her mind (and mental health) is her primary tool; but if she had cancer, her mind and emotional well-being, for the most part, wouldn’t affect her performance. If Bruce Springsteen was battling cancer or depression but his vocal cords were no longer to function properly, which is his primary tool, I’d expect him to stop performing because he could no longer properly function as a singer. That’s probably not the best example or comparison, but I think you get what I’m trying to say.
This story of a mom posting a picture of her three-year-old daughter standing on a toilet got a lot of attention yesterday. The mother was curious as to why her daughter was standing on the toilet, and the girl stated it was what her pre-school taught her to do during an active shooter drill. Per the mother, “At that moment all innocence of what I thought my 3-year-old possessed was gone.”
I'll still respectfully disagree with your position on the DA. As you're well aware, any life-threatening illness will adversely affect a person's mental abilities. Again, if she were facing stage 4 cancer of some sort, don't you think her "mind and emotional well-being" would be affected? That's the whole point of taking the time away to deal with an illness (of any sort) – not only are you dealing with the aspects of the illness that affect your physical health, but you're giving yourself the space to handle the emotional aspects as well.
Put it another way – if you say a DA needs to resign due to depression because her job involves critical thinking (and depression – even after treatment – renders her unable to perform this task), would you say that a janitor who is suffering from depression should NOT be allowed time off to get help with his mental illness, because his job doesn't require complex thinking/problem-solving?
(Side note: Yeah, I'm a lawyer, but don't practice criminal law, and I don't live in Dallas County – so I have no personal stake in the discussion, other than my interest in how we deal with mental health.)
I think both Hawk and the janitor should have time off to get help for mental illness, and I also agree that something like cancer can affect a person's mind and emotional well being. But I still feel with her role, an elected one, so she's accountable to her constituents and the tax payers, it requires one to be of sound mind to make rational decisions regarding the safety of the public. In this particular case, she's had to take off three different times (may have to fact check me on that one), and that's concerning. There also seems to be an element of hiding her absence until it's noticeable, and I'm not sure that's fair to the citizens of Dallas. If she was in private practice, then clients would have a choice if they like her to represent them, but the county doesn't get that choice until the next election. For some reason I think I'd feel different if she took six months off at one time instead of taking time off three different times so early in her term. I guess I feel she's just doing short stints in treatment to get back to work, but that's just not enough treatment in her case. And like you, I'd live in Dallas County, so I'm not affected.
I'll still respectfully disagree with your position on the DA. As you're well aware, any life-threatening illness will adversely affect a person's mental abilities. Again, if she were facing stage 4 cancer of some sort, don't you think her "mind and emotional well-being" would be affected? That's the whole point of taking the time away to deal with an illness (of any sort) – not only are you dealing with the aspects of the illness that affect your physical health, but you're giving yourself the space to handle the emotional aspects as well.
Put it another way – if you say a DA needs to resign due to depression because her job involves critical thinking (and depression – even after treatment – renders her unable to perform this task), would you say that a janitor who is suffering from depression should NOT be allowed time off to get help with his mental illness, because his job doesn't require complex thinking/problem-solving?
(Side note: Yeah, I'm a lawyer, but don't practice criminal law, and I don't live in Dallas County – so I have no personal stake in the discussion, other than my interest in how we deal with mental health.)
I think both Hawk and the janitor should have time off to get help for mental illness, and I also agree that something like cancer can affect a person's mind and emotional well being. But I still feel with her role, an elected one, so she's accountable to her constituents and the tax payers, it requires one to be of sound mind to make rational decisions regarding the safety of the public. In this particular case, she's had to take off three different times (may have to fact check me on that one), and that's concerning. There also seems to be an element of hiding her absence until it's noticeable, and I'm not sure that's fair to the citizens of Dallas. If she was in private practice, then clients would have a choice if they like her to represent them, but the county doesn't get that choice until the next election. For some reason I think I'd feel different if she took six months off at one time instead of taking time off three different times so early in her term. I guess I feel she's just doing short stints in treatment to get back to work, but that's just not enough treatment in her case. And like you, I'd live in Dallas County, so I'm not affected.