It’s been a week since I updated. I’m sorry. I’ve been really depressed since I don’t have my car. I didn’t even have the will to play an April Fool’s joke on you yesterday. And of course the situation is compounded by the expense this has brought on. It has brought to light the fact that I’m not in as good financial shape as I thought I was.

I spoke to the body shop yesterday, and it’s going to be another week. At least. It’s going to be almost a month without my car. I’m paying way too much for this car to be without it. I need to be driven everywhere by someone else. Where it’s driving me is crazy. Occasionally I sign out a company car, but I don’t want to abuse that privilege.

I can’t believe it’s come to this. I’m actually contemplating voting for Kerry, because of cultural issues. Things are just going too far under George W. Bush. The FCC preparing to fine individuals a quarter of million dollars for letting a curse word slip out over the air. Imagine you call a radio station to win Van Halen tickets. And during the conversation, in your exuberance, you use a four letter word. If it goes out over the air, boom! A fine from the federal government that will bankrupt you for the rest of your life. Seriously. You might as well kill yourself right then. You are working for the rest of your life to pay for something that you said. Is that the world we want to live in? The government’s action on this issue has been incredibly out of proportion, and I think it’s due to conservative leadership.

And now we have a new law that grants full rights to a fetus, so that in case a pregnant mother is murdered, the perpetrator can be charged with two murders. That sounds right doesn’t it? After all, if it were my wife and child, I’d think of it as two murders. But what does that mean for abortion rights? How long before somebody tries to charge a woman who gets an abortion with murder? When I heard about this bill being proposed, I thought to myself, “There has to be a way to make it a more serious crime to kill a pregnant woman without declaring the fetus a person.” And you know what? That is exactly what John Kerry supported.

I’m not endorsing Kerry here. I’m just saying that current leadership has gone too far, and it has me reconsidering my support.

After a week of being really excited about my new Telecaster, I rediscovered my acoustic guitar. Maybe it’s my cheap amplifier, or maybe it’s the cheap Tele, but it takes a lot fiddling to get a good sound out of the electric. But my acoustic sounds incredible. It’s a Yamaha APX-4A (a thinline acoustic electric, in the translucent dark blue fade), and I love it more every time I pick it up. I also have a cheap-o Yamaha FG-400A, and it’s pretty good too, for its price. Don’t let anyone tell you that Yamaha doesn’t make good guitars. I’ve been playing “Brian Wilson” by the Barenaked Ladies, and it sounds great.