Party like its May 1

There was also a little rhyme we learned in junior high school (where else?) that went something like this:

Hooray, hooray, it's the first of May!
Outdoor fucking begins today!

You could try that at Pole Hill today, down by the crick, but you'd get plenty wet, and perhaps hit by lightning as well. If it wasn't raining today I'd probably be out mowing grass.

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Thought I'd better check in, just in case somebody still checks this place once in a while, only to regularly have their hopes dashed by the lack of new material. I don't get around like I used to, and a big part of that is due to what they've done to us at work. Around the first of the year they started blocking Blogger on an intermittent basis. Some days I can get in to see my blog, some I can't. I'm almost never able to get to my dashboard to post. As for other blogs, it's the same thing - it seems that it is all at the whim of Websense and our network administrators. Nearly all of you that I follow regularly have gotten a 3 AM visit from me at some point, as I used to get caught up with my blog rounds during the dead times at work. I can't do near as much of that any more. Frustrating for me, but someone, somewhere should be glad that certain government employees aren't wasting time on the computer any more. I try to get around as I can at home, but there's a lot of other things needing done here as well.

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Ah, yes. I had a talk with my doctor a while back. My blood sugar is up, and he says I show signs of being pre-diabetic. Not good. He recommended a series of pushback exercises for me, as in pushing back from the table. But the most difficult part for me went something like this:

DR.: Also, starting today, you need to stop drinking alcohol.

ME: But I only drink a beer or two after work.

DR.: No.

ME: Not even one beer a week?

DR: Not even one a week.

ME: How about one a month?

DR: I said NO!

Not like I was an alcoholic or anything, but I liked to have my beer to wind down, and now I'm cut off, apparently for the rest of my days. I'm managing OK so far, but when we go up to St. Louis for the baseball game next month, it will be a challenge. But I want to be around as long as I can, and stay in reasonably good health. Jenn and the kids give me even more incentive to do so.

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My blogroll is once again filling up with dead links, and is needing my attention. It will get a revamping in the next few weeks. Our old buddy the Farmer is one of those who have changed his digs recently. Check out his new place, have a few laughs, and maybe even learn something.

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Back to the beginning of this post, today is the day that most of the rest of the world celebrates Labor Day. By the mid-19th century, the international socialist movement had already adopted May 1 as a day of solidarity. American labor groups, not wishing to be seen as aligned with the radical left, eventually decided upon the first Monday in September for our Labor Day celebrations. Today, though, is still a special day for old labor guys like me to take a moment to recall the struggles of working people around the world, and to stand in solidarity with them as part of the worldwide fight for justice and dignity for all who work for a living throughout the world.