Lunesta, Christmas Lights and Ozzy Osborne..... Trust Me, This Is My Life

So what did you think of last nights debate? While there we’re fewer “gotcha” moments than the previous one, there were still a few things I would like to comment on, but that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. Today I have just a few random notes…..

¥ I started putting up the Christmas lights today. I know, it’s only November 16th, but I promise not to turn them on until the day after Thanksgiving. I hear on the T.V. that there’s a chance of snow back home in Iowa this weekend, and I’m putting up Christmas lights in 82 degree weather. There is something seriously wrong about that…..

¥ Okay, while I applaud the pharmaceutical companies for life-saving breakthroughs, I also think that in some cases – okay, A LOT of cases – we’ve gone over the cliff.

Consider this: Tonight I was watching T.V. when an ad for Lunesta came on. Lunesta is a sleep aid, and during the “legal” portion of the ad (“Do not take Lunesta if you are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant, do not take Lunesta with alcohol, do not…..) I swear I heard the following line. Actually, I was pretty certain that I couldn’t have heard what I thought I had, but thanks to the miracle of Tivo, I can confirm that the following line ACTUALLY appears in the Lunesta ad:

“Call your doctor right away if after taking Lunesta you walk, drive, eat, or engage in other activities while asleep.”

It used to be that my midnight snack came before I went to bed. Now it seems that I can not only have a midnight snack but I can drive out to get it, AND I don’t need to worry about doing it before I fall asleep.

¥ And finally, as I write this letter my eighteen-year old son Blake and his friend Kenny are at an Ozzy Osborne/Rob Zombie concert in Stockton, CA.

And I am worried. Look, I saw Aerosmith at 16, Kiss at 17,

and did a short stint as a roadie for Alice Cooper at 19, so I couldn’t really say “no”. And actually I have no problem with the concert, other than it’s in the city of Stockton, a city that twice was rated the second worse city to live in in America, and also has the distinction of being the car theft capitol. I hope he has fun, but I’ll feel a lot better when he gets home on Sunday.

While I have these horrible images of mass carnage, the opposite is more likely to happen. I remember when I saw the Stones in ’81 and The Who in ’82, there were just as many fans in their 50’s as in their 20’s on hand. Yeah, I saw wine flasks and bongs passed around, but just as many people were passing around ear plugs. And those were two groups who, at that time, had been around under twenty years. Ozzy has been on the scene for almost 40 years. And my understanding is that next to the T-shirt stand at the concert there’s going to be a table where you can sign up for an AARP card. Until tomorrow........