I heard those depressing, Monday morning words from Steve Inskeep again on the way into work – “Cokie Roberts joins us….” Bleh. She shared her “wisdom” with us on the whole sequester thingie, and whether or not it’s a big deal. Well, Cokie, where I work, it means over $7.2 million dollars gets cut out of an already stretched, cut, stretched again, and cut some more budget. Hopefully I’ll still have a job when all is said and done, because I think I’d have to sell my house (and my dogs) if things go in the crapper.

Worse than having to listen to Cokie, though, was that I had to listen to her while I was the third car in line behind a snow plow (note, it wasn’t snowing) that was going 35 mph (downhill – 30 up) for a substantial portion of my drive in.

It took the two idiots ahead of me almost 8 miles to finally make a move and pass (at which point, about eight of us made a break for it). Annoying. What was it George Carlin said? “Anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anybody going faster is a maniac.”

Except I think they’re pretty much all idiots. If they aren’t idiots while driving, they immediately turn into idiots when they step foot inside a grocery store. But don’t get me started.

If I lived in an area where a giant sinkhole could – suddenly and without warning – open up and suck my bedroom in while I was sleeping, I’d have even more difficulty sleeping than I do already. I mean, the bugs down there in Florida are bad enough, but, shit. I think maybe Ross Perot was wrong about where they giant sucking sound was coming from.

Oh well, time to get back to that giant suck hole known as work.

All I can say is, I’m feeling pretty vindicated.

Older people who see the glass as half empty and who harbor low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who are more optimistic, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade,” said lead author Frieder Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, in a press release.

Of course, with my luck, that study will probably turn out to be wrong.

Welcome to March, and the first day of the “Sequester.” Assuming you’re not a government employee or contractor, you won’t really be noticing anything different for a while. I don’t really see anything much happening to end it until March 27th when the Republicans decide to let the government run out of money and shut down rather than eliminate the tax break on corporate jets. Who knows what’ll happen after that, but I figure one way or another, some kind of bad shit will trickle down on me.

We’re also officially popeless, which I know is hard on everybody, but hopefully the College of Cardinals can order some pizza, wings, and young boys and get bust electing a new pope by St. Patrick’s Day. Somebody who hates gay people, doesn’t think women should be priests, and things sex should only be for procreation (unless you’re a priest, in which case anything goes and he’s got your back).

So I finally became one of the cool kids when I got my iPhone the other day. It’s not an iPhone 5, just a measly 4s but it’s a lot better than the Blackberry I had before that. I must admit, it’s very pretty (at least until you touch it – it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet, and not just the screen but that nice shiny back and the silver apple on the back.

Of course, now my BB charging stands have no use, and I had order a new charging stand and case, but that’s the price of progress, I guess. So far, iOS is OK. I think I prefer Android a bit, but it’s close. There aren’t really too many differences. Getting the free Google and Roku apps was kind of a pain, because I had to deal with both the Apple app store and iTunes for some reason. But once I got through the initial double registration hoops they made me jump through, it was OK (Google Play is easier to use, as is the Amazon app store).

I played with Siri a little bit, but she seems pretty humorless. I think she needs an emotion chip or something.

Oh well, since I don’t work at Yahoo, I guess I’d better get back to working from home – at least as long as they let me.

Have a good Friday (so to speak).