Better

I've taken today off. I'm better, but I still feel as weak as a kitten, so I'm going to do a little bit of cleaning, husband my strength, and go to work tomorrow.

Part of me feels guilty for not going in today. It doesn't help that it will probably end up as leave without pay. Most of me is just exhausted, though, and it's the part that won.

Arrrgghh! Virginia

Confederate Month?!? Really?

Look, my great-great-grandfather (I think that's right, my dad's great-grandfather) joined the Confederate Army at the age of 16 to participate as a defender at the siege of Richmond. I think it's correct for the Confederate flag to fly over Confederate military graveyards. Nowhere else, ever.

But to commemorate the Confederacy sends the wrong message. No. It sends the right message. The message it's sending is that the Commonwealth of Virginia -- the cradle of Democracy in the United States -- no longer cares about being part of the larger society. It's sending the message that they are so appalled by gay rights, a black man in the Oval Office, or the promulgation of evolution that they would rather commemorate the most shameful decision of their past (and remember, Virginia was the final state to join the Confederacy and the fight in the legislature was bitter) than be part of the modern world.