A post in which I have dinner out

Work was quiet again today. Alan did come in, but later in the day, and he was much too busy to worry with me. We have the twit meeting on Friday anyway. He'll probably move it, but he'll make time to mess with me then.

Tonight was my dinner out with Dad and Eve, only Dad was once again too poorly to go. So I loaded Eve up in the car and off we went to Monterrey by the Mall. Although our service wasn't anything to really write home about, I had a gorgeous, huge plate of chiles poblanos, which are basically chiles rellenos sans meat. They were telish. We ate and chatted, and then went home with a take-away for Dad. His hip replacement surgery is coming up, and he can't wait. I don't blame him. He's in constant pain. Eve told me all about them going to the lengthy pre-screening and education class about the procedure on Monday. I made sure his water glass stayed full and that he had what he needed after Eve brought his tray out.

He obligingly came out of his room to eat, and Eve fed me a little chocolate tart out of a batch she had made for dessert. It was tasty too, but I couldn't help but kind of wonder what she was doing making stuff like that when Dad is diabetic, and we all have a weight problem. Still, it was small, and it was good.

We were chatting and visiting when Dad started serving up the crazy. I guess that's a good sign. He isn't too pitiful to be himself, and he thnks I am recovered enough to take it. Eve and I were talking about the British royal family (in particular the Duchess of Cambridge), when Dad went off onto a rant about Barak Obama. Tonight he casually tossed out "..because he is a Muslim..." Oy. Now I know a lot of people aren't thrilled with the president. If you don't like his policies or politics, that's fine. But I really take issue with buying into every foaming-at-the-mouth half-baked piece of crazy thrown at you by the fringe. Dad has. I already knew he was a birther. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. But it was just more than I could take.

I expostulated, rather too strongly, Barak Obama is not a Muslim, and reminded him that the right-wing fringe also castigates him for his ties to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who is in Trinity United Church of Christ, implying that he is a disgruntled black man because of that relationship. President Obama attended that church for 20 years. I pointed out that it doesn't even make sense for him to be both. Dad just smiled benignly and looked at me like I was an idiot, because of course Rush Limbaugh (or whichever crackpot he's listening to this week) has the inside track to secret information that no one else knows. He then veered off on a tangent about the costs for his travel. I reminded him that GW Bush spent 96 days on vacation from his innauguration on January 20 through the end of August during the first year of his presidency. Apparently that was OK (according to Dad), because he was at his ranch, and not living it up at taxpayer expense.

The man makes me nuts. Fortunately, we were able to back off and not get angry. It was about time for me to leave anyway, so I did. I went home to stew in my own juices. Apparently I should just become a freakin' Republican, and then he would believe whatever bullshit I told him.