Emails back and forth after Primo's radio interview last week and a meeting he attended this week. Both times, when asked a direct question about his possibility of winning (odds are like getting ice water in hell, although really, to me, hell is a place that is frozen over cold and not a place where it is warm and you don't need to shovel snow and you don't need special tires), Primo answered truthfully, although not bluntly, that to him, victory was helping other people in his party get elected and advancing the overall party agenda.
His campaign team, with the campaign manager, Bruno Mars, is not happy. They think Primo should say that of course he has a chance of winning -
(he does not! He has a better chance of winning than I have of growing two inches taller, getting a bosom, and losing those last 12 pounds) -
so that the Party Faithful hear what they want to hear and are not unhappy with him.
"How can I maintain my integrity as an engineer - as someone who deals in facts - if I say that sure I can win?" Primo grumbled.
He is correct. Primo is annoying and a pain in the neck, but he is not a liar. He does not flinch from the truth.
He is unhappy that the team wants him to lie. "They say I am demotivating the hardcare party faithful," he said.
I said, "Have they forgotten the real reason you are on the ticket? Not to win. Not to inspire the faithful. Not to make the faithful think you can win. But to get access to national funds. Period. That was the deal."
I don't want it to be winter, but I won't be unhappy once it is November and we are almost done with this crap.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
In which Doris feels compelled to criticize someone who sent her a Christmas card for being too involved in his church
Doris emailed Primo today after getting a Christmas letter from Primo's best friend from high school, Fernando.
Fernando and Primo drank beer together when they were in high school, a traditional male bonding ritual. They worked together in the summers and were good friends for many years.
With time, they have drifted apart. Fernando married, had three children, and has become very involved in his church. He is late to serious church stuff - at Primo's wedding to Isabel, he hooked up with one of Isabel's bridesmaids. But with his own wife, they did not sleep together until their wedding night.
Fernando and Primo are no longer close, but they are still friends. For years, they would argue about major issues and enjoy the arguing, but now, neither of them really has time for it. They have become Christmas card friends.
We got the Christmas letter from Fernando last week. Much of his family's activities center on their church - they are very involved with religious education and with social activities related to the church. Fernando joked that maybe his daughter will become a nun and maybe his son will become a priest.
Fernando sent the same Christmas letter to Doris, whom he has not seen in decades. I thought that was a nice thing to do.
Doris emailed Primo that she was going to write to Fernando to complain that his life is too involved with the church.
"I think she wants my approval," Primo said.
"What do you think?"
Primo sighed. "Well, I think Fernando's letter was awfully churchy, too."
"No," I said. "What do you think about Fernando sending a Christmas letter to your parents and your mom's first response being to criticize?"
He sighed again. "I don't know. I'll talk to her."
Two hours later, he said, "I spoke to her. She's still going to write to him."
"Do your parents ever wonder why they don't have any friends?" I asked.
Fernando and Primo drank beer together when they were in high school, a traditional male bonding ritual. They worked together in the summers and were good friends for many years.
With time, they have drifted apart. Fernando married, had three children, and has become very involved in his church. He is late to serious church stuff - at Primo's wedding to Isabel, he hooked up with one of Isabel's bridesmaids. But with his own wife, they did not sleep together until their wedding night.
Fernando and Primo are no longer close, but they are still friends. For years, they would argue about major issues and enjoy the arguing, but now, neither of them really has time for it. They have become Christmas card friends.
We got the Christmas letter from Fernando last week. Much of his family's activities center on their church - they are very involved with religious education and with social activities related to the church. Fernando joked that maybe his daughter will become a nun and maybe his son will become a priest.
Fernando sent the same Christmas letter to Doris, whom he has not seen in decades. I thought that was a nice thing to do.
Doris emailed Primo that she was going to write to Fernando to complain that his life is too involved with the church.
"I think she wants my approval," Primo said.
"What do you think?"
Primo sighed. "Well, I think Fernando's letter was awfully churchy, too."
"No," I said. "What do you think about Fernando sending a Christmas letter to your parents and your mom's first response being to criticize?"
He sighed again. "I don't know. I'll talk to her."
Two hours later, he said, "I spoke to her. She's still going to write to him."
"Do your parents ever wonder why they don't have any friends?" I asked.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
In which the campaign team forwards an email chain to Primo that happens to have an email with someone complaining about Primo in it
Primo is cranky. (I say that a lot, don't I?) He just returned from a five-day visit to his parents --
Stop. Do I need to say anything more after that sentence? Visiting Sly and Doris is enough to make even Mother Teresa cranky.
-- where he discovered that they have not completed their will after all, something I had pointed out five years ago when he returned home with a copy of their will, which I read and said, "It looks like they are not leaving anything to you - it goes straight to the grandkids - and they don't mention the money, just the house." He had asked his dad about it and Sly told him not to worry everything went to Primo --
NB I do not care (much) about what they do with their money. It would be nice to inherit some cash - it would give us some freedom, but if they did give everything to the grands, I would shrug and say, "Well it's their money." People get to decide what to do with their own money.
What makes me cranky is that they want Primo to do all kinds of stuff for them and they want him to execute the will, which is a ton of work, but then maybe don't want to leave him anything. Remember that Sly did threaten to disinherit Primo if Primo didn't get me in line.
Back to Sly saying everything goes to Primo: I only had one semester of business law in college and another semester of it in grad school, but my reading of the will did not indicate that anything went to Primo. When Primo pointed this out to Sly, Sly said that there was an appendix to the will and Primo just didn't have a copy.
Primo found out on this trip to visit Sly and Doris and to do all their chores that apparently there is nobody in the entire state of wherever they live who is willing to clean a porch for money that there is no appendix. They have not finished the will.
Which means if they die, even not at the same time, there will be some major hassles.
(Isabel's daughters are going through this now, as she died, as you remember, without a will. Honestly. What is it with these people? Do they think they are the only ones who won't die?)
I did some research. If Sly dies and Doris lives, Doris only inherits half of the estate. (This is if there is no will.) The other half would be divided among Sly's children, ie, Primo, Ted, and Jack.
I.e., Doris would be royally screwed.
I shared this with Primo so now he's worried because can you imagine the drama if he would have to deal with his mom and his half brothers, neither of whom are major fans of Doris, even though she didn't really break up Sly's marriage with their mother?
Neither half brother would have any problems taking any share of Sly's estate. Doris is not their problem. I have mixed feelings on this because I totally sympathize with Ted and Jack and their father abandoning them to an alcoholic mother when they were very little, but man I do not want to be stuck with Doris.
The other reason Primo is cranky is that his campaign manager - Bruno Mars, his name is today - forwarded an email chain to Primo and of course Primo read through the entire chain, as people are wont to do.
My former boss forwarded a chain to me and my co-workers when he hired the person - Kristen Bell - who was going to be my new boss. My former boss was not that computer savvy and could never figure out why when he renamed a file I had sent him and then saved it on his hard drive that it didn't match the version I had.
Anyhow, former boss sent us all an email about Kristin that included her job negotiations at the bottom of the chain.
Clueless.
In the email to Primo, there were emails at the bottom of the chain critical of Primo and how long it was taking him to get back to the campaign team on things.
I am very defensive about Primo. Nobody gets to criticize him about being slow but me.
Plus I do think they are being unfair. He is doing this campaign in his spare time while he does his real job full time. He is not going to win. He is doing it to help the party. If they wanted a full time candidate, they could have paid him $XXXXXXXXX to take an unpaid leave from his job, but if they are not willing to do that - Primo and I do not live on unicorns and rainbows - we need cash - then they need to dial it back.
Stop. Do I need to say anything more after that sentence? Visiting Sly and Doris is enough to make even Mother Teresa cranky.
-- where he discovered that they have not completed their will after all, something I had pointed out five years ago when he returned home with a copy of their will, which I read and said, "It looks like they are not leaving anything to you - it goes straight to the grandkids - and they don't mention the money, just the house." He had asked his dad about it and Sly told him not to worry everything went to Primo --
NB I do not care (much) about what they do with their money. It would be nice to inherit some cash - it would give us some freedom, but if they did give everything to the grands, I would shrug and say, "Well it's their money." People get to decide what to do with their own money.
What makes me cranky is that they want Primo to do all kinds of stuff for them and they want him to execute the will, which is a ton of work, but then maybe don't want to leave him anything. Remember that Sly did threaten to disinherit Primo if Primo didn't get me in line.
Back to Sly saying everything goes to Primo: I only had one semester of business law in college and another semester of it in grad school, but my reading of the will did not indicate that anything went to Primo. When Primo pointed this out to Sly, Sly said that there was an appendix to the will and Primo just didn't have a copy.
Primo found out on this trip to visit Sly and Doris and to do all their chores that apparently there is nobody in the entire state of wherever they live who is willing to clean a porch for money that there is no appendix. They have not finished the will.
Which means if they die, even not at the same time, there will be some major hassles.
(Isabel's daughters are going through this now, as she died, as you remember, without a will. Honestly. What is it with these people? Do they think they are the only ones who won't die?)
I did some research. If Sly dies and Doris lives, Doris only inherits half of the estate. (This is if there is no will.) The other half would be divided among Sly's children, ie, Primo, Ted, and Jack.
I.e., Doris would be royally screwed.
I shared this with Primo so now he's worried because can you imagine the drama if he would have to deal with his mom and his half brothers, neither of whom are major fans of Doris, even though she didn't really break up Sly's marriage with their mother?
Neither half brother would have any problems taking any share of Sly's estate. Doris is not their problem. I have mixed feelings on this because I totally sympathize with Ted and Jack and their father abandoning them to an alcoholic mother when they were very little, but man I do not want to be stuck with Doris.
The other reason Primo is cranky is that his campaign manager - Bruno Mars, his name is today - forwarded an email chain to Primo and of course Primo read through the entire chain, as people are wont to do.
My former boss forwarded a chain to me and my co-workers when he hired the person - Kristen Bell - who was going to be my new boss. My former boss was not that computer savvy and could never figure out why when he renamed a file I had sent him and then saved it on his hard drive that it didn't match the version I had.
Anyhow, former boss sent us all an email about Kristin that included her job negotiations at the bottom of the chain.
Clueless.
In the email to Primo, there were emails at the bottom of the chain critical of Primo and how long it was taking him to get back to the campaign team on things.
I am very defensive about Primo. Nobody gets to criticize him about being slow but me.
Plus I do think they are being unfair. He is doing this campaign in his spare time while he does his real job full time. He is not going to win. He is doing it to help the party. If they wanted a full time candidate, they could have paid him $XXXXXXXXX to take an unpaid leave from his job, but if they are not willing to do that - Primo and I do not live on unicorns and rainbows - we need cash - then they need to dial it back.
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