Dad & Rob

I dropped Dawn off at yoga and then went to the Washington Sports Club at Third and D Southeast, figuring parking would be easier there than downtown. Parking wasn't especially or remarkably good, but I found a space around the corner half a block away. Not bad. But I especially did not like the club itself. It's all tiny and cramped and they don't have the right step machines. I don't want to go back.

Afterwards I went to lunch with my father and brother. We met at Sweetwater Tavern at Rt. 50 and Gallows Rd. We were originally planning to go to Grevey's there, but they apparently had a fire and are closed for ten days.

We talked to Rob some about his health and his series of recent and upcoming appointments with various medical professionals. Next up is a gastroenterologist in mid-April. Some sort of upper and lower test, esophagal and intesinal. Or, coming from the north and the south, as I call it. Dad talked about some sort of similar test, where he had to drink some sort of shake before the test, and he had the choice of a couple of flavors. He chose banana, and now he can't stomach eating bananas because they remind him too much of trying to force down this awful shake.

Dad brought up politics, as usual. We talked a little about the Dubai Ports World thing and the Vice-President shooting an elderly man in the face. Rob especially mocked NBC's David Gregory for his dust up with Scott McClellan, characterizing David Gregory as expecting to have been personally called immediately after the shooting. Dad compared it to Chappaquiddick, noting that in Cheney's case the proper authorities were notified immediately, Cheney not doing what Dad called "the Kennedy two-step."

Dad somehow also related this two-step to the "Ginsburg Rule," which rule is apparently Fox News shorthand for nominees to the Supreme Court not having to answer questions posed by the Judiciary Committee.

Dad also tells us that the oldest guy on the court, whom I noted was John Paul Stevens, wants to retire but only during a Republican presidency, since he was appointed by a Republican. I don't understand this at all, though, since Stevens is most emphatically not a nutty winger a la Scalia or Thomas. I noted that maybe being appointed by Gerald Ford (Republican lite) has something to do with this. Dad's vitriol towards Ginsburg and his apparently benign view of Stevens somehow disturbs me.