Flight Plan

How NOT to run a welfare system....

2012-03-02T08:19:00.000-06:00

Here's what's wrong with our current welfare system: A local TV station has done an investigative study and found that several local dental groups are recruiting new, young patients at food stamp distribution centers around Dallas. Paid recruiters are promising parents cash kickbacks and even iPod's if they'll bring in their small children for exams and treatment. (NOTE: The report pointed out that state law prohibits paying recruiters for soliciting new patients, but it happens. They have it on video.) It seems if a licensed dentist declares a poor child needs treatment it will be paid for through state Medicaid funds, no questions asked.

There is no follow-up to see if the treatments are actually needed, so the dental centers have been giving little 2 and 3 year old kids root canals and steel caps on their baby teeth, etc, which dental school experts later reviewed at the request of the TV station and agreed were unnecessary. Just one dental group billed the State of Texas over $6M last year, more than all state funds spent on kids Medicaid dental care in the entire state of Florida. (Statewide the Texas total was $145M.) Despite this, there is no ongoing state investigation. The state just officially looks the other direction. (Official collusion?) You can watch the entire report here for yourself.

Abuse is rampant. If there's this much fraud in just one area in one city covering just this one medical treatment, can you imagine how much there is nationwide? Our country is so big, so populous, and the numbers of $$ involved are so large, it's easy to slip tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars through unnoticed.

We're a compassionate people, and of course we want to provide dental care for poor children. But this goes way beyond that. The taxpayers are getting screwed again. This is one example of why the conservative movement has gained such a strong and growing following. This abuse, like all government waste, needs to be addressed, and when that happens liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, can sit down together and effectively govern. Right now we're too polarized to do much of anything except fight amongst ourselves.

S

It feels like I'm living in a warehouse

2012-03-01T07:39:00.012-06:00

My study has become little more than a depository for storage boxes as we aggressively pack things away for our move in a little over three weeks. I seem to be obsessed with my friend Don's living arrangements onboard his boat as my roll model for lean, uncluttered living. Actually, the way he lives is so spartan I think he's out-spartaned Sparta. I'm not prepared to go quite that far.

Don lives on a 35-foot vintage Chris Craft boat he keeps in a boathouse in Tampa, FL. He takes it out fishing on occasion, but it usually stays tied up in the boathouse he rents. As best as I can recall it looks something like this:

He told me at one time he calculated that he's actually living in a little over 300 square feet. Everything is ultra-compact. His "library" is one small shelf over his bed. His kitchen has a 2-burner stove and a mini-fridge, and is so small you can't turn around without bumping into yourself. Bake a cake? Ha! A cupcake, maybe.

It looks rather quaint, but that wears off in about 30 minutes. Then it's just small. He has a hibachi grill rigged up to hang over the stern of his boat. If he wants a steak and a glass of wine he brings home one steak and one bottle of wine and cooks it and eats/drinks it all right then. No leftovers. And his bathroom....yikes! Not a place you want to be if you're claustrophobic, for sure. There's not even enough room in there to turn the page. *wink*

I know I'll never match Don's level of compact living, nor do I really want to. Still, it's fun (not sure what K thinks of all this) to look at every thing you have and decide whether it's worth keeping or not. I've come to realize if something has been in storage or in the back of a closet for years, and has never been missed, never even crossed your mind, it's probably time for it to go. Easier said than done, though.

Someday I may break down and build us another home, but something small and easily maintained. Trouble is, around here most cities don't allow building new, small homes. They zone for McMansions, no doubt because they bring in lots of property tax revenue. I'll admit it's a bit awkward talking to clients about building them a new 5,000 or 6,000 sq ft home and they ask, "Where do you live?" and I reply, "in a very modest apartment". They look at me like I just arrived on planet Earth.

Hmmm....wonder what Planning and Zoning would think of a yert?

Grandpa's getting a tattoo? What's up with that?

2012-02-29T07:51:00.001-06:00

Here's a new one: It seems many people, particularly older people, are getting medical tattoos. I guess they're suppose to replace those Medic-Alert bracelets. They say things like "diabetic" or "allergic to ____". Some have even had "Do Not Resuscitate" tattooed across their chest. Paramedics can't use that as a legally binding order, but it will alert them to ask relatives for legitimate instructions. I dunno. I was kinda thinking about "Mom" or a pirate or something cool like that.

I think we've been sold a bill of goods....again. Our politicians all say that it's small businesses that are the job creators in our country, so we can't raise taxes on them, right? Now evidence says that isn't so. It seems that brand new businesses just getting off the ground DO create jobs, but older small businesses (>5 yrs) generally cut as many or more jobs as they create due to efficiency improvements. Figured together, they cut more jobs than they created in all but 3 months last year. I'm not suggesting we should or shouldn't raise taxes on small businesses, but I am saying the rationale our politicians have argued is a bunch of phooey. Yet another reason to not trust 'em.

S

I think he needs a bit more coaching

2012-02-28T07:23:00.006-06:00

I don't think 'ol Mitt gets it. At this stage of a political campaign aren't candidates supposed to put on their jeans (after they buy some), roll up their sleeves, and mingle with the common folk? Mitt managed to pull off the first two, but it's the "mingling" part that seems to be giving him fits.

He's in Michigan, blue collar heaven, and he tells a group of auto workers that he drives American-made cars, and that his wife drives a Cadillac, TWO actually. And when asked if he followed NASCAR, he replied, a little, he's not really an expert, but several of his best friends OWN NASCAR teams.

Well boy howdy! Pull up a stool, Mitt, and have a cold one with us. Or maybe he has one of those false labels he can wrap around his bottle of Dom Perignon to make it look like a bottle of Boone's Farm. I'd suggest one of those little round cans of Skoal for his back pocket, too. Yep, "A Man of the People". That's Mitt. *Some Grey Poupon for your hot dog, sir?*

S

The Versatile Blogger Award

2012-02-27T07:34:00.031-06:00

Yesterday I was honored (and shocked) to learn that my friend Steve the Chubby Chatterbox nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award. To think that someone as creative and articulate as he would nominate lil 'ol me is quite humbling. Thank you, Steve. :)

According to nomination protocol I'm supposed to share 7 interesting things about myself ("interesting" being relative) and then pass on my nomination for the award to a few others I find deserving. So without further adieu....

1. I had a loving, stable childhood. Two parents (no stand-ins), both very caring and ultra-ethical, only three public schools, culminating in a B.A. in BS from Texas Tech University. My dad had an outrageous sense of humor, so on those occasions when I go totally bonkers just know I'm helpless....it's my dad's genes running amok inside me. For 30-something years my brother and I have been partners building Park Place Custom Homes (.com if anyone cares).

2. Politically I'm all over the map. My conservative friends think I'm a card-carrying Socialist, while my liberal friends think I'm just to the right of Attila the Hun. So which is it? Both, depending on the issue....with a heavy dose of cynicism mixed in. I firmly believe our elected officials at all levels (and of BOTH parties) care about themselves first, those who ~~bribe~~ contribute to their re-election campaigns second, while We the People rank somewhere down there with the family pet....maybe even a notch below.

3. I've had a life-long interest in aviation. When I was 8 years old my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told them I wanted to have a party on the observation deck of Dallas' Love Field. Back in the mid-80's I joined a WWII aviation heritage group then known as the Confederate Air Force. We acquired, restored, and then flew our 130+/- aircraft at airshows all across the country. I was a marshaller, leading a group of around 50 others who organized and ran the flight line at these shows. I was the Ramp Boss at events from California to Maryland, Iowa to the very southern tip of Texas. It was a very challenging (volunteer) job, basically run like a huge jigsaw puzzle based on aircraft size, turning radius, etc. Over the years I worked closely with the US Navy Blue Angels, the USAF Thunderbirds, the RCAF Snowbirds, and the RAF Red Arrows. That all came to an abrupt end when....

4. ....I had several back-to-back detached retinas in my left eye which, long story short, left me with no peripheral vision on that side. When you're literally working just a few feet from giant whirling propellers capable of turning you into sausage in the blink of an eye, situational awareness is critical. With no peripheral vision on one side I decided it was time to hang it up. I then studied and became a certified docent at a local aviation museum, but frankly I found it boring.

5. I've attended both Citizen's Police and Fire Academies, giving me just enough knowledge of what they do to be dangerous. It was a blast, and very "hands-on". I've also completed (for real) Aircraft Rescue And Fire Fighting (ARFF) training at Dallas' Love Field and DFW International Airport. I was first to arrive at several airshow crashes, but the damage was catastrophic and there was little I could do when I arrived on scene. Very sad.

6. Back in 1992 I was invited to experience a "trap" (landing) and a "cat shot" (takeoff) on the USS Forrestal, a US Navy aircraft carrier operating in the Gulf of Mexico at the time. It was a fun ride, lemme tell you! Yes, that makes me a "tailhooker", no pun intended. (Well...maybe a little. ;)

7. I met my wife Kelly (aka "K") online, but not the way you might think. I was reading an aviation blog and it said "for further info on this topic read XYZ@Journalspace.com", so I linked over. JS said I had to have a membership to read there so I signed up. Later while surfing JS I saw a photo of a weed on a blog, the blogger asking what it was and how do you control it, so I answered. Later posts were also interesting so we began visiting. Come to find out she was living far away at the time but was from near Ft. Worth, Texas (I'm from near Dallas). More talk, then a meet, then.... :) And to think if I had linked over to Journalspace just a few seconds earlier or later I probably would never have seen her weed photo and cry for help. It was fate, I tell ya!

Are you bored to tears yet? I thought so.

Now please allow me to nominate a few other bloggers I find interesting:

Oddball Observations....Bruce writes about....well....oddball observations. He's had an interesting life and has some interesting opinions, too.

Charleston Daily Photo....Joan shares some of the interesting sights and history of the Charleston, SC area.

Suldog....what can I say? Jim is just not right! In a good and humorous way, though.

Now y'all close your computers and get to work. :)

S

Restaurant review time

2012-02-26T10:03:00.003-06:00

We have a core group of restaurants we frequent often, but recently we've stepped out and tried a couple of new places that have really impressed us. Obviously this won't be of much use to you if you live outside the Dallas area, but I'm going to sing their praises anyway.

Anamia's has about the best Tex-Mex I've ever tasted, and believe me I've tried a LOT of Tex-Mex in my time. It's a family-owned place (wife Ana, daughter Mia) and I'm betting it will thrive! I had traditional Tex-Mex (it's that "old dog / new trick" thing), but K had their shrimp enchaladas and said they were fantastic. And their margaritas were done right, too, using a lot more than just the usual whiff of tequila fragrance. The atmosphere is definitely not your typical cheesy mexican-village-mural-painted-on-the-wall, but instead a very nice soft contemporary feel that's just loud enough and just dark enough to be comfortable. We enjoyed it so much we gave an Anamia's gift card to a friend whose birthday party was last night. Two thumbs up, and that's only because I don't have three thumbs.

Then there's Tru-Fire Kitchen and Bar. Their slogan: "Life happens in the kitchen". Most of their cuisine seems to be Italian although I saw a waiter delivering a burger to a table nearby. (Boy did they miss out!) We each had an adult beverage and a small Caesar salad and then shared a gourmet pizza...."Parma Prosciutto". It was mouth watering! And again the atmosphere was very comfortable. Dark but not too dark and some lively noise that still allows for conversation. The hardest part was deciding on which entre to order. Decisions, decisions... ;)

Today we're doing more packing, and going by Ikea to check out some new everyday dishes, and I think we need some new kitchen knives, too, then on for some coffee and read time afterwards. But first, back to Anamia's for their weekend brunch.

Y'all have fun!

What's up with the price of gas?

2012-02-24T06:47:00.009-06:00

'Splain something to me, Lucy. When I bought my little Audi five years ago the difference between 87 octane "regular" gas and the 93 octane "premium" that I use was $0.20 a gallon. A couple of years later the difference was $0.30 per gallon. Yesterday I paid $3.95 a gallon, while regular was $3.59. That's $0.36 a gallon difference. Why? Somethin' smells.

Remember back in early '08 when oil hit $147 a barrel? I was one of those early ones screaming "speculators!" while our government, who's supposed to be looking out for our best interests by insisting on a level playing field, said, "Huh? We don't see nuthin'. Yuck, yuck." As it turned out it was speculators who ran the price up and got filthy rich(er) at our expense. It's one thing to add something to the economy and make a profit, but when you just skim off a fat profit without adding anything, well...that's called stealing as far as I'm concerned.

I'm seeing things right now with the price of oil that don't seem right. The supply / demand equation doesn't sync. I'm not ready to attribute it all to speculators just yet, but my antennae are up. As Inspector Clouseau was fond of saying, "I'm on zee case."

S

No more "all-nighters" for me

2012-02-23T07:53:00.008-06:00

When you were in school did you ever put off reading those last few chapters until an hour before class, or start writing that essay due the next day at the 11th hour, or maybe procrastinate cracking the books in preparation for a big exam until the day before? No? Me either. I was always prepared long before *HUGE LIGHTNING BOLT...DEAFENING CLAP OF THUNDER* OK....OK....maybe once or twice I was caught off guard. Sheesh!

K and I have one month before we move to cull through our stuff, decide which of our "family heirlooms" we'll keep, which we'll continue to store, and which we'll toss. Come moving day I'm gonna have my shit together! No more "all-nighters" for me.

I've decided my big oak desk and 3-drawer oak file cabinet will go on Craig's List today. Right now they're fulfilling the Murphy's Law that says "the amount of junk you have is directly proportional to the amount of storage space you have." The exercise bike goes on there, too (once I dust the cob webs off it), and some nice art prints I've had stored for years. Good riddance. I'm really into this minimalist thing. "Travel light and freeze at night" as they say.

Today's rant: Afghani-f>>king-stan. What a hell-hole. Even after a sincere apology the natives are attacking our people there in protest for destroying some Korans or something like that. Here's what I say....pack up all our stuff, load up the planes, what you can't load, pile up and throw a match on it, and get the hell out. There isn't one thing, NOT ONE THING there that interests me.

As it is foreign aid by us (and our allies) make up 97% of their gross national income. They'll have to find 'em another national pastime besides shaking down gringo's. El Presidente Humid Carbide and his graft-grabbing buddies can kiss my a$$. Let 'em go back to doing what they do best....breaking big rocks into little bitty rocks. It's what made them the great progressive country they are today.

Ahhh....better. :)

S

Giddiup cowboy

2012-02-22T07:11:00.011-06:00

Yesterday I stopped by my daughter's house for a few minutes and noticed on the way there that all the streets in her community have old west / cowboy names. This reminded me of a post not long ago by my friend Bruce Taylor pointing out similar street names in the area where he lives. Some examples in daughter Erica's neighborhood:

I guess that's all pretty cool....if you're a fan of those sorts of things. At the risk of betraying my Texas roots, I must admit I'm not. I was never into Roy and Dale and Gene and all that "yee-haw" stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some of the things....no, MOST of the things our government does baffles me. I read today that so far Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now wholly owned by the taxpayers after they went bust back in the Meltdown of '08, have spent nearly $100M defending the actions of several of their former executives against accusations of hokus pokus bookkeeping and securities fraud. And who's making those accusations? Our government. We're essentially suing ourselves.

While such "agreements to defend" are common in corporate America, the inspector general of the agency defending the former Fannie/Freddie executives says those agreements went out the window back in '08 when the government took them over, but because we're such ~~nice guys~~ suckers, we're defending them anyway. And it isn't like these guys are indigent. Hardly! (Former CEO Franklin Raines was paid over $90M.) Let 'em defend themselves! I sometimes think our government just goes out looking for piles to step in. *shaking head*

"Down-sizing" finally makes it to "right-sizing"

2012-02-21T07:37:00.005-06:00

I read an interesting story in the paper recently about empty nesters and their downsizing dilemma. The jest of it was that people stay in their huge homes where they raised their family, loaded to the gills with a lifetime of accumulated "stuff", then they retire and find it difficult to simplify and downsize like they promised themselves they would. They say you should gradually wean yourself from the thinking that "more" and "bigger" are better. It's like an auto race: the winner doesn't cross the finish line and then stomp on the brakes. He gradually decelarates and eventually walks to the podium to collect his prize.

That's essentially what K and I have been doing for the past three years. In 2009 we sold our large 2-story home with the big yard (that I promise you DIDN'T mow itself!), gave to my kids whatever stuff they wanted, then sold or gave to Goodwill all but the things that were important to us that we wanted to keep. We moved into a comfortable apartment which was supposed to be temporary until I could build us another patio home-sized residence, but found we actually liked the maintanence-free lifestyle. (Something needs fixing, just fire off an email. I like!)

Now we're on to phase II of our "right-sizing" journey. We're signing a new lease today on another apartment a couple of miles away, still in a great location, but which is new and immaculate. It's actually a bit smaller, and a bit cheaper, too, but it's arranged to feel larger. Granite countertops, porcelain tiled floors, stainless steel appliances....all very upscale. And all that stuff we brought from our old home we really wanted to keep? Much of it has been stuffed into the back of closets and in our storage room ever since, untouched.

Tonight we start culling through it all....again. It really feels liberating to pare yourself back to less "stuff". I remember many years ago I had a friend who lived on a 35 ft. boat in Florida. He could take everything he needed for a week's vacation in a carry-on duffle bag. If he bought something new and took it onboard his boat, something else had to come off to make room for it. I doubt I can ever match his efficiency, but I think I can get reasonably close. K too. This is one move I'm actually looking forward to. :)

I'll leave you with my favorite sarcastic cartoon-of-the-day:

I feel so much better now that the banksters have said they're sorry and made amends for their past sleazy practices. Bless 'em all.

Strange....or spot on?

2012-02-20T07:43:00.012-06:00

Over the weekend I stumbled on to a new series on the National Geographic Channel called Doomsday Preppers. It's about people who think their world is about to collapse and are putting away food and water and ammo in preparation. (Not to be confused with Mormons, who have long advocated keeping a years supply of food on hand at all times.) It's really both part sad and part funny to watch. Most are just a bunch of bubbas who live in "compounds" out in the sticks with buildings bulging with thousands of cases of canned goods, barrels full of potable water, and LOTS of guns.

And what they're afraid of is almost comical. For instance, one guy thinks the north and south poles will switch places, royally screwing things up on earth. Another is afraid solar flares will fry everything electronic on earth, leaving those unprepared cold and hungry, with no trucks to deliver food to the stores, no cars to get to work, and for that matter no workplaces to go to. Possible? Sure, but I think I'll take my chances. They have remote food caches, "bug-out" routes, and back-up defense measures (bows and arrows) in case they run out of ammo.

One guy, however, seemed like he wasn't a bubba, and in fact seemed quite normal. His fear? We're headed towards a world-wide economic collapse. Seeing as how we came a lot closer than most of us realize back in 2008, and in fact Europe is still on the edge right now, his concerns aren't as far fetched.

I'm still not ready to run out and buy 50,000 cans of beans and a years supply of freeze-dried chili, however. For one thing I don't have a place to store it all, and certainly no place to stock the thousands of rolls of toilet paper such a diet would necessitate. I do have three boxes of microwave popcorn in the pantry, though. I wonder if I could use that to barter for some Snickers bars and maybe a Coke? If so, then I'm good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And to turn the topic around 180 degrees, according to the NYT, the Urban Man lives! Their headline reads, "Men Step Out of the Recession, Bag on Hip, Bracelet on Wrist". They go on to say "men are buying so many accessories that some forecasters predict sales growth....this year will set a 20-year high." To appeal to men they're not calling bracelets "bracelets", but "wristwear". And it's not a purse or a "murse" (Man pURSE....get it?), but a "holdall".

"Bracelets (I thought we just decided to call it "wristwear"?) are on fire right now", said Tim Bess, a trend forecaster. "I'd say it's the No. 1 look for the young man."

"Young man"? I must admit I've worn one for years. I knew if I wore it long enough the trend would come around and I'd be considered fashionable. 'Bout damn time! :)

She's created a MONSTER!

2012-02-18T09:31:00.006-06:00

Remember the horror movie where the little kid turns into a monster, his eyes glowing in the dark, etc? Was that The Omen? Anyway, that's what K's little dog has turned into. He got a haircut yesterday for the first time and I don't think he liked it, and he's taking it out on ME!

I think she should have named him Damien. Every night this week he hasn't slept well. He wakes up at 3 am and whines, so K gets up with him and tries to calm him back down. Consequently she's had no where near enough sleep all week. By last night she was just dragging. I told her I would take dog duty on Friday night / Saturday morning so she could sleep in.

Sure enough at 3:15 the little bastard starts whining. I took him into the den and put him on his round dog bed while I tried to go back to sleep on the couch. (NOTE: I'm 6 feet tall, but the couch is only about 5' 6" between the arms on the ends. How do those big-ape basketball players sleep at night?) I tried lying on my side (which women can't do BTW because they don't have a kick-stand :) with my legs all bent up, but that was NOT conducive to sleep.

And it didn't matter anyway because all Damien...er...Luke wanted to do was scratch at the bedroom door and whine for K. Well guess what K? You wanted to "bond" with YOUR dog? You got your wish! I tried picking him up to keep him away from the bedroom door so K could sleep, but trying to hold him is like trying to hold a 5 pound glob of jello during an earthquake! Finally I gave up and took him back to K and said, "I tried...he's yours", and then I went back to the couch so he could sleep IN MY BED.

Then this morning we heard the loudspeakers blaring and the crowd cheering because our neighborhood is hosting yet another 5K / 10K / Fun Run. I'm pretty sure Luke had something to do with that event, too, just to spite me. I'm surprised there wasn't a banner stretched across the street that said, "WAKE UP, SCOTT. NO SLEEP TODAY FOR YOU". If you ever want to pull off a bank heist, do it the same morning they're having a 5K in Plano, TX because all the cops are there blocking off streets, setting up barricades, acting as crowd control, etc. Nobody's watching the banks. You could be in New Mexico before they could send a cop to the crime scene.

I think I might have to re-visit my childhood and take a nap today. Which might not be a bad idea as it's supposed to rain all day anyway.

Later, friends.

PS...Yeah, yeah, I know. He's cute. :)

Flush twice....Houston needs the water

2012-02-17T08:22:00.008-06:00

That was the news headline today regarding the drought all across Texas. Technically the Dallas area is no longer in a drought. In fact, so far this year we're 5" above normal in our rainfall. Our area lakes have been largely replenished and it's not even spring yet, traditionally our "wet" season.

Houston, however, isn't so lucky. Their population is growing, but their water supply due to the drought is shrinking. Eventually the two lines on the graph will cross and they'll be in deep doo-doo. Which....umm....brings me to the title of this post.

The Trinity River, the nasty 'ol Trinity River that runs through Dallas, the river that has signs posted along it's banks telling us to not eat any fish we catch there, is Houston's drinking water. Dallas processes 135-145 million gallons of raw sewage every day, separates....well....you know, and sends it on downstream via the Trinity, ultimately to Lake Livingston. From there Houston puts their Good Housekeeping Seal on it and pumps it right to their residents. While this is probably pretty normal in the water biz, it just sounds so....Ewwwwww!

But then Houston is used to it. You know how the beer brewers always brag in their commercials about their "perfect water", the ingredient that makes their beer the best in the world, blah blah blah? Last time I looked there was a Budweiser brewery in Houston. Right on the Houston ship channel. So am I to infer the water for Budweiser's Houston brewery comes from....Ewwwwww!

All this reminds me of the time years ago listening to the radio as they reported a massive recall of Payday candy bars. It seems the department that oversees health at food processing plants (FDA?) found an unacceptably high level of "rodent droppings" in the finished product. A certain amount of rat poop is within tolerance it explained, but this batch was waaaaay off the chart. At the moment I heard that report I was eating a Payday candy bar....Ewwwwww!

Some things you just don't want to know. Who's with me? I wonder if this is where the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" came from?

Now forget about everything I just wrote and go have a nice weekend. :)

S

Time to "put up or shut up"

2012-02-16T07:22:00.009-06:00

As you know I'm no friend of the big banks. They have systematically and, through their intensive lobbying, legally raped and pillaged America. Some would say the entire world. Now our illustrious congress is debating whether to include/enforce "The Volcker Rule" as part of our banking "reforms". Those reforms have been watered down so much already they're of dubious value, but still I suppose they're better than no reforms as all.

The Volcker Rule would prevent banks from "proprietary trading", which means taking their money and betting it on highly risky trades. "But if it's their money, why should we care" you ask? Because they can't lose. Only we taxpayers can lose. If they gamble big and win, they make mega-billions of dollars, meaning huge profits and BIG bonuses for their top executives. But if they gamble big and lose, like they all did back in 2008, they know the US Government....you and I....will step in and make good their losses. (They'll just have to be more discreet when they pass out their bonuses.)

They know they're "too big to fail"....if they lose everything and go out of business they'll take the whole country with them. They know we won't let that happen. It would be like you and I partying in Vegas with daddy's money. As long as somebody is behind us to cover our losses, why hold back? That's what they call "moral hazard".

The banks have already successfully beat back a proposal to break them up into smaller parts. Under this scenario if their freestanding proprietary trading company failed it would just be allowed to go bankrupt. It wouldn't hurt the bank's depositors (as they would be in a separate freestanding company) and the FDIC / U S Treasury wouldn't be out anything. Just the proprietary trading company's investors would lose. They do NOT like that idea! They would lose their Sugar Daddy, aka Uncle Sam.

The time allowed for the banks to plead their case why they should continue to be allowed to gamble wildly has passed. It's time for congress to decide. Are they going to cave....again....to the banks and agree to cover their losses with our taxpayer money, or will they introduce some prudence to the banking biz? My guess? Bend over, America.

Will it do any good to write your Congressman and Senators and express your opinion? Only if you attach a check for about $100,000 with your letter. Those seem to be the only letters they read.

S

Please, say it ain't so!

2012-02-15T07:09:00.007-06:00

Did any of you watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show last night? It was the final evening of judging and when the big reveal finally came this was declared the grandest dog in all the land:

Really? Really?? I know, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and all that, but Jeez, that thing....it's technically a Pekingese....looks like a prop from a Star Wars movie. Or maybe something from a Saturday Night Live skit:

Anyone remember Gilda Radner as "Roseanne Roseannadana"? I think all that hair (on the dog) is to cover the wind-up key. And to think they passed over some beautiful dogs like a Dalmatian, a Doberman Pinscher, and a regal looking Irish Setter that was my personal favorite. The sole judge was a lady from Colorado. I'm guessing she lives on a 14,000 ft high mountain, without oxygen. Sorta makes K's Yorkie look rugged and manly, don'tcha think?

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T07:00:00.004-06:00

This is my Valentine, the lovely and talented "K"....

Fortunately she doesn't get spiffed up too often, as she, like me, is much too casual for that...

Ahh...better!

We have a ~~pretty good~~ GREAT life together! Oh sure, we sling some arrows now and then, but we're both pretty bad shots. She takes great care of me, and I try to do the same for her.

We've been to a few fun places....

With hopefully a lot more to come.

She's a real adventure junkie, too. I like that! (We're at the front, naturally.)

And she's not at all demanding. Even a day at a local art show has her grinning ear-to-ear.

She loves my daughters, and they love "Miss Kelly", too. So do all the young 'uns.

I love her much, and best of all, she loves me right back. Sweet!

Happy Valentine's Day, my love. :)

This could be reeeeeeeally BIG!

2012-02-13T08:07:00.006-06:00

I love Aspen, Colorado. It's a great place to visit but a lousy place for anyone but a billionaire to live. My casual observation is that they seem to have an inordinate number of beautiful young women there accompanied by "more mature gentlemen". Maybe that's why Aspen Sojourner magazine is suggesting the development of several Aspen-specific iPhone apps such as this:

"The Trophy Wife Locator app....After a few hours of drinking at the Caribou Club, picking out your recently acquired 35-year old blond wife from the others who look just like her can be tricky. Especially since you're 70. This app will ensure you head home with the right missus. Pro Upgrade includes Alimony Calculator."

Isn't money wonderful? ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looks like the Greeks are not too keen on a steady diet of dog food, which is what they'll all be eating once the latest austerity measures being imposed on them kick in. They do, however, have a supply of matches which they're using to burn down their country in protest. I've never understood that....you get mad, so you burn up your own stuff. The logic escapes me.

"Hey Nikos. Whatcha eating?"

"Dog food."

"Why are you sitting on the floor? Where's your stuff?"

"I burned it up."

Yeah, that'll show 'em! Did you know that a third of all Greek workers are employed by the government? What could they possibly do all day? Process each other's paperwork? Oh, wait....I'm beginning to understand. Government workers....no logic....OK, I get it now.

All our TV stations are on "Storm Watch" mode, with reporters spread out all across 6 counties showing us the falling snow. And it melting as soon as it hits the ground. "Look....wet pavement!" *big yawn*

Happy Valentine's eve, everyone. Fair warning.... :)

Winter arrives this evening at 6....

2012-02-12T09:07:00.003-06:00

....and will be gone by noon tomorrow. I'm not joking. That's likely to be all the winter we have this year in Dallas. By tonight it will begin to rain, sleet, and snow. No accumulation is expected, however, as the temp overnight isn't expected to drop below freezing. High tomorrow, 47. Mid 60's by Wednesday. Now my concern is if it's this warm during the "winter", how hot is it going to be during the "summer"?

Here's my plan: Y'all stop driving. Ride bikes or skateboards instead. And start giving all the cows Bean-O. Between you people driving and the cows farting you're screwing up the atmosphere. Is a couple inches of snow and maybe a few pitiful snowmen too much to ask for? I WANT MY WINTER BACK, DAMMIT!

Fish camp humor

2012-02-11T07:58:00.001-06:00

Remember when bankers were honorable people?

2012-02-10T07:48:00.011-06:00

What's my bitch with the banks? The banks have a choke hold on this country. The world, even. They sneeze, we get a cold. They devise a new way to squeeze a few more bucks out of us, they drop a few $$$ on the right congressional committee chair, and the rules are changed. The regulators go blind.

Banks have never directly screwed me. When the economy went down the toilet in '08 I only had a couple of lots financed and I was able to get out from under those. All the contract homes I've built since 9/11 have been financed with the loans in the customer's name, not mine. I won't sign a (business) loan agreement with a bank because they're 100% loaded in the banks favor. For example, they have the right to call the note due, at any time, for any reason, even if I'm current with all provisions of the loan. Doesn't matter. And yes, I know people they've pulled the rug out from under. "He who has the gold makes the rules." Personally I deal only with member-owned USAA for all my banking and insurance needs. My credit record is spotless.

Indirectly the banks have screwed all of us. Beginning roughly 20 years ago they legally rigged "the system", enabling them to do whatever they wanted. "Financial engineering" it's called. All the unregulated "derivatives" and "credit default swaps" that made the news when the world went over the edge....those were HUGE profit makers for the banks (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars), yet they added nothing of value to the economy. When the dust settled they still had their money, and individually they still had their hundreds of millions in bonuses, while we were left with the bail-out tab. Yet I know very well-off people (doctors) who today still find it difficult to secure financing to build a new home. As a builder that hurts me and my family.

And it gets worse. On paper the banks were broke in '09, so the Treasury "loaned" them billions of dollars, supposedly to "prime the pump" and get lending to businesses and hiring going again. But that's not what the banks did with the money. Instead they took the 0% interest "loans" (free money) and bought Treasury bonds paying 3%.* It was simply a money transfer from the taxpayers to the banks. Our government was either in bed with the bankers, or stupid. Think you or I could get a deal like that? HA! Never heard of that, did you? It was just a scam to re-capitalize the banks at taxpayer expense, without the taxpayers knowing it. All we were told was "the deficit grew".

And nothing has changed. All the "banking reforms" that have been legislated recently to "correct past wrongs" are a farce. They were gutted by the bank's lobbyists before what was left ever became law. A little hand slap here and there, but always with a wink, too. The number of banksters prosecuted for committing fraud? You can count them on one hand. Obama's recently announced effort to go after those responsible and bring them to justice?....I'll believe it when I see it! And why did it take him 3 years to decide to go after the crooks? Could the upcoming elections have anything to do with his newly discovered indignation? "It plays good in Peoria." Again, I'll believe it when I see it.

We need to reign the bankers back in. While I generally don't like excessive regulation in our lives, the banks have proven without a shadow of a doubt that left alone and without regulations (with teeth), they will act like drunken sailors on shore leave. Trust a banker**? I'd rather trust a crack whore with my bank account and PIN number.

S

* Suggest you read Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President by WSJ writer Ron Suskind. He names names, lists dates, places, directly quotes conversations....very informative.

** I'm talking about the Ivory Tower bankers at the BIG institutions, NOT the little loan officer or teller at the corner branch bank.

Do we dare hope?

2012-02-09T08:52:00.010-06:00

I'm almost scared to say this out loud...er...put this in writing, but it looks like maybe our economy has turned the corner. Job creations have been getting much better lately, unemployment is inching down, even state budgets are on more solid ground. I realize a lot can still blow up in our face, but I'm genuinely feeling optimistic. I read this morning that lowly Michigan...basket case Michigan!...has a $450M state budget surplus. Texas has a $1.6B surplus, plus still has $7.3B is its Rainy Day Fund. Par-tay!

So where's mine? I read this morning that a settlement is near between state Attorneys Generals and the Axis of Evil II...that would be Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial. It's gonna cost them $26B to settle mortgage abuse claims against them. Some $$$ will go to the "victims", but who's looking out for those who kept their payments current and then saw their property values (their life savings?) fall through the floor? Actually I'm not due anything as I saw this coming and bailed before it hit the fan. I just feel better knowing the bastards (A of E II) got hit where it hurts, and not just a few measly million bucks, either. Twenty Six BILLION dollars. Shame it couldn't be a hundred and twenty six billion dollars.

I'm working from home today (if you call this work), waiting for it to rain. It's been cloudy for several days now here in Dallas. I'm almost feeling like a Seattlite. So does that make me an astronaut? (And here comes the big hook :)

S

There's a snake behind every log....LOOK OUT!

2012-02-08T07:57:00.014-06:00

par·a·noi·a [par-uh-noi-uh]

noun

1. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.

We have got to be the absolute most paranoid people in the world. I commented on Monday how much I liked the Chrysler Super Bowl halftime commercial. I found it to be very inspirational. It talked about the American can-do attitude, pulling together, working hard, never giving up, etc. I saw nothing political about it. It was great! Plus I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan.

Not so the viewers of FOX News. I read that it was widely panned by them as a blatant attempt to support the Obama administration and thank them for their bail out from a couple years ago. Huh? Where did that come from?

I have some conservative friends (I'm fairly conservative myself) who I think wake up every morning foaming at the mouth, ready to jump into their camo and paint up their faces and go out an hunt 'em some Socialists. Then at the other extreme I have some more liberal friends who would swear on a Bible (if they have one) that the Huns are at the gate and will soon be goose-stepping up their front sidewalk.

What is wrong with people these days? My only concern is that one political party or the other will gain control of BOTH houses of Congress AND the White House, and everything I see/hear/read is indicating that's not going to happen. Just chill, people. Go take your medicine, or maybe watch a Chrysler commercial. Sheesh! ;)

Suddenly I feel like a techie!

2012-02-07T07:34:00.005-06:00

I never thought of myself as being too technologically savvy. Far from it. I proudly wear the label "Neanderthal". Then I read about Larry Rogers and his wife Joan in the local newspaper. We'll just conveniently skip over the fact that they're 86 and 84 years old respectively.

To quote Larry, he doesn't have a "computer, cell phone, iPhone, uPhone, myPod, yourPod, hisPad, herPad, answering machine,VCR, cable TV," etc. He still uses a rotary dial telephone, a manual typewriter, and watches TV on a boxy 19-inch model. He did have to break down recently and buy a digital converter box so he could keep his antique Magnavox TV up and running. He's never used an ATM machine. When he buys something and the clerk expects him to swipe his credit card, he just hands it to them instead and says, "Here, you do it." He said "I tried a time or two, but after twisting that credit card around every which way, putting the stripe on this side and that, I just started saying 'you do it'".

He drives a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria. It has a cassette player and cruise control, neither of which he has ever used. He says he doesn't own a tape, and "the idea of sticking the gas pedal open just sounds nuts. Why, I wouldn't feel in control." And Joan doesn't even own an electric clothes dryer. "I get out there in the sun and hang clothes on the line. It's good exercise."

Understand, these aren't poor people, and they're certainly not dumb. Larry, a veterinarian, retired 30 years ago thanks to his smart investments, and since then they've traveled all over the world. (By airplane?) He still manages his portfolio with spiral bound ledgers and a hand held calculator. He did, however, recently buy a new calculator after his decades-old TI model finally died. (Whoa.....slow down there, Larry!)

So you see, next to Larry and Joan I feel like an absolute techie. I have an iPhone with lots of apps, several of which I can actually use. I have a Kindle and a computer and I know how to blog. I have a digital camera and, yes, even an electrical clothes drying machine.

No, I'm not making fun of the Rogers'. Deep down I actually envy them. Imagine being happy with what you have and where you live and what you drive. Do all these modern whiz-bang tools we have today really make our lives easier and less complicated? I think I know how Larry and Joan would answer that. I'd be willing to meet them half way. ;)

S

Clint Eastwood's "the man!"....with EDIT

2012-02-06T07:18:00.016-06:00

This morning I clicked on YouTube to re-watch my favorite Super Bowl commercial from yesterday. What I found instead was a screen saying the commercial had been pulled due to a copyright dispute with NFL Properties. Hmmm....wonder why the NFL didn't complain BEFORE they took Chrysler's money and ran their ad?

It was a typical Super Bowl....a rather average game except for the last 3 minutes. I didn't think either team looked "World Champion" quality hitting on all 12 cylinders. More like the last ones still standing. And the commercials? Where was the pizazz, the supreme sense of humor from years past? Budweiser might as well have just put a match to their $10M. The same for most of the rest IMO. If you weren't old enough to remember Ferris Bueller from the famous movie of the 80's, you probably didn't understand the Honda commercial. The same with the Volkswagen ad featuring the deformed looking guys. What was that all about? K had to explain to me later that it was a Star Wars reference. You shouldn't have to explain a commercial.

I did like the Chrysler halftime commercial. It was powerful, and I thought using Clint Eastwood as their grizzled, determined-sounding spokesman was a stoke of genius. Brilliant!

I'd like to link to it for you, but thanks to the jackasses at the NFL I can't. You think the NFL will give Chrysler their money back? Haha!

And then there was the commercial for the Abarth Fiat 500. Wow, what a car! Yeah, let's go with that. See it for yourself right here. (Ironically, Fiat owns Chrysler.) Several others elicited a chuckle from me, but no real gut-busting laughs. Oh, wait....I forgot about the girl head-butting the guy for his Oikos yogurt. That was a funny surprise. Do y'all disagree? Did I miss something?

Gotta go. I'm off to buy a Chrysler, or a Fiat. Or maybe some yogurt. ;)

S

EDIT: The Chrysler commercial is available again. You can see it here.

Cars and Coffee

2012-02-04T14:22:00.006-06:00

Today was the first-Saturday-of-the-month Cars and Coffee event. Yesterday's rains had moved on to the east and we had clear skies, but it was cool/cold and windy. Still, the cars attending were impressive enough to warrant the bundling up. (Note: click on photos to enlarge) Here were my favorites:

Rolls Royce

The RR "Spirit of Ecstasy" emblem

Care to join me for some bubbly? *in my best Thurston Howell III nose-in-the-air impersonation*

From the absurd to the ridiculous

A nice Austin Healey, Porsche, and Ford Model _?

A Fisker Karma...I've never seen one in person before today. It's a VERY impressive automobile!

Wow! What a paint job!

The story went...the guy driving the Camaro had a "seizure" and hit the gas, plowing into 2 'Vettes. I think it was more a matter of the guy having more car than he could handle and he lost it while showing off. (No shortage of testosterone at a car show, you know.)

Ouch!

All in all, a very enjoyable morning. Hope yours was as much fun. :)

There's a football game this weekend? Really?

2012-02-03T07:42:00.002-06:00

Outside of the northeast, does anyone care about the Super Bowl this weekend? I'm sure the fans in NY and Boston are going nuts, this being their dream matchup, but for the rest of the country it's just an excuse to eat football food for the last time this season and watch some (hopefully) funny/sexy commercials. Oh, and what's her name?....Madonna. (I think that's when I'll go to the bathroom. Yes, my time is that strictly planned during the Super Bowl.) Today I'm going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients K says she'll need for her smorgasbord.

We're expecting some strong storms to come through north Texas this afternoon/evening bringing more rain (hey, I'm not complaining....we need it) and strong winds, and maybe even some hail, too. I have a huge fear of hail. Not physical fear, but fear of having to deal with the damage after it passes. It tears up roofs and cars, necessitating dealing with the dreaded insurance company. *ack* I think I'd rather have a chest wax. (Remember Steve Carell in the 40 Year Old Virgin? OUCH!)

The new pooch is doing well. He likes his food, plays 100 mph, then conks out and sleeps for 2 hours. He's a daredevil, lemme tell you! He jumps from couch to ottoman to dog bed, back and forth like a Ringling Bros acrobat. It's hilarious!

Just got an AP news text....employers added 243,000 jobs last month, pushing unemployment down to 8.3%. Excellent!

Y'all have a great Friday. Let the weekend begin! :)

S

"Get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on"

2012-02-02T07:16:00.008-06:00

Just when we thought the economy might be stabilizing somewhat we hear this: Foat Wuth-based American Airlines, already in bankruptcy, announced yesterday they were laying off 13,000 employees. OUCH! Those are 13,000 people, presumably with about as many families depending on them.

We Americans have been criticized for years for "living beyond our means", but how do you know what your "means" are these days? How do you make any long-term plans or purchases without knowing if you're going to have a job several years in the future, regardless of how vital your job is or how skilled you are? I know a great many airline employees, both current and retired, from my 20 years of volunteering alongside them with the Commemorative Air Force. (Formerly the Confederate Air Force, it's a group that buys, restores, and flies vintage WWII aircraft. "Lowandslow"....get it?) Many of them will be devastated by this layoff.

Over 8,000 mechanics will soon be on the streets. How many do you think will lose their homes to foreclosure in Ft. Worth and Tulsa, American's two largest maintenance bases? What about property values in general in those areas? And unless they speak a foreign language and are willing to relocate to Turkey, China, or Latin American and work for 50% less, they're screwed. American A&P mechanics are dinosaurs these days. Three cheers for globalization!

Over a thousand flight attendants will be out of work soon, too. They took a HUGE pay cut after 9/11 and haven't recovered since. (My girlfriend before K was a flight attendant.) Same for baggage handlers, provisioners, and some mid-managers. But here's what gets me....millions of dollars are still paid out to senior executives as "retention bonuses". They say if they don't pay these bonuses they'll lose their smartest, most valuable people. I say that based on results, they're not worth a damn anyway. (Have you ever noticed the same group of senior executives just bounces around from airline to airline? Have you ever noticed almost all the major carriers have been bankrupt at least once? Do you see a pattern?)

Over 400 pilots will soon be on the streets, too, but with their substantial incomes I would hope they would have put some $$$ away and can afford to stay in their homes and maintain their lifestyles. But what about when the survivors retire? Are there replacements working their way up the ladder? The commuter airlines (think of them as major airline farm teams) say the quality of their applicants is at an all-time low. The appeal of an airline job just isn't there any longer. This certainly won't help.

Yep, the glamor of flying is definitely gone. Has been for years. "Get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on." Sad.

S

I'm a registered "bite me!"

2012-02-01T08:18:00.009-06:00

Every time the conversation turns to politics I hear people say they are a "registered Democrat" or a "registered Republican". Pardon my ignorance, but I'm not sure what that means. I've traveled considerably but only voted in Texas*. Here you can vote in one primary or the other, but not both, and that in no way binds you in the general election in the fall. Does the act of voting in a primary "register" you?

They make it sound like you have to publicly declare by signing an affidavit (registering) at a party office your intention to support that party. Why would anyone want to lock themselves in like that? What does "registering" get you? Discounts on candidate's T-shirts or bumper stickers? Big whoop! How do you "register" to be an Independent?

S

*Actually, I'm quite a VIP here in Texas. I say that because I have been repeatedly notified (sometimes discreetly addressed to "occupant" so as to preserve my privacy) that as a revered, almost legendary Texas businessman I have been selected to serve on Senator PickPocket's advisory board. To accept his most generous offer all I have to do is send him a pot of money and he'll give me a lapel pin that will signify to the world what a Big Shot I am as well as a monthly newsletter that I can't un-subscribe to. I'm SO flattered! :)

They've seen the light!

2012-01-31T08:03:00.002-06:00

I see in today's news that Congress is moving forward with a couple of pieces of legislation President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union address last week. The "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act" would prohibit members of Congress from buying/selling securities based on inside knowledge they learned during hearings, etc. Also, the "Buffett rule" is gaining headway, requiring those folks wealthy enough to have an adjusted gross yearly income of greater than $1M to pay a minimum of 30% of it in taxes.

I wonder if the "light" Congress has suddenly seen is the light bulb of a great idea that simultaneously clicked on in all their minds, or the light from all those torches being carried by the lynch mob assembled in the parking lot? I also wonder how many obscure, innocent-sounding loopholes they've planted in their legislation? (They're very good at that, you know.)

S

World....meet Luke

2012-01-30T08:07:00.004-06:00

Many years of ~~nagging~~ persistent persuasion finally paid off for K this past weekend. She got her dog. When she and I met she already had Emma. For whatever reason, Emma bonded with me instantly. I couldn't go from one room to the next without her tagging along. K said I "stole" her dog. What can I say? I have that effect on women. *sarcasm at it's finest!*

For reasons I'll never understand K wanted a tiny little Yorkshire Terrier. It's no secret this would not have been my chosen breed, but, hey, it's her dog. I like my dogs a little more "robust". I mean, if the canine world was a 9-course meal, Yorkies would have trouble qualifying as an appetizer. Maybe more like a mint on a pillow at bedtime.

Some day I'll get me another dog, probably another mini schnauzer as I like everything about them. But Luke is here, now, so I've got to walk a tightrope. Of course I want to help take care of PLD (Poor Little Dude), but I can't get so chummy with him that he likes me more than K. If that happens again I will be relegated to the dog house. (I wonder if those things come in an XL? With maybe a big screen and a mini-fridge?)

For now Luke is behaving himself very well. He and I can circle each other for a while longer this morning, then I must go earn money for more kibbles. I'll be back later with a damage report. ;)

The "check list"....with photo

2012-01-29T08:44:00.003-06:00

Taxes prepared and e-filed. Check.

Money coming back? Check.

Money burning hole in pocket? Check.

Kelly gets a new dog? Check.

Going shopping for dog stuff today? Check.

Sleepless night ahead? What do you think?

NOTE: It's the one on the right. ;)

Not enough zero's on the check

2012-01-27T09:32:00.004-06:00

Did you hear that Costa Crocierie SpA, the subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp that owns the Costa Concordia, is offering all un-injured passengers on that ill-fated ship $14,460 apiece as compensation for their little boo-boo? Italian lawyers are obviously not as aggressive as American lawyers, that's for sure! If that happened here there would have been an entire fleet of lawyers in rubber dinghies circling the sinking ship passing out business cards before the Captain had a chance to say, "Chao, y'all."

I'm anxiously awaiting our W-2's and donation summaries to arrive so I can do our 2011 taxes. This is the one time of the year when I'm sorry I don't own a home any longer. The write-off was nice! Still, I think the care-free lifestyle we've enjoyed these past 2+ years has more than trumped the write-offs we've missed.

Speaking of taxes, did you see where Mitt Romney (really....who names their kid after sporting equipment?) paid $44,000 MORE in taxes than he should have? Experts have looked at his newly released tax return and concluded he overpaid. If it turns out he's elected President I hope he doesn't put his tax man up as Sec Treasury. As if we're not totally screwed now!

I'll leave you with these words of wisdom for the weekend: As my uncle with the bad liver once told me, "Always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lime and a couple shots of tequila." :)

S

A question for you....

2012-01-26T07:35:00.006-06:00

How do you end a conversation when the subject being discussed no longer interests you? If you're terribly blunt you can just say, "This no longer interests me. I don't want to talk about it any more." Most of us, however, aren't that blunt. I know I'm not.

Sometimes you can be saved by a phone call from someone needing your attention. There is one gentleman, a fellow builder and a really nice guy, who comes by our jobsite now and then for a visit. I enjoy him for a while, but he just doesn't know when to leave. If my brother happens to drive by and see us outside talking, he'll call me in 5 minutes with an "urgent" message. Then I run off to handle the "emergency". *whew!*

Some people are like a dog with a bone...they just won't give it up. You try to change the subject, but they keep coming back to whatever topic they were on. I think some people just like to hear themselves talk. They repeat themselves, making the same point over and over. OK already. I get it!

You usually can't just avoid these people forever as they are often co-workers, relatives, neighbors, etc. You have to see them and you want to be polite, and you certainly don't want to hurt their feelings, but you just want to keep moving.

How do you politely extricate yourself from a conversation that you've long since lost interest in?

S

One to remember

2012-01-25T09:18:00.005-06:00

I remember many years ago when I was a student at Harvard-on-the-Plains, more commonly known as Texas Tech University, Lubbock had the mother of all thunderstorms. It lasted most of the night and was just a flash of lightning and clap of thunder one after another after another. I remember I turned off the lights and, just to see if it was possible, read a chapter in a textbook using just the illumination from the lightning. The next day everyone I saw looked like they hadn't slept all night, probably because they hadn't slept all night. FLASH...BOOM! FLASH...BOOM! It was a crazy night.

Last night here in Dallas it wasn't quite that intense, but it was still memorable. So far we've had more lightning strikes than you can count, and 2.5" of rain with another 2+" expected before the storm moves out. Our area lakes, which are all several feet (or more) low, are getting a nice fill-up. We've been on Stage 2 or 3 (I can't remember which) water restrictions for months, and we've been warned that if we don't get some major replenishment before spring we'd soon be on Stage-whatever-is-the-highest. That would mean short showers and ducking behind trees for "relief". Just for the record, La Nina sucks.

Did anyone watch The Prez on TV last night? I actually watched the replay this morning and thought he made a great speech. Now let's see if he can deliver on any of it. I thought it spoke volumes when he mentioned the banking/financial reforms and congressional insider-trading reforms that were still needed, and then the cameras panned the Republican delegation to show them all staring at their shoes. Or maybe they were checking their pay envelopes they were handed by the banking lobbyists as they entered the House chamber. I couldn't tell which. At least the Democratic delegation slipped theirs into their coat pockets to be counted after the cameras were turned off. Smart. :)

S

"Rain, rain, go away"...no, wait...PLEASE STAY!

2012-01-24T08:34:00.010-06:00

"I don't need no stinkin' trainin'." Smart dog. Haha!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rain is always to me a good news / bad news sort of thing. We desperately need more rain here in drought stricken Texas, but as a homebuilder, rain wrecks a construction schedule. In a perverse way, not having a home under construction right now is good because we're expecting rain all day and night....2-3 inches of the liquid sunshine, and now I can enjoy it. I have a couple of errands to run today, but otherwise I'm sticking close to home. I asked K what needs to be done around here (I'm really scratchin' for something to do, can you tell?) and she said I could clean out the pantry. How do you "clean out" a pantry? Do you dust the cans, or maybe arrange them in alphabetical order? Geez, I'm bored, but....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Mitt Romney made $42M last year, but paid only 14% in taxes. I think people are outraged by that for the wrong reason. I don't blame him for taking advantage of every deduction and loophole available to him. You would, too, and don't lie and say you wouldn't. I blame congress, who WE elected, for allowing those loopholes to exist in the first place. And to say, "Yes, they (congress) are bad guys, all except MY guy, and he's good" is why things never change. Just because your congressman sent you a birthday card or gave you a commemorative paperweight isn't reason enough to vote for him/her. At the same time they were robo-signing your card they were emptying your pocket in order to subsidize 'ol Mitt and his buddies. Think about it.

Vietnam 1, USA 0

2012-01-23T08:06:00.009-06:00

When I shop now I pay close attention to where things are made, looking for an alternative to "Made in China". Over the weekend I looked for a new vest, but found a grand total of 0 made in America. The one I eventually bought was made in Vietnam. At least it wasn't "Made in China", but really, is there any difference?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I read a very interesting article over the weekend about why the USA has such a hard time competing in the new global economy. The story began with President Obama asking Steve Jobs (this conversation was in February, 2011) what it would take to get Apple to bring their production back to America? Jobs replied, "Sir, those jobs aren't coming back." Then it goes on to describe in layman's terms why. (It describes one electronics assembly factory, Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China, where 230,000 employees work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, many living on-site in company dormitories. If they get a new client they can hire 3,000 new employees overnight and begin work immediately.) It was a real eye opener. It's a long, but worthwhile read. You can read it here if you're interested.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the weekend Mr. & Ms. "W" moved in to the new home we just finished building for them. Their big crisis was that the movers stole Ms. W's purse. Besides the obvious money and credit cards inside, her purse also contained ALL the keys to their new home. They had a locksmith come out and re-key all the locks, paying him the emergency / weekend price of $800. I'm thinking it should have cost a fraction of that, but the guy pulled up out front and saw their $1.3M house and had an instant price increase. (I think they got robbed twice this weekend!) Then to rub salt into the wound, when the cops got there, they found the original keys! The crooks tossed 'em.

Looks like I'm playing Suzy Homemaker today. I need to make an appearance at work, but I should still be home by early afternoon. To give K a break I'm going to wash clothes and clean out the refrig. I can't imagine doing that full-time, like my mom and most mom's of the 1950's did. I'm afraid my brain would atrophy.

Gotta go. Fabric softener awaits. ;)

MORE new home photos

2012-01-20T07:06:00.004-06:00

To pick up where my last entry left off, here are some more photos of the home we recently completed for the "W" family:

The entire back curved wall of the master suite has a great view of the rear yard.

The master bath and adjoining closet. Both are much larger than I could get in a single photo. The master shower is awesome! It is obviously large enough for 2 people, and has body sprays, a rain head, a traditional shower head, and a hand-held shower wand.

At the top of the stairs, visible from the foyer, is a small round, domed room that will soon hold a baby grand piano. They entertain a lot and like to have a pianist playing in the background while they dine. Sweet!

The children's study upstairs, opening to a reading room and a small balcony, both sharing a nice view of the water feature (formerly a quarry) across the street.

The back yard will have a pool by next summer, I'm told. I especially like the patio with it's masonry fireplace and outdoor kitchen. :)

Special details abound, such as the copper gas coach lamps on the front of the home, a kid's homework desk right outside mom's kitchen, a discreetly hidden electrical outlet and internet port on the kitchen island (they don't like wireless), lots of exquisite painting details such as on the staircase, a bar with a wine chiller, and even programmable chromotherapy lighting in the master bathtub to set a mood.

Super energy efficient, too. Icynene foam insulation in all the exterior walls and wrapping all the a/c ducts, (4) tankless water heaters, Energy Star everything, Trane 16 SEER mechanicals, Low-E vinyl clad wood windows, etc. A smart investment!

Three more bedrooms (five total) and three more baths (also five total) aren't pictured, so just use your imagination. That's it. As of 8 AM today (Friday) this home will be recorded in a new owner's name. I hope they enjoy living here, and hope you enjoyed seeing it, too. :)

New home photos

2012-01-19T17:29:00.004-06:00

For the past 10 months my brother and I have been building a new custom home for Mr. & Ms. "W". We put the finishing touches on it today, and tomorrow their family is moving in. It has 6,000 square feet of living space, plus an over-sized 3-car garage, a large covered patio, an upstairs balcony, and a 600 sq. ft. unfinished bonus room suitable for future conversion. It is valued at $1.3M (Dallas money, as opposed to California money or Manhattan money....BIG difference). As promised, photos (you can left click to enlarge if you wish):

The front facade is mainly native stone, with brick accents.

Entry is through a pair of 9' tall custom steel doors with wrought iron accents.

The foyer features a curving staircase leading up to a Juliet balcony.

The view from the Juliet balcony. The space above the door is a reading room accessible from the upstairs "children's study".

To the left off the foyer is the study. NOTE: These photos were taken before the wood floors had their final application of polyurethane sealer.

To the right off the foyer is the formal dining room.

Further back is the family room with views of the rear yard, and open to the kitchen, too.

Ahh...the kitchen.

The kitchen features true gourmet-quality appliances....Wolf range, ovens (3), warming drawer, and microwave, 48" Sub-Zero refrigerator, Asko dishwasher, plus an instant hot water dispenser, a pot-filler over the range, etc.

And a pantry in need of....everything.

A hallway behind the kitchen connects to a mother-in-law suite with en suite bath....

...and a media room / home theater. The electronics will come later.

The utility (futility?) room....

...and a small mud room for the "chirren"...

...accessible directly from the 3-car garage.

That's enough for now. I'll bore you with more later. :)

Black humor

2012-01-19T06:26:00.006-06:00

Have you heard what they're calling Francesco Schnttino, the captain of the stricken luxury liner Costa Concordia who is accused of abandoning his passengers and crew as he sought to save himself first? "Chicken of the Sea"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's a restaurant in my area called The Son of Texas, owned by legendary restaurateur Dale Wamstad. He's quite a character. He's made a fortune establishing and then selling places like Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House, III Forks, and more recently the Silver Fox. Now he's promoting his new venture by bringing "a deck with your check". He brings a deck of cards with your bill and you draw one card. Draw a 2 and you get 2% off your bill. An 8 gets you 8% off, etc. A 10 or a face card, 10%. An Ace, 15%, and the Ace of Spades, your dinner is free. I think it's a really good gimmick, and it seems to fit his reputation. He has a very gracious public persona, but according to a recent newspaper expose in private he's known to be a bear....a big gambler, a business cheat according to many of his past partners, and last but not least, a spouse abuser, at least verbally. His ex actually shot him 3 times and was acquitted. He must have been one bad SOB!

The final push to get a new home finished is exhausting for me. Up until the very end it's easy to just make phone calls and get done whatever is needed. I have a "guy" for everything. At the end, however, there isn't a general handyman to do all the piddling little details that need to be done. All those tasks fall to me. They really aren't hard, but they're just exhausting. And at night I go to bed and just lie there, thinking of all the details I have to tend to the next day. After nearly two weeks of this I'm whipped. After today...tomorrow at the latest...it should all be over with. Can't get here soon enough!

Gotta go. Y'all have a good day. :)

The End Is Near!

2012-01-18T06:36:00.002-06:00

The big home we've been building for the past 10 months will be completed this Friday, ready for the new owners to move into on Saturday. Yesterday I received the C/O (Certificate of Occupancy) from the city, so technically it's finished right now. We're still doing clean up inside and we have one last coat of polyurethane yet to apply to the wood floors, and THEN it will be 100% to my satisfaction. So when I say "the end is near", it's really a good thing because it comes with a nice paycheck. I'll take photos tomorrow morning and have them to share with you here tomorrow evening (if anyone cares).

In other news, K has decided she's ready for another dog. I had told her she could have whatever she wants, and to my horror she wants a little yappy Yorkie. *sigh* Oh well, a deal's a deal. I'm sure it'll be cute, but a dog that's about the size of a gerbil just doesn't do it for me. I'll really have to watch where I walk, and sit, too. Still, having another dog around will bring back a semblance of normalcy to the Lowandslow household. She hopes to be able to get him next month. For now she's acting like an expectant mother. Haha!

Have a great day everyone. :)

S

How lazy is this?

2012-01-17T06:27:00.002-06:00

If you live in the Washington, DC area and have a yearning for a Super Sized dose of cholesterol from Burger King but you're too lazy to drag your fat arse to their drive-thru, you can now just call 'em and they'll deliver. They're test marketing the idea of home delivery at four of their "restaurants" in our beloved nation's capital with an eye to taking the idea coast-to-coast. It seems they now have a "proprietary thermal packaging technology which ensures the Whopper is delivered hot and fresh, and the french fries are delivered hot and crispy."

If Lazy-Boy is as smart as I think they are they'll soon be coming out with a new, heavy-duty, double-wide reclining chair. I can see a big demand for it....in Washington, DC. And eventually coast-to-coast. Just think of the "expanded" contestant pool (pardon the pun) for The Biggest Loser! :)

S

I'd make a lousy diplomat

2012-01-16T06:35:00.006-06:00

Doesn't anything newsworthy ever happen in Australia, or Denmark, or Chile? Every morning I pull up the news and find the same thing day after day: Iran this, Pakistan that, Iraq...Egypt...Afghanistan...Syria...Libya...etc. I'm sorry, but I flat don't give a rats ass what happens over there. That part of the world is just a giant hell hole as far as I'm concerned. It's almost as if blowing stuff up is their idea of having a good time. And let's face it....if there wasn't oil in that general area, the rest of the world would write it off, too.

Yes, I believe we should share our food and humanitarian supplies with people who are hurting wherever they are, but that generally isn't the way our foreign aid policy works. Most of our generosity goes to governments, who promptly split it up among the top politicians and generals, the people be damned. Last time I looked we had people right here at home who had bare pantries, and we had bridges and roads right here that were crumbling. And unemployed people right here who would love a job building / repairing those crumbling bridges and roads. And broke taxpayers right here who are tired of trying to buy friends all over the world. What is it Dr. Phil says? "....and how's that workin' out for ya?"

I doubt I'll get many comments to this post because, honestly, this is about as un-PC as you're gonna get. I don't care. This is my vehicle to vent. Venting complete.

S

Sex sells

2012-01-15T10:52:00.005-06:00

It seems there were some ruffled feathers at this year's Consumer Electronics Show over the presence of "booth babes". Anyone who's been to a car show is very familiar with what I'm talking about, but apparently they're just now becoming fashionable in the nerdy world of consumer electronics. The term simply means attractive, provocatively dressed young ladies who mill around by their sponsor's booth attracting attention. People, mainly men, walk over to get a closer look and are snagged by the product rep and given a pitch and some literature.

And quite frankly, it works. Sex (appeal) sells products. You think Go Daddy would be where it is today without Danica Patrick? So, I'm wondering....why aren't there "booth hunks"? Don't tell me women don't like to see good looking men. George Clooney? Daniel Craig? Matthew McConaughey? Ashton Kutcher? (I really don't get that one!) Dos Equis "The Most Interesting Man in the World"?

We all like to look at good looking people, whether they're in a movie, on a magazine cover, at a trade show, or just walking down the street. And there is a HUGE mega-billion dollar industry that tries to get us to believe WE are good looking people, too. (See, there is an upside to myopia!) So what's the big deal over "booth personnel"? ;)

S

On your mark....get set....GO....

2012-01-14T09:26:00.006-06:00

....to McDonald's.

While there's nothing wrong with it, it just seems funny to me that McDonald's is a Top Sponsor of the Olympic games. They're paying $100M to the IOC to sponsor one summer and one winter game. "Big Mac....the Breakfast of Champions." I dunno.

What's next? The Buick Grand Prix of Monaco? The Poligrip/Depends Molokai Surfing Championship? Or to reverse things, the Red Bull Bingo Invitational?

Marketing gone terribly wrong. ;)

S

Will we never learn?

2012-01-13T06:25:00.008-06:00

We seem to have it in our mind that "bigger is better". We Americans like things BIG. We Texans like thing REALLY BIG. Trouble is, as we're always prone to do, we take things too far.

Once this country's largest air carrier American Airlines is today in bankruptcy. Now comes word that Delta Airlines and US Airways both might make a play to buy American. We're supposed to have anti-trust laws to guarantee competition, but IMO meaningful anti-trust regulation / oversight fell by the wayside long ago. In just the last few years, Delta absorbed Northwest, United absorbed Continental, America West merged with US Air, Southwest snatched up AirTran, and pretty obviously American will be swallowed up by somebody, TBD.

The same with banking. I remember hearing experts say 20 years ago that some day there would be only a handful of mega-banks left. As there was a local community bank on every corner at the time I thought this a ridiculous prediction, but look were we are today. We're well on our way. Homebuilding: Today a handful of national homebuilders control over half the market, and their share is growing. Retailers: Think Wal Mart. 'Nuff said.

A hundred years ago we broke up "big railroad" and "big oil", rightly proclaiming it would be good for competition, and therefore for the people. I understand the principle of "economy of scale". I also understand the reality of "too big to fail" and "moral hazard".

Once again we're getting run over, and we just sit here and meekly take it. The people we've elected to look out for our interests are failing us. I guess we're getting what we deserve.

(Sorry for the boring post. I guess I read / think too much.)

S

My first....

2012-01-12T06:34:00.003-06:00

No, not that first. *wink*

My friend Stephen recently gave us a story about his first pet, a rat. My first thought was, "A rat? What an odd pet." Then I remembered my first pet, and all of a sudden his rat started looking pretty good.

When I was about 8 my dad took a friend and me to the state fair. Somewhere in there amidst all the booths and rides and hucksters we found a vendor selling tiny little chameleons and dad bought us boys both one. They had a string with a slip-knot on one end tied around the little lizard's neck, and on the other end was a safety pin. You attached the pin to your collar and let the critter crawl around on your shirt....mine eventually taking up residence on my shoulder. I can't remember if I ever even gave it a name, I say "it" because I had no idea if it was a male or a female. Looking back on the whole episode there were two factors that made this possible at all. One, my mom didn't go with us to the fair that year (no way in hell she would have let be bring a reptile back into her house), and two, this was before PETA.

When we got home my dad told me to take it straight to my room and don't tell mom. Somehow mom found it anyway, and let us all know in no uncertain terms she was NOT happy. I promised to take care of it, keep it in my room only, yada yada, and she agreed to let me keep him...er...her...er...

Until she changed her mind the next day. That's when I was called to the Principal's office to take an emergency phone call. Well, at least it was an emergency to my mother. It seems that my chameleon had slipped its knot and was loose somewhere in her house, and she wanted me home right then to hunt for it. You would have thought a Bengal tiger had escaped from the circus! Jeez, could that woman scream.

Long story short, we found the poor thing several days later sunning him/herself on a window ledge in the den. Right behind mom's chair. *ouch* I last saw it scurrying off into the shrubbery by the back door with my mother in hot pursuit, swinging a broom. Adios, amigo.

S

"They got the elevator, we got the shaft"

2012-01-11T07:14:00.002-06:00

I've become fairly knowledgeable about the financial deregulation of the 1990's (although I'll stop well short of calling myself an expert) and the door it opened up for the "blow-and-go"....actually more like "smoke-and-mirrors"....first decade of the 21'st Century. As we're now painfully aware, all that gee-wizz "financial engineering" that brought Wall Street (used generically to include the big banks, hedge funds, insurers, brokerages, etc) immense wealth actually produced little of real value. Many respected scholars and actual insiders to what was going on told us years ago that we were on a very slippery slope, but they were drowned out by the lobby for those raking in BILLIONS of dollars in commissions and bonuses. Those were heady days, and we didn't want to hear any bad news. Things turned out just like that old song said they would: "They got the elevator, we got the shaft."

Now here we are in 2012, an election year. Mitt Romney appears to be on a roll and will likely be the Republican nominee for President. He was one of those who profited mightily from those deregulated times, and so are his current financial backers. They really want to see him elected as they have visions of returning to the good 'ol days (for them at least). They assume he'll call off those who are clamoring for re-regulation, and based on what he's said so far in his campaigning, he will.

I'm no fan of Barack Obama, or more specifically, I'm no fan of the Obama administration. IMO, he has surrounded himself with advisers who are doing him and the American people a disservice. They are individually brilliant, but collectively inept. "What is" and "what could have been" are, sadly, two very different things.

So what will our likely choices be this November? More of what we have now (how depressing is that?) or a replay of what we had before (YIKES!). Some choice, huh?

S

Just a couple of guys out for some Saturday fun

2012-01-10T06:37:00.002-06:00

A friend recently sent me a link to this video that I found to be absolutely fascinating. It's footage of some wingsuited base jumpers doing their thing somewhere in China. It's apparently some sort of Red Bull stunt. They wear suits that have webbing between their outstretched arms and their bodies and in between their legs that in effect make them human flying wings. The first minute has footage of life in a big Chinese city....nothing to do with the theme of the video, but still interesting....then moves on to a tourist attraction somewhere in mountainous China. It's definitely worth watching.

I can only imagine the size of the cajones of the first guy who tried this. Or maybe it was a woman. Hmmmm....

Tax cheats

2012-01-09T07:04:00.009-06:00

A few years ago I had a Realtor bring to me a Vietnamese couple who owned a liquor store in south Dallas, an area where I'm sure almost all transactions are in cash. They had a large down payment, and drove a new Mercedes (the BIG one) and a new Toyota SUV. I later learned the Realtor arranged for them a "no documentation" loan, more commonly called a "liar's loan". That was an apt description as they only claimed to make, jointly, $13,000 a year. Hmmmmm.

Just last week I had an oriental gentleman approach me about building him a new, very expensive home, asking if we could have a contract showing a sales price several hundred thousand dollars less than it actually was, with the balance made up in cash. I refused. I'm sure he was trying to document that his house was worth less than it actually was (to save on property taxes), or was trying to burn off some unreported cash income, or both. Either way he was scamming the system, a system that is now in a deep hole, a system that us honest taxpayers are now being asked to sacrifice for. I also had a man of middle eastern descent (?) recently propose something similar, too. It seems many of our new immigrants are bringing with them from "the Old Country" their casual attitude about paying taxes. Just look at the troubles today in Europe, particularly in Greece and Italy, where tax avoidance is rampant. Believe me, it's not just "over there."

Last Friday the IRS reported that taxpayers here still owed an estimated $385 BILLION from 2006, that's net AFTER the $65 BILLION they collected through audits. (That could amount to as much as $3-4 TRILLION in lost revenue over 10 years!) In fact, they admitted they had a voluntary tax compliance rate of only 83%, and I would imagine its only gotten worse these last several years due to the troubled economy.

So let's review: Our government is a TRILLION dollars a year short of break even, they're cutting back on everything from social services to military spending to paper clips, yet 17% of all taxes owed go uncollected. Considering how much (probable) tax fraud I've seen right here in my own back yard, imagine how much goes on all across the land? We're punishing the good, honest folks who pay their taxes on time by cutting back their services or threatening to cut back their Social Security, Medicare, etc, while the cheats are living the good life. And don't even get me started on the massive tax breaks the rich have bought for themselves. Grrrr!

OUR SYSTEM ISN'T WORKING! No band-aid is going to fix it. We need some extreme, deep changes. And just replacing a figurehead at the top isn't going to make a hill-of-beans difference. The person at the top doesn't control the system; the system ~~controls~~ devours them. Remember these words.

S

The glitch in my "Buy American" plan

2012-01-08T10:19:00.003-06:00

I don't buy many things sight unseen. I do buy a lot of things online, but I'll usually go to a store first, see / feel the product, then go online to price-shop and buy. (If it turns out my local retailer has a reasonably competative price, I'll just buy it there and be done with it.) This is compounding the difficulty of my "Buy American" plan. It doesn't do me much good to get a list of products made in America if I can't see / feel it at a retailer in my area.

Yesterday I went by REI Co-op, an outdoor products supplier. I perused sleeping bags for K (I've had a good quality down one for years) and found that every single one they had was made in China. Then I looked at vests they had on sale. (I figured if everyone thought a vest was enough to keep them warm, maybe they knew something I didn't. It just seems like half a coat to me.) Again, none were made in America. Their REI house brand, Patagonia, North Face, Marmot, Sierra Design....none made here. A few were made in Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Indonesia, the rest from China. The same with bicycles. My one ray of hope was in kayaks. I found one I like very much that was made in North Carolina. It made my short list. Actually it's a list of one. It was a rather depressing trip.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to work this afternoon and again next Sunday afternoon, but after that, the weekends are all mine. Unfortunately, my weekdays will be all mine, too. I haven't heard back yet from the doctor who I bid recently. I do know they visited Friday with a banker I referred them to, so things are moving, just at a snails pace. But after I get the current home I'm working on finished in a couple of weeks (photos forthcoming), and until I get a firm contract signed to start another, I'll be effectively unemployed. It isn't as bad as it sounds as there will still be a nice income stream from the recently completed home. Trouble is, I don't like to rock. Or whittle. :(

North Dakota invades Texas....w/ UPDATE

2012-01-07T08:26:00.011-06:00

Actually I should say "North Dakota State University invades the Shops at Legacy". (That's where I live.) Last night K and I went out for our usual Friday date night, then returned to our neighborhood to find the mother of all traffic jams. What the....? We managed to finally get to our controlled access parking garage, then walked down to Fun Street to see what all the commotion was about.

Background: We live in a mixed use neighborhood....townhomes, apartments, and a large Marriott hotel all surrounding a small man-made lake, many upscale (read: overpriced) boutiques, an indie theater, a very popular jazz bar, and dozens of eateries of every description. The main drag is Bishop Street, but I call it Fun Street because it is.

Things are usually jumpin' on most Friday nights with a thousand or so people milling about. Last night there were 5-10 THOUSAND people on the street. Most were wearing attire proclaiming their allegiance to North Dakota State University. I asked a couple of guys what was going on and they told me NDSU was playing Sam Houston State University for the NCAA Division I Football National Championship in Frisco (a few miles north) on Saturday. This was their Super Bowl, and our Marriott was their alumni association headquarters, reception hall, and party central. Woo Hoo!

They were a happy, fun bunch. (Wouldn't you be if you got to leave North Dakota for a few days in January?) We referred a few who asked to the best area restaurants depending on their tastes and pocketbooks, and enjoyed seeing them having such a good time.

I suppose I should root for Sam Houston State U since they're a Texas team, but I'm not. I want my new friends from ND to go home with great memories of their road trip, and making that looooong drive back north while nursing a crushing defeat (and maybe a hangover, too) would be a definite bummer.

GO NDSU! ;)

S

UPDATE: North Dakota State won, 17-6. :)

I told you she was brilliant

2012-01-06T07:04:00.007-06:00

Several weeks ago when my dog, Emma Belle, was very sick I rushed her to the vet's office as soon as they opened on Monday morning. The vet took her to the back for an X-ray and some more blood work to find out what the problem might be, and said she would call me later in the morning with some news. I fully expected to bring her home that afternoon. Instead she called to say it was very bad, and our options were essentially nil. I knew what had to be done, so I called K and we agreed to meet at the vet's office immediately. When we walked in the vet met us in private and told us Emma had passed away about 20 minutes earlier.

I always regretted that I wasn't with her when she passed. Yes, I'm one of those people who "humanized" my dog. I scratched her head, looked her in the eye and talked to her, asked her if she needed to go outside or was hungry, etc. We talked a lot, she and I. I had this haunting fear that she died alone on a cold, hard table, wondering "where is he?", or however you say that in dogspeak.

Last night on ABC Evening News, and also reported online, were the findings of a study that said dogs have cognitive abilities similar to that of a 2 year old child. They listen, look you in the eye, follow your eyes if you turn to look at something else, know when you don't feel well, can understand a vocabulary of over 100 words, etc. In other words, our humanizing efforts aren't wasted. They know when they're loved and can often develop telepathic communication skills with their owners. I guess you could say they're bilingual.

I'm glad to hear of this as it allows me to think she knew she was loved and that I had taken her to the vets office for treatment and was not abandoning her. She knew me better than that. :)

S

O'Billery for President?

2012-01-05T06:48:00.004-06:00

One brief bit of political news, then on to other things: Now the scuttlebutt is President O'Bama's political handlers are considering switching the jobs of Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and V.P. Joe Biden. Apparently they think O'Bama / Clinton, H. would make for a stronger Democratic ticket. Really? I can't see Hillary bringing anyone new over to the Democratic party. Anyone who would be enthusiastic about her being on the ticket probably wouldn't be caught dead with a Romney / Santorum / Paul bumper sticker on their car in the first place.

Anyone remember the old days when you could do pretty much anything maintenance-wise on your own car right in your garage? Now computers run everything on your car, and unless you have your own $50K engine diagnostic computer to plug into, you can do little more than change a tire. Now I read that hackers are using new car's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and On Star systems to sabotage them. A wrecker company's dream come true? Surely those fine upstanding folks wouldn't do that. *snicker*

I'm still doing my every-other-day running, trying to get in shape for a 5K run some day. It's a gradually increasing in intensity program that they say will get me built-up slowly without blowing out any important body parts, but I gotta say right now my legs feel like rubber. I make a much better armchair quarterback than I do athlete. Last night I watched a documentary, 180 South, about Yvon Choinard, the founder of Patagonia, and how to this day....he's in his early 70's....he still goes mountain climbing. I say screw climbing mountains. Right now I'm having trouble just climbing up onto my desk chair. Ouch!

S

He 'da man....

2012-01-04T07:48:00.008-06:00

....that would be Willard Mitt Romney, according to the voters in last night's Iowa caucus. He nosed out Rick Santorum, who is vying with Michele Bachman to come across as the rightest of the right wingers. She crashed and burned, leaving her free to go home and have a Tea Party. Good 'ol Ron Paul still makes good sense now and then, in between lapses into mild insanity, and did well in Iowa, too. And thankfully Iowans saw Newt "I'm different now, trust me" Gingrich as what he is, a hypocrite of the highest order, and Rick "look at my cool hair" Perry as simply a doofus.

Willard...er...Mitt should do well in New Hampshire, while Rick will feel right at home in South Carolina. Ron has fringe appeal everywhere. Of those, who is actually electable? I'm guessing ~~Willard~~ Mitt. (Doh....I hate it when I do that!) His past is liberal enough to be able to appeal to middle-of-the-roaders, and of course he has Wall Street money in his corner. His buddies there are already salivating over their soon-to-be-swelled-even-more bonuses. Dom Perigone anyone?

Here's what concerns me: If Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives and can gain control of the Senate (heaven forbid gaining a veto-proof 60 votes), AND see their nominee (Mitt?) win the White House, it will be seen as a mandate for the kind of hands-off / business-as-usual governing that gave us the economic debacle of '08. The rich will get richer, while you and I....well, you know how that turned out. Even with partisan politics being as rancorous as they are today, I think we need to split power between the parties. The gridlock would be hell, but IMHO giving EITHER party a blank check to run the country as they saw fit would be even more disastrous. What's so wrong with compromise?

What say you?

S

A different kind of "New Year's resolution"

2012-01-02T08:54:00.004-06:00

I've never been big on making New Year's resolutions, mainly because mine never seemed to last past about February. I think most people fall off their resolution wagon long before they meet their goal, so why bother? Yet here we are starting a new year....again, and all over the blogosphere I see people proclaiming their resolutions for 2012. OK, I'll make one, too.

Well, actually, mine isn't so much a "resolution" but a pledge, as it isn't a black-and-white issue where you either win or fail. *drum roll* I pledge to do everything I reasonably can to buy products made in America, and to avoid as much as possible buying products made in China. Understand, if you want an iPhone, it's going to be made in China. If you want the latest, greatest child's toy, it's probably going be made in China. You just can't escape it entirely, but I think in many instances we DO have a choice, and I'm gonna go out of my way to look for those products made in the USA, and I'm willing to pay a little more for them, too.

I think it's time we face the fact that saving a few bucks on a cheap imported product actually costs us more in the long run than we save. Yes, as you walk out of the store you may feel like you saved $5 or $10 or whatever, but stop and think how many Americans are NOT working because their jobs were "outsourced" so the company could hire cheap foreign labor and make a little higher profit margin. (The stockholders demand it, they say.) Whatever you saved is indirectly eaten up in welfare/unemployment benefits (your tax dollars). At this rate, pretty soon we'll all be either cutting each other's hair or flipping burgers. I say "enough"!

Anyone care to join me?

S

HAPPY TWENTY-DOZEN!

2012-01-01T08:54:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year, everyone! It's that time again....time to wring out the old, wring in the new, and just move on with our lives in general. I for one was happy to turn out the lights on 2011. It really wasn't a bad year, but just one I'd rather not replay.

I had a small but comfortable home to live in, more than enough food to eat, reliable transportation, and a job. It saddens me to think of all the people who didn't have one or more of those luxuries. The only thing that really matters, of course, is that I had my wife and my health. Both K and I and our extended families were blessed with good health all year, especially my daughter Erica who's expecting my first granddaughter in April. She and baby "Gladys" (kidding....I hope!) are doing great. K's dad fell and broke his hip in February, but his recovery was so speedy his doctors are still shaking their heads in amazement. That episode barely moved the needle on the "ill-health meter".

My real heartbreak in 2011 was losing my dog, my best friend Emma Belle, just two weeks ago. I miss her more than you'll ever know, but I do have some wonderful memories of all the good times we had during the 6+ years she was in my life. (When I got K I also got Emma, a pretty sweet twofer, don't you think?)

Looking at things in a macro sense, the world in 2011 was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami's, not to mention all the man-made catastrophes around the globe, just made me shake my head. And I'll be darned if I can see a leader anywhere, now or even on the horizon, who can put things back together. I'm just gonna keep my head down and try to slink through 2012 unnoticed. As long as He's looking over me, and He is, I'll be fine.

On a positive note, every new year brings hope for a better tomorrow, so maybe this will be the year where everything good just falls into place. After recently feeling myself falling back into some old habits, I'm pledging to myself to try and live according to Teddy Roosevelt's old adage, "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have." Lot to be said for simple living.

So how was your 2011? Two thumbs up, two thumbs down, or just a "pass"?

S

Trader Joe's is coming!

2011-12-30T09:47:00.005-06:00

I don't know why that title deserves an exclamation point, but according to everyone familiar with Trader Joe's it's at the very pinnacle of the grocery store pyramid, so I'll go along, too. I know my friend Bruce is posting regular updates on the progress of the Trader Joe's being built in his hometown in AZ and is just giddy with anticipation. K spent years in California when she was in the Navy saving the rest of us from the scourge of creeping communism and swears TJ's (as I'll hereafter refer to it) is indeed special.

We got the word yesterday that TJ's is opening 2 stores in the Dallas area, one being in Plano just 2 miles from where we live. I hope they're not over-hyping it to the point it opens and people just yawn. I think that's what happened when they opened In and Out Burgers in Dallas. The lines were huge at first, but then people decided it was just another burger. (Mooyah's has better ones.) Right now Central Market and Market Street are our prefered specialty "foodie" grocers. It's gonna be interesting when they all go head-to-head in a few months.

Today is the first of 4 holiday days off for K. For me, considering how little I have to do at work right now, this will make it number 8 of 11 days off. If I'd started learning a foreign language last Friday I could be fluent in it by the time I go back to work next Tuesday. Another missed opportunity. Darn!

Have a great weekend everyone. :)

S

Rethinking this retirement thing....

2011-12-29T07:16:00.003-06:00

Right now we have only one custom home under construction (pre-sold, thank goodness), completion expected within a month. Tuesday morning the wood floor finishing crew started the sanding / scraping / staining / polyurethaning process, and will finish by the middle of next week. In the meantime no one else can be in there with them as too many people stir up dust, which settles on their still-wet floor and ruins the finish. This means I have to stay away, too. What I'm getting at is I have no where to go all day, and nothing to do. This week has become a sort of retirement trial run. I don't like it.

I was home Tuesday morning before lunch. After about half an hour I was bored, so I went to the grocery store and bought the fixin's for banana pudding and came home and made that. Then I saw that K had some sweet potatoes out, so I went ahead and baked them. And I cooked some pasta, too. Then I went out and started my running program. Later I read for a while, then watched a Big Bang Theory marathon. And then I was bored again.

Yesterday wasn't much better. I washed and dried and put away a load of clothes, and even ironed 5 of K's business-style blouses. (My jeans and T-shirts are all "wash and wear", regardless of what the label says.) Then I was bored again, so I went to a local park / nature preserve and walked about 3 miles. I saw one bird. Apparently everything else was either taking a nap or was nocturnal, or discreetly sized me up as not worth attacking. I stopped on my way back at Starbucks where I sipped a latte and read my Kindle....until I got bored.

When I do retire for real I'm going to have to either get a part-time job or do some volunteer work. I never thought of myself as being overly active, but I guess I am.

Are you retired? If so, how do you spend your time on an average day? I'll need some pointers.

S

Rant time....

2011-12-28T07:23:00.028-06:00

Yesterday I read that since 2006 federal government starting salaries have increased by approximately 15% while private sector jobs have seen an 8% decrease. IMO, many of these government employees, maybe even most, are paid big bucks to do jobs that simply don't need doing in the first place. They're glorified "make work" projects. To add insult to injury, 22% of the fed's 2.1 million workers are paid more than $100,000 per year. And once they get one of those cushy jobs, little short of raping a coworker on top of a desk will get them fired, and based on their lackluster job performance, they're well aware of that fact, too. Only .55%....that's point 55 percent....of their workforce were removed for cause last year. In fact, a federal worker is 13 times more likely to die of natural causes during his employment than get fired. And their perks and retirement plans are legendary. Many of them retire well before age 60 and are sitting on a tropical beach somewhere sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them while you and I are facing the probability of having our retirement age pushed back....again.

Why is it the least productive members of our society get the best benefits? Are we that stupid?

And it's not just federal government employees who get my dander up. Local and state workers are given ridiculous pay, perks, and retirement plans at the taxpayers expense, too. Now I learn that in 21 states employees can buy credit for a few extra years of work, known as "air time", thereby enhancing their retirement pay. As an example, it mentioned one guy in California who paid $75,000 for an extra 5 years work credit, which resulted in him getting an additional $13,000 a year in retirement pay for life. And he retired at age 55! My city gives new hires 21 sick-days off and 3 weeks vacation from day one. My wife working in the private sector doesn't get three weeks vacation until she's been there five years. And she's eligible for two weeks vacation only after she's been there for one year.

Why are workers in the private sector, the very ones who are footing the bill for everything from padded government payrolls to all our social programs, treated like second-class citizens compared to government workers?

Meanwhile, teachers are being laid off. Priorities? And in those areas where we need more government oversight, such as in financial auditing and banking regulation, they're no where to be seen. I'm sure they're there, but they're either dumb or lazy (based on the things they let slide through), or they've been called off by their elected-official paymasters.

Anyone remember William Proxmire, the Wisconsin Senator who put out his "most wasteful government program of the week"? Today Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is doing about the same. He's bringing to light things like funding a $600,000 study to find out why monkeys fling their feces at each other, or the obscene sum of taxpayer money allocated to set up a museum to document the history of video games. He points out that billions of dollars in wasteful spending all starts with many small (?) million dollar pork projects. Sort of like Sen. Everett Dirkson's famous "a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."

The good news is I think people are getting fed up with this the more they see. We simply can't afford the number of lavishly well-paid bureaucrats we have. We need to look at every government program we have, at every level, and determine if we really need it, and if not, shut it down. And all the people working on such programs should be given notice to start looking for a real job in the private sector. Short term hurt, long term gain. Starting now!

S

These 3-day work weeks are killin' me!

2011-12-27T07:25:00.003-06:00

Today on her way out the door K's words to me were, "Go to work, don't die." So I guess if I make it to work and back alive, or at least without lapsing into a coma, I've successfully completed my employment requirements? Hmmmm....sounds like a government job.

Are any of you runners? I mean recreationally, not from anyone. I must have had some brain chemical imbalance kick in as I have this urge to run a 5K, maybe even a half-marathon. K is studying to get her personal trainer certification so I've enlisted her help in preparing me. (I told her I couldn't afford to pay her anything, but I did offer to sleep with her. She was not amused.) She got me hooked up with an app that tells me how to ease into distance running without blowing out needed body parts/joints. I guess that's what personal trainers do....they have a superior knowledge of all the current fitness apps. Apparently what I did last week was all wrong. It seemed simple enough at the time: Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left......

I wonder if I'll need a helmet? Or knee/elbow pads? Or maybe some kind of fall-prevention apparatus? Does OSHA have any jurisdiction over running? Jeez, I hope not.

"Go to work, don't die." Now she has me worried.

S

Cabin Fever

2011-12-26T10:07:00.001-06:00

What kind of phobia is it when you can't stay inside for too long at a time? It's sort of like "cabin fever", but it sets in after about 3 or 4 hours. Whatever it is, I have it. Today K and I both have time off, and we're looking for ways to use it up. First we're going to Wolfe/Ritz Camera and pick up some prints of Emma Belle that we're going to frame. Then we're going by the vet's office to pick up Emma's ashes. To some this might seem icky, but I find it very appropriate. It is, after all, what I wish for myself some day. She'll be put in a special place alongside Tara Belle, who died almost 5 years ago.

Then lunch at Fuzzy's Tacos. They have the best tempura shrimp tacos, and of course some queso and guac, too. An outing just isn't right to me without a visit to a bookstore, so we'll hit one of those, too, while we're out. Finally, REI Co-op has been pushing all my impulse buttons today, so we'll drop in for a quick look-see. Maybe they'll be giving away kayaks today to the first 10 people who come in on bended knees and grovel. Or maybe I could get K to wear her "Erin Brockovich" shirt. Yeah, we'd probably have better luck with that than with me groveling. Haha!

That ought to burn at least half the day. Any suggestions for the other half? (Besides that. I've already tried.)

S

Says it all....

2011-12-24T10:14:00.000-06:00

Regardless of whether your 2011 was a "keeper"...

Or one you'd rather forget...

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

(Credit to Outside Magazine "Parting Shots")

I liked the old way better

2011-12-23T07:39:00.008-06:00

It never really dawned on me until now how much my holiday plans revolved around my dearly departed dog, Emma Belle. Every major holiday....that would be the Big Three: Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas....K and I drove the 75 miles to spend the day with her parents. We timed things so that we could make the round-trip drive and visit and still be back home within 6, maybe 7 hours. I just didn't want to make Emma "hold it" longer than that. Now we no longer have that time constraint. It feels weird.

This evening my family will assemble at my daughter Erica's home to have our Christmas. With married daughters come dual families (in-laws) for them to spend time with, so I just get in line and take my turn. I'm not real picky.

For that matter, and I write about this every year, I'm not a "Christmas" person. I'm just not. It's just weeks and weeks of going to places I don't want to go to, seeing people I don't want to see, doing things I don't want to do....but of course I do it anyway because it's "Christmas". With my family we agreed years ago to just have gifts for the kids, but not the adults. We're all relatively affluent and can just go out and buy what we want/need, so please, spare me another shirt. As for K and I, she's getting a new Kindle Fire and I'm inheriting her almost-new old-style Kindle. Fine with me. (It's OK, it's not a secret.)

Shame we can't just all sit down and think about why we celebrate Christmas and forget about all the hoopla that its become. And personally, I'll think about how blessed I am and about my late Emma Belle and how much fun she made my life for all those years.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy Birthday Jesus. And a special Merry Christmas to you, too, Miss Belle.

S

What's wrong with these people?

2011-12-22T07:02:00.011-06:00

ideo·logue

noun \ˈī-dē-ə-ˌlȯg, -ˌläg\

: an impractical idealist : theorist

: an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology

That's what Republicans in the US House of Representatives are; "impractical idealists". It's their way or the highway, baby.

I'm an independent voter, sometimes siding more with one political party or the other depending on the issue, but never consistently enough to proclaim myself a Democrat or a Republican. IMHO there are indeed a few places where compromise is NOT an alternative: Faith, honesty, integrity....but politics isn't one of them. I'm fed up with the Republican ideologues in Congress.

Through [mainly] their efforts they have empowered the financial services industry (think big banks) to rob us blind and ultimately take the world to the precipice of a financial abyss. Over the past 30 years the middle class has seen their fortunes stagnate (fact) while the upper class has seen theirs reach unprecedented highs (also a fact). When is enough, enough? Now the Republican House of Representatives won't even give the working stiffs a simple payroll tax cut extension to help mitigate the financial misery we're all experiencing? (Well, not all...see above.) Merry Christmas to you, too, jerks!

When are these guys going to come off their ideological high horses and work with the Democrats to put in place a FAIR tax policy and a realistic, sustainable spending plan? If the rich can't be taxed any more because they're using their trillions of dollars to create jobs, where are they? China? Vietnam? Indonesia? In fairness, the Democrats can't keep upping their social program expenditures either. They all need to be realistically reviewed.

Come on, Speaker Boner....er....Boehner. LEAD! (Oooo...new nickname: "Viagra John") So where does this leave us? Screwed. (Pun intended)

Those were the days, my friend, I wish they'd never end....

2011-12-21T07:48:00.007-06:00

She and I were inseparable. First thing in the morning as I would swing my legs out of bed I had to be careful not to step on her as she would be right there waiting for me. I could quietly walk from the den to the study, and even in a sound sleep she knew I had moved. Within half a minute, tops, she would round the corner and take up her new position a few feet away from my desk chair. Even while in the bathroom I knew she was right outside the door. I knew because I would see her little telltale paw literally slid under the door.

We had our assigned territory. I would sit in my big leather chair and put my feet on the right side of the large ottoman, and she would plop herself down on the left side. Peaceful coexistence. At dinnertime she would position herself between K and I, confident that at least one of us would drop a morsel of food. (I could be a very clumsy eater sometimes. *wink*)

She and I could communicate telepathically. She would turn her head towards me and give me "the look" #1 or #2...."I'm hungry" or "I gotta go out, please." Sometimes I could be a little too absorbed in something and she would have to lightly put her paw on my foot to get my attention, her way of saying "my turn". Or my favorite: I would put my hand under her chin (I guess dogs have "chins", right?) and scratch her on top of her head, and in about 3 seconds she would go limp and just let me hold her head up while she basked in the affection.

She could be mischievous. If I would come in after an outing, and then go back out again before she felt she had gotten her due attention, she would go in the bathroom and overturn the waste basket in protest. But before I could return she'd think about it and know it would make me unhappy, and she'd regret doing it. Except without thumbs, she couldn't undo her evil deed. I would come back home and she would be sitting at the door, her head bowed, her ears pinned back. I'd give her a terse "Emma! What did you do?", and she would jump on me meekly seeking forgiveness. Being the benevolent King that I am, of course I'd give her a full pardon after a few wet licks.

I never realized how well sound-insulated our home is. It is deafeningly quiet here all of a sudden.

S

RIP Emma Belle

2011-12-19T13:59:00.002-06:00

My life was much richer because you were in it. Thanks for being my best friend.

What a difference a day makes

2011-12-18T08:35:00.008-06:00

Friday evening, our normal "date night", we celebrated our anniversary with dinner at Seasons 52. Crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms, fillet cooked just right, veggies, all advertised to be very calorie-conscious. Then yesterday I gave back all my good eating habits and then some. For lunch K and I split a BLT w/avocado pannini, then the rest of the day I had ice cream, 2 hot dogs, chips, peanuts, more ice cream, and several cokes. Ugh! It was one of those "do as I say, kids, not as I do" days.

Poor Emma Belle can't buy a break. She's pretty much gotten over her episode with pancreatitis, but now she has a bum leg. I think she jumped off the chair where she sleeps and somehow jammed her shoulder/leg when she landed. The symptoms are the same as they were a year or so back, and that's what we deduced happened then. Not much I can do for her...it just heals itself over time. Poor little mutt. :(

I mentioned to K that the week before Christmas will be a blow-off week for sure. Always is. Productivity slumps to near-zero. So what if employers were to make their employees this deal: If they go the 3 or 4 or 6 months (TBD) before Christmas absence/tardy free, they can have the week of Christmas off. They would get to keep employees working full speed during normally productive times of the year, but lose very little actual work around Christmas. Would you go for something like this? Just another odd thought from my warped little brain.

Have a good day, y'all.

S

Our anniversary dinner....

2011-12-16T07:15:00.005-06:00

Tonight K and I have reservations to celebrate our 5-year anniversary at Seasons 52. It's one of those places that puts just a little bit of food on a great big plate. *pout* The good news is that little bit of food is amazing! I'm going for the filet, and I think K is too as the last time we were there she had the Scottish salmon, but kept eyeing my steak all evening. Watch, listen, and learn, babe....

That will be us sitting back in the corner by the kitchen. (Hmmmm, the publicity photo shows decent portion sizes. Maybe my memory failed me. For once I'm hoping.)

Best of all, it's just a 5 minute walk from our home, and I love walking around our neighborhood, especially on weekends. The "sights" never cease to entertain/confound me. You'll see stunningly gorgeous women dressed to the hilt accompanied by guys that look like they were under their car changing the oil just minutes before. Fashion trends these days just baffle me.

We've had two days of badly needed rain, and now the sun is coming back out for the weekend. Perfect! I still have to work this Sunday afternoon, but then I'll have two consecutive holiday weekends off. I won't know what to do with myself! We'll probably go to the mall this Saturday and indulge in a Starbucks, and as we've had all our Christmas shopping complete for well over a month, just sit and stare and laugh at all the panicked people scurrying around fighting over the last of whatever the latest greatest gizmo is this year. Haha!

What's on your weekend agenda? Something fun I hope.

S

And the winner is....

2011-12-15T07:03:00.008-06:00

I see that TIME magazine has announced their "Person of the Year", the recipient(s) judged to be those "who have done the most to influence the events of the world....for better or worse." And the winner is....protesters. *applause*

I'd like to thank my parents, who taught me right from wrong and how to tie my shoes, and my high school government teacher who.....and.....

Like most everyone else I never read TIME magazine (their readership has been tanking for years), but for once I agree with their choice. Protesters have overthrown corrupt despots in half a dozen slum-dog countries in the Muslim world and now are focusing their attention on western Europe, Russia, and in a weird and ineffective way, the USA, too. I support them all.

Now comes the "for better or worse" part. If you throw off one regime who's standing on its citizen's throats and replace it with another who does the same thing, is that progress? The emphasis in the US is to throw the bums in Washington out at the next election, but then what? Do we just get a new bunch of faces who do the same things the old faces did? Is that progress?

IMHO we need a new Constitutional Convention to update the principles our Founding Fathers set us up with. A constitution that removes the possibility of career politicians through term limits, removes lobbying and the corrupting "fundraising" that goes with it, prohibits special interest groups that seek to tilt the playing field in their favor to the detriment of "the little guy", taxes everyone fairly and abolishes/prohibits loopholes that favor a select few, puts bankers in leg irons because of that karma thing, etc.

I'll see if we can meet at our community club house next Tuesday and get started. Who's with me? :)

S

"Goin' to the chapel, and we're gonna get married..."

2011-12-14T06:46:00.013-06:00

That's the song K and I were singing 5 years ago today. We met online in the spring of 2006, one of the many Journal Space romances, and by December were ready to make ours a "forever" thing. I suggested we say our "I do's" on California's Monterrey peninsula, and with a little more research we decided on Carmel by the Sea. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? ~Carmel by the Sea~

We made reservations for five days at the Tickle Pink Inn, a beautiful Inn high up on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Yes, the sunsets were spectacular! We spent more than a little time on our terrace, sipping an adult beverage, marveling at the view and listening to the waves crashing onto the rocks below. We took day-trips south to Big Sur and on to San Simeon. Just the drive along the Pacific Coast Highway was pleasurable...for me at least. I was driving rather "enthusiastically" while K was turning various shades of green. Oops.

The architecture in Carmel is unique, with storeybook houses everywhere, most beautifully maintained as a tribute to the town's beginnings as an artist's colony:

We learned our way around town easily enough and found several nice bistros where we became regulars. (We slept late and had our breakfasts brought in.) Just walking down Main Street in the evenings, looking in all the quaint shops (shoppes?) at their Christmas decorations, was a nice diversion. And of course we learned every twist and turn in the road while driving all over/around Pebble Beach. Our big day finally arrived and we found that our little chapel in the woods wasn't exactly like we pictured it. Oh well....

Here we are five years later (June, 2011), happily enjoying a casual meal al fresco in Aspen, Colorado:

Thank you, Ms P, for putting up with me these 5 years. I hope you'll see fit to hold my hand for another....um....100! :)

The troublemaker gets his due....

2011-12-13T07:12:00.006-06:00

Yes, this is autobiographical. I was "the troublemaker". Years ago I got crosswise with the Executive Director of the Texas Association of Builders. IMO he simply wasn't representing us well, and I had the audacity to write him and say so. Actually, I was a serial corresponder. Then one day I got a letter from the Office of the Governor of Texas asking if I would allow His Holiness the Governor to appoint me to some board that had "housing" in it's name.

It didn't take much research for me to learn it was a "do-nothing" board, so I declined, which really pissed off the Executive Director of the TAB as he was the one who had forwarded my name for the appointment. As most appointees' heads swell up the size of the capital dome, he was sure I would jump at the chance to "move up" and would therefore have no time to pester him. Little did he know how small my ego was. Nor was he aware I knew a guy who at one time was the appointment secretary to the Governor of Maryland. It was he who once shared with me how most board/commission appointees were there to get them out of someone else's hair and were merely fundraising tools for the Governor.

Any time someone comes at me with syrupy-sweet praise, totally outsized kudos, undeserved political appointments, etc, I tend to back myself into a corner and hold on to my wallet. It's a tactic that has worked well for me for years. Feel free to use it yourself.

Oh, and the Exec Director mentioned above has since moved on. I'll always like to think I was one of the reasons he left. ;)

S