Well…it was an interesting day out on the trail…on one of them that runs through a forest…almost t-boned a deer that was running through like a heat seeking missile….I could see it coming from the left and it crossed the trail only about 5 feet in front of me…I wonder how they can run so fast when the woods are as thick as they are there…pretty cool…and then, about 2 miles on, I saw a huge female red-tailed hawk sitting on the bridge where I saw the other raptor a couple of weeks ago…again, pretty neat…
Oh, today was day 169…only 14 more to go to get to my six month goal….and there probably won’t be another one today….and I can’t come up with a song lyric off the top of my head so I won’t do that today, either….
Okay…here’s the lyric: “start on Key Plantain…walk a tropical mile….you’ll see a house in the Spanish style…”
Well…it was an okay day yesterday and I did get a lot of stuff done on the car…broke a wrench trying to get the tires off to rotate them but it was one of the lifetime guarantee ones so I got one free and finished it up…I do have to get some more trans lube today since it is low and that may be why it has been shifting kind of stiffly….it was a long night, though with the Tigers beating New York…yay….and having a couple of cocktails so I feel a little slow today…it is going to be a long day today with G’s birthday party and the first Wings game tonight…so, I’d better rest up and get a glass of water…more later…
Well….it seems that the story line in the country has started to change…away from the nonsense of modern conservatism and it’s fealty to Grover Norquist and business, and back to the real ills of this society…the concentration of money and power in the top 1% and the lack of good, middle class jobs. The country is finally waking up and saying enough…enough of having 400 people owning more than the poorest 150 million…enough of the drumbeat of deregulation that crashed the economy and made the distortion of the rewards of the economy even worse…enough of having corporations write the laws and buy elections that silences the rest of us. In the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the newfound backbone of president Obama, there is finally hope that even an overeducated old guy will be able to find meaningful work….and to contribute to society again. I am still optimistic about this country changing by a real, old fashioned revolt of the center and left….if you want to read a really inspiring statement of purpose, go out to the occupy site and take a look at the one that was issued yesterday…it succinctly details what is wrong and how to fix it…and it has so irritated the right that they have brought out the “communist manifesto” label to try to belittle it….I guess they must be running scared…and they should be….
Well…just a short one to talk a little about Steve Jobs who died yesterday…while I’m not a fan of Apple or it’s business practices, you can’t deny he was a brilliant man who almost single-handedly dragged us into the digital age. People like that don’t come along every day and he will be missed.
Well…a long day yesterday..but I already told you about that so I won’t repeat myself…didn’t sleep well again…but that shouldn’t be a surprise….the weather has been nice but I think I may have to wash my car again…I didn’t know there were so many bugs still out there…the trip to Mt P coated the front of it and the windshield and that is kind of bugging me…oh…that was bad and I didn’t event think of it….it just came out…not much to do today…I do need to rotate some tires on the wreck and check the trans oil, and eat something since I really didn’t have much yesterday with all of the traveling…more later…
Well…I was going to come back and do a political one but really the only thing you need to know about right now is the Occupy! protests that are going on around the country..it is the center/left revolt that I have been predicting for the last year and hoping would happen. But, that’s not what this one is about…it was C’s 40th birthday today and I had to make the run to Mt. P to hang out with him for a while so that took up most of my day and I just got back and had dinner…now I’m going to have a cocktail and watch a little tv for a while….the old wreck made it again but I don’t know how many it has left in it….okay, I’m going to go take it easy for a while…200 miles in one day takes a lot out of me…
Well…up really early this morning since it was just not worth it to try to get back to sleep….and there were no dreams to speak of so that was a little disappointing…but I guess I’ll live through it….it was a nice day yesterday and I did get a few things done…the bike looks a lot better with the cleaning and I did the winter cleaning on the car, too, which was less work than I expected…but it will make me smile when I get in it this morning. I am just loving this last gasp of good weather but I know the transition to fall is coming fast and it can’t last…it is cool to watch the daily progression to color in the trees when I make the last stop in the park on the hill but it also reminds me that another year is coming to a close and I’m getting older…but that is going to happen whether I think about it or not…so I think I won’t…more later….
Well…there is a little noticed but well-financed lobbying effort going on right now that is trying to get a free pass on taxes for companies that have stashed trillions of dollars of profits overseas to avoid paying federal taxes on them. These companies are pushing a reduction of tax rate from the normal 35% to only 5%…much less than any middle class individual pays on his earned income, to bring these profits back into the US. One of their big selling points for this tax cut is that they will use the money to create jobs; never mind that these companies are already sitting on over 2 trillion dollars in retained profits in the US that they are not spending to create jobs, so why would anyone expect them to spend any of this offshore profit? In fact, the last time a tax holiday was give to these same companies in 2004, they ended up cutting over 560,000 jobs but used the money to increase the pay of the top level managers of the companies while they were cutting these jobs. This is just another instance where corporations are manipulating the congress by buying votes and will end up lining their own pockets with this repatriated money….when does this nonsense stop?
Well…it is getting to be an exciting thing watching the protests against the unbridled greed of Wall Street spread across the country but I still have my doubts that it will have any effect on the nonsense that is going on on Wall Street and in boardrooms across the country. The first example of this cluelessness came from the statement that Michael Bloomberg made yesterday commenting on why the protesters were there…he seemed to think that the demonstrations were against the unions and the working folks that work on Wall Street other than the thieving bankers who are the sole purpose of the protests. I just shows that the repubs have tunnel vision and are still trying to play us working (or unemployed) folks against each other to distract us so we won’t see that the rich thieves have stolen almost all of the country over the last 20 years. This absolute contempt for working folks is again on display with what happened at HP over the last couple of weeks…the CEO was just dismissed after 10 months on the job which is generally considered to be a utter, dismal failure…but did he walk away with nothing for such lousy performance? Nope, this idiot walked away with over 13 million dollars in compensation…yep, 13 million for doing nothing for 10 months…and this moron truly feels he earned it…that is what is wrong with this country…the rich do nothing and make mountains of cash while they steal and steal and steal from the rest of us…how many people could have been kept working for that 13 mil? Geez…
Well…a kind of fun day yesterday but I’m still trying to get over the bug that has been troubling me over the past couple of weeks and that is starting to irritate me somewhat…still have the coughing and sore throat and feel a little warm….so, I think I’ll just take it easy today and rest up…I do need to clean the car and bike, though, so I may have to do that while the weather is still nice. It was a pretty good Tigers game last night and I am looking forward to them maybe finishing up the Yankees tonight…it would be cool if they didn’t waste such a good season by going out in the first round…I will be back later for a political one since there are some developments that I need to comment on…more later…
Okay…I did forget that I am up to 166 days on the bike…under 20 more to go to get to 183…yay…
I forgot today’s song lyric, too…so here it is: “We blew off work cause the sky was so beautiful…and headed north for a three hour tour…you cracked a beer..then you put some music on…”