Well…just had to write this one early so I won’t forget to do it today…just finished up reading the Detroit papers today and guess what the headline was….that our wonderful Michigan…home of tax cuts for the rich and business pushed by the repubs here is running the biggest deficit in its history, with the projections being that this years budget will see close to a 600 million dollar shortfall driven mostly by tax credits for business that the governor and legislators are “surprised” that they are taking. But, they are the only ones that are surprised…what the hell did they think was going to happen? That corporations would not take these giveaways out of the goodness of their hearts? Michigan now follows Kansas and Wisconsin into the black hole of tax cuts that do nothing to spur the economy or create jobs…especially when business is sitting on more cash than ever in the history of the world. The only time that tax cuts may work is when the cuts will free up money that business will spend on hiring or new equipment…tax cuts with so much retained cash just go to stock buybacks or increased CEO pay…nothing else. So, who pays for this boondoggle? If Michigan follows the pattern of every repub controlled state, there will be cuts to education and every other program that benefits anyone but business…and the state will be a worse place to live…just like every state under repub control…but they don’t care if business is happy…geez….
Monthly Archives: January 2015
January 15th
Well….you already know what kind of a day it was yesterday so I won’t bore you with any extra description of the events…slept okay last night and did get the tooth fixed just before bed so there was no pain sleeping…and it still doesn’t hurt this morning so I hope I have it fixed for a week or so…no dreams, again, and that makes sleep really boring but I feel okay this morning..and, with it being 16 degrees, I think the car should start…hope I didn’t damage the battery with running it dead yesterday since it is a weird AGM type that has fiberglass mats inside…not sure how they react to being dead and cold…we’ll see in a few minutes….not much to do today…I do have an errand to run this aft but that is about it…and that should help charge the battery back up…probably should start looking for a new battery but I don’t want to….more later….
What a day….
Well…the day started out as I expected with it being a record 13 below…the car wouldn’t start and I had to have Brian come and give me a jump…it started right up with the cables on it and I may have to try to find a higher capacity battery that will fit in the trunk that has the vent tubes on it…need to vent the hydrogen out of the trunk so it doesn’t blow up…tried to push it down the hill to start it but it was too damn cold to get up the speed I needed…and, after the battery was dead, I had to go back in and reset all of the equalizer settings on the radio which is a giant pain since I can’t find the owner’s manual….lost all the station presets, too….so that will take a while to rebuild…and, during all that, my teeth were howling in pain all day and I can’t figure that out at all…especially when they haven’t hurt for almost a week…just went out to work on the car and it started right up but I think I’ll take it out for a drive and get the battery all charged up for tomorrow morning…at least it’s going to be in the teens for the next week so it should start…
January 14th
Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I didn’t do much…slept okay last night and feel pretty good today…I do have a little anxiety on whether the car will start or not….it is 11 below right now and that is almost the record low for the time I’ve owned the car…it was 12 below last year and it started so I have my fingers crossed that it will start today…it started at 6 below yesterday but it really struggled…I’ve been good for days now and that may be while I feel okay today but the tooth isn’t hurting this morning so that may be part of it….this looks like another normal day today…going to clean the kitchen today but don’t have to cook since it will be a leftover day today….need to get more of the stuff out of the freezer, though, so I need to thaw some stuff for tomorrow…not much to do today…more resumes….yay….and then clean, clean, clean….sounds like fun, huh?
It starts…already…
Well…one thing that I have been noticing lately is the increasing attention to the nonsense that is going to be the 2016 presidential election….and I am shaking my head at the normal cast of characters on the repub side who are making noises about running…ole Mitt, Jeb, and Rubio have started to float the trial balloons and that makes this question pop up in my head: “Isn’t there anyone else?” Do we need the retreads from years before to do it again? I, for one do not want another Bush or Clinton in the White House….their time is done and I don’t want retread policies that would not benefit the middle class at all…after all, the Clintons are the darlings of Wall street and you can bet that they would fall all over themselves rewarding the big donors with more deregulation and give them even more chances to steal what is left of the economy. With the Bushs’s, you are going to have more Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and their cronies and the country surely can’t stand more of that crap. I just wish some new blood, progressive blood would run on our side anyway…people like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren who won’t just pay lip service to helping the middle class but will make it their job to claw back some of the thievery that the 1% has done over the past 20 years….no more dynasties…we can’t afford it…geez…
January 13th
Well…it was an okay day yesterday and I was busy from 8 in the morning until three in the aft and that felt good…got a lot done around here and ran a bunch of errands so today looks like it is going to be a little letdown from that…slept okay but the tooth woke me up again but I went to bed with it hurting some so it’s my fault for not anticipating that it was going to get worse over night…the car barely started this morning at -4 so I think it will be trouble tomorrow at -10…I may have to start it up and let it run for a half hour or so before I go to bed to ensure that it will start…but, there is a warm up coming Thurs and into next week so just one more day of stress….it has been a long two weeks with T out of town and the lack of human contact but it is getting easier so that is a good thing….not much to do today…have to continue to clean this place up and get rid of the cobwebs to make me feel a little better about it….more later….
Some science stuff….
Well…as you know, politics has been boring me lately so I thought I’d do one with some short science thoughts…sounds like as good an idea as any so I think I’ll give it a go…Space X almost did what many have said is impossible over the weekend…they landed their first stage rocket on a barge in the ocean off Florida…a little too hard to reuse it, but they got it down on a tiny little platform..well…tiny is kind of relative…the barge was about 100 yards long but I still think it was a pretty cool thing to try…there is a naked eye comet that is visible in the northern sky for the next week or so and it looks kind of green…there have been so really cool pictures taken through telescopes that Phil Plait has posted in Bad Astronomy on Slate so go out and take a look…both at the site and outside if it’s clear…should be near Orion….They are getting ready to restart the LHC at CERN in the next month or so and they have upgraded it to have twice the power it had when the found the Higgs boson…can’t wait to see what they are going to try next…maybe prove supersymmetry or extra dimensions? It will be pretty cool no matter what they do….one last thing…take the time to find the new Hubble image of the Andromeda galaxy….just a breathtaking set of photos and you can see the individual stars it is such high resolution….made me smile….
January 12th
Well…running a little late this morning and I’m not sure why…woke up feeling a little off today and my body is telling me there is something wrong in a big way….slept okay last night but the tooth is hurting this morning but nothing out of the ordinary so I guess I’ll just wait for the ibuprofen to kick in….didn’t get much done yesterday but I did get a few things that needed to be done done…and more of the same today with a couple of errands to run then some more work around here….then there will be a lull that I am going to use to send more resumes…yay….not much to do today….need to get a workout in and then run the errands…have to get the trash out today since it is piling up and I need to get all the bones out of the fridge before I cook more…mote later….
Getting bored….
Well…I have been thinking and feeling guilty about not doing these as regularly as I should and I think I’ve hit on why…I’m getting bored with me…bored with my life, bored with going two days without talking to a single human being…and I am really bored with looking for work all day every day. So, what’s to do about it? Have been thinking about a few things but some of them cost money and that’s just not a viable plan right now….I might start that third novel and put the pages up as I finish them…that would be something to do at least and it would make the time go by but I’m not sure I want to do that much work right now….I think part of this whole malaise is the coming below zero weather and the fear that the car won’t start when it’s 8 below Tuesday morning or when it’s 6 below Wed morning…I’m already really tired of the cold and the snow that is keeping me off the bike…I just feel cranky and you can see it in this post….okay…time to watch some football….and be bored some more…
December 11th
Well…it was an okay day yesterday and I did get a few things done so that was a bonus…slept okay but still no dreams so it seems like only half sleeping….but it was nice to have clean sheets and pillow cases for the night…still tired this morning, though, and I think it may be a veg day today with soccer starting right now and continuing until around one…and man U plays at 11 so that will be two hours of couching it at least….not much to do today….I am still trying to get the kitchen cleaned and I may get to part of it this aft but I am still down from the cold weather and no exercise and I may need to get out for a walk or something….