January 2003 Week 2
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January 2003 Week 2
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Monday January 6 , 2003 Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing; Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882) I have to take the car in to see why the front end is vibrating... probably should get an alignment and an oil-change too. I posted some pictures of Carrie's party on my ROF page... Had to get an new tire, the outside of the drivers side front tire was worn so bad it scared me. I tried to get an alignment here in town but couldn't. The closest place to get a front end alignment is in Palmdale so I drove in... they had a two hour wait at one place and a one hour wait at another so I made an appointment at a place called, I kid you not, Honest Auto Repair... and went to drown my sorrows in iced tea and salsa at Don Cuco's. Mexican food makes me sleepy... so I had a siesta... It was a good day... five and a half hours with no kids. Not enough time... Tuesday January 7 , 2003 Well what do you know, a week and a half after one of the guys pictured as one of the five potential terrorists who snuck (funny word to write) into the country said "That's a picture of me, but I have never been to America, and that is not my name" the 'man-hunt' has been put on the back burner. Apparently they found a fella who makes bogus passports, and he tried to get his butt out of trouble by informing on people who don't exist. I wonder if the FBI/CIA ever really understood the concept behind the Chicken Little story. Update: As of 10:43, the manhunt was called off all together...
Speaking of Fairy Tales, Bush's stimulus plan seems goofy to me, how is eliminating the tax on stock premiums going to help anyone but the people already in the stock market? That will benefit wealthy people reinvesting their money (If they reinvest, they may not, it's a crap shoot) not the Economy. Contrary to popular belief, the Stock Market is not the Economy... If we have a healthy Stock Market and the average Joe can't find a decent job then something is wrong. Their trickle-down theory of Voodoo Economics is bogus... the trouble with the money trickling down is that it doesn't... it trickles up... if this theory worked and the more you cut taxes the more money you approximately 8% of American Taxpayers are in a position to receive a benefit... and those folks will most likely make themselves richer by reinvesting... according to Bush it will reintroduce 600 Billion into the Economy... at the same time it will be taking 670 Billions out of the governments coffers because of decreased revenue, increasing the load on Business and income tax, he wants to increase the allowance we get for kids, whoopie, I have so many kids that the allowance I was getting 10 years ago eliminated what I pay to zero. I may be a bit unusual in that regard because of my situation but still, taxes aren't a problem for me, never were, my problem is Medical Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Care Insurance, Sales tax's at 8.75%, intrusive bureaucracies, rules and regulations that accomplish nothing and hamstring every move we make, poor schools, collapsing infrastructure, diminished services, especially medical services, outrageous insurance premiums... How is making the top 8% of the population richer going to improve any of this? I really don't see how this plan can be called a Stimulus Package, it is a halfhearted attempt to rationalize corporate taxes, It will not eliminate the double tax on corporate taxes, to do that you need to tax neither Dividends or Capital Gains, Eliminating the taxes on dividends will do nothing but swell the Federal deficit. To avoid doing that you have to eliminate the dividend tax while raising the corporate tax and I don't see George doing that. To really stimulate the Economy we need to reward New Investment!!! Not reward old investors... Bush's plan reduces taxes on all shares, old and new alike, Reducing taxes on existing shares merely gives stock holders a windfall at huge Federal expense. It's like a car dealer hoping to generate new car sales by offering to give a rebate on all cars already sold that year. The rebate on cars already sold will make his old customers happy but do nothing to convince anyone to buy a new car, and it would cost the dealership a bundle. Bush's plan will take 10 years to implement, if he really wanted to stimulate the Economy he should increase tax credits on new stock purchases , or maybe he could lower the Payroll Taxes on workers Wages and Salaries, that would make it easier for companies to hire new people and expand production. right now. All Bush's plan will do is move money around among the people and corporations that already have it, and according to some experts, it will balloon the Federal Deficit...
Disneyland is upping the price of admission to $47.00 a head, to take my kids there it
would cost me $423.00 just to walk through the gate, for that I get the
privilege of buying $3.75 hotdogs and $2.50 soft drinks, with the added bonus of
getting to stand in line for 45 minutes to go on a 5 minute ride... the
spokesman said that the reason they have to up
the prices is that the cost of maintaining the park, wages and fewer people are
going. duh... I can't imagine why more folks are passing on the
opportunity to spend $500 for an afternoon of frustration and inconvenience.
The alignment on the Taurus was way off, that's why the front tire ate itself, they also noticed that the engine mounts are broken... good, I thought it was the transmission. I got a quote from them and then went to my favorite place here in Acton... $460 to get it fixed here or $382 to get it done in Palmdale... damn... I hate going to Palmdale for this sort of thing... especially to a place that calls itself "Honest Auto Repair"...What a lame name.. I will call to set up an appointment to do the Motor Mounts in the morning... We got word that "B" is due to be sent to Juniper High, the same Palmdale school that Mike had so much trouble at. When I first heard I thought it was a pretty good idea because I thought they had a whole new staff, but when I found out the same teacher was there I changed my mind. If things go the way I am being told then "B" and Mike will be going to the same school they will be separated in classes though, Mike is in High School and "B" is in Junior High. We have an IEP for "B" on the 30th I hope we can come up with a plan that will work. "B" had a hard time tonight and it was my fault, I didn't give the kids their medicine when they got home... Christy picked the big kids up and I got the little ones, I assumed Christy gave them their meds and she assumed I did... Oh well, "B" and Lumpy had a major battle, they ended up throwing potatoes back and forth with intent to inflict damage... Cindy was a loony- toon... the whole bunch was a handful tonight. Mike was down at Nicks so at least I didn't have to deal with him. Wednesday January 8 , 2003 Christian's 13th Birthday ..I offered to take him anywhere, Park, Movies... anywhere, every ounce of my psychic energy being focused at him to encourage him to say anyplace but Chuck E. Cheese... it didn't work, he didn't even hesitate for a heart beat... Chuck E. Cheese. Oh well... they had fun... and I don't have to clean up... but Damn... I am getting very tired of that place. I found out I can't get the Motor Mounts replaced till Monday because it's a three hour job and I would have to wait, on Monday Christy can pick me up. I got the license plate renewal sticker for the Tarus, I looked over at the Van and noted that it should have had one last October, I have been driving with expired plates... damn, I will have to stop by AAA or DMV tomorrow and find out what's going on. I got the ball rolling to get "B" to Desert Pathways, Jeff Tome is handling it. I have to get up early to have mike down at Challenger for his physical. This is in preparation for the Community Service part of his Probation requirement, he has 10 days (80 hours). Is this tedious or what... Thursday January 9 , 2003 There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker. Charles Schulz ...U.S.: Iraq Fails to Show Lack of Weapons... Damn, like the man says, it's impossible to prove a negative... I can easily prove to you that I own a gun but it would be impossible to prove to you that I don't... especially if you have a vested interest in not believing me... it's a nasty game we are playing in the Middle East... I am not very proud of what we are doing...
The Dog Pound; AKA LACAC came by yesterday and pulled their protection racket on me again... Damn. Pay us money or we'll take your dogs and kill them, pen your dogs or we'll take them and kill them, chain your dogs or we'll take them and kill them. The people that work there are automatons who are incapable of independent thought, if they were capable of thinking for themselves they would be fired. They follow the letter of the law not the intent. My dogs have deemed a 100 yard stretch of Big Valley Road it to be theirs, they chase any vehicle that goes up or down it... they have done it all their lives, it's a game, one has even been killed by a speeding car because she stumbled... the driver didn't even stop. The people who lived in the two houses before the yuppies moved in knew that and just ignored the dogs, they drove up the road at a normal speed and didn't pay any attention to them, the new people try to run them down, throw chunks of concrete at them, one SOB even chased Dot up my driveway. It was in the evening and I was in my shed, I was watching the jerk, he drove past my drive way, the dogs chased him, he slammed on the brakes and backed up fast trying to hit them, when the dogs tried to get away up the driveway he turned and floored it chasing Dot about 40 feet up toward me, I yelled and started down the drive and he backed up and sped away, like I wouldn't recognize the brand new red Ford pick-up... Yuppies next door called the pound to say my dogs were a nuisance... the dogs have run free up here all their lives, all my neighbors have dogs running loose. Damn them (not my neighbors, just the yuppies)... I have had trouble with the neighbors dogs eating my dog's dog-food and attacking my dogs, I have had complaints from neighbors about my dogs doing the same thing but we work it out... we don't call the damn Dog Pound on one-another... damn Yuppies, they came up here from South Bay or the San Fernando Valley, apparently that's how they deal with each other down there... too much noise, call the cops ... Neighbors rude, file a lawsuit... dogs causing trouble, call the pound... no wonder no one trusts anybody else, no wonder there is so much tension in our society, no wonder people are so quick to anger... I left early for the ROF and stopped to see Freya (Her last name used to be Joseph), the first classmate from Whitefish Bay High I have talked to since 1962... Freya lives in Northridge with her husband, I stopped by to deliver a tape of the last reunion that had been sent to me by John Hirsh. I had intended to drop of the tape and just say Hi but she invited me in and we talked for about 2 hours, I really enjoyed it. I got to the ROF, a little later than usual, lots of folks there... for some reason... I had a pretty good time even if I didn't drink any beer... I even carried on a 20 minute conversation with Jim and we didn't argue... pretty cool. Friday January 10 , 2003 The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. Robert Louis Stevenson, writer (1850-1894) ...I have an IEP for Cindy today at 1300. It went well, I think that High Desert is doing well by Cindy... she seems to be the one kid they are prepared to deal with... Mike was too much and I think "B" is going to be too... Poor "B" just doesn't seem to fit in anywhere he's been so far. And I really like Jeff Tome I reloaded the OS and MS Office onto Christy's PC... the kids had it so screwed up it wouldn't even turn off... it would shut down and restart no matter what you did, and Outlook quit working too... I have no idea what they did. Monica wanted her party to be taking everyone to the movies, and the movie had to be Drumline. The review said it was a dramatic-comedy... that should have been a clue... it was neither. The reviewers published by Yahoo were universally enthusiastic... I thought it was an interesting premise when I read the review but nobody... not one single person in the whole movie played anyone who was even remotely believable, it was tired, trite and over-acted. "B" got me a little miffed, he begged to go to the movies and tormented Calie all the way to Palmdale, then, after I paid he said... "This is a dumb movie, I'm going to go to sleep and pulled the hood on his jacket over his head and pretended to sleep. Talk about poor judgment... Saturday January 11 , 2003 Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by so quick you hardly catch it going. Tennessee Williams ...I went to Dennis William's Memorial Service. There were a contingent of people there from every aspect of his life, I didn't know him as well as I know his wife Micky (Michelle) Dennis (His real name was apparently Thomas, I never knew that). They lived about 4 miles from me (about half that as the crow flies) but moved up North of Fresno about 2 years ago. There were friends of his from grade school (Kindergarten) people he worked for and people he worked with, his children and ex-wife. Neighbors, friends of Micky... it was an eclectic bunch. It's an interesting situation to contemplate... The people you know are usually only familiar to you within one context. You know and relate to them as a friend, a co-worker, son, daughter, husband, neighbor, employee, boss, or any of a thousand different ways. It is always illuminating to meet someone who knew them in another context. to talk to someone who knows them more intimately than you, or less for that matter. Dennis was always friendly to me, we would bump into one another at the Acton Market or the 76 Station and talk for a minute or two about one thing or another, I can't honestly say I can remember what we talked about... He was a big guy, talked easily and comfortably about most anything. It would have been fun to hang out with him but our paths seldom crossed. Micky is taking things a day at a time, she is a strong woman and will find a way to get through this. Sunday January 12 , 2003 Being in politics is like being in a football game. You have to be smart enough to know the game and stupid enough to think it important. Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) I woke up with a headache... I hardly ever get headaches, I had some coffee and some food but it persisted... finally at about 4 I took a pain pill and it went away... Pennington and his Jets fell apart in the second half, It was like someone else showed up in his skin... it was almost eerie, in the first half he couldn't do anything wrong in the second he couldn't do anything right... I am not a Raider Fan... I have a lot of trouble with their owner... he's a ruthless bully, well that's unfair, I don't know him... but he seems like one to me. I am sure he's crushed that I have a low opinion of him. Oakland vs Tennessee an Tampa vs Eagles... they will both be good games. I finally got around to reading the Bowman (My sister Leigh's family) Family Newsletter, they are an accomplished bunch of folks, I am always fascinated by what they are doing and how well their kids are getting on in the world... Treadmill tomorrow,,, very tedious... I will get my blood work after the test... if I survive it... I really feel tired, I need to know if it's my heart or just that I am overweight...
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