It was an interesting week. The Supreme Court finished its term and released some significant rulings that, depending on your point of view, either destroyed the republic or saved the lives of millions of uninsured Americans. Thankfully it did neither because the republic is much stronger than that and the lives of millions of uninsured Americans were really never at risk. No, the two rulings released on Thursday represented major thefts by an overreaching government abetted by a bunch of out-of-touch lawyers.
I would like to talk about the one that was overshadowed by the healthcare case. That was the case challenging the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act. The essence of the law was to make it a crime to lie about military service, medals and awards, etc. Apparently with us being at war for well over 10 years and sending millions of young men and women into battle a cottage industry arose of people that would lie about military service, usually to defraud patriotic yet somewhat gullible public. People claiming service where there was none took resume' enhancement to a new level. The approach of the challenge to the law was that lying was protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution as free speech. The Supreme Court agreed and struck down the law as unconstitutional, thereby forever making it legal to tell a lie. Mind you it doesn't make fraud legal just the lies you tell to commit that fraud. How do you separate the two? More work for the Court next term I guess.
As you might have guessed my opinion is not favorable to this ruling. In light of the Court ruling flag burning as protected free speech a few years ago it really wasn't a big surprise. My problem with the Court on this one is they took a spray gun to try to touch up a portrait. In other words they struck down a specific law that dealt only with specific misrepresentations and struck it down under the broad brush of free speech. It was if they thought that the law, or their ruling, would make all lying illegal. Just think of the people you know that would go to jail? Maybe they were trying to protect their brethren of the bar. Lord knows lawyers tell a disproportionate number of them!
But my main problem is the people it hurts. We have men and women that have served valiantly for their country and should be respected and honored for their service. The honor belongs to them and not to someone who never served or who served but not to the capacity they embellish. So do we need to do a background check on everyone that claims service before we honor them? Does this ruling do anymore than validate what I see as a societal leap of the cliff of honesty and somehow legitimize it? Not too long ago if you were asked about military service it was assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that you were telling the truth. However, when purchasing a car last week the company offered a $500 discount if you had served in the military. But ONLY if you could produce a copy of your DD214, the record of your military service. How many people, besides me, can lay hands on that document 38 years after discharge? Apparently the Court has no problems with lying. Unless you lie in Court, in Congress, etc.Then may God help you!
The second ruling is the one that set everyone's hair on fire was on the Affordable Healthcare Act, Obama's signature piece of legislation. The lynchpin issue was whether the government could compel someone to purchase health insurance. The law said that if you are breathing you had to purchase insurance or pay a penalty. Interestingly, the Court ruled against this, seemingly giving a victory to the opponents of Obamacare. Not so fast, Bucko. In the majority opinion, obviously inspired by some hallucinogen, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Congress could basically tax anything and that the penalty was not a penalty but a tax. Huh? The law calls it a penalty, Obama argued it was a penalty, but Roberts and his fellow trippers decided to rewrite the law and call it a tax. Mind you I am just a layperson trying to make sense of a ruling that will be analyzed by great legal scholars for generation. Apparently it is a done deal and it is full steam ahead.
The theft in this case is in the form of money and is basically the largest transfer of wealth in our country's history. And I am not talking about the rich paying to take care of the poor. It is a generational theft of epic proportions! Our generation has already left a sorry legacy of greed, avarice, overindulgence and general wastefulness that our children and grandchildren will be paying for in the decades to come. My national debt calculator is well over $15 trillion and rapidly growing. Regardless how they cook the books this Affordable Care Act will add significantly to the national debt. Add to that increases from deficit spending each year for the foreseeable future and We will probably be looking at a national debt in the neighborhood of $25 trillion by the year 2020.
How long is it going to take to pay off $25 trillion? The first thing you have to do is stop the bleeding. QUIT SPENDING MORE THAN YOU BRING IN!!!!! That means balanced budgets by the year 2020. Then after 2020 you will need a budget surplus to start reducing the balance of the debt. How much that will need to be will depend on the interest rates we will be paying on that $25 trillion. Right now would be the best time to reduce the debt because interest rates are at an historic low. But we keep borrowing more! What the Hell? Even though the most optimistic estimates do not show a balanced budget in 10 years lets assume we are there by 2020 and interest rates are running at 4%. The interest on that will be $1 trillion per year. So to balance the budget you have to include that trillion and then to reduce the debt another trillion. A simple question: where is that money coming from?
This has nothing to do with whether people should have healthcare. In fact the Affordable Care Act does very little to improve healthcare. What it does is improve accessibility, albeit forced, to regular healthcare for a few million people. The theory is that there are two kinds of uninsured people : those that can't afford it and those that choose not to buy it. It goes on to assume those without insurance are subsidized by those that do because the uninsured will get care but not pay for it. So the government knowing what is best for us we get the Affordable Healthcare Act. It forces insurance companies to allow parents to keep their children on their insurance until the age of 26. Also, it prevents insurance companies from considering preexisting conditions when insuring clients. And they are precluded in charging anymore for these benefits. There are dire predictions of the death of the private healthcare system and the single payer system that Obama wanted but couldn't get. Many predict that all healthcare will be administered by the government, state or federal, within ten years. Businesses, seeing the penalty being cheaper than the insurance may decide to drop healthcare insurance shifting the burden to the state pools. Times they will be a changing!
There appears to be a disconnect in this country. I will blame it on the Baby Boomers for lack of a better scapegoat. We are a society that demands instant gratification in every aspect of our lives. Young couples expect to own a home when they get married and some overindulgent parents mortgage their retirement to make that happen. Nobody waits for anything! So we want everything and as long as the credit card has "room" on it we get it. As regular citizens we eventually meet reality and either we go bankrupt or cut up the cards and pay them off. Hopefully a lesson learned. But the country has a Black American Express Card, no limit! Right now it's at $15 trillion and growing. Will our creditors get nervous eventually and pull back on the reins? Maybe. At what level? Do you think they are comfortable now? I wouldn't be.
If we are to survive as the great country we are, the envy of the rest of the world, we need to grow up and take responsibility. We have set a bad example for our children and the rest of the world and it's about time we changed.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Losing the Language
Old Man Alert! Old Man Alert!
It's time for another installment of "The Old Man Shakes His Fist at the Kids".
A few weeks ago we had a hotly contested school board election in our town and the natural discussion accompanying it was the sorry state of public education. Teachers are frustrated, parents are as well and are taking their kids out of the public schools in favor of private education or home schooling, and taxpayers are frustrated because it seems we are not getting a good return on our investment of hard earned tax dollars. So when I tell you my tale you will either nod in agreement or tell me to get with the times.
Once upon a time, back when I roamed the Earth WITH the dinosaurs, we were taught, handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and diagramming sentences. I remember having spelling tests that I would drill on for two or three days and always did real well on it. No, I would never win the National Spelling Bee against those automatons of today, but I took pride in putting together a coherent thought or two. When I would write a paper I would actually read it through several times before turning it in. You will catch me in a grammatical error occasionally but I do try to avoid them.
Apparently somewhere along the line they quit teaching those things in school. Adults roam the Earth now who can't spell, can't put together a sentence, and generally are illiterate. An easy scapegoat would be the short hand of texting but I think it goes much deeper than that. I think it goes back to how we first learned to read and write. Very few people under 40 write in cursive handwriting. I doubt it was emphasized like it was when I was in school. We are all doing everything on the computer. It's just not the same as developing that hand to eye coordination necessary to form letters, words and sentences. The result is a whole generation or two of people that write in abbreviations, truncated words and symbols. It is appalling to me to see some of what passes as written communications today!
The question we have to consider is whether there is a cost for this loss of literacy or is it something we need to accept and move on? I contend that if we continue along this path in a couple of more generations literacy will be the exception rather than the rule. Even writing as marginal as mine will be considered an oddity. The language is already bastardized with tech-speak so for many that is a foreign language. So I think it would be a tragedy to lose it without putting up a fight.
What do we do? First, practice writing to maintain your skills. Work to improve them if they have slipped. And don't be sloppy, even on line! Second, don't count on the schools to teach your children or grandchildren. With standardized testing the only writing skills they seem to be teaching is how to completely fill in the circle with the correct answer. Introduce them to reading first and writing as soon as they are able. Teach them to communicate in writing as effectively, or more, than with the spoken word. And teach them to spell, for God's sake!
I will now return to my porch..........
It's time for another installment of "The Old Man Shakes His Fist at the Kids".
A few weeks ago we had a hotly contested school board election in our town and the natural discussion accompanying it was the sorry state of public education. Teachers are frustrated, parents are as well and are taking their kids out of the public schools in favor of private education or home schooling, and taxpayers are frustrated because it seems we are not getting a good return on our investment of hard earned tax dollars. So when I tell you my tale you will either nod in agreement or tell me to get with the times.
Once upon a time, back when I roamed the Earth WITH the dinosaurs, we were taught, handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and diagramming sentences. I remember having spelling tests that I would drill on for two or three days and always did real well on it. No, I would never win the National Spelling Bee against those automatons of today, but I took pride in putting together a coherent thought or two. When I would write a paper I would actually read it through several times before turning it in. You will catch me in a grammatical error occasionally but I do try to avoid them.
Apparently somewhere along the line they quit teaching those things in school. Adults roam the Earth now who can't spell, can't put together a sentence, and generally are illiterate. An easy scapegoat would be the short hand of texting but I think it goes much deeper than that. I think it goes back to how we first learned to read and write. Very few people under 40 write in cursive handwriting. I doubt it was emphasized like it was when I was in school. We are all doing everything on the computer. It's just not the same as developing that hand to eye coordination necessary to form letters, words and sentences. The result is a whole generation or two of people that write in abbreviations, truncated words and symbols. It is appalling to me to see some of what passes as written communications today!
The question we have to consider is whether there is a cost for this loss of literacy or is it something we need to accept and move on? I contend that if we continue along this path in a couple of more generations literacy will be the exception rather than the rule. Even writing as marginal as mine will be considered an oddity. The language is already bastardized with tech-speak so for many that is a foreign language. So I think it would be a tragedy to lose it without putting up a fight.
What do we do? First, practice writing to maintain your skills. Work to improve them if they have slipped. And don't be sloppy, even on line! Second, don't count on the schools to teach your children or grandchildren. With standardized testing the only writing skills they seem to be teaching is how to completely fill in the circle with the correct answer. Introduce them to reading first and writing as soon as they are able. Teach them to communicate in writing as effectively, or more, than with the spoken word. And teach them to spell, for God's sake!
I will now return to my porch..........
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Being A Dad
Father's Day, the stepchild of special days, is today. I call it that because, it comes 5 weeks after Mother's Day and how do you follow that act? Mother's Day is the busiest day for restaurants; Father's Day he usually gets to grill for the family. Mothers are showered with gifts and flowers; fathers get coffee mugs and socks. This was totally understandable when we were raising our kids because my bride was their constant companion and I brought home the paycheck and they hardly ever saw me. So Mom was the go to parent until they needed money.
Father's Day never meant that much to me growing up as my Dad and I rarely agreed on anything. In fact it wasn't until a few years before he died that we had a civil relationship. I think having my own family gave me an appreciation for what he had to put up with out of me. But we survived and respected each other, which is better than I thought it would be. He has been gone for 23 years now and I sometimes think he is indwelling me because I hear myself saying some of his sayings. God be with me!
My experience of being a dad began on the day I married almost 38 years ago. I was 22 years old and had two boys 8 and 3. What I lacked in knowledge I made up for in confidence. I was sure I would be a great dad because mine wasn't. Figure out that logic! I figured out pretty quick that my dad wasn't as bad as I thought and I wasn't as good. Somehow we managed to get them, along with a daughter, to adulthood and adult responsibility, at least in two of the three. It was an experience I wouldn't trade for but boy am I glad they are raised!
Today the role of the father in the family has expanded greatly. Watching my son-in-law in his tireless efforts of raising Daniel, as well as many other fathers of young children I observe, I realize the dads of today are more equal partners in parenting than my generation ever was. Some of that could be due to the mothers also working full time outside the home but that's not all of it. I sense a genuine commitment to and joy in being engaged in their child's life. Another part is that men are becoming fathers at an older age and understand the responsibility associated with the job. Whatever the reason I see it as a positive change for our future.
One final comment on being a Dad. Medical technology over the past 20 years seemingly has sought to relegate men to the role of sperm donor. Increasingly women are raising children, either by choice or circumstances, without the benefit of a father in the child's life. As a result our society has produced children that are confused about gender roles and their own identity because there hasn't been a father in their lives or the one that has been did them no favors by being there. There is a reason God required a woman AND a man to create life! Fathers must be involved in the lives of their children so women must choose CAREFULLY who they choose to honor with that gift. Because fatherhood should be a gift from God and the woman you love. Not from an insemination specialist and a random sperm donor!
Happy Father's Day to all of the great fathers I know out there!!!
Father's Day never meant that much to me growing up as my Dad and I rarely agreed on anything. In fact it wasn't until a few years before he died that we had a civil relationship. I think having my own family gave me an appreciation for what he had to put up with out of me. But we survived and respected each other, which is better than I thought it would be. He has been gone for 23 years now and I sometimes think he is indwelling me because I hear myself saying some of his sayings. God be with me!
My experience of being a dad began on the day I married almost 38 years ago. I was 22 years old and had two boys 8 and 3. What I lacked in knowledge I made up for in confidence. I was sure I would be a great dad because mine wasn't. Figure out that logic! I figured out pretty quick that my dad wasn't as bad as I thought and I wasn't as good. Somehow we managed to get them, along with a daughter, to adulthood and adult responsibility, at least in two of the three. It was an experience I wouldn't trade for but boy am I glad they are raised!
Today the role of the father in the family has expanded greatly. Watching my son-in-law in his tireless efforts of raising Daniel, as well as many other fathers of young children I observe, I realize the dads of today are more equal partners in parenting than my generation ever was. Some of that could be due to the mothers also working full time outside the home but that's not all of it. I sense a genuine commitment to and joy in being engaged in their child's life. Another part is that men are becoming fathers at an older age and understand the responsibility associated with the job. Whatever the reason I see it as a positive change for our future.
One final comment on being a Dad. Medical technology over the past 20 years seemingly has sought to relegate men to the role of sperm donor. Increasingly women are raising children, either by choice or circumstances, without the benefit of a father in the child's life. As a result our society has produced children that are confused about gender roles and their own identity because there hasn't been a father in their lives or the one that has been did them no favors by being there. There is a reason God required a woman AND a man to create life! Fathers must be involved in the lives of their children so women must choose CAREFULLY who they choose to honor with that gift. Because fatherhood should be a gift from God and the woman you love. Not from an insemination specialist and a random sperm donor!
Happy Father's Day to all of the great fathers I know out there!!!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Are We Ever Satisfied?
Do you ever find yourself sitting at your computer, swearing under your breath for it to hurry up? Have you ever been annoyed that you can't just go down the street and purchase that perfect squash in November? Do you lose patience when someone tells you that you will have to wait or come back later?
This is the nature of life in these United States these days. We all expect immediate answers for every question. I am including myself in the "we". I can't tell you the number of times recently that I have Googled something to get an immediate answer. We don't even have to be at our computers because we can do it from our phones! The art of study and research has gone from a trip to the library to keying a few characters into a phone. Or at least that's what we all believe. We take the first answer that pops up and off we go. Hey, it's on the internet so it must have been on the tablets that Moses brought down the mountain! We are in such a hurry to move on to the next item on the list that we sometimes neglect to finish the first item, thereby doing a shoddy job of it.
When did we get in such a big hurry? What made us believe in the instant gratification we all expect? Are we ever satisfied?
The short answer is Capitalism. The much longer answer is the consumer based economy that we are a part of has resulted in the sellers being increasingly required to compete for the buyers dollars in order for their businesses to be successful. For example, do you have a smart phone? If so, why did you get it? Was there a more basic cell phone available at a much cheaper price. An on this smart phone do you get a new one only when the old one is not operational? No, if you are like me you get the newest, fastest slickest model available and the old one goes back in the box or donated to some third world country in desperate need of an obsolete smart phone. Then we are happy until the IPhone 16 comes out and we are told how much better it is than the IPhone 15. Then we go for that. You know the drill.
If you think I'm going to break out in the Karl Marx song and dance decrying the evils of capitalism you don't know me. I love the standard of living we enjoy and attribute much of it to our semi-free market system. The problem I see is we seem to have a crack-like habit associated with technology and instantaneous information that it is pushing out many of the normal parts of our lives. Human interaction for one! I find myself typing more and talking less every day. I am addicted to the phone and it is rarely out of reach. And that is expected of me, because, should I leave the house without my phone and someone calls they get annoyed when they get a voice mail. If I were a doctor I could understand it but I am a CPA for God's sake! How many accounting emergencies do you think I have to deal with daily? Exactly!
So, having arrived at this epiphany, I am going to try a little experiment over the next two weeks. I am going to use my phone only for phone calls. I am going to access social media only at home at night and not from the phone or at work. If you call and I don't answer please leave a message because I don't plan to be carrying my phone around the Courthouse. I do have land lines everywhere so I won't be totally out of touch. My absence from some discussion groups will be cheered but that's okay. I am hoping that at the end of the two week period my productivity has increased, I have gone through the withdrawal process, and will no longer be a slave to the phone.
Will it work? Who knows? I'm not as bad as some I know but I recognize the problem so the next step is addressing it. Wish me luck!
This is the nature of life in these United States these days. We all expect immediate answers for every question. I am including myself in the "we". I can't tell you the number of times recently that I have Googled something to get an immediate answer. We don't even have to be at our computers because we can do it from our phones! The art of study and research has gone from a trip to the library to keying a few characters into a phone. Or at least that's what we all believe. We take the first answer that pops up and off we go. Hey, it's on the internet so it must have been on the tablets that Moses brought down the mountain! We are in such a hurry to move on to the next item on the list that we sometimes neglect to finish the first item, thereby doing a shoddy job of it.
When did we get in such a big hurry? What made us believe in the instant gratification we all expect? Are we ever satisfied?
The short answer is Capitalism. The much longer answer is the consumer based economy that we are a part of has resulted in the sellers being increasingly required to compete for the buyers dollars in order for their businesses to be successful. For example, do you have a smart phone? If so, why did you get it? Was there a more basic cell phone available at a much cheaper price. An on this smart phone do you get a new one only when the old one is not operational? No, if you are like me you get the newest, fastest slickest model available and the old one goes back in the box or donated to some third world country in desperate need of an obsolete smart phone. Then we are happy until the IPhone 16 comes out and we are told how much better it is than the IPhone 15. Then we go for that. You know the drill.
If you think I'm going to break out in the Karl Marx song and dance decrying the evils of capitalism you don't know me. I love the standard of living we enjoy and attribute much of it to our semi-free market system. The problem I see is we seem to have a crack-like habit associated with technology and instantaneous information that it is pushing out many of the normal parts of our lives. Human interaction for one! I find myself typing more and talking less every day. I am addicted to the phone and it is rarely out of reach. And that is expected of me, because, should I leave the house without my phone and someone calls they get annoyed when they get a voice mail. If I were a doctor I could understand it but I am a CPA for God's sake! How many accounting emergencies do you think I have to deal with daily? Exactly!
So, having arrived at this epiphany, I am going to try a little experiment over the next two weeks. I am going to use my phone only for phone calls. I am going to access social media only at home at night and not from the phone or at work. If you call and I don't answer please leave a message because I don't plan to be carrying my phone around the Courthouse. I do have land lines everywhere so I won't be totally out of touch. My absence from some discussion groups will be cheered but that's okay. I am hoping that at the end of the two week period my productivity has increased, I have gone through the withdrawal process, and will no longer be a slave to the phone.
Will it work? Who knows? I'm not as bad as some I know but I recognize the problem so the next step is addressing it. Wish me luck!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
In An Instant!!
Sometimes crap just hits you in the face. When you are least
expecting it something happens that grabs you by the collar, draws you
close and says "PAY ATTENTION". If we are fortunate the experience is
not accompanied by long-term consequences. Sometimes, however, they do.
Yesterday was a typical busy Saturday for us. We started it with our oatmeal breakfast which has been a favorite of ours for the past several months/ Not that instant stuff; Old Fashioned Quaker Oats. Then at 8:00 I joined my fellow Kiwanians in building a wheelchair ramp. That being manual labor and something I don't usually do I took a couple of hours downtime before we went for a visit with Mom at the nursing home. Our plans for dinner at Mamacitas completed we headed toward the Texas State Campus to our favorite frozen yogurt store for desert. We never made it. From that point on the day was anything but typical!
We were sitting at the red light. The light changes to green and I start a normal acceleration. WHAM!!! We are rear ended by a car at a very high rate of speed. The impact drives us through the intersection and my car comes to a grinding stop. The first thing I do, of course, is check myself and Emma. The seat belts prevented our heads from colliding with the windshield or dashboard so we were both conscious and apparently unharmed. So my next concern is for the other driver. His car had continued on about 100 yards and he had pulled off the road. By that time he had gotten out of his car and was assessing the damaged. He didn't seem to be concerned about us at all. I called 911 and, it being San Marcos, found the accident had already been reported and a police officer was driving up. We got my car out of the roadway and the investigation begins. Meanwhile the EMS arrives and while they are checking out Emma I am checking out the behavior of the other driver. It is apparent that his day had included chemicals of some kind, probably alcohol, and that he was clearly under the influence. To confirm that another driver stopped and reported to the officer that the same vehicle was going about 70 on the access road and nearly ran her off the road a few minutes before.
While I would like to have dealt with him there my main concern was Emma and we decided that she needed to go to the hospital to be checked over good. As we were leaving in the ambulance the police were administering the field sobriety test on the other driver. Later, as I waited for Emma to return from a cat scan, the police marched him in, in hand cuffs, presumably to draw blood for evidence. The good news for us was that everything checked out fine for Emma. We are both sore today but feeling blessed that it wasn't much worse.
We all hear these stories. Many, sadly, end with people severely injured or killed. At a minimum there is property damage, significant inconvenience, and an unnecessary disruption of lives. In the case of the young man that hit us his troubles are just beginning. If found guilty of a DWI he can expect to spend a minimum of $5,000 defending himself and paying fines and court costs. He will most likely lose his privilege to drive and, if he does retain it, his insurance rates will be astronomical. I suspect he spent the night in jail and had to call his dad to bail him out. Not a fun call to make! But all in all, he is a very lucky young man. Nobody was injured and this just may be his mulligan.Let's hope he learns from this mistake and avoids making the same one with graver consequences.
And the lessons that were reinforced for me? Those seat belts are pretty great! I love my wife and am so grateful that neither of us was injured. Another thing is that I can always count on my baby sister when I need her and hope she knows the same thing goes for her. Finally, we never know what kind of adventure is around the corner. Make each day a good day for you and someone else. It may be your last chance.
Yesterday was a typical busy Saturday for us. We started it with our oatmeal breakfast which has been a favorite of ours for the past several months/ Not that instant stuff; Old Fashioned Quaker Oats. Then at 8:00 I joined my fellow Kiwanians in building a wheelchair ramp. That being manual labor and something I don't usually do I took a couple of hours downtime before we went for a visit with Mom at the nursing home. Our plans for dinner at Mamacitas completed we headed toward the Texas State Campus to our favorite frozen yogurt store for desert. We never made it. From that point on the day was anything but typical!
We were sitting at the red light. The light changes to green and I start a normal acceleration. WHAM!!! We are rear ended by a car at a very high rate of speed. The impact drives us through the intersection and my car comes to a grinding stop. The first thing I do, of course, is check myself and Emma. The seat belts prevented our heads from colliding with the windshield or dashboard so we were both conscious and apparently unharmed. So my next concern is for the other driver. His car had continued on about 100 yards and he had pulled off the road. By that time he had gotten out of his car and was assessing the damaged. He didn't seem to be concerned about us at all. I called 911 and, it being San Marcos, found the accident had already been reported and a police officer was driving up. We got my car out of the roadway and the investigation begins. Meanwhile the EMS arrives and while they are checking out Emma I am checking out the behavior of the other driver. It is apparent that his day had included chemicals of some kind, probably alcohol, and that he was clearly under the influence. To confirm that another driver stopped and reported to the officer that the same vehicle was going about 70 on the access road and nearly ran her off the road a few minutes before.
While I would like to have dealt with him there my main concern was Emma and we decided that she needed to go to the hospital to be checked over good. As we were leaving in the ambulance the police were administering the field sobriety test on the other driver. Later, as I waited for Emma to return from a cat scan, the police marched him in, in hand cuffs, presumably to draw blood for evidence. The good news for us was that everything checked out fine for Emma. We are both sore today but feeling blessed that it wasn't much worse.
We all hear these stories. Many, sadly, end with people severely injured or killed. At a minimum there is property damage, significant inconvenience, and an unnecessary disruption of lives. In the case of the young man that hit us his troubles are just beginning. If found guilty of a DWI he can expect to spend a minimum of $5,000 defending himself and paying fines and court costs. He will most likely lose his privilege to drive and, if he does retain it, his insurance rates will be astronomical. I suspect he spent the night in jail and had to call his dad to bail him out. Not a fun call to make! But all in all, he is a very lucky young man. Nobody was injured and this just may be his mulligan.Let's hope he learns from this mistake and avoids making the same one with graver consequences.
And the lessons that were reinforced for me? Those seat belts are pretty great! I love my wife and am so grateful that neither of us was injured. Another thing is that I can always count on my baby sister when I need her and hope she knows the same thing goes for her. Finally, we never know what kind of adventure is around the corner. Make each day a good day for you and someone else. It may be your last chance.
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Fist Shake
I am beginning to show my age. Some that know me would argue that I have been an old man for about 40 years but they are just haters so I choose to ignore them. But I have come to the conclusion in the past few days that I probably have attained the status of old man.
This is not something I accept gracefully. While my appearance may reflect an older man I have always ascribed to the notion that you are as young as you think and I have had a pretty good handle on contemporary culture. I listen to the current tunes and can even remember the lyrics to some. But, alas, I am finding that my perspective is backwards rather than forward so I must be getting old. Here are a few indications I have found:
1. Do you listen to a lot of music by dead singers?
2. Do you find yourself referring to events of many years ago in conversations about contemporary issues?
3. Do you scowl a lot?
4. Are you mystified by people under 30?
5. Do people, in general, piss you off?
6. Are you usually the oldest person in the room?
7. Do people usually refer to you by your last name?
8. Are you finding the need to "get it off your chest" more frequently?
9. Have you totally lost patience with idiots?
10. Do you find yourself more territorial about your yard?
If you see yourself in the above 10 items then you may have joined me on the last roundup. In my case I believe I have reached this point prematurely but reached it nonetheless. So rather than dwell on it and get all depressed I have decided to embrace my inner codger. Having worked at a nursing home for many years I have many examples from which to draw. I even have some good examples of dirty old man to go by if I just had the energy.
So here is what you should expect of me going forward:
1. I will talk incessantly about the weather. Not that I know much about it but that is what I am supposed to do. And I need to get a rain gauge so I can compare what I got to the guy on the next street over.
2. I will eat dinner earlier and earlier. The excuse to now has been to beat the crowds so we go to restaurants between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. The sad thing is that is about the time we eat dinner at home. I full well expect to be at Luby's or IHOP for their early bird specials real soon.
3. I will complain about my health. That's a tall order because, other than being too fat, I don't have a lot wrong with me. But, as I said, many examples are ingrained in my brain so I am confident I can go there. A companion issue is comparing medications with other old farts.
4. I will look forward to retirement. This is a tough one because I anticipate that I will be retired at some point rather than that decision of time and place being of my choosing. Were I independently wealthy it wouldn't really matter when it happened. However, the market has not been good to me and I really need to work until Social Security kicks in as well as vesting in my current retirement plan which will occur about the same time. So in about 5 years that harmonic convergence will occur. Will I pull the trigger? Who knows? I can see myself working until 70 but that is going to depend on work being available for me.
5. I will dwell upon the end of my days. Fortunately this doesn't usually happen until you retire and have a lot of time on your hands to consider it so see #4.
While the above is a tongue-in-cheek look at aging I will close with this statement. There are friends of mine that did it right. They remained active as long as they could and loved life to its fullest. THOSE are the people I will try to emulate!
This is not something I accept gracefully. While my appearance may reflect an older man I have always ascribed to the notion that you are as young as you think and I have had a pretty good handle on contemporary culture. I listen to the current tunes and can even remember the lyrics to some. But, alas, I am finding that my perspective is backwards rather than forward so I must be getting old. Here are a few indications I have found:
1. Do you listen to a lot of music by dead singers?
2. Do you find yourself referring to events of many years ago in conversations about contemporary issues?
3. Do you scowl a lot?
4. Are you mystified by people under 30?
5. Do people, in general, piss you off?
6. Are you usually the oldest person in the room?
7. Do people usually refer to you by your last name?
8. Are you finding the need to "get it off your chest" more frequently?
9. Have you totally lost patience with idiots?
10. Do you find yourself more territorial about your yard?
If you see yourself in the above 10 items then you may have joined me on the last roundup. In my case I believe I have reached this point prematurely but reached it nonetheless. So rather than dwell on it and get all depressed I have decided to embrace my inner codger. Having worked at a nursing home for many years I have many examples from which to draw. I even have some good examples of dirty old man to go by if I just had the energy.
So here is what you should expect of me going forward:
1. I will talk incessantly about the weather. Not that I know much about it but that is what I am supposed to do. And I need to get a rain gauge so I can compare what I got to the guy on the next street over.
2. I will eat dinner earlier and earlier. The excuse to now has been to beat the crowds so we go to restaurants between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. The sad thing is that is about the time we eat dinner at home. I full well expect to be at Luby's or IHOP for their early bird specials real soon.
3. I will complain about my health. That's a tall order because, other than being too fat, I don't have a lot wrong with me. But, as I said, many examples are ingrained in my brain so I am confident I can go there. A companion issue is comparing medications with other old farts.
4. I will look forward to retirement. This is a tough one because I anticipate that I will be retired at some point rather than that decision of time and place being of my choosing. Were I independently wealthy it wouldn't really matter when it happened. However, the market has not been good to me and I really need to work until Social Security kicks in as well as vesting in my current retirement plan which will occur about the same time. So in about 5 years that harmonic convergence will occur. Will I pull the trigger? Who knows? I can see myself working until 70 but that is going to depend on work being available for me.
5. I will dwell upon the end of my days. Fortunately this doesn't usually happen until you retire and have a lot of time on your hands to consider it so see #4.
While the above is a tongue-in-cheek look at aging I will close with this statement. There are friends of mine that did it right. They remained active as long as they could and loved life to its fullest. THOSE are the people I will try to emulate!
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