You know you are getting old when New Year's Eve at 8:17 pm you are writing a blog in your underwear listening to Steppenwolf play Born to be Wild. The funny thing is that Emma and the dogs have gone to bed so relatively speaking, I am the wild man!
So with just short of 4 hours left in 2012 it would be a great time to wrap it up. On a scale of 10 I would give the year an 8. The only reason it is even higher than a 5 is because young Nathaniel Crimmins was born on November 5th and it's hard to call any year with a new baby a bad year!
I always start each year full of hope. I see the possibilities before me and usually look forward to challenges to come. 2012 was the transition year back to accounting from running nursing homes so it was really hard to look forward to the challenges because the work I was doing was not very challenging. So other than trying to get a full time job done on part time pay the challenges were few and far between. However I did discover that local politics, like high school, is pretty droll and sparring with County politicians was like getting into an ass kicking contest with a one legged man. Occasionally amusing, often frustrating, rarely challenging. And as if to prove my point the local electorate chose the village idiot and his wife to elected positions. Amazing!
On the positive side I met some great people, had some fun stirring up stuff and put together a great team at work. We changed churches after years of watching the one we went to die away but found a great little church to replace it. My health would be excellent if I could lose about 100 lbs. Emma is still sticking with me after 38 years and none of my kids hate me.
If the above appears incoherent it is because I am NOT drinking (unless you count Peach Tea).
For 2013 I have plans to continue to stir the pot, sharpen my sarcasm, and take out a few wing nuts. And this time next December 31st I will be another year closer to retirement and, God willing, Emma will not have grown weary of me. If I am still gainfully employed and working my plan it will be a good year.
So as Jerry Lee Lewis plays Great Balls of Fire I will wish you a Happy New Year!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
When There Is No Explanation....
None, zilch, Nada. No answer.
I can impart a lot of wisdom at times but this is not one of them. How can one human being visit so much evil on others? How does a parent understand that the child they sent off to school this morning healthy and full of hope will be buried in the next few days? No clue? How do we keep things like this from happening again? We don't know that either, apparently.
In August of 1966 I was a 16 year old growing up in Austin, TX when Charles Whitman killed a bunch of people from the UT tower.Who knew that would be the first of countless mass shootings in our country? Years were spent trying to understand Whitman with little success. Writing it off as a brain tumor causing him to go off is pretty lame. The fact is that anyone that contemplates such evil is deranged. Predicting what a mentally ill person will do is a crap shoot as well.
But we want answers. We want to understand. We think that if we can explain why it happens we can prevent future tragedies. Nope. It seems they happen more frequently.
Here is all I know. People die every day. Some die slowly from illness or disease, and some die because some fool with a gun decides that today is their day. The enormity of the Sandy Hook killings grabs you by the collar and shakes you. But for that parent that loses a child in a car accident the loss is just as intense. Sandy Hook is a stark reminder that our lives are very fragile and that not everyone lives to the rip old age of 80. We must cherish the days we have, thanking God for blessing us so much, and express your gratitude often.
So I pray for those lost yesterday just as I pray for my friend with leukemia. I don't understand either but I continue to believe in miracles. Maybe the next kid contemplating such evil will get the help he needs and a tragedy can be averted. Ignoring him definitely is not the answer. Treatment is needed for both my friend with leukemia and a young man with a mental illness. Ignorance doesn't fix anything!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Where Charity Begins....
The American people are the most generous and giving on this planet. If there is a tsunami in Asia you can bet your last dollars that some American has started raising money to help the survivors. At this time of year millions of kids are the beneficiaries of that kindness through churches, Blue, Brown and Red Santa, the Salvation Army, you name it. Yesterday a local radio station raised over $18,000 in one hour for their annual Bikes for Kids program. We have huge hearts and we always have had.
So what is the problem you ask? Well, in my opinion there are two. The first problem is that the recipients of our charity have turned from an attitude of gratitude to an attitude of expectation. Our government throws our money around all over the world in an effort to buy friends. Mind you that is money we have BORROWED!!!! Add to that the in kind contributions by being the world's policemen and it is a staggering amount of money that is given away. And what do we get in return? We are resented worldwide by all of them and their allegiance to us is good only until the ink dries on the check. If they don't play nice and we tie some strings to the foreign aid scalded rats couldn't squeal any louder.
Same goes for our own people. When I was growing up being "on the dole" was akin to having a scarlet letter emblazoned on your chest in Hawthorne's day. Yes there was a need and it was generally addressed on a local basis. Churches helped people and allowed them the dignity to work for what they got. But there was a stigma associated with it and any self respecting man finding himself in that situation would do anything he could to get out of it. Having grown up in what today would be called a working poor family memories of having little money and payday being a week off are emblazoned in my mind. There was no money for extras and those only came because I worked for them from a young age. I am not complaining because those experiences taught me the value of an education and guided me to a successful life.
But the attitude has changed 180 degrees. Nowadays kids that were in similar circumstances as mine are not afforded that opportunity to learn. They are taught from a young age that the government will take care of them and that the "check" they get is an entitlement, not benevolence for a short term financial difficulty. Fathers have been replaced by the government, thereby removing any male influence in the households. Young people see no need to work so they breed, creating more dependents on the state.
The second problem is that it has somehow become evil to attain a comfortable standard of living and accumulated wealth. It amazed me how a man like Mitt Romney, who 20 years ago would have been regaled for his success in the business arena, was pilloried by the press and the Democrats as the epitome of evil. So if you have worked hard, become educated, and make a decent living you did that on the backs of the poor. And especially at this time of year! We are assaulted daily with stories of kids that will not have Christmas because of George Bush, and how we must take care of them. And we have been made to feel so guilty about our level of comfort we roll over like a lap dog and empty our pockets. The numbers of families served by The Salvation Army, Blue, Red and Brown Santa organizations, Toys for Tots, etc. are staggering! This doesn't include the churches that will adopt families independently. I have been involved with these organizations over the years and in some cases the children of these disadvantaged families make out better than the kids of the families donating the gifts. I have delivered gifts to these families and money always seemed to be available for late model cars, flat screen TV's, cigarettes, wine, etc. But each year we are made to feel guilty, we give more money, and the dependency increases.
So how do we turn this around? Well, it doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon. With unemployment being around 8%, Obamacare about to be implemented, and a larger percentage of the population relying on the government for their daily bread I am not optimistic. And with me creeping ever closer to the pasture of retirement I doubt I will see it. The government continues to borrow money we have no hope of repaying, are trying to increase taxes on the producers to a confiscatory level, and expect everything to be just hunky dory.
The answer to the title above is that charity begins at home. That means you take care of your own first. Taxes are going up next year for everyone, regardless what those liars in Washington tell you. That charity in the form of federal income tax has incurred my wrath and you can bet I will not pay one cent more than I legally have to! I am on a mission and this is an area I know something about. I will still support my church and local charities because I can see the need and see that money is not being wasted. But until I can see the government using my money in a responsible manner I have declared a war on federal income taxes! I may not win but they will know they have been in a fight!
So what is the problem you ask? Well, in my opinion there are two. The first problem is that the recipients of our charity have turned from an attitude of gratitude to an attitude of expectation. Our government throws our money around all over the world in an effort to buy friends. Mind you that is money we have BORROWED!!!! Add to that the in kind contributions by being the world's policemen and it is a staggering amount of money that is given away. And what do we get in return? We are resented worldwide by all of them and their allegiance to us is good only until the ink dries on the check. If they don't play nice and we tie some strings to the foreign aid scalded rats couldn't squeal any louder.
Same goes for our own people. When I was growing up being "on the dole" was akin to having a scarlet letter emblazoned on your chest in Hawthorne's day. Yes there was a need and it was generally addressed on a local basis. Churches helped people and allowed them the dignity to work for what they got. But there was a stigma associated with it and any self respecting man finding himself in that situation would do anything he could to get out of it. Having grown up in what today would be called a working poor family memories of having little money and payday being a week off are emblazoned in my mind. There was no money for extras and those only came because I worked for them from a young age. I am not complaining because those experiences taught me the value of an education and guided me to a successful life.
But the attitude has changed 180 degrees. Nowadays kids that were in similar circumstances as mine are not afforded that opportunity to learn. They are taught from a young age that the government will take care of them and that the "check" they get is an entitlement, not benevolence for a short term financial difficulty. Fathers have been replaced by the government, thereby removing any male influence in the households. Young people see no need to work so they breed, creating more dependents on the state.
The second problem is that it has somehow become evil to attain a comfortable standard of living and accumulated wealth. It amazed me how a man like Mitt Romney, who 20 years ago would have been regaled for his success in the business arena, was pilloried by the press and the Democrats as the epitome of evil. So if you have worked hard, become educated, and make a decent living you did that on the backs of the poor. And especially at this time of year! We are assaulted daily with stories of kids that will not have Christmas because of George Bush, and how we must take care of them. And we have been made to feel so guilty about our level of comfort we roll over like a lap dog and empty our pockets. The numbers of families served by The Salvation Army, Blue, Red and Brown Santa organizations, Toys for Tots, etc. are staggering! This doesn't include the churches that will adopt families independently. I have been involved with these organizations over the years and in some cases the children of these disadvantaged families make out better than the kids of the families donating the gifts. I have delivered gifts to these families and money always seemed to be available for late model cars, flat screen TV's, cigarettes, wine, etc. But each year we are made to feel guilty, we give more money, and the dependency increases.
So how do we turn this around? Well, it doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon. With unemployment being around 8%, Obamacare about to be implemented, and a larger percentage of the population relying on the government for their daily bread I am not optimistic. And with me creeping ever closer to the pasture of retirement I doubt I will see it. The government continues to borrow money we have no hope of repaying, are trying to increase taxes on the producers to a confiscatory level, and expect everything to be just hunky dory.
The answer to the title above is that charity begins at home. That means you take care of your own first. Taxes are going up next year for everyone, regardless what those liars in Washington tell you. That charity in the form of federal income tax has incurred my wrath and you can bet I will not pay one cent more than I legally have to! I am on a mission and this is an area I know something about. I will still support my church and local charities because I can see the need and see that money is not being wasted. But until I can see the government using my money in a responsible manner I have declared a war on federal income taxes! I may not win but they will know they have been in a fight!
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