Bailout!?

Let me say first, that I am against government bailouts. I thought the bailout of the banks (Wall Street)was not a good move. I cannot see how that bailout will translate into anything good for us the people of the US. I read the converstations at the time. None of those were particularly convincing. When I hear that one bank has kept on having meetings at cushy resorts, I am even more convinced that the bailouts are not a good thing.

I am also sure that bailing out the auto industry is not, in and of itself, a good thing. There should be other ways to keep the auto industry afloat. Restructuring would be a good thing for example. There is/has been a lot of bloat in the auto industry. Finding a way to make the industry less clumsy would be helpful. There are many places that changes could be made that would help the auto makers keep going.

But, if it makes sense to bail out the banking industry, why does it not make sense to bail out the automakers? Could the only difference be which party is bringing the idea forward? It believe that is the case. I believe the bank bailout was a Republican idea, and the auto maker bailout is a Democratic idea. So then the measure of worth of an idea becomes, 'if my party thought of it...it's good. If not, not.' Which is politics as usual.

Politics as usual is an even worse thing than bailouts are. It is evident that there was no message delivered by the last election. Too many of the old school politicians were re elected. Life will go on as usual. Nothing good will come out of Washington.

We desperately need new blood in DC. We have a new President, we need a new Senate, a new Congress, and new Judges as well. We need people in our government more concerned with us, their constituents than with the lobbyists. We do not need more life as usual. We need to let our congressmen and senators that we are not going to put up with their 'all for the party' politics, no matter to which party they belong. We need them to be Americans first, not Republicans or Democrats.

After the election, I had hopes that perhaps politics as usual would become a thing of the past. It is too bad that I have been disappointed. Again.

John

I visited my brother John today. He is about 18 months younger than I. Monday he had his prostate removed because it had become cancerous.

He is doing really well after surgery and seems entirely himself. He is not moving real fast, but he is moving. He is upbeat and positive and so I believe he will continue to do well. All of that is good news!

It is however, really scary to have a younger brother with cancer. It gets me in touch with my own mortality in a real and personal way. Like all men I prefer to believe I am invincible. I know that there is much evidence to the contrary, but as long as I don't think about it, I still feel invincible.

Evidently, I am not. In this case, evidently means 'the evidence shows'. My older brother by 9 months died of a liver ailment in September. My younger brother's body had started to fail him. A good friend died 2 weeks ago. All this is negative evidence. We are not invincible, I am not invincible.

Darn it!

So how do I feel about this? Frankly I am trying hard not to feel about this at all. I do not want to consider that I am getting old, older, no longer young. As far as I know I am in good health, and yes, I did go see a doctor and have a physical. I am on a statin drug for cholesterol, a beta blocker to keep my heart from beating irregularly, and an acid blocker for my heartburn. Otherwise I am as good as I ever was. All of this is an attempt to slow down aging or to keep the effects of aging to a minimum.

I walk my dog a couple of miles every day. Once every couple of days I do the exercises prescribed to keep my back in good shape. All these things are helpful, I fully believe.

The best thing that keeps me young (smiley face here) is dancing with Lori and playing music with her for whoever will listen. Then I am invincible!, no matter what contrary evidence might exist. How do I feel about no longer being young? I feel like continuing to dance and not think about it all....

Old Dogs New Tricks

So is 66 years old to old to learn to play a new musical instrument? I hope not! I took my first lesson on the bass guitar yesterday. I have been talking for some time with a bassist who plays in one of the bands that Lori and I dance to. He had been taking me to task for never having played the 'new' bass guitar I purchased 6 months or so ago. That bass is a 1960's vintage Fender Squire Bass Guitar I picked up from a fellow who had more need of some money than he did of the bass. I think I got a good deal. I had it appraised by a guitar store. They said I did not pay too much for it.

We exchanged phone numbers and promised to get in touch, because I need some basic instruction on the bass. I have been on line several times and there are several places there that indicate they will provide basic information, but in fact do not. Some are on line lesson sites for pay, and some actually don't have any bass information on them. Google is wonderful, but not always accurate.

We made arrangements to meet yesterday so he could help me get started. We spent about an hour and a half together. I played along to a Merle Haggard CD, with DW (the bassist) giving verbal clues. He did a good job of showing me the basics of two different styles of bass playing. There are hundreds of styles left to learn, I am sure.

We had a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit. Playing bass is not nearly so intimidating now. Lori played her fiddle today while I worked on playing bass along with her. We stuck with the key of D, and I soon found that I needed to find still another way to play those basics I learned yesterday. I think I was 'getting it'... It is a blast to learn new things, especially with music.

On a Personal note

Yesterday afternoon, Lori and I played music at one of our local Senior Citizen homes. There were about 30 people in attendance. I played guitar and sang, while Lori played fiddle. We sang for just over an hour.

That was a most appreciative audience! There was some singing along with us, and much applause. The people did not want us to leave, even though their dinners were ready! Sometimes we have wondered if the people were even aware we were there. Yesterday proved that they are very aware! And happy that we came to play music for them!

I am thankful that we are able to provide some sunshine in those lives!

Election Day + 1

All Right! Change is in the air! Will that change happen??? I hope so... I remember though, that even though Mr Obama is elected president, the Democratic National Committee will be lurking around. Like the Republican National Committee, the DNC would prefer that there not be too much change. Unfortunately for us, the same or almost the same people are at work behind the scenes doing their best to maintain the status quo, business as usual. IMNSHO....

I really hope that our new president can honor the promises made during this campaign. I really hope that there can be real unity in our country. I hope that there can be bipartisan politics rather than the 'follow the party line no matter what' way things have been done. Both parties have been guilty of that kind of thinking in the past. I really hope that there can be some kind of ending to the war in Iraq. I am hopeful that the economy will become much better; that jobs will be forthcoming soon. Perhaps there will be a improved situation in health care in this country.

I am hopeful...but... past elections have not brought much positive change. Campaign rhetoric has been just that, rhetoric. So many times I have been disappointed by the difference between what was promised and what actually was. So I am doubtful as well.

Hopeful, but doubtful...doubtful, but hopeful. I am holding my breath. I want the change to be positive. I would like this time for my cynicism to be Wrong! I am trying to shut down that voice in the back of my head that is saying those negative things that I am often accused of voicing. But that voice is still there and is still talking, and too often has been proven correct...

But today is a day for hoping... Mr Obama was elected!

Election Day

Lori had figured that we would get up early and vote before I took her to work this morning. Well that didn't work. There was an amazing amount of voters there before us. Our polling place has a large parking lot, two drives. The parking lot was full, cars were parked on both sides of both drives, and there were many cars parked along the edge of the road. I estimate more than a hundred cars. Perhaps that would not be so many in the cities, but here in rural Michigan, that is a bunch of cars on election day! One recent election I voted about 4 PM and I was voter number 39. The obvious conclusion is that this election turnout will be Huge! Let's face it people around here don't get excited by elections, but it sure looks like they are excited today.

I talked with a couple in McDonald's this morning and they had spent 45 minutes in line before they had a chance to vote. But they did vote. (and canceled each other out by the way) They said the line was much shorter when they were done voting than at 7 AM. Lori and I will vote this evening. I am not checking on the results until after we vote. Not even the results from those small New Hampshire towns that are all done voting by now. Frankly I don't want to know ahead of time who and what the winners will be. I feel that knowing the predicted results will make me feel that my vote is not important.

While everyone maintains that my vote is very important...I often feel that voting is a waste of time. That is my cynicism taking hold of my thinking. I know that. But I still feel that way sometimes. (well, maybe I feel that way often) It is hard to maintain a positive attitude when so many decisions made lately have negative effects on my life and livelyhood. I try to maintain a positive attitude, really. Honest. That is very difficult to do though.

I do feel that a large turnout of voters will be a good thing for this country. Perhaps it will make the lobbyists and those of that ilk sit up and take notice. We the people need to take control of our lives and our country again. One way to do that is to vote in all elections. Huge turnouts of voters will make a difference. For that difference to become permanent though, there needs to be huge amount of voters always. We need to make our voices heard! Even when our voices are disagreeing with each other.

All Hallows Day

Last night Lori and I saw so many elaborate costumes. No we didn't watch the kids trick or treating, we saw High School Musical 3! That movie is Just Plain Fun! I don't remember my High School days with fondness...in fact until the movie last night I had forgotten that I tried our for and got a part in our High School play. I got injured and missed several practices and my understudy actually played the part on stage. But I did have the part first! Amazing! I don't remember practice as being as much fun as those kids were having in the movie either. Disney studios has a major hit I am sure

Lori hurt her knee dancing last Saturday night. It popped out of place and she was unable to dance that last hour and a half. I did dance with some other ladies. That is not the same as dancing with Lori, but it beats sitting on the sidelines. She went to work as usual on Monday but took her walker and used it all day. She had it available Tuesday as well. Since Wednesday she has managed on her own. She sees Dr Horton on Wednesday for an evaluation. Meanwhile, we are going dancing again tonight (Saturday). She is anticipating dancing far less than normal. Sigh.

Andrew was just home from college this afternoon. Actually he is interning at a hospital in Grand Rapids. He has almost ran out of time on his mobile phone. I refilled that for him online while he was here. He had no signal so it wasn't completely finished, but I have hopes that technology is a great thing and as soon as he gets a signal he will have his minutes updated. That's the way it should work. We'll see... I am (according to my daughter and my wife a 'the glass is half empty' kinda guy. I'm not a cynic... I just know that things seldom work the way they are supposed to work. Being right so often is the main problem with cynicism. It would be nice to be proven wrong, in this case especially.

Speaking of cynicism...I'll bet when this economy thing shakes all out and is all over that the same people that caused the problem will be the ones that profit the most from the problem. Another case of when I would like to be proven wrong. I am pretty sure I won't be though. Darn it! Or maybe Sigh...

OK enough of that! Lets Dance!