Today's Lesson is a Double Issue

The last 24 hours has presented me with ample opportunity for blogging ammo. I have been the victim of three people with no sense of etiquette or personal space.

Bumzo #1. On my plane ride from Dallas to Bham, I had the aisle while Bumzo 1 had the window. Bumzo was late getting on the plane and put his jacket in the overhead bin. After the flight attendants had made their obligatory announcements and had prepared for takeoff. At this moment Bumzo decided that he needed something out of said jacket. Against my better judgement I agreed. Shortly after we stood up, the head flight attendent made the announcement on the PA, "Gentlement, if you will be seated, we can take off." Fool me once....

Bumzo #2 (actually 2a and 2b). Ashleigh and I went to see a classic Christmas movie in an old the old Alabama Theatre. Shortly after we are seated, a couple comes in with drinks in hand. Before the movie started, they were giggling and commenting on everything on the screen. Once the movie started, it became painfully clear that they had never been to a movie before. Ashleigh and I went to stage 3 of movie adgitation (1. Ahemming and turning your head, 2. Head turn and eye roll, 3. Flat out "shooshing".) These folks repeated every funny line (no inside voice, mind you) and carried on their own conversation. Fool me twice....

Bumzo #3. This morning Ashleigh and I went to Rick and Bubba in the Golden Ticket Seats. Bumzo 3 sat next to me on the end of a row. Right away, he proved that he, like Bumzos 2a and 2B, lacked an inside voice. In fact, he also repeated everything he thought was funny. Like Bumzo 1, he had no concept of sharing armrests. Apparently, Diet Coke makes him gassy, because he burped on me repeatedly. His lack of personal space recognition culminated in his leg molesting mine. He sat spread out with his left leg all on my side of my chair. I am practically hugging Ashleigh and his leg is nearly halfway into my chairspace just bouncing away. Fool me three times...I'm out.

Airing of the Grievances

So I haven't posted to my blog in over a year. There are many reasons for this, but they mostly boil down to laziness. If necessity is the mother of invention, then "vehement disagreement" is the mother of blogs. In the past couple of weeks, I have seen many, many things posted as the statuses of friends on facebook that I adamantly disagree with. In leiu of starting a back-and-forth that would have possibly led to who knows what, I am going to air it here.

Today, a friend (with whom I have polar opposite politcal views) posted, "Preserving a tax cut is fiscally the same as paying for an entitlement". While this may be technically true, it doesn't necessarily make it "fiscally responsible". Let's look at the ramifications of both actions.

Scenario: $100M spent on entitlements: Recipients of entitlements take the money that they are given and use it for whatever purpose they chose. In the end, the money will eventually be spent and the revenue from that spending for the government is sales tax. There will be movement of product, but no inherent economical growth.

Scenario: $100M in tax cuts: If recipients are middle income families, we have the same ecnomic growth as money spent on entitlements. If the recipients of the cuts are higher income families, they are likely to be small business owners. In this case a tax cut is the same as a lowered business expense and that lowered business expense allows that money to be used to grow their business. Growth is realized in a couple of ways (lower operating expenses leads to lower prices, which increases demand, which increases workforce needed). --- The end result: tax revenue from product movement, income taxes from new employment, product demand, real economic growth, ad infinitum.

Whew, glad that is off my chest.

I guess this means I'm back on the blogging wagon. Or is it "off" the blogging bandwagon....

Really???

This morning, I went with Ashleigh to a doctor's appointment in Birmingham. The ride down was good as we listened to Rick and Bubba the whole way. Jim Caviezel was on promoting his project of the Bible on CD.

As Ashleigh went in to the doctor's office, I waited in the car to hear the rest of the interview. I sat in the parking lot with my window half down minding my own business. That's when a guy comes by the car, seeing my Auburn pullover, mumbles something then follows it up with "Y'all are getting beat this weekend." I thought it odd, that someone I barely noticed went out of their way to prove his disdain for my team.

I brushed it off, and went back to the radio. About a minute passed and he walks back by my car, stops and says, "It's back to the red-headed-step-children for Auburn. They won't be good ever again." I replied, "Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it." He said, "They ain't beat nobody. West Virginia gave the game away. You're going to lose this weekend." I bit my toungue as he stared with disdain into my car. He finally walked off. I went back to my radio.

By this time, I ran through my head the absolute joy that I felt he was not a fellow Auburn fan. The third and final trip by my car went like this. "Y'all are going to lose this weekend (the third proclamation by the Nostradomus of Football). I want you to come back Monday and tell me how bad y'all are."

Some people...

I'm diggin it

Been a whiiiile since I last posted, so I'm going to go easy with a few things I'm digging right now.

1. College Football - Ok, so this goes without saying. It's fall, it's getting cooler, and the pigskin is flying around. You can't be from the South and not be excited right now...ok, maybe if your team stinks, you're not psyched.

2. Coffeemate Italian Sweet Cream - I haven't been this sold on a creamer since Coffeemate's Coconut Cream...

3. My friend, Jason Spires' new blog, Single White Fan. Jason is a big-time sports fan who is in search of an NFL team to call his own. His efforts have landed him on SI.com.

4. Cool Summers - Global Warming got you down??? Not here! This has got to have been one of the coolest Summers in Alabama history.

That's about all for now. I'm going to try to do better...try...

Thoughts

Perhaps the following would best reside in my own head, but after seeing Julie & Julia yesterday, I feel compelled to put it out for everyone to see. Currently, I am reading 'Why We're Not Emergent (From 2 Guys Who Should Be)" and it has provoked some thoughts that I have about my generation (and the one coming along) and my society as a whole.
Throughout history, the knowledge base of the preceding generation has been multiplied by the following generation...We're getting smarter. Ok, maybe not individually, but our advances have been substantial. Can you imagine what Newton or da Vinci could do with a computer??? Anyway, it seems as though my generation has been "reading our own press clippings" (if you will let me use my old basketball coach's terms) and we think we are really smarter than we are.
We (and when I say we, I don't really mean me and you...well, it could be you, but maybe not):
- have taken the easy road. You see, it's much easier to question everything than to actually stand for something.
- go with the flow and cry about popular ideas like global warming. When science points out that the Earth goes through cycles (and guess what, We're actually COOLING), we change our terminology to Climate Change. This one we've got right. See sentence two. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of earth, but selling carbon credits?
- villify a country's leader who stands on moral values and call him a warmonger. We promote a leader who has no definitive stance on anything. Someone who promoted peace and an end the war in the Middle East. Guess what, now that he knows what his predecessor did, what has he done? Last time I checked, we were sending more troops and continuing airstrikes (that someone said were unneccessary). Where are the critics now???
- villify big companies for making money, yet complain when those companies have to lay people off to comply with Governmental polcies.
- ridicule people who have worked dilligently to succeed in the world, yet idolize those in Hollywood who have found wealth with less personal investment.
There are more. It pains me to think that in the future, when history buffs look back on my generation they might actually find the first one that has taken a step backwards.

Making Memories

In my early childhood, my Dad and I would get out our little yellow fishing boat and head out to Wilson Dam to fish. We made a lot of memories out there on the water. As I got to my teen years, Dad was elected Superintendent of Education, a time devouring job. Needless to say, between my rebelious teenagerness and Dad's job obligations, we fished little the next couple of years.

Ever since I got Boat Fever and bought my own boat, I have been thinking about all those times that Dad and I fished. A few weeks ago, I mentioned something about the boat to him, thinking it had been sold long ago. Not so. He and I went to my Grandmother's barn in Killen, put on some new tires, and brought that Construction Yellow baby home. Dad spent some time cleaning it, getting it registered (for the first time since it's last registration in 1995!) and getting the little outboard running again.

This afternoon, Dad and I went fishing for the first time in ages. Long overdue by any estimation. I am really looking forward to making up for lost time and catching a few fish with my Dad. Here are some pics from our outing today. By the way, the fish count was Dad-20, Kam-0. I had a blast.

It works!

Nice Bluegill

Largemouth

One of those days

Ok, so Thursday was supposed to be a magical day.  Well, it was the first day since the launching incident that claimed our propeller.  I had half the day off headed straight into a 4 day weekend.  I called up some buddies and made plans to hit the River.  Everything was looking great as I got in the boat while Andy backed me in the water.  That's when it started...or it didn't.  That's right, the boat didn't start.  The key just turned and turned in the ignition, until the lock froze.  Threat Level Delta.  Luckily enough, a marine shop was just a short walk away.  On my second trip in and Mr. Personality sold me a new ignition switch, that while not exactly what I needed, would work.  

So I bought it and headed back.  After about 10 minutes, Robert and I had it installed.  Turning the ignition, I awaited a growl from the motor.  Click, click, click.  Threat Level Echo.  After a little while longer, we determined that my battery had died.  I then scoured the parking lot looking for a set of jumper cables along with an able bodied (or batteried) soul.  The first guy I asked was "late fer a fishin tourn-ment".  The next guy was nice enough to try.  He and his son slowly backed their boat to the back of mine.  As they got close, I reached out to steady his boat so as to not hit mine.  

Getting his boat steadied was an easy task...too easy.  Picture it, I have my back feet on my boat, my arms on their boat, my body bridged between the two.  That's when his boat succomed to the force I was exerting and started moving away.  My fate --- sealed.  I then announce to everyone, "I guess I'm going in."  And I did.  Flip flops, clothes, jumper cables, and pockets full of wrenches and my wallet.  Threat Level Midnight!

I then used the boat ladder for the first, and most unexpected time to board my boat again.  We then got connected and the boat started, idled briefly, then stalled.  The 2nd jump attempt led to a 20-second idle.  I then told the man and his son to have a good time as I bid them goodbye. 

I trekked back to the MDX and promptly took the battery out of it.  A jump with the battery, was quite succesful...a steady beautiful idle.  

So we're ready to go.  We untie from the dock, everyone takes their place, and we're --- well, we're not moving.  The prop is not engaging.  After ten minutes of stumptitude, I decided to call it a day.  Something's wrong that cannot be fixed on the water.  Threat Level Arrggghh.

So Andy went to get the trailer, while Robert towed me along the dock.  The one bright spot from the day was that we trailered the boat beautifully, although I had to get back in the water. 

The Boat Dr is coming to the house Tuesday to assess the damage.  Hopefully my wallet will have dried out by then so I can pay him.