Sunday, October 5, 2008

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

Ah, this weekend has been the picure perfect suburbia weekend - soccer games, bike rides, tennis matches, cookouts, fires in the chiminea, counting Obama and McCain yard signs, discussions about Chiropractors, you know, the perfect stuff that all perfect families do in the perfect little neighborhoods, with their perfect little children and their perfectly cleaned minivans and SUV's -

Just another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

My in-laws came over yesterday, and boy howdy, did we ever have a blast - I don't quite understand that side of the tracks - not only do I not come from that side of the tracks, I don't have any real delusions of grandeur that I will ever make it over there either - I am sure it is nice, I get to visit it every once in a while, and enjoy the trappings - but I don't think I am quite polished enough to ever fit into a country club - something about barefoot dancing at three day rock festivals and enjoying dirty jokes eliminates just about every sponsor I might ever have...

You know, this hum drum blog is like my weekend - it was of course not horrible, not shitty, no tragedies or drama, it was just a weekend - and I don't want just weekends -

Maybe I will luck out and get a phone call from a hungover friend who travelled way too much this weekend, then again, maybe I will not, but I hope to.

George

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Three Miler...

I ran my three miles this morning, my little girl, freshly red faced from her early morning soccer match was more than happy to hop on her bike, and laugh every time she rode by me and smacked my butt and giggled "Good Game Dad" - it was nice to get that mischievious grin as she sped by and said "Daddy, you are no where NEAR as FAST as ME" - and then she would laugh with her little blue eyes and her awkward adult teeth in a seven year old smile -

Somewhere in the world, I hope someone else in running three miles, and thinking of the same things that were running through my head today - the in-laws are over, and I am doing my absolute best to hide in a corner, I love them, and they can be fun, but there is family tension right now, and it is best if I become a mushroom and stay somewhere dark for a few hours - if not, I may have one too many beers, and tell them how I really feel...

Anyway, my run today was eventful - it hurt - it hurt worse than any other run I have done in years - something in my body between my lower back and my feet just did not feel right, and with every step, instead of flying, I felt like rolling over in the dirt and just laying down for a while - but I had constant motivation - I made a committment to run, I will keep that, and I can hear the voice in my head glibly declaring her run while I sheepishly make excuses to not hit the bricks, and of course, there was Gray - I did not want her to see her Dad be a quitter - so I kept going. I thought alot today, about the weather over there, the cool nights, the cloudy mornings, the wedding and its meanings, and what you would be thinking about as you sat there...

Weddings are supposed to be a coming out party - of sorts- introductions to the world - anymore, I think they are formalities that really are unnecessary - granted, the exchange of vows is wonderful, and it does, to some extent, make you think about what you were doing when you made those similar vows, and for some, it reinforces or redoubles their efforts to preserve what they have or to even grow. I don't know anymore - it has been so long since I have attended a wedding, all of our friends are on their second marriage or well into dissolving their first that weddings now seem a little passe -

Anyway, the three miler was good. I thought alot.

And I get no Answers...



I miss you and guess that I should, what would we change if we could?

Music and cover music - Brandi Carlisle covering the Counting Crows - this song pretty much explains it for me today. Yep. Pretty much explains my day.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Passing the Test.

Well, now that Main Street has officially been bailed out, I am breathing one HUGE sigh of relief that we just signed another $700 BILLION dollar loan with the Chinese Government - at least the interest rates are good, and hey, I don't know how many people are in the United States, but if we have an official "Work to Pay for Everyone Else's Bad Decisions" Day - we could take care of that number in a few weeks. Let's start a revolution and just send random checks to the government - of course they would have to form a committee to establish the validity of the movement, they would have to build a center to study the influx of funds, they would have to research the psychological effects of the money on laboratory rats, and then they would have to have four years of public hearings to debate what we really intended to do by sending them the checks in the first place...I am not a cynic, just a middle class moron who still can't figure out how I paid more taxes than Palin, but made less money?

I really don't think we are passing the test- I tend to agree with those who voted against the bailout plan - I understand (being a finance guy with a masters degree and all) the effect that credit markets have on the economy - they artificially expand the economy by extending resources for future goods - and unfreeze the wheels of barter systems - but at the same time, I tend to believe that there is a finite supply of leveraged assets available - for me, it was sort of a wake up call - if Americans were saving more cash, there would be more cash to loan, reducing the need for short term funding by banks because reserves would be on hand. I know we are talking trillions of dollars here, but somehow I suspect our undying need for a new laptop every two years, a new I-Pod when the new fall colors come out, and the hip new sports car have created an unstable and unsustainable economy. The government does not help us either - they don't clearly explain who they are borrowing money from - we borrow money from foreign central banks to bolster the dollar - strange stuff this is.

Anyway, I did not sit down to blog some passive aggressive lines about the economy - I missed the collective sigh of my neighbors as President Bush scratched his "X" into the bill, and yet I feel exactly as pessimistic and exactly as optimistic as I did before I had to listen to the Dems and the GOP extoll the virtues of moving ahead for us dimwitted and less than intelligent "main streeters".

I did sit down to blog about Ebay - but my carpal tunnel syndrome is kicking in, and I think I need a can of beer to quell the pain that is firing up my left shoulder right now - (I wonder if they included a recovery plan for me in the bill)....

Miles of Cornfields...

I think I have talked about my common recurring dream in the past, the fields, the red house, the old man, the smell of bleached white sheets and the cool shade and comfort of an autumnal eve...

This week I spent about ten hours driving through Missouri, enjoying the colors of the midwest in early October - the bright yellow of the pre-harvest soy, the greenish brown of the Halloween sweet corn, the fields of the late summer wheat. Missouri has a certain attractiveness to it, basically two major cities, on hemispheric opposites, connected by a highway, and in between, a few tourist traps, pieces of old Route 66, an adult book store or two, and miles of cornfields. Driving to me is really the last great adventure - listen to me when I say this - in today's world, we fly everywhere, we don't stop, we don't pull over, we just fly - but now, there are so many more things to discover, things that we pass and smile about funny signs, or wonder what Missouri wineries really taste like, or wonder if the fact that the building is shaped like a hot dog really makes the hot dog taste better, or if a gentleman's club in the middle of the state, at least 100 miles from a town with a population of more than 3,000 ships their wares in from the big cities...

Colors are amazing to me - it is the browns and tans and muted yellows and soft fall colors that reminded me of you this week. It was difficult to drive through a place that had so much color and life and not be reminded of smiles and lips and hair and eyes.

Missouri has some benefits, and driving through a kaleidescope of fall color was refreshing this week, it was a good medicine for me. A very good medicine.

A Demain.