Poor CA

It used to be that people came to the US for medical treatment, now Obamacare is leading to this!

Back to CA:

Poor California not only are they one of the most bankrupt states (http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-california-debt-clock.html) with some cities declaring bankruptcy (San Bernardino, Calif., is the latest municipality to seek bankruptcy protection for its $45 million budget shortfall, following Mammoth Lakes and Stockton, which was the largest U.S city to ever go bust. Bankruptcy filings by these three California cities have raised questions about the scope of budget issues on the local level and whether there will be more. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/three-california-cities-bankrupt-tip-iceberg-says-fmr-155121281.html )

But I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago and heard that "bitter cold" with highs only in the 50'sF and lows in the 30'sF was striking CA.  It was intersting to me since at the time we were having a hot streak with the High almost 50F and lows in the low 30'sF.

Since that time, we have have -5F temperatures with high almost reaching 10F, my daughter's temperatures have been as low as  -12F (that I have seen maybe it was lower at times).

So poor, poor CA, we must have pity on them!

Doesn't make sense

I don't understand.  My son just had a birthday and he is dc (not roman numerals) years old.  But my LW and I are so young.

Do you think it is possible for your children to streak years ahead of their parents?

This year my daughter will reach a milestone birthday and she was our baby for so long!

I mean we haven't reached middle age yet!  Some might say that I am still very immature!  So how can we have mature-ish kids?

Of course we have been married 2/3ths of our lives.  We must have gotten married when we were -15 years old or so, YES that MUST be the explanation!

Sneaky Ground Hog Day

This year Ground Hog Day sneaked up on me.  The only way we knew was because my LW heard on the radio the day before.  Every Ground Hog Day, we watch the movie "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murray.

We like the story of a selfish man learning that only by helping others can he be truly happy.

The movie's premise is that 1 day (Ground Hog Day) in the life of a Weatherman covering the famous Ground Hog P Phil is played over and over.  He finds that the day has no consequences and tries to get in bed with his female producer by learning more and more each "day" to make himself her ideal.

Of course it doesn't work and he decides to eventually (after trying to kill himself numerous times) to try to help others.

It is my understanding that it was actually filmed a few miles west of us.

A fun movie, you should try it if you want a happy movie to watch.  It is not very deep and goes as you would figure, but who needs anything else?

Not Gambling?

There are some interesting bets that can be made on the Super Bowl.  One is Frank Gore's yardage vs. Louisville's score v. someone.

Personally, I don't like to bet.  Basically, I am cheap and don't want to lose the money.

However, the Super Bowl is one of the most bet on games.  There are a lot of bets that can be made like first TD person/ team/ offense or defense and scores at quarters, win/ lose, etc.

Though I do have some investments in mutual funds and stocks.  Perhaps they are worst bets then gambling.  In bets it is easy to see if you won or lost quickly.  With stocks, you buy it at a price and it goes up or down and you have to decide whether to sell or buy more and when to sell.  I like to say that even if the stock is down from when I bought it you don't lose money until you sell it.

I recently bought a stock that went down 20+% the day after I bought, fortunately I did not buy a lot of it and so far I haven't lost any money on it ( i.e., I haven't sold it).  At least there is still 80% of its value left, unlike a gambling bet where you lose  all of it!

Super Bowl apathy

When there are no teams that I am a fan in the Super Bowl like this year, I don't care anything about it.

It is interesting to me that it seems like every show that I listen to has something about it.  Usually, I listen to either Sports radio or Talk radio at home and they are full of the Super Bowl trivia.

I do like to watch the Super Bowl commercials after the game, some are really good like the VW ad with the little kid dressed as Darth Vader and some of the PepsiCo classics.  But I don't plan on watching the game!

This year there is a player on Baltimore who will have this game as his last one. Of course, in general they don't mention that he was involved in a murder and is basically a punk.

QB's tend to get a lot of attention and the coaches are brothers, but who really cares (other the fans of the specific teams) about this game?

Kids

How long are your children still kids?

My "kids" are out on their own and have kids of their own.  Recently I reconnected with a couple of my cousins on Facebook.  One said the last time she saw us was at our wedding reception which was many years ago.  I remember her as a pretty little girl, but now she is a pretty woman.

It seems like my "kids" are still the same size as they always were.  But I remember the fear and awe when they were born.  We somehow raised (mainly my LW) them and they are great parents.

It is awesome thinking that maybe we did something right!

Workers

On the early dog walk this morning, I saw the fire engine leave the Fire Station that is near us.  It started me thinking about all the people who don't get Christmas Day off.

Obviously, the firemen don't get the day off and of course, policemen also are out there protecting us (since thieves also don't take off, but I don't feel sorry for them).

People that work at Electric Generation Plants are required to be there every day.  Paperboy/men work every day.

The most important group that work on holidays is the military.  They often are away from home and work most days (of course, not everyone who work in the above work on all holidays, but a subset are required to work).

THANK YOU for your sacrifices to keep us safe or supply needed services!

Lack of Truth

Yesterday we watched a movie called, "Christmas Kiss".  It was a very predictable in that the Good girl ends up with the guy after various tragedies which gave an impression that the Bad woman was winning.  The movie was OK since we like happy endings.

But part of the premise of the movie was that the good girl kept thoughts and actions from the guy that would have helped him to realize that she was the right one for him.  And I was thinking how often keeping secrets or outright lies are part of the reason that movies last beyond 10 or 15 minutes.

If only the people wouldn't lie or keep thoughts to themselves there would not be a plot.

If in real life we would always tell the truth and not try to hide things, our lives would be much easier and happy!

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review. (Just a fun quote!)

Winter 2012

( This was written 12/21 but had blogger problems getting it in) It is the first day of winter.  Yesterday we got the first measurable snow in 9 months.  It was not very measurable, maybe 1/4 inch or so.  This morning on the dog walk, the wind was blowing at about 30 mph.  So neither of us were willing to walk far.

With Frisbit's unsteadiness on his legs, it appeared he was going to be knocked over when we were directly in the path of the wind.  But he managed to remain on his feet.

It is nice to see snow on the ground, the last few days we have been getting rain and it was dreary.  Snow gives a nice contrast to mud.

One thing I have noticed with our new ( still seems new after close to a year) car is that it attracts frost to its windshield.  Our old car did some but not as much.  Of course, the new car has a smaller windshield so it is not as hard to clean.

I have always thought that cold was better than hot since you can always layer on clothes and there is a quick limit to amount of clothes you can remove in company.  It is hard to get use to the cold, after a while 20F seems OK but the first few days it seems toooo cold.  I guess we will survive!

Crowder Video

I enjoy his videos.  It amazes me that people support a party they don't agree with!

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/12/17/105743

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/12/17/105733

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/12/14/105775

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/12/14/105759

Just some fun cartoons from HotAir.