SCREEEEECHH........THUD

Last night while trying to out guess each other on Wheel of Fortune, Vicki and I heard the nightmare of sounds. The sqeeling of tires and the smash and thud of two objects colliding. We live about three houses off a fairly busy street. It was obvious from the sound that there had been a collision so we both leaped to our feet and flew out the front door to find out what had happened. There in the street was a crumpled motorcycle on the ground. About 60 feet away a man was laying beside the car that had hit him. He was trying to stand up while people rushed to his aid to try and get him to be still. The driver of the car who collided with the motorcycle had immediately jumped out of her car and was calling what we believed to be 911 on her cell phone. But it turned out to be her mother she was calling as she yelled in the phone, "Mother come fast I just hit someone!" and then started yelling on the phone she had hit a motorcycle, etc. As the crowd grew a nice gentleman began to direct traffic around the scene while the motorcycle driver by this time had gotten himself up to his knees and was stretching his torso around to see if he was OK. I had called 911 when I realized the girl had called her mother instead of 911. It took a good 15 minutes for the first policeman to show up. We wonder if it is because we live right on the border of Tulsa and Bixby. Literally across the intersection is different cities. We have a Tulsa address but all our utilities and police are Bixby. We are told that across the very street we live on it is Tulsa services for that. Crazy. After almost 20 minutes the first cop shows up. By this time the fellow who had been hit was standing up and walking around and talking on his own cell phone telling someone he had been hit and needed help. He had not been wearing a helmet and one way or the other he had ended up a good 50-60 feet from the bike. The more I think about it I wonder if the bike didnt get thrown a ways but the guy fell off before that or something. He looked to be in his 50's and he didnt seem hurt yet we all talked about the actress recentlly who died following a head injury probably not as hard as this guy coulda hit his head. Finally, the sirens started screaming and the red lights started flashing and within the next few minutes we had 2 fire trucks, two ambulances, five police cars and probably 50 bystanders. It was an eventful evening. I was amazed how many emergency people showed up for what turned out to be a pretty minor event even though it seemed like at first it might be a fatality.

I used to have a motorcycle as a kid and loved riding. I have had that itch many times since then to ride a bike. But each time I get the bug something like this happens and makes me think I will just continue to dream...

Obamerica

I didn't vote for Obama. BUT- like a good American I decided hey he is our president. The election is over. Maybe he WILL bring about needed change. Maybe he WILL have new ideas and be able to rally dems and repubs for the greater cause.
I decided I wanted to be behind my president becaue I love America.

But watching his cabinet picks fall by the wayside for corruption, the spending bill with all of it's normal pork, I just see the same old crap. No change. No hope. He is just like all the rest, he is a politician who says one thing while doing another. It shouldnt be a big surprise but I actually decided to have some hope.

I do not think it is fair to blame either party for the mess we are in. If we are to blame the dems or the repubs we have to point a big arrow at ourselves. Personally I couldn't believe I was seeing friends and neighbors buy $500,000 homes over the last 5 years with these ridiculous rates that were not fixed. I don't count myself that smart but I just couldn't see how I could afford a payment that had the possibility of increasing from say $1300 mo. to $3500 mo. So I didn't bite. But millions of people did bite. They are to blame, the mort co's that made the loans are to blame and the banks that bundled the loans together and sold them are to blame. Greenspan may be more to blame than anyone. I don't know.


what really angers me is that instead of making these guys accountable and letting them go under and fail we instead prop them back up so that they can continue to loan. Of course, now they have learned their lesson. They aren't going to make bad loans. But they still want their corporate jets, vacations, bonuses. Free market would have fixed this problem. where one bank fails another will emerge smarter and with more wisdom than the last. Thats what I wanted to see happen. But no we prop up these guys and say biz as usual. Not just Obama but Bush too. It disgusts me.

I guess I hoped Obama might move a little bit to the center for the sake of uniting a country. But what he is doing is spreading a "FEAR" campaign that is doing nothing but creating panic, chaos, humongous debt. I am just dissapointed he wants this passed thru so fast that these guys are voting on a package they do not even know what is in it. This, to me, is amazing.

I think America is going to suffer for this bill. I hope not. I hope it jolts us and Obama is a hero. But I don't see it.

My Bailout Plan

Instead of giving all this dang cash to the auto companies who are mismanaged and corrupt why not come out with something like a $10,000 voucher good towards purchase of any vehicle over the next 12 months. Why not give the dang money to good ole you and me to go out and purchase a new vehicle. Let us determine what to buy and who to buy it from. We will send this car situation on an incredible ride to all time sales highs. Inventory will be moved, new cars have to be built. If you make an inferior over priced product you lose. If you have the programs in place and the vehicle quality and features people want you win big. Let the weak hands go into bankruptcy. May the best mfr's survive. You wanna bail someone out why not bail out mom and pop?

You have to be working a job for so long and paying your taxes etc. Set the rules I dont care but how about putting the money in the buyers' pockets instead of the corporate heads who are living in luxury from their 20 million dollar a year jobs?

There is obviously billions and trillions to throw around. Throw some our way!

I hate it when that happens

When you put a good thirty minutes into a funny brilliant post for your blog -only- to have everything lockup and freeze and eventually crash. So thats it for the day.
I still remember seeing the little blue "save now" flashing at me like it wanted me to click it..............

Why ask why?

One thing Obama's victory definately states. Anyone and I mean anyone can become president. It's truly hard to believe a nobody 4 years ago could rise to the popularity level Obama has done. To defeat the Clinton machine and capture the heart of America is truly amazing. Personally, I don't think he has ever had any substance to what he says. But to the majority of Americans it didn't matter. His shady associations,inexperience, had no real impact on average JOE. It kinda backs up my assertion that as a nation we are losing grip on what should be important to us. Obama is already quick to state it will take longer than one term to fix our problems. The media also has stated we have elected a president we hardly even know really. We won't really know who we have as our leader until he takes over and we will soon find out. I don't think people have a clue what they have just done in electing this man. On the same hand I hope deeply I am wrong. I hope he does love America. I hope he seeks God's wisdom. I hope he has our best interests at mind. I hope.

Will my vote matter?

All the polls indicate McCain is pretty much going to win Oklahoma in a landslide. He is well ahead. Oklahoma has voted republican for president for quite a while I believe. In the electoral vote Oklahoma counts for 8 electoral votes. In a close election it could be important but it looks like McCain has Oklahoma sewed up. But- somehow we elected a democratic governer?? I didn't live here then but hey this dude gave us the wonderful lottery, right! HA

Of course I should vote for all the local issues as well. But frankly after watching all the political attack ads for the last month and seeing all the horrific attributes of each of the candidates I am pretty well convinced I don't want any of these candidates after seeing how bad people they are. The reason i will probably do my duty is because of street fixing votes here in Ttown. We have bad streets. Really bad. I will pay extra taxes on what I buy to fix the streets. Of course the old adage that says you need to vote to have the right to gripe if you don't get your guy in. I don't want to gripe about our president anyway. I want to be a supporter. In my entire life I have always been able to be a supporter of our president even if I didnt vote for him. This time is going to be tough. If Obama wins I want to support him because I would feel democrats should support McCain if he wins. Yet there is simply something about Obama that bothers me. Maybe it's Bill Ayers, or his support of the PLO, his mocking of the bible, his uncaring attitude for his aunite, his "tell me how we are going to fix the economy and I'll sell it" (as told by slick willie), or his Muslim heritage, or maybe its because he draws hundreds of thousands of people at rallies and it reminds me of what I read aboutanother famous speaker who could rally and inspire hundreds of thousands...... Whatever it is I have this huge and I mean HUGE check in my spirit and THAT will make supporting our president a real challenge if that is what is to come. We shall see.... I believe God has a surprise victory in store for McCain. I hope I am right.

MOVING

As soon as I start dreading or speaking bad things about having to move I quickly remember my last move and am quickly thankful that this one should be much easier. Since I lived at an all bills paid place I have to set up new accounts for all the public services. Half of the fun of moving is trying to meet everyone at the proper time to get things turned on etc. I thought the things at my storage unit would be just a few small things until I went out and realized we have a pretty good load of stuff out there. At least I'll be saving that $120 a month for the storage bill. That will go towards the appliances I have to get. I find myself on Craigs list searching and the ones that look the most attractive say "will deliver". Have you ever bought a refrigerator without looking at it? How bad could a side by side 25 cu ft 2005 model be? $125 seems cheap but could it be that torn up in 3 years? My problem is I am too lazy to drive around searching people's addresses to look at things like that. I'd rather go to the dentist.

Without friends and family moving would be impossible. I thought about waiting until after the election because if Obama is elected I may qualify for a new program that provides social moving services under the new administration. Seriously though, my youngest son Steven has offered up his help and is even bringing a van to help on Sunday. then 2 of my buddies from the VR have accepted my invite to help. Looks to be I need to rent a uhaul. Thats when you know you have real friends. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Keith Hernandez asked Jerry for help and Jerry was honored to be that close of a friend.
This will be a tough one on me. I have several maladies I am dealing with. My knee is better since I quit lifitng all the TVs yet today after lifting only some small things it begin to flare up. And it hasn't seen nothing yet! The right rear portion of my right foot is numb. No feeling at all. Has been that way for at least two months. No pain, just no feeling. The left one is starting to feel the same way. Kind of an irritation but need to have it checked as the google diagnosis isn't that great. My lower back in the sciatic area is also better since the job change yet it irritates me when I lift. My worse problem presently is I believe I have a pinched nerve in my neck. I have had some neck issue since about 3 months before I left my previous job. I am sure I lifted something wrong as there is no way to properly lean over and hold a 150 pound tv and try and set it inside some guys volkswagon squeezing it between the front and back seat.. Usually the things I lifted were for people that appeared to me to be in better physical shape than I. Anyhow, the neck is becoming a real problem. Some things cause it great great pain and I have to be really careful. Maybe I will lift something that will pop something IN place. That is my hope. I don't have cable getting hooked up till Tuesday since the cable people failed to call me before they went to the new place. I got a phone recording telling me to reschedule. Nice! This after explaining carefully to the phone representative the importance of calling me so I could meet them.

No moving tonight though. OU-Nebraska tonight as well as channel jumping to the Texas Texas Tech game GO TECH! But before that in honor of my daughter in law and My Blessed life blog here is my menu for dinner.

Hamburger steak
Fried taters
Ranchstyle beans
Bread and butter
Iced Tea

When I read her menus I find myself wondering what kind of job I could find if I moved to alabama and moved in their neighborhood. Yuuuummmmmm!