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.