Well, the chily days & nights have finally begun to pay off as we’ve begun seeing the white stuff falling from the sky. Occasional bursts Sunday gave way to steady showers today, coating the ground and making the pines out back look festive. It also makes the crowded stores (what recession?) tolerable. It’s easier to pick up new decorations when it actually looks like Winter outside.

The downside? School closings. They were cool as a kid; as an adult they suck monkey genitals.

Seems fine to me……

November 13th -October 7 = over a month down time.  Dang.  It’s not like nothing has been happening, but for whatever reason I wasn’t compelled to take fingers to keys over it all.  It’s not even that I was in a particularly bad mood, since that’s when I usually clam up.  Chalk it up to being busy and lethargic at once.  So what all has been going on and on my mind?

- The boys have been keeping busy.  Garrett is having fun in school and just finished his second soccer season.  Coincidentally, he was on a team with his distant cousin.  Ethan is continuing to see great progress in his efforts, and is learning how to ice skate.

- Mergerwise, we continue to know little after Wells saved us from Citi.  It seems like we’re not going to get stung too badly, but it’s still early. As bad as this economy continues to get, it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen a week from now.

- We’re starting to have good fortunes when eating out up North.  We had family portraits done at the Pittsburgh franchise of Portrait Innovations, a company we’ve frequented since it’s doors first opened down Providence Road.  A few weeks ago we went up to Cranberry Township for a late morning appointment, and had lunch at the Houlihan’s next door.  We’ve never eaten there before, but their lunch menu says meals are delivered to the table in 15 minutes or it’s on the house.  I got a steak and Jen got a chicken dish, which I figured wouldn’t qualify, but they do.  And when they were delivered 37 seconds late we were legally able to skip out on a $50 meal by only paying for our drinks.  Last weekend we went up to Weirton to see my nephew play his last high school football game.  Since we were in a hurry we stopped at the local Eat & Park for a quick, cheap meal.  Apparently the Weirton E&P is the place to be on Friday night, because the food took forever to arrive.  The manager came by, profusely apologized, and took 20% off the bill without being asked.   If Del Frisco’s opens a Pittburgh restaurant they’d better watch out for us.

- Came up with two tickets to the Cincy football game, and it was great to see old friends at Pat & Kim’s tailgate.  The pics are on Facebook.  Nice little reunion.

- I said earlier that I was tired of sticking up for Coach Stew after being concerned about his hiring, and now I’m completely done.   No reason at all to lose to the Bearcats.  None.  I don’t care about a miraculous rally, either.  First, it still ended in a loss and second, 2 minutes of frantic play doesn’t make up for the other 58 minutes of lackluster play. The defense has been a bright spot all season, and as much as I’m not a fan of Castell or the 3-3-5 they deserve a lot of credit and praise for their play this year.

- Despite this, I’m actually interesting in going bowling if we wind up playing the International Bowl in Toronto.  While it would be balls-cold and snowy, the prospect of going to a city I’ve been wanting to visit and catching a football game I actually care about has some appeal.

- So no we have a quasi-socialist in the White House.  Not surprised…not surprised at all.  Now we’ll see just how empty the rhetoric was now that he’s forced to step down from deity status and actually try to do things.

- I thought before that it was a bad idea to give out a $700 billion blank check to prop up the banking system, and now it looks even worse.  Rather than developing smaller, more targeted efforts designed to help specific facets of the economy, we now have a large boondoggle on our hands with none of the promised oversight and lots of questionable practices by recipients of public largess.  The latest outrage - billions of bonus payments to execs and other key figures of the very companies receiving the bailout pork.  I’m not one to whine over bonuses - those employees who put their necks furthest on the line deserve rewards for their risk.  However, when a company may not be able to open it’s doors because of illiquidity and gets taxpayer support to open, paying bonuses should not be the first priority.  And now that the banking industry got our money…..

-…the Big 3 automakers are next in line with hats in hand.  The companies that tied themselves down to terrible long term contracts with the unions and can’t build cars that keep up with Japanese performance & innovations are now burning through money like kindling every day.  They’re “only” looking for 25-50 billion, but the precedent has been set that our government will bail out those who make the shittiest of decisions.  After the automotives get saved, which industry is next?All this on top of massive spending promises (without a matchign revenue base) made by President-Elect Messiah.  It’s gonna be a rough four years.  Lube up and bend over.

-  And spare me the argument that “these (insert industry) companies can’t be allowed to fail!  Life as we know it will end!!!”  US History is littered with companies from the past that have closed their doors, and we’re still here.  That’s the basis of capitalism - those who make good decisions survive. Besides, the foreign automotive companies likely contribute more to our GDP than the American companies do.  More and more foreign cars & components are made in the US, while the Big 3 have been building cars in other contries for some time now.  All those cars are then sold in dealerships in America, where good portions of those sales go through the American economy.  I’m willing to bet that the Big 3 contributions to our overall economy (constructions, sales, etc) have shrunk year over year.

- In order to end on a good note, the holiday season is almost upon us.  The weather is cooling off, the holiday decorations are coming out, and the warm sheets are on the bed.  We’ve got some nice things planned for the next six weeks with family and friends.

A sad sign of the ongoing recession…some people who need the care most are having to go without it.

Angst Is Rising, but Many Must Forgo Therapy

This forward made me chuckle this afternoon…..

No, there’s no better way to put it.  I am one pissed off individual.

I hate DC.  Specifically, I hate the Teasury, the Congress, and the White House for their actions the last three weeks.  I hate their shotgun approach to managing the credit crunch last month.  I hate that everyone participated in a large-scale media scare campaign.  I hate that the bailout wasn’t more organized.  I’m pissed that we based a bailout amount on a number pulled from someone’s ass.  I’m pissed that the same bailout that was rejected last Monday was porked up, rather than rebuilt, to get passage last Thursday.  I’m pissed that this $700 billion blank check may be written with little interest in using the proceeds, as I read an article yesterday noting that banks were wary of accepting help because of the restrictions placed on the company.  (I’m also pissed that I can’t find the article today.)

I hate Citigroup trying to split us up into two pieces for a merger that does not benefit us but benefits Citi and whatever Federal Reserve officials are joined at the privates.  I also hate the Feds for putting a gun to our heads and saying “Merge or else!”  I’m pissed that Wells dropped out of the talks so early last weekend, and I’m even more pissed at Citi and the Feds for trying to destroy a deal that is better for everyone else involved (except Citi).    I’m pissed at the Feds who are continuing to intervene on behalf of a worthless company who is probably about to fail themselves.  I hate that things are changing so fast that we employees don’t know where to turn.  I hate that there’s not a lot of places to get away and hide from all this bullshit.

I hate being so pissed off.

Most people find it hard to solve a problem when they don’t quite know what the problem is.  Likewise, this makes it hard to find a solution to said problem.  Seems like a good lesson to apply to the bailout debate.  “$700 billion” has been thrown around the press so much that it now tops “weapons of mass destruction” on the buzz meter.   Legislators and pundits are throwing out quick-fix solutions and urge NOW NOW NOW!!!! to get the bill passed, but the very centerpiece of the whole plan is fuzzier than a lint trap.  The sad truth is that NO ONE KNOWS WHY THE FEDS WANT $700 BILLION.

While I hate the principle of publicizing so many private screw-ups I begrudgingly accept some level of federal assistance.  I do ask, though, that the feds stop trying to shotgun & duct-tape a solution together.  More often than not, the quick-fix method of problem solving doesn’t work.  Let some folks sit down, do legitimate hardcore analysis, seriously crunch some numbers, and use due dilligence to put together a solid plan.  Then, take the time to sell it properly and refrain from belittling those who dare to question it.  But for goodness sakes, the centerpiece of the bailout is the amount of cash needed to do it.  Come to your number, develop an understandable yet truthful method to show the final results, and be honest.  It’s hard for us to buy the “Trust us!” line when the folks we’re supposed to trust haven’t stopped to figure things out.

While sitting here waiting for a test environment to load so I can approve a problem ticket, I de-muted the TV to listen to the economic puree going down today.  Frankly, these people are getting smug, snotty, and elitist.  They think that regular folks want to “stick it to those Wall Street bastards” and “don’t care that their way of life will end before they know it.”  Hardly.  The People weren’t against this bailout because they want to see rich people suffer or that they’re closing their eyes to future problems on Main Street.  They opposed the buyout because (a) the government should never have this much influence over the market and (b) they realized that this is the result of idiot bankers, idiot brokers, (some) idiot consumers, sleazy marketing, and non-existent oversight.  Therefore, most people not involved in the meltdown do not care in the least to assist people who made this mess on their own.

We recognize that something needs to happen to fix this mess, and it’s gonna wind up including various levels of public assistance.  We don’t have to like it, but we accept it.  What we won’t stand for is a batch of holier-than-thou assholes who think that they’re better than everyone else and not accountable for any of their actions.  These pundits need a severe ass-kicking, and today they’re getting one.

/rant

It disgusts me every time I click on a website and read the latest happenings regarding the economic meltdown currently aflame.  Our country, the greatest economic power in the history of the world, the shining beacon of free-market capitalism, is about to experience one of the largest private-to-public transfers of economy ever.  Up to $700 BILLION in worthless mortgages and securities are about to become publicly owned by each and every one of us.  Unthinkable.  Despicable.

All this could have been easily avoided several years ago.  Mortgage brokers were feeding the housing boom by foisting loans left and right to people who obviously weren’t right for them.  Subprime loans were handed out like restaurant mints to people with terrible credit, and people more focused with folloing the Joneses scooped up exotic mortgages to buy bigger and bigger McMansions.  50 year ARMs.  Interest only payments.  All too good to be true.  And the alarms have been sounding for some time.  Those low interest only payments had an expiration date, wherein the payments would balloon.  And one helluva pop! it was.

Now financial institutions of all reaches are left holding bucketfuls of securitized loans than aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and a massive downsizing is going on.  Commercial banks are reserving billions in loss holdings, and investment banks are selling out to keep in business.  Millions of people, from customers to brokers to executives, shirked any sense of responsibility in order to live in the present, the here and now.  The future?  Hell, that’s years away and we’ll have flipped that house or sold off that mortgage long before.  What, we worry?

Now the bastards have left the economy in tatters, and the idiot executives go running to their surrogate mamas - Washington - with their hands out like a college freshman who spent their refund check on a fridge full of beer and chips.  It would have been completly awesome for the Beltway to say “Go to hell.”  But that would never happen with legislators.

Besides, the unfortunate reality is that the repercussions of the Feds becoming the leading loan-loss provider likely pales in comparison to the utter economic devastation that a crashing & burning Wall Street would dish out.  With the way our economy relies on instant credit & repayment at all hours of the day, any further contraction of the money markets would ruin us.  The Great Depression would look like a four day weekend.

It’s a sad day indeed for America when government takeover of an industry (hell, the economy) is better than the alternative.  As a fiscal conservative, I weep for the future.

I had thoughts of posting a tipsy tirade last night (ok, early this morning) after watching the debacle against Colorado, but decided better of it and figured I should sleep on it.  Well, a short night of sleep has completed and my core thoughts haven’t changed a bit.

I was hesitant on January 3rd watching the hiring conference, but decided to set my reservations aside and back him up since everyone deserves a chance to be successful.  I felt better when he put together his staff and held the current recruiting class together in a recognizable form.   I felt even better with the high profile committments we got from Virginia.  I was at ease when thy stressed over and over that they would keep the offense as is and only add tweaks.

Fast forward to today and one quarter of the schedule is done.  The defense started out in total disarray and only began looking like a team last night, when they held Colorado scoreless for three and a half quarters after falling into a 14-0 hole.  The offense, however, has been exposed as a paper tiger.  Chucking the ball freely against Nova masked the fact that the running game simply isn’t there.  The last two undressings put the spotlight directly on terrible line play.  Eight quarters of ball against ECU and the Buffs are littered with shots of linemen being dominated, blown up, and any other adjective desired.  It’s a miracle White and Devine found 130 yards apiece last night.  Looking back I still don’t know where it came from, especially considering that on real short yardage plays (less than a yard to the first down stripe) we STILL couldn’t get a push to allow Pat to fall down and get the first down.

Now for the real ire of my feelings last night - the staff.  Embarrasing.  Two straight games of being outcoached.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again without increased results….kind of like repeatedly running Devine over the left side of the line when that side was being dominated by the Buffs.  Or it’s like trying to repeatedly run the ball on third and short when we know there’s no semblance of a power run game or a Schmitt replacement. Now to the real irritant - clock management.  Closing out both halves was a nightmare.  Hawkins outsmarted us when we tried to get a punt return setup if we didn’t get a block.  Staff let the clock run for far too long before calling timeouts, and when fourth and forever was up tap there were three seconds left.  Rather than punting, they ran off tackle knowing that they could drain the clock.  Then there’s th debacle of the potential game winning drive.  We moved the ball fairly effectively until the midfield stripe was reached with a hair under a minute left….WITH TWO TIMEOUTS.  Rather than play for the win, we got a series of runs between the hash marks and a drained clock.  Only one timeout was used, although the other was to set up a desparation hail mary after we started being coached not to win.  Before I forget, the stubborn power running game that we are missing got unveiled one last time when the line couldn’t get one yard and Jock was stymied.  Then McAfee proceeds to thump the upright on the FG attempt.

I could go on about blown calls, but I don’t have enough server space (like how lost the sideline was trying to get playcalls in on that last drive).  The season isn’t lost yet - there’s still a BCS bid available to winning the conference - but the seat in Stewart’s chair has to be on fire right now.  Transition is fine and expected.  Kids forgetting the fundamental skill of blocking game after game is not expected. An undefeated season and national title maynot have been realistic expectations in year 1, but 1-2 isn’t acceptable either.  I give him the rest of this year to right the ship, but there needs to be an immediate & discernable improvement in the offensive line and offensive playcalling.  And we damn well better not lose to Marshall.

As much as I hate to say it, we may have indeed gotten the painter.