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.
