Retired again

• Yesterday the parties in the case I was working on reached a settlement. Today I went in, boxed up all the documents and said goodbye to being a legal assistant. It was work. It was interesting. It was fun, to an extent. I feel good for the client who was vindicated as much as the legal system allows on things like this.
• We were going to have a focus group this Saturday to present all the exhibits and see if they would be understandable to a jury. I had set up the box lunches, contacted some golfing buddies and teachers from school who were looking forward to doing this. It was kind of a let down for them when I called and said they wouldn't be needed.
• I received my state sales tax id # in the mail today. Next week I will go down to city hall and get a business license, not that I'll be needing it much anymore.
• I talked to a young man today who's a student at art school in Santa Fe about turning Optimus into a graphic novel. He's interested and has already read the book (daughter's on again off again now on again boy friend). He said he'd work on the opening pages of the book and we can go on from there.
• At the Captain I've had a little to say about the movie: Legend of Bagger Vance.

It wasn't easy

Mom was fussing that when I posted about little Abbie's first birthday that there wasn't a very resent picture of her. That's because she's started walking and is non-stop motion. Still with some patience and perseverance I got a few pictures of her in the cheerleader outfit that she looks so cute in.

Recap

This was one long tough week.
I'm starting to get into the groove of things in my new office setting. Still when you've spent years getting off work around 3 and walking home for a nice nap; I'm a little out of shape for this driving in rush hour traffic, 9-5 stuff.
Took Mom to the hospital Tuesday evening. Daughter had been with her all day and she was getting worse. They finally admitted her around 1:30am Wednesday. Gave her some pain medication and and anti-nausia stuff. They ran tests that day and released her Thursday evening. The hospital was packed with sick kids, seems a nasty little stomach flu is making the rounds. Daughter had it two weeks ago, Son had it, then I had it and wife had it all last week.
The doctor concluded she didn't have the stomach flu, but was having a reaction to an anti-biotic.
Daughter took her out for a haircut yesterday afterwards, wife, daughter and Mom had a nice dinner at Olive Garden. Hopefully all is well with her now.
We brought her little poodle home with us for those two nights. The cat wasn't too sure about having another dog in the house and let us know about.
I'm taking wife and daughter out to Japanese Kitchen for some good teppan yaki this afternoon as a kind of reward for some of the help they've given me with this new job.
I need some rest!

What's new at the Captain

I've decided that I will post reviews of my favorite movies at the Captain's Log blog. I've kind of run out of things to rant about that aren't becoming repetitious, and I needed something to write on that blog instead of shutting it down. I have other things to say on this one. I'll keep you posted here on the movie I'll be writing about there. The first movie is: Meet Joe Black

Grand Daughter's One Year Old

Saturday is our granddaugher's first birthday. Kind of hard to think the year has gone by so fast, and hard to remember when we didn't have her. She is so cute, today she got her first hair cut and looks even cuter.

The camera's too hard to program for the right date.

Computer problems

Auntypesty's computer crashed a little over a month ago and is kaput. She's been using mine, there is a really ancient one that she can do games and stuff on in her room, but it won't connect to the internet.

Today Grinnygranny's computer went the ominous beep beep beep. There's no way all three of us can use one computer, so we went out to buy a new one. I'm using it now. A rather nice one with a 17" screen which I'll have to get used to, but it's nice. Now I just have to learn Windows 7.

When we got home Ginnygranny's computer came back to life. It somehow corrected the problem and is working. We'll take it in for a tune up next week just to make sure it's good and fixed.

This will let Auntypesty have my old one once I get stuff moved over.

Didn't need the added expense right now, but it is nice to have a computer that is twice as fast as the other one.

This is work

It's nice to have an office, not have to worry about a bell schedule and have something to do. But working in a law office is like doing nothing but grading papers all day. I keep thinking, where's the fun in this? Then again if it was fun they wouldn't call it work.

I was looking forward to spending more time on the golf course once I retired and have been so busy I haven't been once. Ah shucks. This is only a temporary job, so when its over I'll have time to do the other things.

Name Dropping

What do I have in common with: Ricky Van Shelton, John Denver and Richard Crenna?

Answer: We all own or in the case of Denver and Crenna owned an original Anne Littlewolf.

In fact I'm one up on them. Anne brought me down another painting of Lone Wolf she sold the other one. Now I own two. The first one is the one on the header named Aspens in Colorado.

She now has five of her pieces on consignment in Old Town. My (spiritual) twin is going great guns in the art world.

Painting the town red

Anne Littlewolf is in town. She came in on Wed and we had a nice evening chatting and getting caught up. Yesterday we went through the Albuquerque Museum to look at the art work there, then visited a couple of galleries in Old Town. One of the gallery owners is closing his shop at the end of the month and is opening up an art school in Los Lunas. They've set up where Anne can come down a weekend a month to teach in a hands on environment. Setting this up is worth her trip down here.

Have to finish that thought later.

5:30pm

Well, I'm back. While I was writing the post this morning I got a call from a lawyer friend and he gave me a job as a legal assistant helping him out on a trial coming up next month and he needed me right then. I spent a couple of hours helping him and I'll be doing a number of things next week. I'll have to get a business license and will most likely get creamed on income tax and social security. I got to thinking: wow my retirement lasted all of one day!

While I was tied up Anne went back to Old Town and found a place that is letting her put up some of her work on consignment. We then fought with our printer to see if we could get some of her paintings to print out to her satisfaction. The pictures she has and the printer aren't up to snuff, but she does have some options up in Colorado and she's been given the name of someone here who does prints of artwork.

Then we went to Fudrucker's so she could meet the curmudgeons. Russ showed up and he was greatly appreciated. It must have been a busy day for the others. Still Anne, Grinnygranny and I had a nice time talking about various things.

Who says things slow down when you retire? I've never had to juggle so many different things at once in my life!

Maybe, maybe not

Friday was my last day in the classroom. There was a nice reception in the teacher's lounge and we're still eating sheetcake that was left over and I brought home. I received the bronze statue of three horses (we're the mustangs) and the well wishes of my students and fellow staff memebers. I'm not officially retired until Thursday and have to do grades on Wednesday. The man taking over for me should do well and the students shouldn't miss a beat with me gone, which is a good thing.
While reading over all the retirement paperwork I discovered that I can go back next year if I want. The only real reason for leaving was financial and once the bankruptcy if finalized in May there's nothing to stop me from going back for as long a I still have fun.
This could really just become an extra long summer vacation for me.

Bittersweet

Healthcare is finally voted on, but still has a few hurdles. Most of the provisions don't go into effect until 2014 so it's going to be a slow process. This is good. Rushed legislations, like the American Patriot Act is usually bad legislation.
I wish it had a public option and would have preferred a single payer plan, but we got more than the nuckle dragging neanderthal tea baggers want.

The republicans were against social security and foretold the end of the world if passed. They fought Medicare and Medicaid tooth and nail saying that it would bankrupt our country, and it passed. Both of those positive social programs have increased the quality and quantity of the people in this country and have become the third rail of politics. You touch it you die. That more than anything is why the corporations and their lackeys have fought so hard and been so rabid against this bill. Maybe the voters will learn that only progress improves the well being in this country.

Fun While It Lasted

Lobos got beat by Washington yesterday. Still their first season winning 30 games had the town buzzing. New Mexico State was beat by Michigan State, so the big dance is over for us this year.

I was supposed to be in a tournament yesterday, but they postponed it until today because of snow. It's sunshiny and nice now. I'm hoping to have a nice outing.

My Gripe with CBS

Tried to watch the Lobo game last night. The problem was that they kept cutting over to other games. I know they want to show the last minute of a close game, but in basketball the last minute can last for twenty with all the free throws and time outs. Meanwhile on the game you're wanting to watch when you get back there's quite a bit missing. I mean the Lobos are up by 14, they cut away and when you back Montana has closed it to within 2 points, then they cut away again. They at least showed the last five minutes and it was very exciting, but I'd have enjoyed seeing the whole game.

Wrong Analogy

I've waited a couple of weeks to post this. One I wanted to cool down and two I wanted to think over what I'm saying.

Chris Rock made a surprise appearance on Bill Maher a couple of weeks ago. The topic was health care. He made the analogy that health care reform is like people who've paid for first class on an airplane being upset when others who haven't get upgraded.

This analogy is totally wrong when it comes to health care because the true analogy is that the taxpayers are the ones paying for those in first class and paying to sit in coach and half way through the flight getting shoved out without a parachute.

Medicare and Medicaid are both paid for by tax payers. To qualify for the first you have to be over 65 years of age. To qualify for the second you have to be poor.

The working class pays for this medical care and have to pay for private insurance through their employers or go without. Those self-employed that try to get insurance find it exorbitant in the extreme.

Personal example:

We have a good health plan, not through the schools, but through my wife's employer. My daughter spent an hour in an emergency room, had an ultrasound and a unit of blood, then transferred to the hospital had minor surgery and a two day stay. The health plan payed the bulk of the costs, but what was left over swamped us financially and forced me to retire early and declare bankruptcy.

Contrast that with my mother who was in the emergency room for a day, six days in the hospital and ten days of rehabilitation. With Medicare, payed for by taxpayers and a supplemental plan that is a considerable cost to her, she has only the ambulance bill to fight over. I do not begrudge the medicare plan that helps my mother. Financially it was a life saver for her and without it she would have died. I do not begrudge the medicaid that helps my son and his two children.

Still the working class shouldn't have to pay for everyone else's health care and then be denied the care they need or get wiped out financially. There needs to be a level playing field here. Medicare for all or a single payer system is the only fair system, and it is the kind of health care that almost all the other industrialized countries in the world have and in those countries the number of bankruptcies due to health costs are zero. In the U.S. I've become one of the 150,000 families forced into this situation.

On a side note: Thanks George W. for changing the bankruptcy laws that have forced me to retire and lower my income so I can declare bankruptcy. The gift that keeps on giving.

Little Fall

We were just getting ready to leave for Church today when Mom called. She'd gone to early church and fell right on the knee she had replaced in September. I went over and she was icing it down. Doesn't seem to be much damage as she was able to walk on it and there wasn't any swelling.
I brought her over here and we had a nice lasagna dinner then watched three hours of the John Adams mini-series she's never seen. She was getting a little stiff by the time I took her home. She's going to call her doctor tomorrow and will most likely get some e-rays taken on her knee to make sure there no other damage.

Feeling Human Again

There is something about this time of year. I had a bad cold last year during Spring Break and this last week I've had another bad one. I guess one bad cold a year isn't too bad, but I'd kind of hoped I'd dodged the bullet this year. At least it's over with before Spring Break so it won't ruin my plans of golfing that week.

Winter doesn't seem to want to let go. We had a sprinkling of snow today with another storm supposed to hit tonight. The wind is what makes everything so cold. I do hope it warms up for the weekend.

Countdown

As it stands now, March 26 will be my last day in the classroom. I'm not retiring because I'm burned out, tired of the job or even want to retire. The dear Corporats changed the bankruptcy laws and if I work I make too much money to declare bankruptcy, if I retire I can. That's a crappy way to end a career. Daughter was in the hospital in January. There is no way we can pay the bills accumulated after the insurance pays its 80%. It declined to pay the emergency room and that bill alone sank us.

Assistant principal showed me a resume of a young man who's just finished his student teaching in December that's applied for the position. I wish him well. It will be a good foot in the door for him.

I've spent three weeks cleaning out over twenty-five years of accumulated teaching supplies. Maps, posters, interact lessons, books and have distributed them to others in the department. The room looks rather bare and my wardrobe is practically empty. There a big book case of stuff and a few other things I'll leave for my replacement. A hell of a lot more than what I had the first day I walked into a totally bare classroom in November of 1982.

The other teachers tell me that they can see a change in me since I applied for retirement. I look a lot less stressed. Well no shit Sherlock. I haven't had to attend all the crap pd meetings to learn how to be a better teacher! Some things I won't miss. I will really miss the students. God how I'll miss the students, even the ones that just want to sleep, text or listen to music. I'll miss them.

Doom and Gloom

The New York Times had an article yesterday by Piers Brendon in reference to an article in the Washington Post by E.J. Dionne Jr. concerning a diatribe by Vice President Biden. Biden very eloquently defended the sustainable power of the U.S. against all the people predicting the collapse of the U.S.

It seems that the doom sayers are quoting Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

It's not often that one of these super duper books everyone is talking about is one I own, have read, even quoted on this blog. In fact I use an excerpt from this book in my US History class to explain why Britain had to grant us independence and our failure in Vietnam and our eventual failure in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kennedy bases his assessment of the rise and fall of empires on economics. All empires eventually exceed the capacity of their economies to meet the greed of the leaders in expanding power. It's an insightful explanation of how Spain with all the gold and silver coming in from the New World became bankrupt in such a short time. He points out how England could not sustain an empire after exhausting it's economy with two world wars, but what caught my attention was how he placed England on the industrial power list and how it fit within it's natural resources.

Seen from the economic viewpoint he makes perfect sense and the figures do tell the tale in some instances, not all. If you take his logic to its ultimate conclusion the United States shortly will no longer be the world's largest economy. A fact many people are pointing out suddenly realizing that China and India are in the process of surpassing us. The fact that Bushco accelerated this situation by at least twenty years in their disastrous reign of stupidity seems lost on those blaming Obama for the situation, though he could do more to stop it. Japan after all is an exception to his equation. Japan has the population, but not the resources to an economic power, yet they manage it anyway. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations seems to work well with them.

In short resources and population will win out in the end and it looks like the US will eventually become the third largest economy based on resources and population. Is this the end of the world? Only in our pride. Kennedy points out that in 1980 the life of the average Englishman was much better than that of an Englishman in 1900, but they didn't feel like it was because their empire no longer ruled the waves. Somehow better technology, health care, income and life expectancy aren't as important as believing you're better than everyone else.

Is that all Americans have to live for? The right to strut around and say We're Number One! We do that quite a bit at the Olympics. Why are our athletes the only ones who drape themselves in the flag when they win a medal? Maybe it was understandable in 2002, even 2006, but really doesn't this get a little old? Standing on the podium and being proud as the national anthem is played is plenty. Being wrapped up in the flag is to me (and I may be tarred and feathered for this) a little "in your face" to the other countries.

Biden is also responding particularly to the Christian Right with their Rapture theology that this country will be destroyed. Hell they think the whole world will soon be destroyed and blame it all on immorality. Why they're still fighting the fight against, shit I'm tired of writing out the list tof the things they're against you know them all by now anyway. They love to trot out the Roman Empire to prove their point. The point by the way that Brenden in his article is refuting.

Question: where are the barbarian masses waiting to invade us? Is this why fundies and repugs are so anti immigration particularly from Mexico? Are they wanting to bankrupt our economy so they (immigrants) don't have a reason to come here?

Is the U. S. really going to be invaded and overrun?

1. First we're not an empire like the Soviet Union or Ancient Rome that will break apart. I don't see us becoming 50 separate countries, though Texas might be a case of good riddance if they choose to secede.
2. Our borders will stay the same, if we fail it will be internally because of a lack of will to fight for what America really stands for: namely individual freedom with a government controlled by the people not by corporations. What is ruining the U.S. right now is the lack of checks and balances. A legislature to timid to do its job, judiciary bought and paid for by corporations and an imperial presidency not contained by either of the other two. We now have presidents who declare war not congress. Presidents have the power to incarcerate citizens without charge or council and more sinisterly able to order the murder of citizens without oversight. How important are the powers denied to congress and the president in the constitution guaranteeing the people of Habeas Corpus and that a Bill of Attainder is not allowed. That the right of due process of law is now a quaint footnote in history is what is causing our country to fall. This was brought about by our own elected officials not by terrorists or invasion from another country.
3. We've faced corporate rule before. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft (Republicans) brought them to heel by breaking up the monopolies. Franklin Roosevelt tamed them with government regulation. Who will step up and face them down this time. Somewhere Obama and the democratic majority in congress needs to find the backbone to do it again.
4. The greatness of America is not in how much money we make. It's our legal system which is based on spirit of the law, not letter of the law. When Common Law that prevails wealth follows for all. Civil Code stacks the deck for the aristocracy and we stop being a first world super power and become like every other third world country filled with graft, corruption and non-ending wars.

If there is an analogy between the U.S. and Rome it's not the analogy of 465, but more of the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. From a representative government to a dictatorship. How long will it be now that the American Patriot Act has effectively negated the rights of the accused to knowing why they've been arrested and an attorney, destroyed the concept of privacy from warrant less search and seizure. When torture and legalized assassination accepted presidential power. How long before Congress becomes a rubber stamp politburo permanently like it was under Bush. How long before the president does everything like the Emperors of Rome and all we are left with is the illusion of democracy? Does it take a Republican stooge elected president by corporate advertising ordering his favorite horse be named a Senator before it hits us?

Mom's Home

And blogging about her exerience. I came down with stomach flu last night so M had to pick her up. She's staying with her for a few days to help her out.
I'm starting to get snow blind from watching all the skiing on the winter olympics. It has been a good year for team USA.

Update on Mom 2

Mom's scheduled to be released from rehab tomorrow. She'll have a rehab at home for a little bit. It's good to have her back on her feet.