About me

I have been working in the corporate world for over 25 years and read a book about blogging and wanted to give it a try.  I think it is because I want to try to do something creative as being in a corporation and sometimes that creativity can get stifled. I am 46 and while I am satisfied for the most part for what I do for a living there are other things I want to try so here I am!!  I have reached the point in my life that I am wanting to try things I have not been able to and have done some of them in the last few years.  I think we all reach this point as we can’t take it with us and life is too short to say “I wished I had”

I enjoy golf, dancing with my wife, friends, traveling.  I am trying this “blog thing” to see what happens and who knows what doors it may open!! You never know until you try so here it goes!!

I know that my dog is in heaven!

As I make this post it has been 1 week today that I had to put my dog Molly down and I wanted to make one last post about her. Molly was a lab mix and 13 years old and last weekend she wasn’t doing very well, laid around vomiting and by last Monday she couldn’t keep water down so at 4:00 o’clock I called the vet took her in and the Dr. felt like she had a tumor in her stomach and it didn’t look good and offered to run tests, but it probably didn’t matter. I agreed Molly was suffering and it was time to end it.

I called my wife who was just leaving work and I was trying to hold back my tears telling her what was going on and said she was on her way to the vets office and would be there in about 50 minutes. The Dr. asked if she could give Molly a sedative while we waited and I agreed. I sat in the floor beside Molly for about an hour petting on her telling he how much I loved her and that I would miss her and what a good dog she had been, of course crying the whole time.

My wife got there and the Dr. came in and administered the shot and she was gone in about 10 seconds.  The Dr. had asked how we wanted to dispose of her and I said I have to take her home and bury her where she belonged, because Molly loved our big yard where she would chase the rabbits, bark at the buzzards that flew overhead and pull the corn stalks from my garden, pick off the ear of corn, shuck it and eat it with her front teeth like a person.. I never saw anything like it. I could hit golf balls and Molly would get them and bring back to me.  She did everything I asked and I will miss her terribly!

As I sat there with Molly I told her when I get to heaven we will do the things that she liked to do while she was with us and I can’t wait to see her again.  I don’t what the belief is of anyone who reads this but I believe we go an after this life and I believe that something special like a pet cane be there with us in heaven once we get there. I know our pets can’t talk, but if you are like me and look into their eyes there is something more going on there than we realize and that is why I believe the way I do,

I have attached a picture of Molly and a poem my sister-in-law emailed to me that night that comforted me that I wanted to share. I hope this post may help someone get through what I have experienced in the last week..

Once in our lifetimes we all have a pet

that not for one moment will we forget.

While here on earth we treat them like gold

but despite our best efforts they start to grow old.

Their time here seems short,  one year to our seven

but I believe in my heart that all dogs go to heaven.

Although it is painful,  the sadness it brings

when they trade in old paws for a new set of wings,

cherish the time that you had with your friend

and know that you were there for them until the very end.

Wearing my Cowboy Hat next week for Dance Competition

I have blogged periodically about wearing a cowboy hat that I never thought I would do, but it has grown on me since competing in country western dance events.  Next week will be the first comp of the year and 6 months since the last one I competed in. I blog about this not to “brag” about it , but how this gives me something positive to focus on in life and how much fun I have doing and preparing for these competitions!

I have figured out that as you move through life you need to change course, do things differently,or think differently in order to keep from being in a “rut” or the same mundane things day after day! Putting on the Cowboy hat for the weekend lets me focus on something fun and being somebody different for a few hours!  I can see why as we get older that depression can set it because our kids get older and have their own lives, our relatives or friends die and we can quickly find ourselves alone doing the same old thing we have always done day after day and then “situational depression” can set in!

From the competitive stand point I want to do well and try to win, but if not I still have something that helps me to have a well-rounded life and not to mention meeting interesting people who help to enrich my life!  Oh yeah.. I have posted a picture of “the cowboy hat below” lol.

The Federal Reserve is destroying this country and the dollar

I have linked to an interesting article about the federal reserve and how this institution is destroying the currency,wealth and keeping this country in perpetual debt.  Rep. Ron Paul is the only candidate for President that is talking about this and he is painted as some kind of kook but he is right on target!! None of the other candidates in either party want to discuss what the Federal Reserve is doing to this country because they are in on it! Below is a link to to article:

10 Things That Every American Should Know About The Federal Reserve

http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=7982

A friend of mine was showing me the difference between a one dollar silver certificate and a current dollar bill, I have also attached photos of a one dollar silver certificate from 1935 for everyone to see and a current dollar:

It may hard to see but in today’s dollar at the very top it reads “Federal Reserve Note”. On the one dollar silver certificate it reads ” Silver certificate” and at the bottom it reads ” One Dollar, In silver payable to the bearer on demand”.  All of today’s money has no value and by letting the Federal Reserve control the money it is keeping us in debt and getting worse. The congress is supposed to be in charge of the money, but they have given this authority to the Federal Reserve which is nothing more than a private bank run by a bunch of greedy bankers!  I am just helping to spread the word so we call become more educated and hope we as a nation become focused on the serious issues and not what the Kardashians are up to!

Another tense moment while preparing my Income Tax

Once again I faced another tense moment while preparing my income tax as I was calculating, and researching ways as to not have to write a check to the IRS this year! Some might say I am part of the 47% that don’t pay income tax and I say “you are right”, but this does not bother me because I pay tax on income in way of payroll tax, ss tax, medicare tax, state tax and local tax so I think that I should be able to find ways (legally and within the rules of course) not to pay income tax!

I squeaked by this year by having the energy tax credit that I was able to deduct, but if not for that I would be writing a check! To top it all off, I already claim zero exemptions and put 15% in my 401K in order to reduce my tax burden and still on the borderline of paying income tax!

So to all of you all that think the 47% that do not pay income tax are dead beat losers that want to live off the government, guess what? I work, do not get a dime from the government and pay a helluva lot in taxes every year through what I produce from work each year and I don’t think this is fair so I will continue to blog about this and write Congress every chance I get until something is changed.  For the record.. I wrote the President asking why my bonus is taxed at a higher rate than my pay and once I again I get no response from a government that is suppose to work for me but I will keep wiring because I am least trying to do something!

How my Biff was returned to me for Christmas!

First let me clarify what “my Biff” is so this post will make sense and I will post a picture below as well.  Biff is a talking stuffed animal that was made by Mattel in 1965 and he was mine when I was just a “little crum cruncher” at the age of 4 (and by the way I am 48 now!).  I had lost track of him in my twenties with my wife’s aunt taking him saying she would fix him up as his clothes and body needed to be sewn up.  I did not concern my self with it as I had my own family I was raising, working and just dealing with more important things in my life.  I would ask about Biff periodically and my wife said she would check on it and we would move onto something else.

Flash forward to just a few years ago when I found out that Biff had made his way to my brother-in-law who now had possession of him.  Again the same thing, I would bring it up about checking on getting Biff back but it was not that important.  However, in the last year getting Biff back became more important and I will share that later.  Anyway, I was opening presents for Christmas and when I opened the box there was “Biff”!! I couldn’t believe it!! My older son had gotten him, gave him to my sister-in-law to sew up and repair and gave it to me for Christmas!! I was so excited to finally have Biff back in my possession! He doesn’t talk anymore because the voice box is broken, but that doesn’t matter as I have a fond childhood memory back in my possession.

As I reflect on why this is important to me it becomes obvious to me that age may play some part of this.  I find that as I get older I reflect on things that made me happy and that meant something to me and Biff was on of them.  This is not to say that I am not content with Life now, I am.  It just reminds me that having possessions and acquiring things really don’t have any meaning for me and I find myself wanting to spend my time being around my family and friends and remembering what is important and by having Biff back (even though he is an inanimate object) helps me to realize this. Biff helps me to think about the positive things in my childhood and not the negative and what is important to me today.  Biff is now proudly displayed on my bookshelf!

 

Biff

Fish can’t climb trees and my dog can’t fly

The reason for the title to my post is the quote below from Albert Einstein:

Everybody is a genius.  But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.

— Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

I read this and it started me to think about a few things about life that I wanted to share and how sometimes we might make a big deal out of something or pound our heads against the wall in futility for something that may not be achievable.  Think about what it would really look like if a fish was truly trying to climb a tree! The most likely response would be “Look at that stupid fish”, doesn’t even know how to climb a tree.  This assumption would be made because you may have the ability to climb the tree and the fish doesn’t.

I find my self thinking that way about my dog! My dog will chase and bark at  Buzzards that are flying in the air above our house and I will think “Stupid dog, you can’t fly and catch that Buzzard!”  My dog like most dogs are very smart and if I judge my dog based on the fact she can’t fly and catch the buzzard then she may believe she is stupid which would be an incorrect assumption.

I find this quote to be particularly relevant in the workplace where someone may label you as stupid because you are unable or have the skill level to do what they do when in fact you may actually be smarter person.   This could apply to hobbies as well as in my situation where I enjoy taking dance lessons. I have been in group lessons and hear comments about someone being a “terrible dancer” of they “must be dumb”.

So when I sit back and think about this quote I truly believe we “are all geniuses” and just because someone is not cut out to do a particular thing does not make them stupid and to the people who hear that from someone; don’t believe it!  You may not have the ability to “climb a tree” or “fly like the bird”, but you are good at something and while you try don’t let those around you judge and call you “stupid” because we all are a genius at something, we just have to find out what it is.

The annual theft by the Government of my bonus check!

One again I have received my annual bonus and as usual the government takes their standard 42% in taxes that include; Federal, State, Local, Medicare, and Social Security.  I don’t even look forward to it because I know this will be stolen from me and it is quite disheartening to bust your tail all year and hope this extra money will help me catch up on a few things then I look at the deposit and get angry about it!

I am not one to sit around and complain as I try to take action to express my frustration and in this case I have done so by writing my Congressman and Senator. As can be expected I received less than an adequate response to the unfairness of taking this percentage of my bonus.  In a nutshell I was told I could claim this on my taxes and get in back in a refund. Well guess what.. I can’t!!, This is counted as regular income on my W-2 so I can’t enter this on my income tax in a way to get any type of deduction. As a matter of fact I received a two page letter that gave me the “runaround” on why “my money” was stolen from me!

Let me say, I understand there have to be taxes to run the country but when this government is wasting all this money and we give money to countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq that hate us, want us dead and all the while the people in this country are falling farther and farther behind in trying to make a living!  I have a proposal to make with the government: “Go ahead and take 42% from me but in return I want them to give me back the kind of money they are giving to these countries in the Middle East”.  If all Americans were “given” back the money this country hands to these ingrateful nations, the economy would turn around in 6 months!  As long as the government continues to confiscate money from the citizens at an unfair rate the less incentive we all have to work harder and to be better!

I intend on writing another letter to my Representatives on this issue as I will not give up!! It may never change, but it doesn’t do me any good to just sit here a stew about it and I suggest we all do the same and let Washington know we are watching!

 

“Does it matter that Hermain Cain harassed anyone”

I have been following this story over the last few weeks and find it very ironic that since Cain has become a front-runner in the Republican Presidential Primary Race that all of a sudden these women come out of the woodwork claiming they were sexually harassed by him.  Something may have happened, but know one really knows but Cain and these women but there does not appear to be any proof, but this liberal media is all in an uproar about this and reporting on it everyday.  I really don’t understand why they are making a big deal about this because I thought all of this kind of stuff didn’t matter like it didn’t when Bill Clinton was President in the 90′s!!

We were all told by the media during Clinton’s term that sex didn’t matter, these women accusers where crazy etc… and all that mattered was the President Clinton needed to get back to work for the American People!  So to me the liberal media set the template for themselves by allowing this to go as long as they did before holding the President accountable. With President Clinton there was verifiable proof, but with Cain there is none of this to date. For what it is worth, I don’t think the Democrats leaked this story I think it was one of the Republican candidates that leaked this story to knock Cain off the top.

As the polls are showing Cain has not lost that much support because the American people have caught onto the double standard the liberal media plays when it comes to Republican candidates and the media only have themselves to blame as Americans that pay attention remember the 90′s and are not going to be swayed by a liberal media that plays along with destructive politics. Because to me, if it didn’t matter in the 9o’s to the liberal media when it came to President Clinton and his sexual issues, why should it matter in 2012?  The liberals burned that bridge and now they cannot cross back!

How I helped save my pet dog Molly

Every once in a while I will post a blog about my dog molly and based on a recent experience I thought it was time for another.  Last year Molly became very sick with vomiting, not eating, and very lethargic so I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with pancreatitis and kept her for 3 days for a charge if about $400.00.  The vet said because of her age (12) this is a chronic condition that could flare up anytime, by the way Molly is a lab mix.

Anyway, several weeks ago she began to develop these same symptoms again and due to her age and talking to others with old dogs this was old age and she was on the verge of death. I placed in her in the garage on the dog bed and tried to make her comfortable and she just laid there.  I was not really in a position for another large vet bill especially for an older dog with a chronic problem.  I had water for her but he hardly drank as I knew she needed to keep hydrated. I bought pedialite and she would drink this with her water which I thought was good sign, but during the first 5 days of being sick she had not eaten anything.

After 5 days she appeared to be trying to respond but didn’t have any energy and I had tried to give her some protein shake but she wouldn’t drink it.  I was trying to figure out something she would eat to get her strength back and if she would recover then I would decide if I needed to take her to the vet.  So then I thought of the “miracle cure” that brought molly back from the brink of death… “Peanut Butter sandwiches”!! I figured she needed protein to fill her up and restore her energy so I would make them and tear off in pieces so she could eat. After about 3 days of this she began to walk around and go do her business in the yard.  She was slobbering a lot and leaking feces so I decided to take her to the vet and make sure.  He ran tests and nothing came back and gave me a couple of prescriptions and by the evening she was her happy self and ready to eat everything in site like she used too!!

I wanted to share a positive story as animals become part of the family and as has done everything I asked to chasing the buzzards that fly in the sky to eating the mayflies that try to get into the house during the Spring so I decided this was worth my effort to help save Molly along with a little prayer to God!!

molly

Turkey is leading the Arab world against Israel

The developments this week indicate the Palestinian Authority is wanting to be granted statehood by the UN.  To me this process has been heading this way for a long time but really picked up steam last year when Israel stormed the flotilla that was headed to Gaza that had its origin in Turkey.  Fast forward to today and Turkey has all but broken diplomatic relations with Israel, Egypt and Jordan who have peace treaties with Israel and say they are still committed to the treaty but their public statements are tepid at best.  Turkey is on the front line leading these Arab nations into what I believe will be an eventual confrontation.

Turkey is considering sending naval warships to escort the next flotilla that is headed to Gaza in what would no doubt be a confrontation with the Israeli Navy.  The pace of this future confrontation is picking up steam and I believe will occur in the not to distant future.  If Egypt and Jordan decide the peace treaty is no longer in their best interest then Israel is once again surrounded on all sides by hostile countries.  For whatever reason Turkey is taking the lead on this and the only conclusion I can draw as they want Israel out-of-the-way because in their minds this will solve the Palestinian dilemma and the crisis and turmoil that always surround Israel and the Palestinians.

Maybe the Palestinians should have a state and a compromise worked out, but appears to me the elimination of the Jewish state is on the agenda which is in line with what Ahmadinejad of Iran wants.  And to those of you who the United States will stand by Israel at all costs, think again. As rapidly as the world changes and especially in the Middle East don’t be surprised in the United States tells Israel they are on their own.