Christmas at the lake

I was going to name this the first Christmas.  Then I read it and thought better about it.  We had our first family dinner and opening of presents of this Christmas season Sunday afternoon at Marilyn and Ken's house.  Lots of food, lots of presents and lots of fun.  Ransom  made it this year and so there was a scramble for gifts for him.  It is always good to have him.

The boys got DSi from Granny and Lynn.  They have been playing them non stop ever since.  We are going to have to put them on a very short leash as school starts back.  I found out today that you can by the stylists for back up for about $10.00 for 4 of them.  I believe that we will be needing to invest in them.  They also got clothes which they really needed.  Legos and pokeman cards went over great.  

Tim took a lot of Granddads old VHS movies and put them on CD-roms for everyone.  It is very cool to have a copy of them.  It was hard watching parts of them on Sunday.  I am not sure when I will watch them but I know I will.  I want to watch them with the boys and show E his Mama Jo and remind Gman of them both.

We will have 2 more of these with other parts of the family and we are getting to see the Bubba family in Louisville on Sunday.  Thanks for hosting us Charlie and Vivian.  Is Jeff going to make it as well?  Everyone have a great week and be safe traveling.

An update for Ellen

The week before we head home for Christmas and here comes the winter storm.  It almost always happens.  We have had ice storms,  snow storms and even flood warnings on the weekend we come down.  And we have even had a couple that were overly warm.   It is always a good time but the travel can be draining.  We have been very lucky not to get stuck either down there or between here and there.  Ok enough about the weather.

I remember one of the first trips during the holidays started from the other direction.  Beth and I been dating for a  couple of years and had gotten serious.  I drove up to spend Christmas Eve and day with her and her family.  It was a very nervous trip for me.   After dinner and presents at her parents I asked Mike if I could talk to him in private.  Out on their front porch I ask him if I could marry his daughter.  It was one of the hardest but best conversations I ever had.  He told me he would approve but I had to promise to let her finish her degree before we got married.  Beth and I had already talked about that and had agreed to wait till she was done at Murray.  To tie it back in to the first paragraph, it snowed the next day while we were at her grandparents.

The trip always changes. We have added 2 more people to it over the years.  We have lost some people we would try to see.  I think about them all almost daily.  But more so during this time of year.  I miss Marion's float.    I miss playing high nine sitting in Granddad's lap MarthElla's house Christmas day.    I miss going to  Church and helping with Mama jo's toy drive.  I miss going to the park and eating with Papa Frank and the staff for Christmas dinner sometime the week before.

Enough of that.  Everyone come tell me what you want for Christmas.  Not that I have any pull with getting the gifts I just want to know what people are wanting.

A little politics a little tech.

Senator Bernie Sanders has been speaking since 10:24 this morning on the floor of The Senate chamber.  He is the Senator from Vermont.  I wish he was my Senator.  What he is doing is what most people think of as a filibuster.  The Senate has a rule that the members are allowed to speak as long as they want to on what ever issue is being debated  unless there is a vote of 60 members to stop all debate and vote on an issue. A member who does not want a vote or does not like a bill can take their turn during the debate and just keep speaking.  They do not have to stop if the do not want to.  Now that has historically been called a filibuster.  Recently the minority party in the Senate has just made sure that the party in the majority could not get to 60 votes to close the debate.  They have called this a filibuster but it is not really.  It is a parliamentary procedure to stop the Senate from taking action.  It would not allow for anything to be discussed or to be voted on.  Senator Mitch Mcconnell, who is one of my Senators, is very good at the parliamentary procedures in the Senate.  As the minority leader in the Senate he has very successfully stopping many bills that needed to be brought to a vote.  He has also pushed forward the present tax bill Senator Sanders is filibustering.  I really do not think Mitch could ever do what Bernie is doing.  I do not think he has either the guts or the smarts to pull it off.

The tech portion of the posting is this.  Bernie is trending #1 or #2 on the world wide twitter feed for today.  This shows what the future of media and the internet can and will be.  Here is a social tool made famous by an idiot actor sharing something that is much more important than 144 characters could ever convey.  Bernie is on twitter.  I would bet he has a staff person making his posts but he does understand how to use the internet to get his points out. I follow 86 people on twitter.  A lot of them are political people and so my feed has been heavy with Bernie posts today.  But I knew something was going on beyond politics when 1 of the people I follow in the tech world tweeted he was turning on C Span to find out why Bernie was atop the twitter feed.   Then a person who is into comics but follows the tech person asked them what was going on.  They then went and watched.  I am not sure if either watched for long or even cared much after watching.  The idea that both of them saw something online and not spun but others and went to find out about it was wonderful to see.

A Blackberry post

I have tried not to be overly political lately but I can't stop myself.  I do not like the idea of paying higher taxes any more than the next guy. It does not feel good with a smaller paycheck. I do like having Government programs that help the poor, the old, and the young. I like having national defense. I like roads (those that know me know I can not say and bridges).

I think NASA and OSHA and all the other accronymes are for the most part helpful. To pay for all this and more we have to pay taxes. The last 10 years tax policy has not worked. Trickle down, supply side, voodoo economics by what ever name you want to use does not work. It did not work for Bush. It did not work for Reagan. It did not for Thatcher government in England. The issue with it is the falacy that the wealthy will create jobs if they have enough money to do so.

The only time jobs are create in the private sector is when there is enough demand for the goods or services that job will produce. So lowering taxes on the rich just makes them richer. The second issue that has been bothering me is the belief that uncertainty is why business have not been creating jobs how does a temporary extension of the tax cuts help with that. It just gives business another 2 years to not hire people while bringing in record profits. So let the tax cuts expire. Put a cap on spending. Find places to cut the budget and try to balance it. This will help the economy as much as extending the bad tax cuts would. Find a replacement for oil so the trade deficit and national debt both can go down. A stable economy will come back.

Snowy weekend

We had a snowy weekend in Lexington.  The boys got their first basketball games in.  Es team kicked butt.  Lots of bigger kids on the team but he had fun.  Gman's team got roundly beat 60 to 15.  The bigger kids on his team are not really athletic.  Gman had 7 of the 15 points.  He can shoot much better than I can.  He needs to get in and rebound and move to the ball.

Beth has most of the Christmas presents done.  Still working on a few but the majority are finished.  Looks like we will be going down to western Ky on the 18th.  The back on Monday so it will not be to much driving on  back to back days.  

Still thinking and missing.

Christmas time is here.  E has been going back and forth reading the toy adds from the newspaper and mailers.  He has decided he does not need all of the things in them.  Some of them are for girls and babies.  He does not want  those toys.  He is so funny it is beyond me.  This is the first year I can remember him doing this.  Going over the books over and over again reminds me of June and I growing up.  Gman will look at them but he does not study them like E.

It is very strange watching the two of them interact with each other.  They have issues but they are best friends.  June and I fought like cats and dogs.  We only got along when we had a common foe, hi Marilyn and Teresa.  The boys enjoy playing together.  They can spend time just being the same room and have very few issues.  I hope it stays this way for ever.  I know that in 2 years when Gman goes to middle school it is going to be hard on E.  He really does love and look up to his big brother.


We are ending November with a cold Kentucky rain.  It is 26 days away from Christmas and 31 days til then.  Beth has been very busy with her winter meeting.  The boys are getting ready of basketball with lots of practice.  I am just kind of treading water.  Not sure if this fall has been any better than last.  Not sure what I am doing other than going to work and then to bed.  I hope everyone has a good week.

Happy Black Friday everyone.  I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  It was a good time at Bonnie and Mike's yesterday.  We got to see the newest member of the family.   Lukas was the best behaved person there.   Just eating, sleeping and pooping.  What a life.

  

Tiger and Petra did real good.  Now we can only hope that Petra can keep Tiger from being to bad an influence on the boy.  

Beth says she got about half of the Christmas shopping done today.  I am glad she went and not me.  I try to avoid the mall and Wally world most of the time.  This time of the year is even more of a mad house there.  I enjoy people watching but I really do not like that many people in one spot.  Not sure why but it just not my cup of tea.  Speaking of tea, anyone else like the Arizona Arnold Palmer Half and Half?  For tea in a can it ain't half bad (pun anyone?).  

So what is going to be th big gift in your household this year?