And the beat goes on.....

There has been a gap in my "post" the last few weeks because life's been crazy. Char and I have been dealing with multiple problems on several fronts (Char more so) and finding the time to sit here has been difficult. I have a couple of things on my mind, so I've decided a grab bag post was in order.

First off, the major reason for the gap have been health issues of family members. My Dad went in the hospital the beginning of the month followed a few days later my Char's son Jason. My Dad came out quickly and everything seemed fine, but Jason was is serious trouble. His Crohn's had flared up badly. It turned out he had a raging infection from a perforated intestine and had turned septic. Needless to say, an emergency operation was performed and he spent 3 weeks in the hospital recovering. He has only now returned to our home to recuperate.

My Dad, on the other hand, seemed fine and went home. Only to return to the hospital this week with what appears to be a serious problem. He has developed problems with his intestines complicated by his 30 year battle with heart problems.

Both of which speak to the title of the blog. Jason has had a difficult time reconciling his past. He wants to deny his illness and, therefore, allowed his condition to deteriorate before seeking help. My Dad has been honest about his condition and communicated it everyone in the family which allows all of us to be fully prepared and well informed when problems arise. Jason wishes to have a better past, my Dad embraced his past and worked with it.

On lighter notes.....

I hope everyone has noticed that alleged President George Bush, after screaming that Barak Obama was a fool and an appeaser for suggesting we talk to Iran, has sent Undersecretary Of State William Burns to Geneva .....to talk to Iran! Good thing Obama brought it up.

California is considering allowing Insurance Companies to offer discounts to drivers who drive less each year. To validate your reduced driving the Insurance Companies only need to install this little GPS unit in your vehicle. The device only records basic information like; how many miles you drove, how rapidly you accelerated, where you went, how long you were there, how fast you drove and how hard the brakes were applied when you stopped. What a deal!!!! For saving less than $100.00 a year you can have Big Brother as a co-pilot. What do you want to bet that after the first year nearly everyone on the program gets kicked to an "assigned risk" category and have their rates skyrocket.....Oh, and they're going to share the information with other insurance companies, so changing companies won't help, you're branded.

The Bush Presidency is slowly spiraling to an end, where is Carl Rove when the Neo-Con's need him? The thing all of you have to understand is....I'm as Republican as anyone (although registered as "decline to state"). The Bush Presidency is an insult to my Republican values. He has brought about Big Government, Big spending and attacked civil liberties. Republicans have ALWAYS been about small government, balanced budgets, and governments that stay out of the way of people and business. And he thought we were all stupid with his "evidence" for attacking Iraq.....Complete Failure.

Hey Barry Bonds! What do you think of personal relationships now? Do you still believe you don't need any ones approval? Do you still think that your superior talent will win the day?

I do not agree with the Government bailout of the Mortgage Industry. Spending 300 Billion Dollars to protect poorly issued home loans is ridiculous! The Mortgage Industry should live with their bad loans. They accepted these borrowers and the borrowers accepted the loans, both parties should be forced to work it out on their own! 40/50 year terms with reduced monthly payments or the borrower sells other assets (extra cars, vacation homes) to make a "second down payment" to refinance the balance. It should not be up to the taxpayers to insulate these people from their mistakes. I own property in two states and I only bought what I could afford or what paid for itself through collecting rents. If anything the Mortgage Companies are the villains here, they accepted "stated income" loans with no verification, they didn't do background checks, they have the loans they were accepting. Broker commissions were all that mattered.

OK, I feel better now.