Sunday Morning Coming Down

The Heat played like it was the playoffs.  A laugher that allowed Labron to sit out the 4th quarter.  The Marlins need to start hitting or they may not make it out out the cellar.  The Dolphins draft another quarterback. The biggest change in South Florida is where the Dolphins stand in the sports hierarchy.  They may be third in fan interest until they are able to rebuild and get back on their winning ways.  Season ticket sales may not be set the world on fire this year. Championships or not both the Heat and the Marlins have generated some buzz and the sports dollars in South Florida are in short supply.  Sports talk radio down here isn't very excited about what the Dolphins have done for the last few years.  Stephen Ross is not Joe Robbie and as much as the locals disliked Wayne H., he still seems to be feeling his way around owning what should be a proud franchise.  If things keep going the way they have been Jacksonville and Tampa Bay wil...

This was an almost normal day.   Per usual I woke up at about 3:00 am and stumbled to the bathroom.   At this time in the morning the AM radio is filled with sports or crazy people who think they have been visited by aliens.   It takes a while to fall asleep again, not just this morning but just about every morning and on reflection I miss Larry King.   6:00am is the next wake up call.   Teeth brushed, hair combed, coffee started, and then oh crap my back hurts as I try to pick up the morning paper.   I try to catch a few moments of Morning   Joe before Patty wakes up and changes the channel to Despierta   America. Cuban toast has little or no nutritional value but I like it in the morning with spread and peanut butter. By 7:15am Lisvey and Patty are ready for the morning ride to school.   GW Carver in the Grove isn’t my school of choice and there is a bus but the place seems   to fit Lisvey and she has some friends and does most...

I am not up to date with genetics and the sports world.  The horse racing world has crossed a bridge that I was only partly aware of.  Throughbreds and breeding is very old school.  The stallion has a date with a mare.  They do the wild thing and about 340 days later the foal is dropped. Quarterhorse racing and standardbreds skipped the mating ritual more than a few years ago and just recently the AQHA and horse breeders with CLONED horses are in a court fight. I guess the genetics industry has made cloned horses possible.  Things have come a ways since Dolly the cloned sheep.  I realized recently that there was a lot of invitro breeding in the animal science realm.  Embryo transplants, cooled seamen shipped to impregnate mare.  Is the birth mare the horse that donated the egg, the horse that gave birth to the foal?  The answer these days is a resounding maybe, could be, or might not be.  Horse(child) birth can be a dangerous time,...

The Sunday 4/22/2012 Miami Herald tried to write an article about the financial affairs of David Rivera, a member of the House of Representatives.  The article was about as hard to follow as this guy's finances. "According to the article he is being investigated by the IRS and FBI." "The State Attorney in memo wrapping up their case said that Rivera essentially lived off campaign contributions for almost a decade while serving as a part time state legislator." The article lists some of the more questionable items paid for with campaign money and it seems that there are more than a few irregularities with reports regarding campaign funds and income from sources other than his salary as a legislator. I hope he has not done anything that would lead to indictment, the reputation of Congress and its members are under enough clouds as it is. The voters don't need indictments to vote somebody out of office.  If that is the new standard for kicking an incu...

Sometimes I think it would have been easier had I just kept working.  The checks would have been better as long as I was not laid off.  I think I could have absorbed being downsized.  I would have had to fight traffic, and be more organized regarding laundry, housekeeping, food shopping and had to deal with job related stress. For extended periods during my "retirement" maybe I did not have to fight the traffic to get to a job, but getting someone to school and back needed some scheduling and there are continued issues regarding housekeeping cooking and having a part time job.  Thankfully the job is only tough when it is hotter than hell or it rains like crazy.  Otherwise I like my job and the folks I work with. I heard somewhere that all the jobs related to running a house are worth a lot more in money than what some one would receive in Social Security benefits.  A stay at home Mom usually has more than enough challenges is poorly compensate...

The magazine The Economist brought you the Big Mac Index. On April  17, 2012 McDonalds gives you a good deal: buy a Big Mac get another for a penny. The idea for the index was originally to determine how much the same thing was worth in different parts of the world.  Globalization makes this a reasonable measure of relative purchasing power.  In Switzerland a Big Mac is over $8.00, while in India it is only $1.89. The April 7, 2012 Economist ponders the question: How much is an Olympic gold medal worth? This year's medals will be 14 ounces in weight but contain only about six grams of gold (1.5%), and the rest being silver (92.5%) and copper.  The gold medal is worth about $706 at today's bullion prices because silver isn't as cheap as used to be. Winning a gold medal is a ticket to celebrity and maybe a good paycheck or two..., but the medal ceremony with your national anthem being played is priceless.

The latest scandal in the GSA where an official is taking the 5th at a Congressional Hearing is troubling.  It's a shame that this is the way truth is being discovered or buried.  I'm positive there are rules that require people to be frugal in the use of public funds.  There are aspects of the law to educate and inform those in charge administering the law and there is the usual management idea that it is good to get away from the office so that people can get focused and do some really good planning. Road trips for government employees are part of the job for some.  Even local travel to attend meetings happens all the time.  Some meetings relate to policy making and others are routine but necessary.  Road trips that include airfare, car rentals, hotel bills, and meal money are part of the band of usual suspects that need to be roped in occasionally.  Truth be told sometimes these meetings are really good and sometimes you get home and wish you had ...

I guess this was sort of like the pre game parties in Miami during the Super Bowl.  Somethings get out of hand, things should not happen, you wish they would not happen, but they happen anyway.  This is not the first sex scandal in government and it will not be the last one either.  I don't condone this kind of behavior because it reflects badly on everybody involved.  Scandalous behavior should be avoided.  The results will be that some people's careers are ruined and reputations tarnished.  Bill Clinton was a good president mostly but his personal behavior was piggish at best.  Ask Newt Gringrich if he would like a few do overs.  There are security issues that are compromised when this behavior takes place and because the secret in the Secret Service is the standard operating procedure, this will only bring more questions and oversight.  Self regulation of behavior is the best policy but this will be tested, because ...

The attendance at last night's Marlin game was just over 30,000.  This is way down from the sellout figures (36,000) I was expecting.  The Miami Herald reports that several sections were empty and a search of the cable left me thinking the game was not televised. I'm not going down the boycott road yet.  There were the Heat and a Panthers playoff game to compete with and I'm sure the sports dollar down here is spread a little bit thin these days. The Panthers had an announced attendance of 19,919 and 19,600 for the Heat.  The Heat and the Marlins won last night and Gaby Sanchez had a walk off double in the 11th. The lid covered the field last night but it was rainy before the game last night and in minds of many sports fans in Miami that is a good enough reason to stay home and may become the new standard for fan apathy.

Another Omaha Steak question caught my eye last night. If you had no access to a car would you prefer a horse or a bicycle?  The romantic in me says,"Buy the horse, take the ride.  Credit HST.  I bet my horse would raise more eyebrows than any car in any parking lot I visit in South Miami.  But the practical side of me says a bicycle would be more economical and a lot easier to deal with after a few rides to the convenience store to buy beer or ice cream. In today's world this question this is not a small issue.  There are issues regarding health and safety when people who ride bikes are run over by cars.  Economics may also force people to find less expensive means of transportation and the price of gas is no small component.  Buses in Miami and even the light rail system have a methodology encouraging people to commute at least partly by bicycle. Access to a car and or a driver's license looms large in finding a job and a whole host of oth...

Only in Miami would a manager's comment about Fidel Castro make front page news.  Ozzie said  "I respect Fidel Castro.  You know why?  Many people have tried to kill Fidel Castro in the last 60 years and yet the SOB is still there."  In most circles down here Bin Laden, Castro and Sadam would get a response like two out of three ain't bad, but why is it taking so long to get Fidel.  I also think the Venezuelan connection with Hugo Chavez doesn't help either.  The comment is tone deaf at best and insulting to many that live in Miami The Marlin's had their home opener and then ran off to the Queen City to play Cincinnati.  0-2 is not the best way to start out the season.  Hitting was lacking in both games.  Saturday was better but there is a long way to go. The Cubs on the other hand?  They  have lost another couple of games.  As of Saturday they were 0-2 also.  I know the road is a tough place b...

This book was published in the 1940's.  It captured in pictures and words rural life and poverty during the 1930's in the South.  It was written by James Agee and had photographs by Walker Evans.  It was originally going to be a magazine article about the life of share cropping families in the South. There was a parody of the subject printed in Time "Let Us Now Praise Resentful Men" where the striving of the wealthy to keep with the really wealthy was lampooned. An article in the Motley Fool Investment letter caught my eye, " All Wealth Is Relative".  Long story short: $1,000 a day may not pay for private schools, ritzy cars, fancy addresses, vacations and travel, but the average wage of a person of $40,000 is wealthy compared to people grinding it out on $2-$5 a day in Haiti. Living in Miami, we have Fisher Island and a lot more people scraping by and still sending money to Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, or letting a friend sleep on their couch until they can fi...

Tonight is a big night in Miami.  The new Miami Marlin Stadium has its real opening day finally.  After almost two full seasons of waiting the Fish play the Cards.  I'm sure of a few things about the opening even before it happens.  $632,000,000 is a lot of money for a stadium, even with a retractable roof, and air conditioning. Miami fans will complain about the parking situation and even the local residents near by that will rent every possible inch of their driveways, front yards and backyards will have something bad to say about the situation.  It's going to be a long season and will probably spawn a local version of "Parking Wars". This is going to be a hot ticket.  The expectations to field a winning team have never been higher and the owner of the Marlins won't have Sunlife Stadium to kick around any more.  And at least for a couple of years the fans will be saved from wholesale cutting of payroll an...

For my birthday I bought a small package of Omaha Steaks.  Patty said the "Obama" steaks son buenos.  I corrected her.  Obama had nothing to do with the steaks, they were OMAHA Steaks.  We laughed.  It was ironic because Omaha Steaks had included some conversation starters for people as they stood around the grill. The question that caught my eye was: if you could be president for a day would you?  The follow up was what would you do? Beyond a ride on Air Force 1 and a few hours at Camp David little interests me in the job in spite of the fact that both my parents promoted the idea that I or anybody else born in the country over the age of 35 could become president.  I'm almost positive that the parents of every president from Kennedy to Obama told their children something similar. Today I doubt there is any consensus regarding successes in foreign policy or domestic policy in any recent administration.  The partisan nature of the criti...