Sunday Morning Coming Down

A UFC combatant last night had his leg snapped in two pieces last night.  The guy on the radio described it as horrifying, nauseating, traumatising, beyond gruesome...  He then went on to predict that the next UFC match up will generate more pay per view eyeballs and ultimately benefit the sport, even though the MMA guy's career is over. Call me a wimp, soft, unmanly or what ever you want.  This is one replay I hope I never see.  Beyond the Rocky movies I could skip boxing.  Football with its short term and long term injury issues is troubling and I don't find NASCAR crashes as entertaining as I once did.  There are lots of sports and games that can turn into blood sports and I think rules that promote the safety of the participants should not be ignored. I think my attitude is changing because I'm getting older and probably feel vulnerable in ways that never would have crossed my mind before.  I've fallen and I can't reach my beer used to be funny...

The  6th race at Hialeah Park was a tough one.  Stolicknaya who had won his last was moving up in class.  This was like a stakes race we would have entered if he had won his last race in Iowa.  People who missed his last race showed up this time.  People who I've had a beer with were kind of intrigued that they actually met someone who owned (a part of a) horse.  A few wrote down his name, being a holiday weekend it is possible they and the connections would be betting on the horse. The morning line said 20-1.  I thought that was a fair price, if he broke well, ran in a straight line, and ran like crazy, he might have a chance. Arriving at the track, there had been a jockey change, I kind of figured that the original jockey had too much to eat on Christmas.  His plate of turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing and a beer did not bode well for making 126 pounds and unfortunately middle age jockeys have difficulty cutting weight.  Some bitch about ...

It once was that Christmas Morning was early.  As of 2013 and from now on I guess I'll be able to sleep in.  Whatever Santa brought got here by way of Amazon Prime late last week. The parking at the Malls has been crazy and I don't even care if I have to walk a lot.  Just finding a space has been a challenge and to those folks that like to bird dog spaces of shoppers that are about to leave and feel entitled to block the road, a big lump of coal. This morning it is in the low 70's.  Last night I dreamt about fresh Cuban Bread toasted and flattened on la plancha with butter.  The bread is about as far away from whole grain as possible and very airy until mashed down in one of those sandwich makers. The Miami Herald was late.  I could be an early morning hero, buy some bread and catch a few last minute items that were missed on the last trip to the market and get donuts for the late risers. Publix gives their employees Christmas da...

About 4:00 pm yesterday as the horses came out on the track there was a lot of anticipation.  Zoominthe wind had looked good while being saddled. The jockey had already had a winner on the program and I was on my way to the window to bet on the race.  The owners of the horse were watching the race on their computer and a young couple had their hopes up.  A live horse in an big race that would be almost $39,000 to the winner would be very good for business. I had high hopes also for Randy and Lindsey in this race.  Six months ago escaping the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado with the clothes on their back to winning this race would have been quite a journey.  In hindsight just getting into the race is a big deal of sorts. And they're racing.  350 yards is not a long race, it's over in a little over 17 seconds.  For Zoominthewind, sadly the race was almost over with the first step she took out of the starting gate where she stumbled slightly and then took a d...

The Hialeah Moose Lodge had a Latin dinner last night.  Pork, black beans, rice and yucca,and plantains, beer, soft drinks and door prizes.  The food was good and I sat at a table with a few horse people from Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Maryland. Try as I might to explain the yucca with mojo did not go over well as a side dish.  I've lived in Miami so long that rice and beans or yucca have almost replaced potatoes on my plate.  This is Hialeah but in some ways I think the lodge is sort of an Alamo for folks making a last stand on a lot of fronts. The place is a corner bar, it's private but if your heart is beating and you can reach the buzzer you're in and you will probably recognize someone if you have been in the neighborhood for a while. Bingo on Wednesdays and Sundays, poker other days and a fish fry on alternating Fridays.  Back in Illinois this place could have passed for Jerry's, Del's Tap, or more than a few between Wood Dale and Bensenville. ...

Just some pictures from Hialeah Park this morning.  This is a cool place to hang out.  #1 is a shot from under the tote board looking at the walking ring.  Horses go from the backside out to the track. #2 Is a picture of the track next to the winner's circle.  Hope to visit the WC on Sunday with Zoominthewind.  The 2yo. is running in the feature race.  Florida Stallion Stakes. #3 This is a statue of Citation.  He wintered at Hialeah and was the first horse to win $1,000,000.

This is still sort of a dream.  Really.  Stolicknaya won the 8th race at Hialeah Park this afternoon.  I almost wore a Kentucky Derby shirt I bought on the internet in 2005 to the races, I almost wore a cowboy hat, I almost wore a pink shirt in honor of Hialeah Park. I'm going to retire the West Virginia University Cargquest Bowl T-Shirt that made it to the races.  Mountaineers Never Say Die, win or lose this was an in your face deal.  You play the game to win, although I just really wanted the horse and rider to get back to the barn safely.  Anything beyond that a bonus. He broke clean and ran them all down.  The race was 350 yards and shortly after the break he started picking horses up one after the other.  With each stride as he got going, I started yelling he going to win and he did.  Two folks that came to the track with me had never ever been to the races.  The trainer bet the horse, my friends bet the horse, and I bet th...

Some folks sleep in on Saturday Morning.  I've been getting up early to watch horse workout and this Saturday was something I've never seen before.  The horse gets saddled up, the rider gets to the barn, rider up and then we ran to the car to drive over where the starting gate is.  On the way the trainer says he hope the rider doesn't fall off between the barn and the gate.  A loose horse can be a scary proposition. This morning The Beaver is going to stand in the starting gate, practice for Sunday's race.  If all goes well this should take about five minutes.  If the horse goes berserk, they may need to repeat the process and the guys that work the starting gate and the rider will have earned their money. Randy Weidner was happy and relieved all went well.  The horse knows the drill, and hopefully he will remember to behave professionally on Sunday.  Off to the racing secretary's office to see who is entering horses for Friday, the d...

I eat at the same McDonalds every Thursday Morning.  I usually eat off the $1.00 menu. Sausage burrito and a small diet coke.  Once and a while I have an order of hotcakes. This McDonalds is a franchise.  The staff is almost the same every week.  All adults a little bit younger than me.  It's almost fast food most of the time.  Sometimes the line is a little bit long, but I usually enjoy the break and during the summer it's a welcome stop. Thursday, management was taking orders everywhere, drive in and at the counter.  The store was short staffed and I can only guess a couple of people called in sick of working for less than $8.00. I'm sure that raising the minimum wage in Florida would be a cause for fewer people to work for the minimum.  I'm sure I own McDonald's stock as part of a mutual fund or two.  I'm sure that I would still eat fast food if the minimum wage went up.  But I might eat more peanut...

According to reports this is the very first time ever that the Icelandic Police killed anybody. (Since they started keeping records of this.) Bloomberg News calls Iceland a weird place. there is a registered gun for about 33% of the population and yet the police just don't shoot people, at least not until yesterday. Being of Icelandic descent I can only imagine that going for a gun to settle something is not on the radar.  Maybe because of living on a small island it is clear that you can run but you can't hide. The homicide rate is a fraction of the rate in the U.S., buying a gun is difficult and time consuming.  About all I can add to the discussion is the homogeneous nature of the population ethnically, racially, and economically.  Maybe people don't feel entitled to kill someone if they get pissed off, because your neighbor is more or less just like you.

Stolicknaya will be running from the #10 position in Sunday's 8th race at Hialeah Park.  I'm reminded of The Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want".  On one hand the race might be a little bit shorter than desired, but if the Beaver can get out of the gate without any problems, he might be alright.  Sixty percent of $8,000 will pay the feed bill and the trainer for a while. The horse looked good the last time on the track.  There is money for new shoes and a last minute checkout by the vet, and the jockey knows the horse.  I'll be visiting the horse on Saturday in the PM and hope all goes well until I see him in the paddock on Sunday.  It's only Tuesday, this might not be like jumping the shark, but I'm already getting psyched.

I guess the criticism of healthcare reform as income redistribution was inevitable.  I'm sure the same thing was said about Social Security, Medicare, and every other social safety net program.  Charity is wealth redistribution too.  Volunteering, to the extent that it helps someone is also wealth redistribution.  I guess helping people live longer, healthier lives through insurance subsidies to the poor and middle class is not something we should strive for. If you have a crappy job and your employer doesn't provide health insurance and you have a low birth weight baby and get an astronomical bill, should the hospital keep your baby until you pay the bill, or refuse to provide care, and make the survival of the baby a problem. There will be winners and losers, I'm sure.  It took us a relatively long time to get to such an expensive system of health care and adding folks with preexisting conditions and providing reasonable basic levels of cove...

At the most simple level I feel it is better that the leaders of Iran and the United States are on speaking terms.  It is also better that there seems to have been progress in Syria related to chemical weapons. They are however still killing each other in Syria, Iraq may be returning to something like the civil war between the Shias and the Sunnis and from the last statistics I can find there were almost 31,000 gun related deaths in the United States of America.  Not much progress on that front either.  Afghanistan needs our help and money but can't stand us. I'm not sure how much absolute progress is possible. Saudi Arabia and Iran are still in a proxy war with serious religious overtones and Israel seems to be marching to the tune of its own drummer. Nobody said it was going to be easy and it isn't.  At least we are pumping more of our own oil but even that doesn't seem to be of much help. 

I got up early this morning.  The dry season is taking a little time off.  Rainy and gray, if this had been Chicago we would have digging out of a whole season's worth of snow.  About all I can complain about is mud on the backside and some pretty big puddles. Stolicknaya was out on the track this morning.  He looked really good and was really motoring through the finish line.  After he finished working I hung around to watch the clockers do their thing as about ten horses worked out and they tried to get the name of the horse and the time the horse ran right.  This seemingly simple task can be screwed up quite easily.  Most of the horses don't stick out in a crowd and identifying horses requires, the clockers, exercise riders, and trainers to cooperate.  There is little benefit for the connections to report a bullet workout unless the horse needs a published work to race. Back in the barn the horse looked good and the trainer complained ...

November 18, 2013,I'm now an official horseman at Hialeah Park.  It's kind of neat.  I paid for the Florida owners license a few weeks ago and yesterday I got a picture id.  Right now it is sort of like an all access pass and you can watch some real horsemen taking care of their horses.  It's a 24/7 job, new horses are arriving all the time and when the track is open early in the meet it can be busy with horses eating breakfast, working out on the track, practicing at the starting gate, getting bathed, groomed, and having their stalls cleaned, hay distributed and their feet checked out daily. After the morning rush, things slow down but there are still things to do.  The help and the horses all have their schedules.  Thunderstruck Stable has entered Stolicknaya in the Orange Blossom Stakes on November 29, 2013.  I'm doubtful he will make the race because he has only won a little over $20,000 in his lifetime and will be up against ...

I've spent a little time at Hialeah Park this weekend.  This isn't like hard time.  It isn't very much different than weekends in South Miami.  The venue is a little bit different, but there is beer, food and sports on multiple TVs.  There are also slot machines and backside of the race track is open and it's almost like the rodeo is in town.  Western shirts, worn blue denim and cowboy hats are very obvious signs that Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana and places out West are here and there will be races. This is also about logistics, communications, and animals.  The trainer said he is itching to get on the road.  The message was received on Friday morning.  Ocala is about 300 miles north of Miami.  The trainer also said he needs to make two trips to get set up at Hialeah.  One trip hauling the horses and stuff for racing, the other trip to bring the camper and get it set up. Like it or not this is a little bit complicated.  R...

I'll be frank this story is a few days old and it seemed so Miami that I did not pay much attention to it. Gerardo Nales boards a small aircraft at Tamiami airport, he and pilot, Felipe Fons fly out over the Biscayne Bay off Key Biscayne. The pilot tells investigators Nales opens the door of the plane and falls 2000 feet to his death. The police can't find the body.  The police won't say why the two were out flying, and as of this morning are unsure if a crime has been committed. This happened one other time.  A lady chartered an airplane and jumped out of the plane over her parents house in South Dade.  The pilot was quoted as saying "my passenger just left the airplane".

Ted Arison, the father of the owner of the Miami Heat and Carnival Cruise Line died a citizen of Israel after being born in Palestine, moving to the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen and making his fortune in two cruise lines, Norweigiean and Carnival Cruise Lines and then renouncing his citizenship to avoid estate taxes.  His daughter is the richest person in Israel and his son Mickey is the 73rd richest person in the U.S. and is a major owner in Carnival Cruise Line and and the Miami Heat. I'm in favor of creating jobs and the cruise industry is huge in Miami.  It is an affordable vacation option for a lot of Americans.  When things go well it can be a great experience.  If there are problems a refund of your ticket and a big discount on a future cruise may or may not make up for your discomfort. People have jobs in Miami selling cruises, taxis have passengers, hotels sell rooms while passengers wait for their cruises to start, and restaurants ha...

Yesterday, my paying job got done at about 5:00 pm.  I started early as usual but got distracted by life, like eating breakfast, buying gasoline, going to atm to get cash and making a return trip to the homestead.  Usually I do some of Thursday deliveries on Wednesday but picking up Lisvey after school kind of put a wrench into that and a late start did not help either.  So the long march on the Thursday was about an hour longer than usual.  The math lesson was a little bit geometry and a little bit multiplication and not much more than checking homework.  I'm thankful for that.  I'm also thankful for the Internet.  One forgotten assignment was retrieved through a text message regarding vocabulary words for a civics class.  I'm still not sure if  Lisvey remembers who Joe Biden is or who the other senator from Florida is. Sometimes I even forget about Bill Nelson. Last Sunday, the Miami Herald had a front page story about...

Usually they insist we deliver stuff faster, and closer to the front door and that it never get wet.  I'm getting too old to run and making sure it is hung on the door knob slows things down as well, and sometimes it rains so hard and there is so much lightning they would prefer you to find a coffee shop to wait out the storm. The Miami Herald moved to the suburbs away from their old building and the transition hasn't been smooth.  Almost weekly they have been having issues bagging the "product" and this causes problems with timely delivery of advertising materials that are time sensitive.  Today we got word of even a more serious delay.  The product did not arrive at the warehouse until late Tuesday and won't be ready for delivery until ??? My life is simpler when I am working now.  The weather is cooler and has been less rainy and the pedometer reading of 28,000 steps means I'll get a good nights sleep. Others, will need to scramble.  Th...

I read just about any newspaper I can get my hands on.  This is one of the fringe benefits of where I work.  The Miami Herald distributes not only the local fish wrap but a Spanish language version of the Herald which seems actually quite different editorially, the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Business Journal, El Pais, Diario Las Americas, the Sun Sentinel, the New York Post, and the NY Daily News.  I can usually find a copy of one of these papers in the warehouse before they get recycled when I go to work. Yesterday, while reading some articles from USA Today I came across an story about a comedian who was starting pop up churches for atheists. Locally, I attend the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami.  My Dad was a Unitarian, my Mom seemed like a Unitarian but she liked praying and taking communion and enjoyed going to church on Sunday. My religious epiphany came when I realized that if there w...

From personal experience I've had at least one person without health insurance living in my house for too long a period.  It's a drag to listen to a person complain about pains and then not have enough money to pay for a trip to the doctor and complain about that as well.  Organic food does not completely stop the ravages of time. From personal experience I get my medical care either on campus at the University of Miami or Jackson Memorial Hospital.  I rarely have long waits and my insurance coverage seems to be adequate and I have been lucky to avoid expensive medications.  There has been much published about the difficulties of maintaining yourself in the middle class. These days, the price of food, gasoline, health insurance, education, college tuition all seem to go up and where I work, people on staff continue to be furloughed for an extra two weeks and they accept the situation because the job market in Miami is still lousy and people now get thei...

Today they will be running in the 36th Lighthouse Run on Key Biscayne.  Actually the race is probably over by now. Almost thirty two years ago I started jogging with friends on Saturday mornings  Training runs began at 7:00am at the Parrot Jungle and we ran through one of the nicest neighborhoods in Miami past houses where the richest people in town lived.  Times have changed and I'm not sure we could run the same route we used to run.  The folks across from Fairchild Gardens like their privacy and it looks like gates exist to keep the runners out so the landscaping people can work without distraction on the weekends. Labor Day began the "fall racing season", their would be 10k races every weekend until Memorial Day.  There were between 500 to 1500 runners each week at the races.  I became on of the committed who ran a lot and my knees and joints remind me regularly.  T-shirts, a beer truck, or if the race was a big one even Ben&Jerry's sent ...

I've lived in Florida for my entire adult life.  Some things I take for granted.  The summers are uncomfortably hot and by August I wish I lived somewhere else.  It is no surprise that the North Carolina is a popular place for those that can afford to escape the tropics for a while. Another thing I take for granted are low taxes.  There are no state income taxes. The state sales tax has a lot of exemptions and the real estate property tax levy has a hefty homestead exemption where the valuation of property a state resident lives in is kept lower than it should be and property appraisers and review boards that make points by keeping official valuations low also. Miami Dade County and the State of Florida and the Miami Dade School Board levy ad valorem based on the value of real estate.  It can be a very significant tax if you live in a wealthy neighborhood, in a big house.  In more rural areas where a retiree might live in a trailer, ...

The fact that there are insurance companies wrote insurance policies that are both cheap and don't cover much is not big news. Back in the 1980's there was something similar happening in the Medi Gap insurance market.  Senior citizens bought policies that they thought would pay the rest of the bills that Medicare did not cover.  They realized that Medicare would not pay for everything and the policies were popular.  According to the Inquirer back in 1987 about 80% of those over 65 had Medi Gap policies. Insurance experts back then realized that most Medi Gap policies were a bad deal, costing too much and paying out too little.  The companies made money, the agents made big commissions and the customers were left holding the bag.  Less than 60 cents was being paid out for each dollar received in premiums.  Good health insurance should pay out at least 85 cents per premium dollar. Claude Red Pepper a really old guy in congress fought the insur...

I wish they had replays of the World Series Games during the afternoons.  This year I found myself falling asleep listening to the games on the radio. Country music has some very interesting song titles.  I think the best I've heard lately is "Sleeping With Some Stranger's Wife/Husband". When is the elevator in the Big Bang Building going to be fixed? I doubt that winning the lottery is a practical retirement plan. Health care reform is an idea whose time has come.  And sadly I think it is also the beginning of an ugly inter generational struggle.  Congress and the processes it follows needs reform even more than the country needs health care reform.

For many years I managed an office that worked with the unemployed, the folks that needed retraining, and folks that received public assistance. It wasn't an easy job when the economy was in recession.  It wasn't an easy job when Miami was being flooded with refugees from Central America, South America, and the Islands.  It was only marginally easier when the unemployment rate was lower, employers were hiring, and the government was functioning. Assistance from the government like unemployment insurance, food assistance, and job retraining in Florida requires that people be eligible for assistance and the assistance is limited in scope and duration. Today, it was reported that there will be a cut in the amount of food assistance provided to those previously receiving assistance.  Some will be cut off entirely, others will have their benefits reduced and greater efforts will be made to get them back into the workforce. There will always be disag...

In my early 40's an admissions counselor from the University of Miami came to my office to talk about what it would take to get one of my kids to enroll.  I was puzzled by this visit because I was single and had no children but the conversation was interesting anyway. I told the fellow that on my salary which was comfortable but not great, I would advise my children if and when, that they should go to FIU or FSU or another state school because it would be more affordable.  I told him that on my salary or the salary of a teacher, a private school tuition was beyond my pay grade.  Back then tuition was about $10,000 per semester, now it is about $20,000 per semester. He confidently said that they could put together a package for qualified students that would make attending the University of Miami similar in cost to attending one of the state universities Today I got an email from UM announcing a legacy admission forum. "As admission to the University is becoming ...

Will Flash Me was entered in the Texas Classic Futurity at Lone Star Park.  This is a big big race that will have a purse of $1,000,000, two weeks from now.  Horses are nominated for the race almost before they are born and their owners must make periodic payments to continue their eligibility for the big race.  Two year olds running four hundred yard tonight for as much as $2,600 and a chance for a big payoff on November 9, 2013. Many are entered but only the ten fastest times will qualify for the finals. A lot of owners entering their best horses for the chance to win some serious cash.  The trials are weird races with maybe a couple of really good horses running and then other horses that are looking for lightning in a bottle. Saturday night ninety eight horses in ten races.  Houdini, Coronado Cartel, Big Biz Perry, Hes Relentless all qualified for the finals along with six other horses.  These are some of the best horses in the game these days....

 I think Ben Carson has been a great surgeon and his story is certainly inspirational.  Tax reform is a good idea.  Personal responsibility is a good idea. Health savings accounts, adequately funded from birth is an interesting concept.  A better educational system that does a better job of rewarding achievement is a good as well. We should all aspire to do the best we can. Doctor Carson has been paid handsomely for his medical talents and in spite of his protestations to the contrary he is doing is own redistribution by helping with scholarships for worthy students. I'm of the opinion that the heroism he has shown in his life is a good thing, but it is ultimately heroic in nature and that it is difficult to reproduce on a mass basis.  Heroism involves something voluntary, service oriented, involves risk, done without the need for compensation. His Mom obviously kicked him in the ass enough mentally if not physically to make sure he got the mes...

Just finished visiting the health care exchange website.  I set up my access to the website and did all the stuff necessary to sign up for insurance. I currently have insurance but it is something I pay for myself and if you can save some money these days on stuff I'm not above doing some research and seeing what the options are. The website is more complicated to navigate than others.  I appreciate the need for security and the complexity of determining eligibility and using data from other sources to help determine eligibility is bound to have some bugs that need to be worked out. The biggest issue that is going to be fought out as this goes forward is that there are going to be fifty plus versions of the Affordable Care Act because it is state based. Some states are going to support the efforts to provide good quality health care at an affordable price and others are going to start, stumble, fart, and fall and hopefully get up along the way. States that decide ...

Now I watch football on Saturdays and Sundays.  The bullfights were literally gory, the football games of today show player getting their brains rattled in slow motion.  Less blood but still dangerous.  After watching a recent Frontline Program on high school football, I have my doubts about the national pastime.  Head injuries from repeated trauma that doesn't even reach the level of concussion can begin in high school.  Orthopedic injuries that leave players crippled are not uncommon and that doesn't include players left paralyzed from broken necks and backs.  In Florida hardly a season goes by without some teenager dying from heatstroke in practice before the season even starts. Today's players are much bigger, a lot faster, and the injuries are more numerous and severe.  My cousin Phil Johnson was a gifted athlete in baseball, basketball and football.  His parents never let him play tackle football because they thought the sport was t...

I live in one of the nicest neighborhoods around Miami in an "old" condo conversion apartment complex that was built in 1950 as military housing I think.  The neighborhood is changing.  A couple of similar groups of buildings were knocked down and were replaced by $700,000 town homes.  Just about all the "older" houses are being knocked down and replaced by larger houses with price tags north of $1,000,000.  If you are in your 60's I guess this is what you have in your future.  Getting knocked down and being replaced by something new.  And so it goes. In the interim neighbors come and go, some renters and owners and the expenses for maintaining property continue.  The housing bubble did significant damage to the association finances.  When 10% of the units go through foreclosure and the process takes a long time it can be difficult for those remaining.  In Florida the situation the earlier investors bailed and now the new investor...

The political battles of late in this country have been bad for this country over all.  The partisanship has spilled over into just about everything.  You don't need an advanced degree in anything to realize that the extremeism that has been exhibited is a crappy strategy and as a tactic doesn't get the job done either. If you believe the healthcare system in this country has been working you are living in a different world than I am.  Being excluded from getting affordable insurance because you have a pre-existing condition or are so poor that you can't afford anything other than a trip to the emergency room.  Yet I think that there is a point to be made that just having sick folks sign up for previously unobtainable coverage won't solve the healthcare problems that exist in this country.  If younger healthier folks don't sign up and we don't figure out a way to lower the cost of health care for everyone, reform as we envision may be a fools errand. ...

Senator Coburn of Oklahoma is concerned about the growth in Social Security Disability payments.  He has a valid point when he says he thinks the program is being gamed.  There has been a change in the way the program is being administered for sure.  Folks are getting approved for the program that would never have been deemed so disabled that they were unable to work in the past. Previously, it was almost impossible to qualify for the program and folks scuffled along and some employers hired folks and received tax credits for their efforts and jobs were restructured to keep others working.  This required an economy that was growing and a much lower rate of unemployment.  When the unemployment rate is below 4.5%  and there is a good chance for a job for all that are looking for work this is not a major problem for the economy. If you watch daytime TV, you a the target market for lawyers looking for work/clients and are willing to take your case to t...

I just finished reading a Face Book posting about I guy that had to stand in line and wait while the cashier and the customer worked out a difficult order that included cash, an electronic benefits transfer card and coupons clipped from advertisements.  He didn't go crazy and there was no rant about food stamps, a refreshing change from what might have been ugly. Bravo I say, no drama, no rage, the groceries go in the bag, out the door and are part of the family's meal for the week or days.  Not that long ago, Mom might have been fumbling around for coupons to pay for the items that were purchased.  In Florida the card gets swiped just like the guy in front of me this evening who swiped his AMEX and was buying a lot of wine and getting an 10% discount for buying it by the case. The usual practice when you've spent too much at Winn Dixie is sort of like a reverse checkout and you get a second chance to decide if you really wanted what you put in the bask...

If you can get Congress to the dirty work I guess you can be anything you want to be.  The NCAA is a tax exempt organization because it claims to be organized for educational purposes and the NFL is a trade organization. Both of these organizations benefit a great deal from the way the tax law treats them.  Some coaches of big time college basketball don't want to pay their schools to be required to pay players and are perfectly happy to collect outsize salaries and money from shoe and equipment companies for using their products.  The scholarships the players receive can be significant benefits to the average players and their families but in more than a few ways the NCAA uses an antiquated idea of amateurism to exercise a control over participants that strikes me as a kind of plantation mentality. The revenue sports pay for the other sports or so the story goes.  If you are good enough to get on TV and fill the stadiums and sky boxes and play in ...

Reykjavik Geothermal is going to build a geothermal plant in Ethiopia in the Great Rift Valley and it will provide enough energy to provide electricity for about one million homes.  Iceland will build the plant and sell the power to the Ethiopian Power Company.  Clean energy in a part of the world that can benefit from some development.  The cost is estimated to be four billion dollars.  Icelandic Review says Icelandic Geothermal Companies have built 30 similar projects in various parts of the world. 

In a few weeks the quarter horses will return to Hialeah Park for weekend racing from November 29, 2013 to February 23, 2014.  The late night weekend concerts may take some time off because the horses need their rest before the afternoon races. The State of Florida gave me an owner's license which will let me visit the backstretch to bring donuts and coffee to friends in the morning.  $120.00 also gets you some interesting e-mails from the state and regular information about how much the state makes from its various gambling enterprises. I've also become careful reader of the condition book which lists the kind of races the track will be having to see which races the Thunderstruck Stable might enter.  The trainer is shooting to enter an opening day stakes race.  In race track terms preference will be given to those horses with the most lifetime earnings for the 550 yard race.  In quarter horse terms the $25,000 race will draw some very good horses....

The Pork Choppers are alive and thrive in North Florida.  Thanks to Fred Grimm a Miami Herald Columnist I've been informed of a manner of gerrymandering I'd really never thought of. Prisons are big business in rural areas and in some rural states for sure.  West Virginia when it became a state had to decide where the state university would be and where the state prison would be.  It came down to a coin toss of sorts.  Moundsville won and chose to be the site of the prison, Morgantown lost and became the site of West Virginia University.  The Moundsville Prison is now a tourist attraction and on many Saturdays the crowd in the football stadium is larger than any other city in the state for about three hours.  Go figure. Districts in Florida are supposedly equal in the fact they each have about 157,700 people in each district.  District Seven in North Florida has about 20,000 inmates in the district.  District Five ...

Last Wednesday, I'm listening to NPR and there was a collection of recordings from Story Corp as part of their fund raising efforts for WLRN.  I've heard the interviews that become stories on the radio many times and it is regular part of the Morning Edition on Fridays. There was a story about a call a lady got shortly after 9:00 am on 9/11 from the 103 floor of the WTC.  The caller was pretty much doomed and I guess he felt it was time to call his ex-wife and say good bye and that he loved her.  Even though divorced, the couple still cared for each other.  I have a hard time thinking about a situation like that.  Oh shit my life is over, but I still have a few moments, what should I do.  He did the right thing. My Mom died the evening of 9/9/2001.  Forty days in a hospice facility is a long time.  She got good care and kind of slipped away.  Very little drama at about 6:00 pm, my sister and I decided to go home for something to eat ...

Going to an emergency room for medical care is way too expensive a way to provide care.  Expanding some form of insurance that encourages folks to go to the doctor in a more rational way would be cheaper.  What you get charged for anything in an ER if you are uninsured makes a nights stay at an expensive hotel on Miami Beach seem like a bargain. Defunding Obamacare would make the situation worse for folks without coverage and without making the cost of healthcare more affordable for everyone, default on even Medicare coverage will be happening sooner rather than later. The cost of health insurance provided by your employer is going up and if you buy insurance on your own it is expensive.  Lots of retired folks are worried about the cost of stuff rising faster than their income and the cost of government programs which in their point of view stifles incentives to go out and work.  Folks that don't qualify for Food Stamps are probably suspicious of the program, fol...

The Miami Marlins won a game last night 4-0.  Pitching was great, hitting not so great until the bottom of the 8th when they finally put a few hits together to score some runs.  The Phillies seemed to be running out the season and the Marlins may have a season with 100 losses.  I went to the game with a retired friend and I doubt if the tickets could have been cheaper.  2@$6.00 and it might as well have been a free seating night, we ended up sitting in left field hoping to catch a home run ball.  This is not the first time that a beer and parking far exceeded the cost of a seat.  Beer $8.00 and parking in the garage was $15.00.  Entertainment isn't cheap, but the owner of the Marlins needs to spend some money for some position players. After the game I got home in time to watch the late news.  A police shooting in neighborhood I drive by regularly lead as breaking news.  The weather lady says we are going to have a rainy week as a cold fro...

I'm not a fan of paycheck games that small schools schedule with big name schools.  The small schools may need the money and the players may think it is cool to play in front of bigger crowds, at storied venues, and see how they stand up against the best. UM vs. Savannah State 77-7.  The radio announcers were discussing Forrest Gump and Midnight In Garden of Good and Evil that were filmed in Savannah throughout the 2nd Half.  More than a few walk overs last Saturday.  FIU, the other local school got clocked by Louisville and that game was just as ugly as the UM game.  In the 1970's Miami was the Little Sister of The Poor for Notre Dame, Texas, and Penn State's of the world until they made a concerted effort to recruit some better players and make sure their facilities were more up to date.  Investigations by the NCAA and sanctions soon followed but it just seems to be part of the cost of doing business. I don't think the Christians v...

Caught something on the radio about the value of parenting.  It was somebody pushing a book he had written and I never caught his name or the name of the book.  I'm not even sure of the context of a statistic he mentioned about the value of child brought up with good parenting who went on to be a success, but he sure did contrast it with the cost of some bad parenting, that lead to a life with a lot of problems like substance abuse, criminal behavior, and hard time in prison. Couldn't help but think about Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, and the Dog Whisperer.  They guy had a point if your parents were good, you probably benefited because of their parenting skill.  Another piece of conventional wisdom registered: apples don't fall far from the tree. And the opposite probably applied as well.  Absent parents, drug abuse by parents, violence by parents, and general disorganization by parents can cause kids to spiral into other bad behaviors. At some point the situa...

This is one I never thought of: you may be libel for damage to the rental car if there is a weather related incident and the car is parked and not being driven, a form of coverage that is an extra charge. If I was tourist in Iceland last week and the weather was so bad that your rental car was damaged by the weather and I didn't have the right coverage, that would be a bummer times two. I can imagine how much fun it would be to be stuck in a hotel room if you had other plans. According to the Icelandic Review ten cars were severely damaged and one tourist rang up a bill for about $8,000 for weather only related damage.  One car was sandblasted during a sandstorm.  That would be an ass froster for sure.

I would have understood if the President had cancelled his speech regarding the economy yesterday.  I'm sure many thought it was insensitive to speak so politically with what was happening at the Naval Yard. The guy is the President and could said sorry, let's do this another day.  I doubt many would have complained. There were other things he could have done at that moment.  Compromise on some level if anything is going to get done and throwing bombs by both sides isn't helpful.

Thunderstruck Stables one and only horse finished 2nd in the 8th race at Prairie Meadows in Iowa.  This was an upset of sorts.  The pools are not very large at this track.  Not very many people were at the track as the weather wasn't great. The weather in Miami has been crappy today as well.  The Dolphins won, the Hurricanes had the week off and Stolicknaya was going to run in the 8th race at Prairie Meadows.  Reviewing the form there were reasons for both hope and reasons to skip the race, it looked like he had enough class for the race and starting kind of on the inside going around the hook is an advantage.  Stolicknaya's latest races hadn't been great and there were horses in the race he had not beaten both inside and to the outside.  He was going to need to improve a lot if he was going to win this afternoon The AQHA shows races from around the country and I have a legal account with TVG.  The horse looked pretty good in the walkin...

I missed in the first race and then scored three in a row at Prairie Meadows.  I was alive to the 4 in the last race of the pick 4 and would have scored about $125 with a $6 ticket.  I had singled the 4 and started looking for ways to make some more cash using some other horses with my top pick which the crowd had made the favorite and making money in exactas and tri's if my 4 stumbled This was a mistake.  A profit with three winners is a profit.  I had already made the let it ride bet in the Pick 4.  I had dreams of a really nice score.  This was one time I confused insurance with piling on and turned a profit into a loss in the name of being greedy. This isn't the first time it has happened and I will probably make the same kind of mistake again.  I had been lucky in the three prior races.  In two of the races I needed photos on the line and my horse had to run like it was on fire to catch the leader at the line and in the other ...

While walking around, dodging rain on Wednesday, and doing more of the same on Thursday, I had a random thought about Alan Kent Rogers,  maybe it was a UPS Truck.  He worked loading trucks and he worked in a factory, making money for college.  These were  the days before Pell Grants and large student loans and when a college degree meant more in the job market. AKR forged an ID used to buy beer, he used stage makeup to look older and was a success in buying at Leider's Liquors. He was a prankster.  And he had a rather serious industrial accident where he he lost a finger.  After the bandages came off he became a proponent of base nine.  Counting on his fingers became 9,18,27,36.  The insurance money helped him go to college, hitch across the country, visit India and other stuff I've forgotten. These were the days when Viet Nam was a big deal, sort of like Iraq, with a lot more casualties and the draft which is the subject for anoth...

Sweden was charmed by the fact that the President of Iceland wore a mismatched pair of shoes during his meeting and picture session with the President of the United States during the recent G20 meeting.  POI had infection and one of his feet really swelled up and his dancing slippers were really uncomfortable.

The UM beat UF last week.  As a UM fan the result was great.  I watched the game on TV and was cool and comfortable.  No party, no cookout, no friends and between halves I washed dishes. When I first came to Florida and attended the UM this was a big game, the biggest of the year, and in those years we played Notre Dame, FSU, and UF on a yearly basis.  I bought season tickets, I arranged my life around the college football games that happened on Friday Night and then Saturdays.  I had great seats and went to the game with co-workers, poker buddies and even went on a few road trips. Miami was the center of college football in the 1980's and the U still has the record for the most consecutive home victories (56).  The coaches, players, my friends, the games were the break from working.  Then Florida and Notre Dame dropped off the schedule because we weren't an automatic W for them.  There were other changes as well.  People's families becam...

This isn't the first time the world and the United States faced issues regarding the use of force.  Syria's use of chemical weapons is pretty obvious from the amount of evidence provided us by our leaders. This is one of those philosophy class moments.  To decide to do something big, less big, the same, or less, or even a lot less will be doing something whether we like it or not.  I'm sort of relieved I don't represent the 22nd District in Florida.  Reluctantly, in spite of anything previously written, I favor some limited action to stop the further use of chemical weapons. If you listen to those that are speaking the loudest we won't do much, if you believe the President we will do something more than what we have done so far hoping it won't lead us down the rabbit hole as in Iraq. Tom Friedman called this a religious war between the Sunnis, Shiites over who will lead Islam.  I'm not sure what the proper analogy is, but there are many.  Leading mo...

Never thought that the numbers 7,9, and 13 would send more than a few Icelanders to get married today.  Ministers all over the island have their appointment books full.  September 9, 2013 is a(your) lucky day according to some obscure Icelandic tradition.  Who am I to question a little over 321,000 people who live on a small island in the North Atlantic, people who believe in huldufolk, sort of elf like people, and have a drink called Brennivin as a national drink which was translated by my Dad to mean "Black Death".  This may relate to another stupid belief that it is very bad luck to recork a bottle after it has been opened.  Drinking a bottle of schnapps in one sitting will cause a headache. If these numbers are part of the powerball tonight please remember you heard it here.