Sunday Morning Coming Down

Sunday there will be lots of watch parties for the 48th Super Bowl and there was a recent poll that football is our favorite sport and for a lot of reasons the game sure is entertaining, fills some good time on the TV and has been an engine that has changed countless things. I wish that more could be done to help retired players that are having problems with their health because of concussions they have suffered during their playing days.  High School Football, College Football, and the NFL all have players that are suffering from injuries suffered during their playing days. Not every player has made enough money during their playing days to cover future medical expenses and until recently the scope of the problem was swept under the rug.  Four thousand former players have sued the NFL over this issue and there was a potential settlement of the issue.  The judge in the case wants to make sure the amount of the settlement is sufficient. It may not be enough money and...

This will not be an essay about mindfulness.  There really isn't a Zen moment in what happened on Friday either.  The weather in Miami is glorious in comparison with the extremely cold weather in the rest of the country, although for a native living in an apartment without heat requires minor adjustments like adding a pair of socks before bed. At the yearly physical full of poking, prodding, there were two follow up visits.  Just going to the office can get me jacked up.  I've been taken to "the dark room" to stare at the fish tank before they took my blood pressure in the past. This time the bp was a little bit high and I was asked to stop by to check it again. A second reason for a return visit was to clean out some reluctant ear wax.  The result of the blood work was normal, roto rooter for the ears, and I had calmed down enough so the bp was almost normal.  The Doc asked if I was hard of hearing.  Is there an App for this?  Maybe this was ...

Today is a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.  I will be celebrating this holiday by going to the race track.  This is the way it is during the season and in some ways my season.  The weather is cooler, the windows are open most of the time things are good.  Saturday I was able to visit with co-workers for coffee and donuts and hear how things are going for people retired or almost retired.  Sunday, I got up and went to church.  Then off to the races again.  Chasing a pick 6 worth about $35,000 takes nerves of steel or partners. The sermon Sunday was about Rosa Parks and a bus boycott.  How would you like being subject to arrest for finding a seat on a bus.  The methodology of filling bus seats would require a black person to give his seat to a white person if the bus was full.  The bus driver might call the police to enforce this practice and rule. Dr. King organized the bus boycott.  If you weren't able to sit on the bus,...

Attending graduate school in West Virginia, there were two types of folks in the state. To some it was "Almost Heaven" as in the John Denver's "Country Roads". To others, Charleston WV was the country's armpit, Morgantown WV was a hole above ground and the coal companies were hell bent on blowing up mountain tops to make mining easier. There were and still are lots of places in West Virginia where jobs are scarce, the coal mines have closed. Lot's of my classmates wanted an education so that they could get out of the place.  Others wanted an education and work in government because the checks were regular and sooner rather than later they would be big fish in a relatively small pond.  We were all training to be department heads or lawyers. I saw rural poverty doing field work that no amount of professional public administration was likely to change. For folks living in the Charleston area the worry about the water supply and runoff from factor...

Stolicknaya ran last in his last race.  I thought he had a good chance of winning.  Stumbling out of the gate he almost dumped the jockey, kicked and cut himself up.  The race chart said stumbled at the start, bloody right front hoof.  The vet was waiting at the barn, stitched up the cut.  The trainer reported that the Beaver would be out of action for a few weeks while the wound heals. Tuesday afternoon, I got up the courage to visit the horse and see how he was doing.  He was resting comfortably and when I asked how he was doing he turned around and stuck his head out to say hello.  Then he grabbed some hay from the salad bar.  The feed bucket was empty.  I wasn't able to speak to Randy but came away from the visit a lot less worried.  Infections around a horse's hoof can be a serious issue I've gotten to the track on a daily basis since.  The horse is getting better and better.  The wound is healing a lot quicker than I ...

The New Jersey governor and or his staff got caught playing bad politics.  Whether he knew or his staff thought they were doing something in his name of pay back isn't really important. Traffic problems, removing snow, fixing pot holes, and lots of ministerial functions are difficult enough and it would be nice if government from the highest levels to the lowest worker showed up and did their jobs with a modicum of pride. We would all be better off. Closing a few lanes on the busiest bridge in the world in the name of a phony traffic is an abuse of political power of the first order bad politics and stupid. Why can't our leaders take the initiative and really look beyond the petty politics and do stuff to cut waste, fraud, and abuse which is a bi-partisan problem and not just the responsibility of the party is power... My father used to say" take the initiative and try to get stuff right".  In the end if your boss is pissed off because you did something instea...

On Saturday I enjoyed listening to an NPR piece about time. Synchronize your watches. I never thought about this before, but according to the reporter all time was local.  Maybe the clock in the town square was something most folks used to tell the time of day. Before the railroad, all time was local and in some ways personal.  The railroad caused almost everyone to synchronise their lives to some extent. For two or three days a week I get up early on purpose.  Otherwise, I could sleep in, but usually I wake up early anyway. Church is at 11am on Sunday and the races start at 12:35 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Otherwise I'm pretty free of clocks, meetings, and deadlines except for paying bills and meeting the buddies for lunch when we are all in town. A high school friend mentioned 6pm on Sundays when Disney was on TV and how he used to always watch that show.  A shared experience for many of us that watched the same show at the same time for a lea...

There has been a lot of talk about extending unemployment insurance beyond the usual state run 26 week program.  I'm sure a lot of folks who are against the extension of benefits for those that have exhausted their benefits probably feel that even the 26 week program is too long and keeps people from actually looking for work.  Others feel that we should not borrow money from China to pay for the benefits. This is not a first for government.  One of the biggest reasons we have so much debt on the government level is that we have more than a few programs that are passed without dedicated funding sources.  Wars, drug programs, and even programs like Medicare are expanded without a clear path that explains how programs will be paid for.  Growth will pay for it.  Indeed growth will help.  If the economy is expanding and people are working and paying taxes the need for UI, food stamps and other programs will be lessened. A small number of folks with ass...