As today starts I think over the last 13 weeks of the NFL Season and think of the disappointments of the year from two of the so called strongest teams in the league. The Dallas Cowboys fell to the wayside and out of the playoff picture long before their Owner Jerry Jones made his decision to replace his coach. Then we have the Minnesota Vikings, who were 12-4 last year and one victory from the Super Bowl and went flat this year like a tire that ran out of air. Sadly, both teams that had playoff possibilities when they started now are done in the NFL with new coaches in both places. The Cowboys promoted from within and so did the Vikings, who knows how many other teams may follow suite before it is over this year. In each case where the coach was fired, the teams have rebounded back and responded to their new coaches it does seem. Was the problem really the coaches in each case or what really was it? We only know what we see as results so we go with the coaches losing the respect of the players as a team.  Other things in the NFL seem to have changed also, teams like The Chiefs, Rams, 49ers, and Dolphins are making comebacks and some may see the playoffs this year and surprise others, we shall see.

Next subject the beloved Holidays America hold every year in December. Christmas, and it’s Jewish counterpart and more come in December of each year to America. It usually means a boost for the American Economy and sales rates jump up first and foremost  and things start to look brighter by New Years. But in America this year we face a depressing problem of a sluggish and non existent economy that is barely moving along. If Americans want to know why, just take a look at your mid-term election results. Folks you split the Congress between then two parties and I have said this before, gridlock will come into play, sad isn’t it. Congress needs to extend Unemployment Benefits and the Bush Tax Cuts and do so quickly.  Ah what’s the sense, you can drag a horse to water but you can’t make it drink can you! America is one stubborn country and it’s people reflect that too. It’s time to wake up folks, we are going to fall into a two or maybe three digit recession and the whole country will fall in importance and position in the world. Wake Up!

Two weeks from now across America Christmas and the full Holiday Season shall be in effect, people will be opening the few presents they can afford. It will not be the type of Holiday many American’s grew up with. Money is tight, presents may be fewer, but we all must remember it is not what one gets, it is what one gives. A hug or a kiss or some time with family and friends goes a long way. SO remember, if you have no money you can always give love, honesty, advise and respect and most of all time with your loved ones and that makes a Holiday Special in more ways then one. It is not the cash, nor materials that make a holiday like Christmas Special, is the people you spend it with and how you spend that time with them. You can save to buy materials and make do with what you got, but if you lose a loved one you can’t replace them that easy can you!

Last note: As The Holiday Season closes in big time and time runs short stop and think of some fellow Americans who have a lot less then you. Then have no homes and sleep on the streets, they starve and beg for food and live in cardboard boxes. They stand by the roadsides with signs offering to work for food and shelter. If  you can’t help them it can be understood by most, but if you can you should. I am not talking the drug addict or criminal, I am talking average Americans who can’t find work, who’s benefits have run out and who are on their last legs. Help if you can for those who don’t help and walk on by, may tomorrow be the ones next in line.

Today being the 10th of December means yes the Christmas Season or day countdown has begun for many kids like it dis for me when I was young. I would wake up each day after the tenth and announce how many days till the big one.  As ya grow older though you  learn a few things about Christmas, 1) it cost a lot of money and is commercial as all get out. 2) It is work rushing to and fro to find the gifts, don’t you know and fit them to each person you buy for. 3) Wrapping and sending or getting it ready to give takes work and time to do it all right. 4) In the end you really learn the true meaning of the Holiday wheither you call it Christmas ot Hannacha or something else. The real meaning of Christmas my friends is not in receiving but giving  an dnot just in materials and toys girls and boys, but in heart filled hugs and kisses and seeing people you be missing. Family is vital of course, and you learn they count the most.

 

So as you run around and time flies on, and the Holiday gets closer each day, stop and think of family and loves in your lives, and try to do something nice. Try to show them that you care and that Christmas is more about what you can share! Give them hugs and kisses and make them smile and laugh with a little warmth and caring, for in the end The Holiday is for Sharing. Happy start to your holiday season is what I wish all right now, we may not have money, we may not have much, but you Christmas a hug or kiss or a soft touch makes one feel needed and wanted!

Wake up America, the President of the United States and his Economic Adviser is telling Congress and the American People to keep the Bush Tax Cuts in place two more years to prevent a depression in the country. If you want to raise taxes Republicans you better raise them on the rich and not the middle class or poor. As it is now this country is beginning to become a lower end country. Yeah the few rich have it really well don’t they, but what about the Middle Class and below. We all suffer struggle and pay our taxes and try to survive too. What about those on Unemployment, welfare, disabilities and more? Where is the help for the real needy ones folks? Each day I see homeless on the streets, people working for a meal, and disabled and ill struggling to survive. Medical Costs sky rocket, Unemployment running out for thousands at a clip and no jobs. What’s next people are we headed to becoming a third world country soon where we will be fighting one another for food and to survive? America is heading for major big shit unless Congress and both parties get on the same page and work and compromise to straighten it out!

Next subject for me and my rants, what the hell is with the cost of food and everything else now? The cost of food is rising, the cost of goods is rising but no ones paychecks are rising and more people are out of work then at any other time in American History then the Depression years of the 20s and 30s! Sadly we need a new New Deal. Fix Social Security first and foremost by getting it paid more for by the rich and keeping the Governments fingers out of it. Secondly leave Medicare and Medicaid alone folks and stop fighting the Health Care Reform and just repair what may be wrong with it and lets move on. Be realistic folks, no other American President has been able to even come close to passing Health Care Reform Obama did it and now people want to repeal it, stupid, stupid, stupid! Don’t repeal it, fix it and make it work idiots, America’s medical profession is ripping it’s people off left and right, why should it cost me five grand to be taken less then 10 mile from my home to a Hospital for a heart attack, that’s crap folks. Why does a dentist need 10 grand to fix a person’s teeth? Shit they fixed George Washington’s, with wooden teeth way back when and he survived fine. Health and Dental costs are crazy in America and it is bleeding the people to death, fix the Health Care Reform and lets go.

As President Obama did do Financial Reform too we are lucky for that. Each step he has taken in many things he has done has paid off for the country folks, it’s now just a matter of giving his changes and reforms and new laws a chance to take affect and become reality. If President Bush had eight years to bury this country and make the mess, why shouldn’t President Obama have at least four full years to turn it around again? Americans you all shot yourselves in your own feet, giving Congress to the Republicans, now we face gridlock and nothing happening as they try to filibuster  everything Obama says or does. Nothing will get passed.  We need the Bush tax cuts to remain in place until 2012 after the election, we need extensions on unemployment insurance, we need to create more jobs and boost the economy more. Get Creative, get innovative, get inventive and find ways to bring back the manufacturing base this country ran on for over two hundred years. Manufacturing of weapons, appliances, cars and such made this economy run for many decades lets go folks, bring them back and make it work somehow.

Why is it you think your done Christmas SHoping and wrapping and wham it comes back to get you for more? I completed one list and then whan another flew in the window just as I was sitting down from the first one. Amazingly it seems Christmas doesn’t cease it just goe son for months, ask the bill collectors lol.

Hopefully today I will do what needs to get done to get it all done.  I need to pack the two boxes and tape them shut, and then ship them away. The run to mall when it opens and finish up the shopping today. By the time I am done it will not seem like fun, but work the way this Holiday makes one run. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, may you have some energy left when your done rushing about all of these days!

Well, at least at our older age my wife and I don’t do Christmas Trees and decorating of the whole house. We now a days just put a wreath on the front door and one over the fireplace mantle and buy a Poinsetta or two. It’s easier is what I told her, because I have to clean up the whole mess in January when we are through lol. Age does that to us all I think, we just want to exchange the gifts and get through it all in the pink. lol.

I wish all who read my blog a easy finish to their shopping excursions this year at Christmas time, for we all know it’s a big time battle to stay in budget and yet do it right, so no one is sadly mad come Christmas Night!

Christmas is more and more commercial every year. Sales here, and there and people rushing to and fro and in the end you end up with no where to go. But the holiday season you struggle through because each and everyone of us know it’s the thing to do.  Prices go up and then come down, sales it seems  do abound. The Children line up in a line in the mall to sit in Santa’s lap and and ask for it all.  Ah Holidays so fine they take up so much time, and buying presents is always on your mind.

Always we run into the uneventful or untimely cost also, where something you need seems to break down and go by by during the season of fun, so in the end your holiday season comes up as over done. Prices it seems never seem to come down on items you want, they only seem to stay up. Why is that always so?

Seems every year the prices on the most wanted items go up and the prices on the not wanted come down lol.  Ah well, as momma once said, You Can’t always get what you want, but you try so harddddddddddddddddd!

One more rant for today, why is it when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, we fought over having bikes and sleds and books and games, and we ran outside screaming each others names. Now you never see kids outside having fun, no now a days it is in front of a TV, or computer screen they get the fun done.  The new generation are going  to develop bigger ass cheeks and more flexible wrists is all. Sadly we are now a lazy generation and only getting lazier. Push your kids into playing outside and sports, push them to read and learn, they will live longer and be smarter and earn more, for the more you know, the less you shall owe. Ho, Ho, HO!

This Morning December 6th, 2010 I awake to find my poem Special Angel on Long Story Shorts Poetry page on their web site, Please feel free to read it, you have to scroll down the page to find it. Enjoy http://lsspoetry.blogspot.com/

Today is Monday December 7th it is 5am here and the first snow on the roads of the Holiday Season is upon us. People will have accidents todays because they always forget what it is like in the snow the first few times it comes and they still try to rush about not leaving themselves more time and driving a little slower like they should. But yes even here in New England where we claim to be the masters of snow driving people still do silly things like rush in the first snow storm or sign of snow.

Well, for me most of my shopping for Christmas has come to an end, a few odds and ends is all that is left. I spent Sunday the 6th in the Stores rushing to and fro to get what I needed for my kids and grandkids, ah a parent  or grandparent is never finished are we?  The most irritating thing about Christmas or Holiday Shopping is simple, ask people what they would like for it and you get the dreaded I Don’t Know! So in the end you struggle to find what to get them anyway. Funny though it usually ends up all right!.

Next up will be the wrapping and packing part of this procedure, cause you have to make things look pretty , then you  have to box them right for shipping if your relatives are not with you as I do, then allow the time to actually ship them to where they are going. It all seems like a mad rush to do this, but once I get through it each year, it always seems worth it when they arrive for those who get them and me too.

With the first snow fall of the year which does not amount to anything but a dusting, I still have to make sure ye ole snow thrower is ready too, gas and oil is needed and is the spark plug ok. In my case I have one with electric start, and a four speed transmission so it is almost like a car when I do it all up. But I would never give up my snow thrower, it does my 300 foot driveway and more.

Today is going to be sit at the car shop day for me, brakes need done on my pick-up and an oil change too. If I don’t stay with the truck the dealer will make it last two days or better and charge more, it is just a natural for them to do. But brakes and normal maintenance on any vehicle  is normal process these days, it you do it right your car can last a long time. So get them done folks!

Today is Saturday of course and it is indeed the beginning of the Christmas Season it seems. decorations are around the area and starting to light up homes and malls and stores. The snow has yet to come but like most Connecticut winters I am sure it shall arrive soon enough. The rushing to and fro has begun as people search the stores and more for gifts for their loved ones, families and friends. The hustle and bustle of this time of year gets silly in many ways.  But what mother, father or grandparent wants to tell their little ones they can’t get what they want from Santa because they can’t find it or it is priced too high, none I am sure. Christmas Lists should be flowing from person to person this time of year, but ask one person what they want and they get indecisive or need time to think about it. You all had all year !

On a personal note, I bought myself an E-reader a Nook to be precise. It does e-books and more, games and even the web as needed. What I can’t get used to is touch screen stuff. I am used to having real keyboards on a computer to do things. But as a friend told me it may take a little time but you will grow to get it and like it. So I march forward readings and searching and learning, it is what life is all about is it not?

As a writer I love reading and investigating and getting data collected so I can write on a subject. So having a Nook gives me access to Government documents, Barnes and Noble Books and other sources to review and gather from. So for me it is a convenient piece of equipment and entertaining too. But to each their own is all I can say. As a avid reader of history, Biographies and Sci-fi and even magazine I also get access to some free ones with my Nook. Nice enough in my mind and heart I love reading. But that is life these days.

Last note is called my mortality note or thoughts for the day, thinking of my age now 54 soon to be 55 I stop and review my family background and wonder how long I have left on the planet and in this life I live. My parents each died in their fifties, my father went at 55 years old, my mother at 58 years old both victims of cancer. My grandparents all died in their 60s on both sides with one except of my grandfather on my moms side he went to 71. My oldest living relative is now 72 and doing fine last I knew, so time shall tell. So I try to pack all I can into each day, event and period of time I am awake these days.

Friday’s is a day we all look forward to if we work in anyway. We bust our asses all week long to get a paycheck on Thursday after work and then spend it on Friday through Sunday. The money mysteriously vanishes from out wallets and purses and into someone else’s in such a way that by Monday we are kicking ourselves in the ass for spending it. Funny how that works out!. It’s like the men and women who man the bars and clubs on Friday nights, they rush through work and getting their pay checks cashed to spending it so fast they end up, on their knees worshipping the porcelain  throne in the bathroom of every bar. Lord I wish I didn’t drink lol. Then like I said by Monday, they are searching their their pockets and jackets and coats and everything else wondering where did all my money go?

For me Friday’s are not a day I really look forward to, because it means the breach of silence and quiet in my world. It starts on Friday night when people get out of work for the weekend and my home fills with people coming and going and bustling about. During the week all are at work and I get peace and quiet , so I prefer Monday through Friday more then Friday through Sunday, silly right but that’s just me.

As this Friday starts my mind wanders back in time and I think of those that passed before me, mostly due to my age these days. I will turn 55 years old in January 2011. As I stop and think of my age and my grey hair and beard and failing eyes, I wonder how much longer I can go on? I face my own mortality in this way because I know my family history and I know to buck it would be great but,  can mankind overcome what is meant to be.?

My eldest relative as far as age goes is now on my mother’s side and she has lived now to 72 years old. My Grandfather on my moms side went to only 71 and her mother to only 64. Then on my father’s side they both died in their early 60s. So I am closing in I think, but who can predict when?  My father died when he was 55 years old cancer took his life he smoked like a demon and went due to lung cancer. My mother died at 58 years old again a smoker right till her death, cancer riddled.  My family history is riddled with cancer, heart failure, seizures and more, yet I keep on ticking thanks to modern medicine and it’s advances so far. I take pills daily to control blood pressure and stop strokes and heart attacks only experiencing a TIA about 5 years ago. SO I thank god I am blessed to still be here.

On this note I add one more thing to my rants and raves and stories and poems, before I go or die and leave this earth there is only one thing I wish for. I wish and hope that when I pass, I am remembered as a good man, person in some folks past. I hope people will look back and say I helped them, or made them laugh, or that they will miss me somewhat in someway, because I did well by them. I never  claimed to be perfect, nor did I ever try to be, all I ever asked was the world to accept me, for being me.

 

 

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What is to become of America in the near future? The republicans have taken over the House as the democrats continue to control the Senate and now Americans have to face the fact they divided their Congress between the two parties and caused their own gridlock. HealthCare Reform is one thing no President ever managed to get through before although, Clinton tried, then Financial reform is moved through also making some advances for the people of the USA. 

We are stumbling now through hard times and may well go down the tube financially. If the USA fall out of the top and into financial ruin, the world may never be the same that’s for sure. Yet we get immediate fillibusters from the Republicans on all issues, this sucks. America deserves better that’s for sure. The Bush tax cuts have to be kept in a while longer or poor Americans and the middle class will be the ones to suffer and that is already happening so Congress push through an extension soon.  While your at it add another 20 weeks to Unemployment and extend it too, too many people are losing jobs and having nothing to fall back on any more. When will Congress get the message, when China overcomes our economy and takes over as the world leader?

So many different problems face the American people and Congress that it isn’t funny and the Republicans want to hold it all off till after the turn over in January so they can get credit for what ever happens? Stupid thinking if you ask me, Americans need help now you should put it through now and make people happier and healthier and able to stand on their own again. The welfare rolls are going to  grow and so are the homeless roll and hungry rolls. Sadly more Americans then ever before and since the Great Depression are hurting. Lets do something to fix it! We can do two things Congress, 1) we can sit on our hands until January and watch more folks lose their way of life, jobs and homes and go hungry, or you can act now and save Americans from ruin and hunger and homelessness, your choice of course. But if you don’t act, don’t expect election results you want in the near or far flung future.

All of that said, America faces a Christmas and Holiday Season of poorer economic outlook then since the Great Depression. The stores of course retailers countrywide opened their stores and sales earlier this year hoping to make for a better shopping season. The truth is no middle americans, or lower, really care or have the money now or later in December, so the shopping season is going to  be a poor one this year. WHile I wish all a Happy Holiday Season and a Merry Christmas too, I hope our government can turn things around and help all in someway soon.