Our Day so far.

So here is what I told him.

With the already high price of buying our gas from overseas, Federal, State & Local taxes on gas are putting a real crimp in people’s ability to find/keep a job. I can’t look for a job in Seattle or “Eastside” because I couldn’t afford the gas to get to and from work. I would not vote for a tax increase on gas; unless ALL that “extra” money was put towards developing our own production of gas in CONUS. We have the resources; we just can’t use them because our Government overtaxes any company that wants to exploit them. Not to mention the environmental concerns that some folks have. (And I still don’t understand them wanting to send “all our money” overseas instead of spending it here to develop environmentally friendly ways to extract and process our own gas. But don’t get me started!)

< ?xml:namespace prefix = o />Go ahead and lift the retirement age to 70. It’s not like you can RETIRE at 65 anyway (not in the sense of our parents *retirement*). Folks are living better lives longer and still having to work anyway so another 5 years isn’t going to make that much difference.

The Home Mortgage deduction is important to my family; may be one of the contributing factors to our purchase. We’re taxed when we buy a house, we’re taxed when we sell a house, and we pay annual taxes to our local government for things they shouldn’t even be involved in; so getting a “break” at the end of the year helps. In our case it allows us to look at affordable ways to make our house a bit more environmentally friendly or do repairs that only a large chunk of change will allow us to do. Why should I get a loan (or use a credit card) for a $600 repair/upgrade (which would cost $1000 or more to pay back) when I can do it after my tax return?

Medicare: Well, as I’m getting towards the age where I’ll have to sign up I have mixed feelings. If medical care wasn’t too expensive to begin with we wouldn’t need Medicare. But don’t get me started.

As a retired Hospital Corpsman I know what the military goes through trying to live within that annual budget. But I have to say that I don’t believe MORE money is the answer. BETTER Spent money is. Why 9 different companies are getting a Billion $ each to develop basically the same hardware is beyond me. Shouldn’t they all be lumped into one company and go from there?

One thing I do think is terribly wrong is taking more money from the rich just because they have it. Doesn’t give me much impetus to get off my duff and make a lot of money. Not that there’s much anyway because of the Federal, State & Local Taxes we’re required to pay. You collect taxes on things you sell; then you pay taxes on things you order, the things you sell, then the total amount you’ve made for the year is taxed again. Didn’t we have a war way back when about things like this? I’d vote for 10% to the Feds, 5% to the State & 2% to local governments and they’d all have to learn to live within their budgets.

Sorry to ramble. Thanks for listening.

Not that anyone will listen…

Watching the news showing all the traffic and crowds I’d pretty much decided, as usual, not to get out on the road and into all that. No television is that important. No computer or monitor is that important. No radio or antenna is that important.

So SWMBO and I wound up getting out in it all anyway. Went to Staples where I bought her a wireless keyboard/mouse for her laptop and she bought herself a 8 gig usb drive. Then we went to Home Depot; 20 miles across town, and spent way too much money on Christmas lights and stuff. THEN to Lowe’s to look around.

And it really wasn’t too crowded out here in Port Orchard (the stores we went to) and the traffic really wasn’t much worse than usual. It was great being out with SWMBO and we even managed to stop for a bite to eat at the Teriyaki Chicken place. Fun!

Not much else going on around here. Snow we got has mostly melted and the rain has returned. Some wind tonight but not like that storm we had. Did I mention that we had a tree come down across our driveway? We did. Digger was almost too cold to work right and we, the neighbors and I, had to cut the thing into lengths to move it. Got it done though. Was COLD out there!

And that’s it for now!

And now we’re getting a lot of wind. Snowed all day. Only dropped 6" or 8" but it’s a cold snow! Lights are flickering now (1910). Hope the power doesn’t go out. It would be a cold night!

Snowed A Bit Today.