Action and Reaction

Never before in my life have I felt more incapable of making changes for the betterment of others. Its amazing how bad the economy really is for most people. I've got a friend who was not joking when he told me that he's worried about food purchases. Fort Worth is $77M in the red, Dallas is $130M in the red. My City, while not that extreme is looking at further cuts in budget, examining tax increases and possibly the reduction in services. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that I'm employed and have something useful to contribute to the community - but reading on a daily basis our societal inability to course correct enough to help more people really gets me down.

• Our current administration was built on the Hope for a Change. Processes continue to be slow - accountability for those who are at fault remains ineffective especially for the clean up efforts in the Gulf.
• Courtesy and basic human politeness had deteriorated to such a degree in personal interaction as to be non-existant.
• News media have de-evolved from bringing concise, important information to tabolid trivia and sensationalistic gossip and conjecture.
• We react to problems rather than act toward solutions.

That has been my struggle with being on the left of many policy and social aspects of life. The progressive norm has been to point out the evils of injustice and inequality. Solutions have been few and far between. Many of the solutions proposed and implemented are variants of the compromise with the status quo - rather than making wholesale change. I have attempted in my job to point out the problems - but have brought forward a variety of solutions. Unfortunately, many solutions depend on the efforts of others either disinterested, frightened, or unwilling to make the change.

As a pronouced futurist, one who was always looking as to what will happen in the next week, month and decade - it has become harder for me to envision a holistic atmosphere of improvement. Even the small increments of positive change have become slogs through mire - unfunded directions to do more with less resources, less time, and ultimately less results. 

I've been known to be risk-adverse. I like to plan and come up with alternatives and solutions prior to problems occuring - but as the past year and a half has shown in my own life decisions, if pressed I can make a sea change - stick with my principles and live with the results. Subsequent actions by others in my previous job have shown that this was the best move forward for me.

On the other hand however - QuikTrip is offering $0.49 32oz soft drinks again. So that's a happy.

"Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline." - R.E.M.

Pardon the Interruption

It's been almost four months since I've posted to this blog. In that time I've started and stopped diets three times. I've restarted again this time using Livestrong.com as my calorie counter, exercise log and it will even track my glucose levels - that is if I keep up entering them.

In the past several months we've gone to my sister's wedding, had a really nice time at a high school friend's housewarming party and had Meredith's parents stay with us for a week. Alexander and Ford had a program at their school for Fathers in which they had myself and both grandfathers attend - which was special.

This summer is getting booked up with Vacation Bible Schools (three at last count); swimming lessons; and other things. Goals I want from the summer:

• Go on vacation. We're thinking about going to Oklahoma for vacation. Turner Falls for two nights and two nights in Oklahoma City. Later in the late summer (September timeframe) we might go to Galveston for a long weekend.
• Do some outdoor movies in the backyard.
• Have a party (just because)
• Get an estimate on redoing the kitchen (wallpaper, countertops, refinish cabinets and doors.
• Get new tires for the Accord.