May 14, 2012
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Our Real Problems
Involve cash. Money. The economy.
The national unemployment rate has dropped to 8.1 percent, down from nearly 10 percent in 2010. The toal underemployment rate at the end of 2011 was 33.1 percent. (Underemployment includes three classifications of persons -unemployed workers who are actively looking for work, involuntarily part-time workers who want full-time work but have had to settle for part-time hours, and marginally attached workers who want and are available for a job, but are not actively looking. Together, they provide a more comprehensive measure of slack in the labor market.) Nominal hourly wage growth has been generally slowing since the summer of 2010 and remains low—nominal hourly wages grew at a 1.3% annualized rate over the last three months. With inflation currently at around 2.9%, this means real wages are falling. Real personal consumption expenditures increased 2.9 percent this year due to low interest rates, but incomes haven’t budged – obviously creating an increase in consumer debt.
46.2 million people are below the poverty level and have been there for more than 12 months. It is the first time since the Great Depression that median household income had not risen, calling this the “lost decade”. The percentage of Americans living below the poverty line last year was 15.1 percent. (The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314.) Non-business filings totaled 1,536,799 in 2010, up 9 percent from the 1,412,838 non-business bankruptcy filings in 2009. This hurts the financial stability of households and businesses.
Sometime between now and when we vote in November, the national debt will exceed the U.S. economy’s entire annual production. In an attempt for states, counties and municipalities to cut spending funds are being cut for police officers, fire departments, teachers and social service workers.
Homelessness is out of control. Food banks and shelters cannot support the increase in need. Government assistance programs are not able to fund the need.
Good news is:
Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent. (http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/gdpnewsrelease.htm) U.S. exports hit an all-time high in March, with $186.8 billion in American-made goods and services sold overseas.
I am not sure why I am looking at all of these numbers, and I am sure I will regret posting about this. It just seems to me that people lose sight of some of the real problems we are facing. I am all for protecting our civil liberties and advancing equality and justice, but it is hard to think of morality and spirituality when we can’t feed ourselves.
Regardless of who you choose to vote for and support in office (I am voting Obama, myself), make sure you are looking at the less glamorous issues as well. We need to pay attention to military, foreign relations, infrastructure spending, and our economy as much as the social issues out there that are more fun to write about.
Normally I monitor the comments and make sure everyone is being civil to each other, but I am not going to be around much today or tonight. Basically – if you want to fight with each other about whose fault this is or whatever, go ahead. You are on your own though, I am not moderating this one.
Enough depressing crap – I am going for a hike.
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Comments (90)
I completly agree with you. While Civil rights are important, feeding ourselves is a much greater importance. My family alone has lost a great amount of food stamps and its harder to buy healthy food for three people. The job market here is just as bad as it was last year, at least where I live anyway. Trying to find a job is a job in itsself.
Economic growth is right now is being caused by government deficit spending. The private economy is shrinking and 88,000,000 Americans are idle.
The reason the unemployment rate looks like it is shrinking is because the universe of jobs is shrinking and people have just quit looking for work.
48,000,000 Americans are receiving welfare now. That is nearly double the amount of when Obama took office.
The Democrats took control of the government in 2006 and in 2007 the economy began to crater. All of GW’s budgets were DOA and the GOP was not allowed anywhere near the backrooms where the legislation was designed that killed housing and banking while funneling 100s of billions of dollars to Democrat cronies.
I agree, let’s not allow ourselves to be side tracked.
I say look at a failed economic policy and double down on it, vote Obama for more of the same.
The unemployment rate is even worse than your great effort a showing it all. You are correct in that the employment rate numbers is a joke. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is playing a game that is far worse than normal. For example, in the April unemployment report, it was reported that the size of the civilian labor force shrank from 154.7 million to 154.5 million.This allowed the number of workers employed to decline by 169,000 at the same time that the number of unemployed also declined, by 173,000. So,the unemployment rate went down, from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, despite there being fewer employed Americans. In other words the Labor Department is trying to say the American work force is shrinking. These are not discouraged workers, they are trying to say they stopped existing so the unemployment rate is improving while the number of jobs is decreasing and population growing.
Yay Obama
And off my anti Obama rant, you are 100% correct. We are being distracted from what is important. Who and what policies are going to wake up our economy, control our dept, and prevent hyper inflation. Those things are number one
Then they have you all attack me–to distract. I think they’re doing that chaos control-thing. Why so primitive? We’re going to abandon God.
There are only a few things i know, and being destroyed is one of them. I go after our musical friends.
Thank you for this post. There has been some good news(on the gay marriage front), but the flare ups it causes all serve to distract from what is really important. You really know your stuff btw!.
I say civil liberties are what should be worried about, not money. Without basic freedoms, it doesn’t matter how much money we are making if we have almost as much rights as prisoners.
Right on. This sort of distracting crap happens around every election, it seems. We get bogged down in things like “moral issues,” when we should be more concerned about things like money. Not that the social issues aren’t important as well, but who cares who marries who if they can’t afford to live?
Hope you have a good hike.
Great post. There’s a reason why the focus is always directed away from the main problems- it’s not good for the status quo on Wall Street and Government to have the “masses” united about demanding real solutions.
Instead they bait the public with side issues and battles like liberal vs conservative, republican vs democrat, gay vs straight, religious vs atheist, tea party vs OWS, christian vs muslim, etc…, and for the most part the public happily buys into it time and time again.
Those battles can go on and on and chew up time while the real problems get worse and worse.
I keep wondering how much pain the people need to feel before they realize we need to stop the finger pointing at each other and point them towards Washington and vote out anyone (R or D) who doesn’t put helping the economy get back on track as their top priority. Right now the people that are doing well are mostly the top 10%- the country needs all to do well as we won’t be able to remain viable without a thriving middle class.
I take full responsibility for the nation’s economic woes, seeing as how everybody is looking for someone to blame and no one else is willing to accept it.
You can’t feed people for long with printed money. Right now we spend more than the nation produces… there are trillions of dollars stuck in the banks because the government is paying them interest to keep it there… once this money makes it out into the market monetary inflation will skyrocket, bringing everything down when it spirals. Loans will dry up, production will stall. Interest rates will be sky high and the FED will not be able to throw printed money at problems anymore. The national debt is too high to pay off, even when we will start taxing the rich more… it’s just too high. By default all government spending will be almost entirely cut, and taxes will go sky high. The value of the dollar will be decimated.
This is so depressing
I admit that I have been preoccupied with the gay marriage movement and haven’t paid much attention to our more pressing issues. I want Ron Paul to get it, but I guess things aren’t looking so good for him.
I think everyone agrees that civil liberty is a big issue and a key point but sometimes you have to suspend your fight for something that you are not being actively persecuted for in order to prevent a greater disaster. there have been leaps and bounds in the LGBT rights arena. take a friggin break and lets focus on something that benefits everyone and then later we can come back to the debate. this isnt coming from an anti LGBT position either. im pro gay and live an alternative lifestyle myself but seriously we can do without official nationwide gay marriage a while longer. we cant do without jobs and food any longer. as for Obama, the real solution is not to socialize. have you seen what that has done in the past? far left politics is all for huge government spending and welfare. what has gotten us in this problem? huge government spending and welfare? welfare makes it easy for a large portion of our population to sit idly on someone else’s dime while the people that CAN get a job that is sufficient for them suddenly start seeing their money going to people who get free steaks from the supermarket and drive expensive cars. im certainly not saying nobody deserves help but ive seen it too many times in my life where people come in and fill up their buggy with stuff I cant afford and i make 35k a year and they leave and get in an escalade and im driving an old POS pickup truck. it really makes those at the bottom end of the “still working” scale feel like well hell why dont i just do a crappy job, get fired, get on welfare and live like that. all it really serves to do is widen the gap between welfare and self sufficiency. the more you get from welfare the harder it is to get off it. that means the number of people being fully supported by the government will only continue to grow until socialism is the only way to proceed. followed by all our civil liberties going away. so you can fight the liberty fight now only to lose it later or you can suspend your small fry battles about gay rights for long enough to ensure you will have a future to enjoy those rights later. its really the perfect example of putting the cart before the horse. our economy is the horse, the workforce is the cart that carries everything and your individual equality on non life threatening issues is the goods in that cart. without an economy you cant have jobs just like without a horse you cant pull the cart. without jobs you cant have an economy, just like there is no point to have a horse if there is no cart to pull. and the things inside that cart are doubly moot without the other two higher things in order. so arguing for massive civil liberties in the face of economic collapse is the equivalent of bartering for the best price on a metric ton of apples when you dont own a cart big enough to carry them or a horse strong enough to pull it. so then you are left with all these rights and nothing to do with them because you are dying of hunger. kind of hard to pick up alternative lifestyle partners in a bar somewhere when you cant even afford hamburger helper mush less a $10 martini and one for your new friend. there was a time when we as a people helped our neighbors out because if we didnt nobody would but we knew where our money went. if we spent 20 bucks on some food for the neighbors because they needed it they got 20 bucks worth of food. welfare is the same except the money i give up to the gov. is taken and then cut in half and sent to another part of the country where some other guy has decided its more necessary then my home and my neighbors while they are now only getting 10 bucks worth of food for my 20 dollar contribution. send this stuff to the state and local levels and let my community help my community. Don’t force me to support other people against my will while doing an inefficient job of it. I am perfectly capable of doing an inefficient job of it myself and still do better than uncle sam . . ugh /rant
I hear you.
where did you go hike?
We need more of us to “break the silence” and look at the important issues facing our society today. Congrats on your courage because I am sure you will get some flack for posting this.
the economy is baffling to me. I think everybody thinks the president and congress can do something about it, but honestly, I don’t think anybody can. We live in an age of a global economy and as long as much of Europe continues to struggle than chances are we will have issues. Of course, for Europe to get better we need to get better. On the other hand, I’m kind of talking out of my ass and probably have no clue as to what im talking about.
I don’t understand the economy at all… and with the gay rights thing thrown into the fracas, I’d rather not know.
Its the economy, stupid !
When there is no food on the table, there is only one problem.
my friend just got a job after nearly 2 years of unemployment. i’m sure she cares about gay marriage too. insert intelligent well-thought out response about wealthy people spending money that isn’t theirs that we don’t even really have. now i’m going to go write melancholy poetry.
I am more concerned about the obvious lack of forethought,
The housing bubble and the Wall Street collapse were BOTH easy to predict…I did so myself back in 2007 with no special credentials. But they were ignored, because my GOD, how the money rolled in. The poor were the first to lose their homes. THAT got ignored. Who cared? They were stupid…or so they said. Then it hit the middle class, and the upper middle class, and became important.
Right now, they should be looking for ways to help the people with student loans—not because it’s a LIBERAL thing, but because they will fuel our future economy. Young adults strapped to mortgage sized debt will NOT be buying homes, cars, or other big ticket items that move things along. When their debt is paid, they will have no concrete asset like a house to show for it—and will be starting from zero if they want one.
NO one is talking about this. They are all acting like it will not impact on the rest of us, and the short sightedness is what should REALLY bother you.
@galadrial – amen! Will respond more later
@promisesunshine – Perfect
i also want to know more about your hike. good to hear it. <3
amen. i’m right with you. looking at the very essentials. homelessness and feeding families.
and recognizing that no one person can fix our country or economy.
if we all could do the best we can, pray or do something positive, give, rest when we need to, share, empower, let go, try to understand, forgive, etc.
HUGS
Obama is bringing back the economy. The charts and graphs are for all to see, and also that he could have been stabalizing us even faster if it wasn’t for the second two years of chronic tea party blockage.
We’ve got some bad poll numbers today as my wife predicted, she was not that happy with his saying gays OK thing, thought it might hurt him. Might have hurt him, she predicted, then the numbers came out.
She’s like you, she cares about the dire poverty and the unfair tax codes and the starving kids that’s her main thing. I told her probably only temporary, this was one time when it was ok to say calm down because she’s about hysterical.
To lighten things up I posted a blog about a wife running her husband over when he tried to stop her voting, she didn’t mean to, I’ve like to hear your thoughts on it.
this economic disaster has been building since the onset of trickle-down economics in the 1980s. it was back then i said the new economic policy with its motto “greed is good” was going to bring down the economy. since the 1980s wealthy income has been on a constant rise while middle class income has flat lined for 3 decades and poor income has actually been on a slight downward trend since the 1980s. in other words in practice money did not trickle down. it was sucked upward. an economy cannot sustain such trends. a nation needs a strong middle class with people who can afford to spend money on products and services. the income disparity between rich and everyone else we saw by 2008 was the greatest since the 1920s and the 1920s preceded The Great Depression. we are experiencing the truth in the saying, “Those who forget history are destined to repeat it”. another disturbing trend that began in the 1980s is while worker productivity has been on a constant rise worker compensation (pay) has also flat lined. perhaps the harbinger of this trend could be seen in the act Reagan took in breaking the air traffic controller union and controllers began working longer hours (productivity increase) for the same compensation. i personally witnessed and experienced this trend throughout the last decade when i worked on Wall Street. there were waves of layoffs at the firm meaning those of us left had to work harder and harder. at the same time the CEO and top executives received larger and larger year end bonuses because they had cut costs. to put it plainly the rewards of additional sweat and productivity of employees went instead to those at the top, trickling up, not down. i will vote for Obama because he understands all of this.
Brilliant Blog! I’ve got the charts, and I’ll be posting them, these charts to prove that Obama has brought us from being in the red to success, slowly and steaily. The TREND IS IN THE STRAIGHT UPEWARDS DIRECTION.
the man who just endorsed him, George W. took the TREND STRAIGHT IN THE DOWN DIRECTION.
The tea party people of 2010 have tried to ruin the Presidents progress for America which means they were totally willing to ruin America all in the name of trying to get the black man out of office, so social issues like racism will never be fully divorced from politics, they’re part of it but that makes this blog no less brilliant.
And another thing that’s brilliant is that I won’t have to deal with BS yelling at me from all the people on her who have already responded, some of whom would love nothing more then to do just that.
You’ve accomplished the Xanga Miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@NewDog2 - Not ‘hysterical’ use caution dog. Remember how it went the last time you engaged in hyperbole about me and politics.
@UnconventionalButterfly - Exactly, and many jobs are paying half of what they are worth because they know they can.
@PrisonerxOfxLove - Thank you for your input. You aren’t quite accurate but I appreciate what you are trying to say.
@trunthepaige - The numbers are confusing, and it is hard to follow them sometimes.
@Shadowrunner81 - Ah, thanks! I am encouraged by the gay marriage progress, and it’s a sign things are headed in the right direction.
@SlackerSociety - I hear your point, and I usually agree with you. When I was concerned about the Patriot Act and the new homeland security and some of our rights that were being stepped on I said just the same thing. I feared losing civil liberties more than terrorist threats. However, we aren’t in danger of losing liberties that we already have here, and the issue isn’t outside threat but inability to take care of our basic needs.
@leaflesstree - Exactly! It’s all about our hierarchy of needs, with basic food, shelter and survival first and foremost!
@SoullFire - It reminds me of the musical, “Chicago”. In the end, the lawyer put on this razzle dazzle show that distracted everyone until they didn’t know why they were even there anymore! Though I love that movie, I don’t want to get distracted by the show.
@Aloysius_son - Thank you for taking responsibility!
@MrTrololo - If the fed pulls back a little, interest rates will go up and spending will decrease – discouraging new jobs. If they open up, inflation goes up, the dollar goes down, but rates lower and there is more incentive to grow. I don’t know what the answer is, I am just grateful there are people working on it more clever than me.
@wretched_epiphany - Yeah, I think he’s out, but I’m not sure. Sorry to depress you!
@BoulderChristina - Unfortunately I am 100% accurate. All my statistics come right off the public record.
@instantexecution - What a rant!
While I don’t agree with all of your points, I do see things I can relate to. Regardless of what we think is the solution individually, the important thing is that we are all thinking of solutions rather than ignoring it and hoping it goes away! Thank you so much for your input, it’s nice to meet you.
@plantinthewindow - We went to Marshall Mesa. More of a pretty walk than a hike
@vexations - Thank you! So far it hasn’t been too bad!
@heckels - I think most people talk out of our ass! It’s a big, scary problem.
@reckless_eagle -
It’s a giant CF!
@catstemplar2 - Stupid Economy!
@stuartandabby - My point exactly!
i remember when the LGBT community was expressing their frustration with President Obama during his first year and a half in the White House because he hadn’t overturned don’t ask, don’t tell. though i understood their concern he had to deal with the worst economy since the depression, two wars, Al Qaeda threats including finding Bin Laden, and GM which was about to go under, taking the auto industry (including Ford) and all auto related industries with it. while Romney, republicans and even some democrats wanted to allow GM to fail (there were no equity firms willing to take on the post bankruptcy GM debt including Romney’s former Bain Capital) Obama did the gutsy and right thing. it needed to be dealt with right away. my point is Obama has been focused on greater priorities first and remains focused on our economic future which includes keeping student loans at a low interest rate and prioritizing educational opportunities because young people are our future.
@PrisonerxOfxLove - What are you calling welfare? Cash? Food stamps? HUD housing? Shelters? Medicaid?. Medicare? Foreclosure assistance? WIC? Homeless shelters? Food banks? Where are you pulling your information from? Federal or state numbers? (Most of those are state prrgrams)
@promisesunshine - I will come read your poetry.
@galadrial - I completely agree with the problem of saddling the kids that take the time and put in the effort to go to college with a mortgage sized debt. I hope that this starts getting the attention it deserves.
@YouToMe - You are so right, no single person can fix this. It will take people working together rather than against each other to come up with solutions to this.
@BoulderChristina - Well since the GOP intends to DOUBLE the interest rate on their loans come July, I wouldn’t hold my breath. But thanks.
@NewDog2 - I liked your post! And I can’t wait to see her charts.
@BoulderChristina - The problem is they have printed way too much. In a bull market that is strong you can raise interest rates to cool down inflation, but what we are talking about here is monetary inflation, not inflation caused by demand that happens in a bull market. This monetary inflation is unstoppable by raising interest rates. No, what will happen is eventually that money will make it’s way out of the banks. Then interest rates will increase as the inflation increases. People will have to wait and see it to believe it, because too many people are just in denial, and this includes those economists that work with and support FED policies. They don’t understand that the dollar is in a bubble market, the debt is in a bubble, and bonds are in a bubble. Soon, everything will have to be cut, painfully cut, taxes will rise very high, spending on military and social programs will stop. If you own a house with a large payment, downsize to a cheaper one that does not have a mortgage payment higher than nominal rent. If you have a large car payment, downsize to a cheap one. We may soon need to hold our savings in canadian dollars or the swiss franc… bad times ahead, all coming soon.
@BoulderChristina - i have to write it first.
@TheSutraDude -
“Those who forget history are destined to repeat it”. – True words and scary events happening.I didn’t know about the middle class flat lining for 30 years, thanks
@BoulderChristina - When Obama took office the number was 26,000,000. So the increase indicates profound economic devastation.
@TheSutraDude - The economic devastation took place right after the Democrats took power in 2006. Since they knocked Bush and the GOP out of the loop only Democrats and their terrible policies are to blame.
@DivaJyoti - I can’t wait to see your charts! I don’t think I accomplished the Xanga miracle, now that I am responding I seem to be making people angry. No miracle child here! Thank you so much for the props, and I will be waiting for your post!
@BoulderChristina - you’re welcome. i will post that chart and the productivity vs. compensation chart in about 10 minutes so you can see them.
what we experienced in 2008 was the effect of an economic snowball that hit bottom after rolling down a snow covered mountain for nearly 30 years.
@TheSutraDude - All of those things were fires that needed dealt with right away, I agree. And they still need dealt with, they need to be top priority in my opinion. I just became discouraged when all I heard about was social issues and nobody seemed concerned about rising oil prices (for awhile) and other economic factors that were not looking positive.
@galadrial - The GOP does, but the dems are planning to keep them low (Sutra just told me). So, with any luck the GOP will not have their way with this.
@MrTrololo -
If you own a house with a large payment, downsize to a cheaper one that does not have a mortgage payment higher than nominal rent. If you have a large car payment, downsize to a cheap one. – I’m one step ahead and have done that.
Thank you for your insight, I am going to have to think about what you said because I haven’t heard it before and it goes against what I know – but that only means that I don’t know about it, not that you’re full of BS.
@promisesunshine - Well hurry up! I need something cheery!
@BoulderChristina - yes. for the record oil prices are out of the control of Washington no matter which President is in the White House. they go up and down based on decisions made over Futures by Wall Street speculators.
the charts are posted. no text. just charts.
http://thesutradude.xanga.com/762884845/2-charts/
Looking from down here Obama seems to be making all the right moves. Or at least trying to, while the Republicans are bent on scuttling the country for their bigoted and greedy ideals.
@PrisonerxOfxLove - I am going to have to research what is involved in welfare numbers. I get confused about which social programs are considered welfare. I have a condo with a FHA loan, and that is a form of public assistance to assist new buyers. I am not sure if the difference between fair market interest rate and FHA rate is used for welfare numbers or not, and I am not sure if other social programs like foreclosure counseling (that is paid for by a grant from the VA bill) is included, or if we are only talking about food stamps. I am sorry I said you were incorrect, I guess I just need things to be more literal for me to understand them.
You’ve got balls, Yes the middle class is vanishing while the Bain bastards seize the spoils. CEO compensation increases in double digits year by year.
@TheSutraDude - And I felt it, personally and professionally, and am still recovering
@TheSutraDude - Really? (About the oil) Why do parties take credit and throw blame for them?
@FrenzElectric - From down where?
@BoulderChristina - I recommend the book “Aftershock” http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-Protect-Yourself-Financial-Meltdown/dp/0470918144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337121578&sr=8-1 Also Jim Rogers sometimes touches on the subject, but you’d have to sift through his stuff on youtube and some of his stuff I don’t entirely agree with but he’s closer than most. These people that wrote this book predicted the first crash in their book written in 2006.
@BoulderChristina - I’m a Kiwi.
@we_deny_everything - Balls maybe, but few brains!
@BoulderChristina - it appears to be a vent instead. maybe poetry later. to cover up the evidence.
@instantexecution - ”it really makes those at the bottom end of
the “still working” scale feel like well hell why dont i just do a
crappy job, get fired, get on welfare and live like that. all it really
serves to do is widen the gap between welfare and self sufficiency”
Amen to that. I’m working a job I hate which has caused me anxiety attacks, making <$30K/year and rarely getting my full time hours to even make as much into the upper 20s at this rate. My clients are mostly dropping from welfare mothers who don’t know how to take care of all 20 of their goddamn kids. It makes me so angry. They sit at home and gossip and bitch and I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, after having to clean up their goddamn crotch droppings first.
@BoulderChristina - well (about the oil) that would be politics wouldn’t it. there was a bit of a joke. during the GOP primary Newt Gingrich was promising to bring gas prices down to $2.50/gallon. the joke was why $2.50? gas price campaign promises are traditionally $2.00 no matter which side is promising. to her credit Michele Bachmann stuck to the traditional $2.00 promise. this reminds me of another point regarding gas prices. also during the GOP primary several candidates including Romney and Bachmann spoke about invading Iran. a simple statement by someone who might wind up doing that once in the White House is enough to drive up oil prices. Wall Street speculators make decisions on Futures often based on fears of possible future events. they are basically betting on what they think might happen.
@MrTrololo - Thank you – I will check that out!
@promisesunshine - Then I will come check out your rant, probably more fun than mine!
@DrummingMediocrity - Working for low wages does make things miserable, I agree.
@TheSutraDude - I get it – speculation drives much more of our economy than it should, I think.
@BoulderChristina - Cool
The book does read a bit like an infomercial, due to the publisher of course… (they want to sell as many copies as possible) but anyone that writes knows you gotta do what you gotta do in that regard. The good thing is that until it happens, just go on like normal (except for downsizing lol) and it doesn’t matter who you vote for. Even if Ron Paul were elected, I don’t think he could do anything to stop this, it’s too big.
@MrTrololo - Oh one last thing I wanted to tell you… our current debt is $1,135,000 roughly per each US taxpayer. Most people miss it because they don’t factor in “unfunded liabilities”. you can see this on usdebtclock.org. Thanks for listening to my ramblings, that’s all I’ve got
You write such interesting posts. I have missed coming here for a few nights. Seems like your knee is doing great. So happy you got to meet Gary. He had come here too and I genuinely liked him. I hope I get to meet you sometime.
@ZSA_MD - I would love to meet you sometime! You are in Ohio, right? My knee is much better, thank you. I ran a little the other day, but discovered I am not ready to run yet. I can walk with few problems though, so the trails I took him on were pretty flat with little climbing. It’s getting better everyday, thank you for remembering and being concerned for me
hey just stopped by to see if there was anything new, so just a dive by HI!
@DivaJyoti - Always glad to see you swing by!
@BoulderChristina - Actually I am closer to you than Ohio. I am in Illinois, right on the river Mississippi, where it passes through Iowa, Illionis and Missouri. I sincerely hope you can come over sometime.
I really don’t think you should run or jog. Check with your orthopedist.
@ZSA_MD - I would love that! I go to Sioux Falls once a year or so, and that is not too far away, either. I am not sure what our travel plans are anymore, they seem to change faster than I can keep up with. But I have traveled with him to his family that lives in Plainsfield (?) Indiana and we go through IL to go that way. Also, his grandmother lives in IL just across from St Louis, so it is very likely I could be in your area anytime. Where do you live, exactly? How much notice would you need for me (or us) to swing by to say hello? Our plans change so fast sometimes I have but a day or two notice!
@ZSA_MD - And I will heed your advice, I am paying a price today for how great I felt yesterday, so I will hunt down an ortho. I don’t want to do any serious damage to myself and I sincerely want to run the SF marathon in the fall, so I will definitely be more careful. Sometimes, though, when you feel good you just have to run with it – so to speak