17 years

Today would have been the 17th anniversary for me and my wife. It does not seem like that long ago that we got married. Our life together had the usual ups and downs. We had stress and financial issues. We had children and we had fun. I know things would have been hectic had she overcome her cancer. The bills were high, just because of the copay that came with many doctor visits. We miss her. I will be planting a flower for her. It has been on the table since mothers day and we will plant it. It is something we are going to do every year in memory of her. It may not be a flower, but we will plant something in the yard to remind us of her.

It has rained a lot this spring. The problem is when the sun comes up. My yard has some issues in that they had to blast rock to put this house in. Well there is no topsoil. The only thing that grows well is the weeds and the yard is not flat. When it rains there is a lot of erosion. I am working hard to get as much erosion control as I can. Very difficult. One of the neighbors took a bobcat to the rock vein in the back and screwed up the water runoff. Now dirt ends up all over the place and makes it worse. Lots of work to be done.

Youth Baseball

All parents know who to pitch and who not to pitch. We were playing a select team. A select team is one who is put together for the sole purpose of winning, the players are selected by the coach and this is a team that has been together for many years. Same players and coaches. When our starting pitcher struggled the parents all murmured. The second pitcher whom almost beat a select team a week ago same thing. The 5 or so errors committed by these same parents kids does not matter. I guess its the same situation. The other coaches want their kid to pitch every game. They never question when their kid does poorly. Our team is about half kids that didn't have a coach. These kids struggle. With all the rain outs we just haven't been able to practice. This has been a huge issue. Practice is the key to improvements. It is frustrating that these parents get upset when we are dealing with player development. They would just prefer their kids get all the opportunities. Winning helps kids spirits. They know when they are playing well and not playing well. We have a lot of kids that have missed games too. Lack of commitment on the parents side doesn't help.

Single Father

I just decided it was time to put in this post. I am a single father. I am unemployed. HP bought the company I worked for and laid off everyone in my office. I was a good employee who worked hard. I did whatever was asked of me and did it well. In my last position I resolved numerous issues and they kept piling on the work load. I resolved the issues quickly and I started improving quality. I learned many things quickly. I learned a VOIP application in a few weeks. When I first started working in IT I learned the basic UNIX command line OS in about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I was working by myself while they trained the night person.

Being a single father is difficult. I know my daughter is uncomfortable discussing her woman issues with me. I know women have a natural nurturing instinct that they rely on. I don't have it. I do well enough to make dinner. I want these kids to do well and probably put too much pressure on them. Its not intentional. I just want them to succeed. Being unemployed causes stress too. I have lost out on 4 jobs now because I couldn't and wouldn't work evenings and have a flexible schedule. One of my recruiters told me she has had jobs I would be perfect for, but since I can't be flexible she couldn't recommend me as they requested flexibility. These two situations cause problems. I know single mothers deal with this all the time. The working world has made exceptions for them. I just am not sure that they are making exceptions for working fathers.

If you know of a good job let me know. http://www.linkedin.com/in/dbwhite5

Bipartisanship

Where has it gone? In the 90's the Republicans had some good ideas. The Democrats in congress had been in control for 40 years. They felt invincible and said no, no, no. Then Newt had an idea, lets do a Contract with America. We will give the people what they want. Well they did. Clinton had a Republican congress. Why is it that liberals credit Clinton and not the congress he worked with? Clinton realized he was gone if he fought the Republicans. Smart man. Then we elected Bush who had green light legislation. Now Obama who has green light legislation. What scares me is that Reid and Pelosi will soon be running the United States. With their majorities they won't even have to work with the President. We need a balance. How long till the American people are tired of a leftist government? They are tired of a rightest government now. If both sides of Congress could work together I think the people will be happy. Some bills make sense. Congress feels entitlement. Reid and Pelosi feel they have political capitol. At some point soon people will stop blaming the Republicans for the bailouts. They won't blame Obama either. They will blame Reid and Pelosi. Why as a taxpayer do I have to bail out a company that would just as soon take my house? That is the sad part. Homeowners money is used to foreclose on their home and bailout the banks. These people will look to Reid and Pelosi. If some bipartisanship was used maybe this would solve the problem.

That brings me to gay marriage. In the last election democrats were swept into office. Many people who voted yes to Democrats voted no to gay marriage. I saw Maine is now going to have gay marriage. How many independents are going to blame this on Democrats. Most independents like me are moderates and will be against gay marriage. Almost all other independents I know are like this. If the Democrats are quick and start allowing gay marriage they will find it difficult in the elections as independents will slide back to Republicans. More and more people are becoming independent from party affiliations. I think this is great. Didn't Bush win a second term because people were afraid Kerry would allow gay marriage. That legislation would be more of a lightning rod than abortion is today. We are allowing the subject to determine the Miss USA pageant, imagine that.

One other quick note. I notice that the torture memos were released quickly by Obama. I feel there is a lets keep the American people angry at Bush mentality going on in Washington. Bush is old news. Lets focus on the future and what Obama is doing. Do not ever give any politician a free pass.

Rainouts

Well my son was supposed to play 3 baseball games last week. The first team went to the wrong park to play and they forfeited to us. The second game the team only had 7 players and they forfeited. The third game was called with the first batter in the 2nd due to rain. I have found a lot of parents that signed their kids up are not committed to baseball. Their kid may not get a chance to play in High School here in Georgia because of it. Sad but true. Very few non travel ball kids get to.

I am still looking for work. Not fair it seams at time. Many IT managers want someone who is flexible. I can't be. I have kids at home and can't be home when they are at school and at work when they are home. My kids deserve better of me. Besides I have been improving my sons reading greatly by being at home.

Politics is the same stuff. I will be curious how the Obama administration deals with the torture information. Yes information was gotten out of the terrorists. What other means were tried first to get this information. I think that is the key. If non torture methods were not tried first then that would be a major problem. I am all for letting people off and changing policy. I am concerned that the Democrats could go after the previous Republican government and this may set a precedent that we don't want in our political environment. I felt the same way about Clinton. Clinton did commit a felony while in office. Going after the other party in general would not appeal to the public.

I am starting to not like the media. They seem to feel Obama can do no wrong. Obama is changing a lot of policies and seems to be contrite in dealing with less than friendly countries. If he won't take a hard line anywhere we will get pushed over. I would still rather a Republican congress. I do not trust Reid or Pelosi. Both are governing from the left. I want a centrist government as that would appeal to most people. I am pro life and abortion is wrong in my opinion. I do believe people can have their own free will, but I do not agree with abortion. Maybe cause my wife died and I see the value of a human being. I could see a law where when having an abortion you can do so legally if you get fixed and if the father is paying for the abortion he must get fixed too. I also am against gay marriage. I just don't feel it is a right. I also wish people would take care of the planet. One good thing about being unemployed is I do not drive near as much and am burning less fossil fuels. Although I've always taken public transportation when I could and kept my vehicle miles to a minimum. My cars are 12 and 7 years old.

Swine Flu

I know all Americans are worried about the swine flu. I hear that pork sales are going way down which is good. Maybe I will be able to get some cheap meat. What bothers me the most is the whole blame game by politicians. How can you blame a President? Its like blaming a President for an earthquake or a Volcanic eruption. Please be aware that this is something that came up and just happened. President Clinton changed the way flu shots were done. It used to be that many different companies would manufacture the flu shot. Clinton made it so one company would manufacture them. Then when it appeared there was an issue Kerry brought it up and blamed Bush. Well he should have blamed Clinton for the policy change.

Many choices made by Presidents don't show themselves right away. Take social security for instance. JFK is always thought of fondly. Nobody mentions that it was him who made possible the government spending social security. He rolled the social security into the general fund. Looking back that was a bad move. We tend not to overly change the views of if a President was good or Bad. Regan was thought of fondly while Carter was not. Not much has changed over the years. Bush will be criticized forever, but what if he did keep America safe? I think he screwed up the planet by not worrying about pollution, but he did not buy and drive all the SUV that were out there causing oil demand to increase as well as greenhouse gasses. We as Americans have more control as a group. I found many people complaining about the environment don't do anything to help it. They just complain.

Politicians are no different. Don't blame Obama. Although I think many still blame Bush I find it funny that they will allow Obama a free pass. Obama requested and lobbied for the bailout money that a democratic congress passed and yet Bush is blamed for it. Are people that naive or influenced by the media? Republicans don't have answers and neither do Democrats. Every once in a while we need a change if for nothing else to look at everything from a different viewpoint. Don't just think whatever Obama does is good or whatever Bush did was bad. They both did and will do good things, but they both did and will do bad things. Control what we can control. Don't complain about our environment while driving a gas guzzler. The big thing is don't blame one party and not the other. Too many people get hung up saying Republicans are horrible. That approach by too many people will only take us where we don't want to go. Opposition is good in all things. By changing majority control of our government from one party to another is our only way of reminding our elected officials who is in charge. We as Americans need to be the ones in charge.