My Life As A Dog

It has been said time and time again that there are only two things in this life that are for certain… Death and Taxes.  I wonder if death would not be so certain if we were not “taxed to death.”   I am in that middle ground group of people.  I earn too much to get any of the tax deduction / credit benefits, but I don’t earn enough to be considered wealthy.   After doing my taxes, I calculated that if I were to earn $9,000 less than I do now, my 2008 income statement would have netted the same amount.  I would have paid less taxes and gained more credits.  There is something wrong with a system that removes motivation for earning more.Ahh, but who do I have to be upset with?  I can’t take my frustrations out on anyone or anything except for an intangible object called the government.  So, I just keep on going.  Moving forward and paying my taxes all while becoming one day closer to death.  Things that are for certain… death, taxes and that I will be walking the dogs as soon as I finish typing this blog entry. 

As I was walking the dogs this morning, I was thinking.  I have been down before.  My finances were not what I wanted them to be.  My first thought was, “what am I going to do to fix this.”  My solution was to cut back, save more and be smarter with my spending.  It worked.  It was tough for a while.  But now, I know that I fixed it.  Still now, there are things that are not the way I want them to be with my finances.  I am making it better on my own.  The point is that to make things better, I know that I have to do something.  I may have to go without now so I can have what I want later.  But, I am the one who has to do the work to make my family better.

This nation seems to have a lot of people who have houses worth less than they paid, in debt, without a job, or some other hardship.  This group of people have their hands held high screaming “save me!”  They want someone else to solve their problem(s).  Enough of those people are waiting for Barack to be their savior.  From the punk on the street yelling, “Obama will have yo badge!” to the officer to the guy with the $700,000 house that is worth half that. 

The more I read about the stimulus package, the more I realized that our new president thinks that spending money is the answer to stimulating the economy.  $100 to clean a park or $100 to the poor or $100 to clean up a school that is not in use… it does not matter as long as we are spending.  Too bad.  This is not likely to work.  I hope I am wrong though.  Because if it does not work, we’ll be $1,000,000,000,000 more in debt and have nothing to show for it.

In trying to scare us into backing this plan, Dave Obey writes:

The economy is in such trouble that, even with passage of this package, unemployment rates are expected to rise to between eight and nine percent this year. Without this package, we are warned that unemployment could explode to near twelve percent. With passage of this package, we will face a large deficit for years to come. Without it, those deficits will be devastating and we face the risk of economic chaos. Tough choices have been made in this legislation and fiscal discipline will demand more tough choices in years to come.

In translation, we are in trouble and this plan is not going to be the answer.  With the package we are going to have a large deficit, high unemployment and there will be more … of something to come.  This paragraph reads as a scare tactic and promises little.  If we pass this package, things are still going to be bad.

A lot of attention has been given in the media about the O’bama stimulus package.  It is easy to hear threats of what will happen if this does not get passed.  It is equally easy to hear what will happen if it does.  So I found a copy of the press release that details the plan from the US House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations dated January 15, 2009. 

My dogs could care less about the package.  They’d be more interested in what kind of dog gets to live in the white house, but quite frankly, they don’t care about that either.  I thought that even though I can do little about getting the passed or not, I should still shy away from being the ‘dog’ and understand this a little more.  Over the next few posts, I will give my comments as I read it…

The economy is in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression.
Credit is frozen, consumer purchasing power is in decline, in the last four months the country has lost 2 million jobs and we are expected to lose another 3 to 5 million in the next year.
Conservative economist Mark Zandi was blunt: “the economy is shutting down.”

This is the start of the summary written by a Democrat who supports the bill.  I find if humorus (for lack of a better word) that he decided to quote the conservative “Mark Zandi” when it benefits him…  More later as I read  

My dog gets in trouble.  I don’t know why, lets say she chewed up my shoe.  I get upset and say “Bad!”  The only thing she wants after that is for me to not be upset.  She will do what she can to get back to good graces.  If I say something to her that I don’t mean, she will forgive in a second. 

Not so much with me.  When I get my feelings hurt, they take a while to mend. Why?

I left work a little early today so I could walk the dogs and get to the gym at a decent time.  I was one of the first people at the stop, so I got a seat on the sardine-can we call ‘the bus’.  I took my seat, opened my book and started reading.  The bus started down its path home.  At the next stop a young boy of around five years boarded with his young mother of maybe twenty years.  The boy was cute.  He sat next to a lady and asked, “Do you like movies?”

She said kindly, “Yes, I like movies.”

“You got a DVD player?”

A smile was all that was returned to the young boy.

Each person who boarded the bus was asked, “You like movies?”  “You like movies?”  “You got a DVD player?”

I stopped reading to watch how people reacted.  Quite honestly, I thought the child was closing in on the “annoying-line” as the “cute-line” moved farther away.    His mother would cast a smile and sometimes a laugh.  By the way they were dressed, I imagined that money was not plentiful for them and maybe this boy had just seen his first movie on a DVD player.  He seemed fasinated.  Still, over and over again, he would say, “You like movies? You have a DVD player?”

Most people simply passed by looking for a seat as if the kid was not talking to them.  The next common response was to smile, but not reply.  Some would say, “No.”  Some would laugh.  And finally, a young lady locked eyes with the boy.

“You like movies?”

“What?”

“You got a DVD player?”

“Yes.”, she said with a soft smile.

“You like movies?”

“Yes.”

He had her full attention.  As I looked around, I noticed he had the full attention of others as well.  Then he gave his next question.  “You got money?”

“What? No, I don’t have money.”

On to the next person he went.  “You have money?  You want to buy a DVD?  We have the latest movies that you can’t get in stores.”

The kid was peddling illegal movies.  His mother simply smiled with a bag on her lap.  I assumed it was a bag containing the movies. 

An older woman came on the bus.  The questions came again. “You like movies?”  “Yes”  “You got a DVD player?” “Yes”

“Mama - you ask her if she has money and wants to buy a DVD.”

The boy came to me, looked at me and started his questioning.  I stopped him by rasing my hand to his face. “Don’t ask me your questions young boy.  I will save you time.  I like movies.  I have a DVD.  I have money.  But, you are annoying me so leave me alone.” 

He left.  The bus stopped.  He and his mother got off.

It was disgusting.  Now, all I can hear in my head is “You like movies.”

Today, as I was walking the dogs, I saw the dog bus in our city. The dog bus is a bus that picks up doggies needing day care while their owners are at work. They go to doggie day care and then get brought home on the bus after work. The bus looks like a school bus. Each dog gets a secure seat all to themselves. None have to stand or put three to a seat. Nice service for dog owners who need it.

After I walked, fed, walked the dogs, my wife and I went to the bus stop – the people bus. The doors opened. All seats were taken – two people per bench. There were people standing in the isle of the bus. As the bus traveled closer and closer to work, more and more people got on. My wife and I stayed toward the front of the bus while new passengers walked passed us. I glanced back and looked as people were swinging back and forth trying to maintain their balance. Most people had a pole or a hook to hang onto. However, there were some who were suspended in the upright position by the people around them.

Hmmm… I think I’d rather go on the doggie bus.

I suppose I am not totally a dog.  It does not even sound fun to pee on the floor.  However, my dog is protesting the visit of our niece by peeing on the floor.  She (the dog) does not do well with change.  When the change occurs, she protests by peeing on the floor.  Thank goodness we have hardwood floors and a lot of Murphy’s Oil Soap.  

I suppose to some extent, I am like my dog.  I don’t always accept change as well as I would like.  Ever notice how the smallest of change can stir feelings of being unsettled?  For example, have your day planned out to tour a town with your friend.  Your friend calls at the final hour and cancels.  Now what are you going to do?  Or, if you are a church goer and someone sits in your spot.  Your grocer stops selling your favorite cereal.  The train to work is late.  Perhaps you can or cannot relate to these examples, but I imagine most of us have a small change or unplanned event that can make us feel unsettled.  Change can make us resist or try to preserve what we know.  The new is not always accepted with open arms.  

I would suggest that with change we try to find a way to accept the new and reject the old.  I would also accept that if you are having a difficult time accepting the new to keep your pee off the floor - it is rather gross…   

Being new to the city, I wanted to meet new people and searched online for suggestions from the natives of my new city.  One common suggestion was to get a dog, find a dog park and start talking.  Perfect!  We have two dogs and live a block from the dog park.  Well not so perfect with my little dog.  My small one is a Dog Whisperer challenge.  I actually looked into the Dog Whisperer coming to my place to help me, but he would not come to my city.

If you watch kids play at a playground, many times there are some who watch the kids play from a distance.  The reason could be that they are shy, insecure, afraid, nervous or that they simply don’t want to play.  My life as a dog is like this.  I go to the dog park and watch the other dogs and owners play and interact.  I watch from a distance, wishing I could play and talk.  But, as my dog hovers on her back legs ready to attack anything within 20 feet of her; I realize that my mouth is staying shut and my play time is non existent.

It is now 7am and I am going out, to walk the dogs.