I new that Virginia education get me :( It isn't $400,000 it would be about $2300 per person. Not enough to fix anything.

I had to add this thought:

Instead of giving the banks 700 billion dollars, lets give it to each and every single American citizen out there. That would translate to about $400,000. each.

Than each of us could pay off our debts, homes credit cards and such giving those financial institutions the liquidity they need. In essence they still get bailed out but all of us get bailed out this way.

I like it...........

Some time last Thursday, probably as I slept, my bank that I've used for 14 years went under. Seized by the government and its assets sold off to another bank.

I apparently slept right thru this.

My $20.53 worth of deposits were totally unaffected. In fact, if I had not read about it on CNN.com I would not have known.

"Most taxpayers against bailout plan" "Congress close to passing bailout plan" Both of these headlines appeared on CNN.com at the same time and day. Anybody see a problem here? If "We the people" don't want it, than why is it that the people we elected to represent us getting ready to approve it? Exactly who do these people represent?

Mr. Bush, or as known around our house as simply "the idiot" said we need this bail out plan and we need it yesterday. Funny up until last week he was saying the economy was doing fine. I don't know about you but the idiot has cried wolf way to many times as far as I'm concerned.

Every time he says we need something, and there is no time allowed to think about it, little well actually large red flags pop up in my mind. What is this suppose to do? Free up credit. But wait, wasn't freed up credit what caused this mess to begin with? That is what Mr. Bush stated. So if easy credit is the real blame than how can easy credit fix it?

How come greed isn't the blame? I saw this back in 2001 and remember I'm only operating on a Virginia education. I'm probably a can or 2 short of a 6 pack but I saw it coming. When people sold $60,000 homes at $200,000 to people whose income was less than $20,000 a year gross and those folks with those low incomes actually bought those $60,000 homes at $200,000, cause they could with 0 down, and $250 moves you in. No one thought that this was going to crash and burn at some point?

I'm still getting credit card offers in the mail. I also get weekly fliers about homes for sale in our area with 0 down and $250 move in. Empty houses dominate our block followed closely by foreclosures and yet construction on 2 more homes just started up.

It seems business as usual around here. No one has learned anything. As long as Uncle Sam is willing to bail out the big boys why change?

I didn't notice my bank failing, I'll surely notice the estimated $2000 - $4000 increase in tax I'll be paying for this bailout. I guess I'm not one of those "for the people" our elected officials or government is for.........Are you?

Sundays we go to the local flea market. We've all done that somewhere. You remember where you went and bought someone else's junk. That thing you would of never bought if you had to pay full price for it.

Actually, I find flea markets a great place to buy those things that you normally won't buy. Like the "As Seen on TV" stuff only $19.95 plus Shipping and Handling. But wait there's more type stuff. Or the stuff in the back of the TV guide or local Sunday newspaper. Those colorful pull outs always have some crazy Black Forest Clock or something. One of those it would cost you thousands of dollars if you bought the same clock at Tiffany's but through our amazing direct buy approach you can have this old world charm for just 3 payments of $37.99 plus S&H.

You know its to embarrassing to let my neighbors know I fell for those deals. Plus the tons of junk mail that you get afterwards. The boxes never fit in your mail box so the delivery person leaves them sitting out in plain site like a big banner for all your neighbors to see. "Look John, Dave just gave Fingerhut another $19.95 plus S&H".

My grandmother loved Fingerhut. And honestly we use to enjoy thumbing through the catalog. The other day one arrived in our mail box. My wife tossed it before I got to open it. She is smarter than me.

Anyways flea market Sunday. I bought an item clearly marked $29.97 from Walmart for $4.00. The seller wanted $15 but I only had $4. So he took my $4 grumbling that I surely had more stashed somewhere even as I insisted I really only had $4 dollars. Guy obviously has no clue what it is like living on a fixed income. Its 12 days to payday again. I really did give him my last $4 dollars!!!

Just as I was turning to leave I spotted a little knife on the table. I said "Rats, I wanted that over the other item". He said "$2 dollars". I said "No more money". Than he surprised me and said "Take it". Wow, next month I'll need to spend my last $4 at his table again.

Several rolls later I came across this Brass analog clock with phases of the moon. It was pretty, all shinny and everything. The lady selling it said it was made in Germany and $3 and it is yours. Well way back when my sister was stationed in Germany I wanted one of those Black Forest Clocks but she never got me one. And this pretty brass thing sure would look nice somewhere in our cluttered house. All I needed to do was convince my wife the holder of the purse to give me $3 dollars. Now you may think that should not be that hard of a task. After all, it's only $3 bucks. But the day before while cleaning out the garage I had tossed a filthy dirty plastic bag covered in some insect or rodent feces in the trash box. In the bag were 4-5 rusty screws. Probably a pennies worth and most likely removed from some other treasure being thrown away years ago. That's when I heard "Now we buy screws just so we can throw them away"? Well there was a small discussion over the screws but they did end up in the trash after all. But I was fully expecting to hear, "If you would of sold those screws instead of throwing them away you probably would of had $3 to buy the clock with". Or something like that. Instead she agreed the clock was pretty and now sits on the kitchen table till we find another empty flat spot.

Time seems to be a thing with me lately. I bought Ian and I matching train watches a couple weeks ago. Than while rummaging thru a parts box I came across Dad's watches. Saturday I found 2 of my old watches while cleaning the garage. Than Sunday the clock. Wonder if its the oxegen tube hanging off my nose reminding me that my own personal clock is winding down or just coincidence?

I bought a Seiko digital watch long ago just like my grandfathers. It cost me $400 way back than. One day while living in Colorado I volunteered to transport a little boy and his mother across the mountain to the hospital. I stopped and filled my tank when I realized I had no cash in my wallet. I left the watch as collateral. After safely delivering the boy and his mother I picked up cash and went back to the gas station. Of course no one including the A-hole who took my watch knew anything about it. Never saw it again.

Just for your info: If you took 700 billion single dollar bills and stacked them up on top of each other the tower of bills would be approximately 47,600 miles high!

Now you know just how deep the crap this country has gotten into.............

I know I just wrote a day or so back but I had to share this with you. We're sitting at the dinner table the other night when Ian ( now 9 ) asked when am I (meaning me) going to die? I thought for a second than replied: When I stop breathing, my heart stops ticking and there is no electrical activity in my brain than I am dead.

With no response from him I figured it was safe so I asked why he wanted to know? He said: " So I ( meaning him ) could have your brain so I can be smart like you. I told him he was already smart.

Sure was a nice sideways compliment though.

OK the search for hand controls has gone as well as my fund raiser to get an outside wheelchair. Not well at all. In the last 2 weeks I've been stuck 4 times. I wish the folks who make up the rules had to live by them. Anyways the search for controls for the car has led me nowhere, so now we're thinking design and build our own. More on that later.

Anyways I'll be back.

Went to the zoo yesterday. Not just any zoo but the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi. Built in 1890 something and totally wheelchair accessible!! I've been in new structures built this year that were not as accessible.

The zoo is up in Alamogordo ( Think "remember the Alamo" and Gordo from Mortal combat ) It was actually a lot of fun. No big animals like lions elephants and such but still enough to peek interest. It was a pleasant experience.

From the zoo we wandered over to the Toy Train museum. Ian and I were sporting our Lionel Train watches with authentic sounds as the train sweeps around the dial counting off the seconds. We wanted to show off to the guys. Ian road the train around the perimeter of the park. We had the inside tour the last visit so we passed on the tour this time.

Finally we hit the Space Museum. You know New Mexico is really the birthplace of the US Space Program. All those captured V2's from WW2 were launched here during the early years of testing. The museum is pretty cool with a good number of rockets on display on the outside. There was only an hour left before closing so we opted to do the inside tour on a future visit. Even so, Ian got to sit inside a Mercury capsule, man was that small. Must of took a lot of courage to go into space alone in that thing. He also sat in the seat of a rocket sled. Way cool.

We also visited the final resting place of Ham the first chimp in space. Ham proved that it was possible to survive the trip into space and return back to Earth unharmed. One brave little chimp. Someone had left a banana on the grave marker.

Well I hit the 100 poke mile marker the other day. 100 times I stuck myself with that stupid needle. I thought this was the modern age we lived in? Seems archaic to have to use painful techniques now a days.

I've lost weight since my wife has taken away all the "good" food and left me with rabbit and cattle feed, plus the occasional cardboard she tosses in. I wonder how it is that the foods we don't generally like are the ones deemed healthy? Plus why is it women seem to like healthy foods more than us guys? Unless you are one of those guys who like carrot and celery sticks dipped in ranch dressing. Scary isn't it.

Back in my younger days I lived on beer and WD40. Of course I wasn't so fragile back than either. Never went to see the Doctor very often. When I had my heart attack it took me 4 days to get in to see my Doctor. Needless to say he wasn't the happiest camper in the woods. I was busy, I couldn't drop everything I was doing just to hear the Doctor tell me what I already knew. In the end the Doctor put me in a hospital for a week. I think he wanted to prove to me that he knew best.

I got a new Doctor.

So now I suck on oxygen. Actually, it was ordered for me way back in 2001. Here it is 2008 and they finally caught up with me. I had one company that wanted me to drag a 50 foot airline around. Not very practical. I kept running it over. Dump company A and go to company B. Now I've got this little gadget that gets refilled from a big tank of liquid oxygen. Good for about 6 hours of use. No stupid hoses to drag around and run over.

Maybe I'll open an oxygen bar in my garage with the old leftover hoses.........

One last thing, my neighbor tells me that theres this new way to get drunk without the after effects. ie: hangover. Seems they super vaporize your choice of alcohol and you inhale the stuff. Shoot back in my drinking days I was accused of inhaling my beers. This isn't new technology here.