That's what cruise control is for.

<vent>

I hate erratic drivers. The ones that blow past me in a 30MPH zone going 45 (cops where are you?!) and then, once I've gotten to the highway where the speed limit is 65MPH they're out there toodling at 50. Then I try to pass them and they speed up momentarily to 75 or something so I slide back in behind them, and they drift back down to 50.

And I honestly don't even believe they're speeding up out of spite. I think they see me preparing to pass them, they glance down at the speedometer reading 50 and with a jolt they speed up, and then they mosey back into their cigarette or coffee or distracting thoughts or the song on the radio and coast back down to 50.

I use my cruise control function extensively so that I don't have to think about my speed, I can focus on the road and the other cars and not have to worry, "Am I going too fast? Too slow? Keeping a more or less steady speed?" Seriously, I let the car do the speed part for me. I set it exactly on the speed limit (*angel*) and I don't have to worry about hidden cops with radar guns. Or annoying the other drivers around me with my constant speed fluctuations.

Grr.

(It'll take the shine off my halo a little bit when I tell you my speedometer is off by 5MPH, so when I set cruise control at 55MPH I'm actually going 60.)

</vent>

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Continued investigation, further light

Have I ever shown you a picture of my siblings? I'm the youngest of seven, just like my tiny Mack. I love all my brothers and sisters.

Front row: Mike (1954), Keith (1957), Dave (1953)
Back row: Alyson (1968), Sherri (1951), Joan (1963), Shauna (1955)
Taken November 2007

We just got back from camping with my sister Joan and her family; she has three children who are the same ages as my Libby, Jackson, and Ethan. But the others, as you can see from the birth years, are quite substantially older than I am and we might not have as much in common. I kind of hero-worship my three elder brothers, and of the three I speak the most, via email, with Mike.

Mike reads extensively about politics, votes, economy, etc. I've discovered these past few weeks my grasp on science and ability to understand it, feeble though it may be, is gargantuan compared to my knowledge of economics. So I keep emailing Mike to get the situation translated into layman's terms. Here's what he said about Monday's failed Bailout Plan vote:

As simple as possible: Crafting the bailout must be dictated by an understanding of cause. There are two fundamentally incompatible views as to cause—

1. It was a failure of the market. Solution: regulation out the tailpipe.
2. It was a government caused failure of the market. Solution: let the markets work it out.

To me it's quite clear that B describes the cause. However, the problem is too big for the markets to sort out in the short term. (For example, if we think there are problems right now, contemplate what things might look like if the markets seize up and no one can get loans, at least for a while.) History taught us that the great depression came as a result of government distortion of the markets (a huge credit bubble, sound familiar?), followed by government doing the wrong thing (i.e. nothing) when the markets froze up because there was no liquidity (free cash) left. Businesses failed. Unemployment was huge. And the problem became much, much larger than it had to be.

Since Congress distorted the market by threatening harsh consequences if lenders did not make housing more affordable and did not lend to favored classes of people (i.e. those who were not credit worthy), government (i.e. taxpayers) must now step up and spread around the risk and the loss that their representatives created and encouraged. Congress (Remocrats and Depublicans alike) long ago wrote the check and committed us as taxpayers. The check is now simply being presented for payment.

An even more fundamental problem comes from putting the same people who created the problem in charge of solving it, and (of course) never holding them accountable. I am greatly worried by the fact that the bill didn't pass.

You know I am as free-market and anti-regulation and -intervention as they come. But, I am among those who say: something must be done.

See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122264821035984089.html for further along these lines.

Which was a good and interesting article, if we can trust the WSJ as an impartial source of commentary about the situation on Wall Street. Of course I'm nervous about another depression, particularly because I can't see the masses knocking down the door in desperate need of graphic design during a depression. So I'm all for market correction without market crash.

Plummeting without parachute

I know this is insane talk. But I'm relieved it failed. I have no idea what is coming next, but I believe strongly the market needs to correct itself without intervention.

Bailout plan fails in House

First day of 40

Tuesday 23 Sept was my birthday, and I thought I'd give you a play-by-play because it makes me laugh whenever I think of it.

We went out for dinner last Saturday in pre-celebration, knowing that Tuesday night was already taken. The fourth Tuesday of the month is cub scout pack meeting, and Blaine is presently the Pack Leader. So Saturday evening Blaine and I went out for dinner to P.F. Chang's, my favorite restaurant in the world and just about the only place I eat out anymore because once you have a favorite place and three favorite things there, seriously why spend money on anything else? And we also went shopping and I got to pick out two of my birthday presents myself. :)

So I already knew that my birthday dinner was going to be a hot dog/hamburger barbecue out in front of the church with the other cub scouts' families, and I was OK with that. Since B's in charge he bought our vegan dogs and Boca burgers so we could actually eat along with them this time.

On Tuesday Blaine woke the children up early, 6:15 a.m., so I could open my presents before he left for work. I got the X Files series (seasons 1-7, the Scully and Mulder years) on DVD and, most excited about this one, a new keyboard for my laptop. The letters had worn off my keyboard within a year of buying it and like a dolt I didn't get the keyboard replaced before the warranty was up so I've just been working with a blank keyboard for three years now. Luckily I know where everything is. It drove Blaine nuts and kept everyone else away from the computer. But now I have letters! And the keys work so smoothly. I love it. And I also unwrapped the pants and shirt I'd chosen on Saturday evening.

One of my sisters phoned me while I was working on breakfast and we chatted. She asked how old I am, and when I told her she said, "I'm quite shaken. I'm really, quite shaken. That's...that's...You're really 40?" I could hear the smile in her voice when she said it. But I could also hear the resignation underneath. "My little sister's a total geezer now. So what does that make me?" My mom had roughly the same reaction. "I guess this means I can't claim 40 years old anymore!" Guess not, Mom. Sorry 'bout that.

We did homeschool as usual (well, I might have given myself a few more recesses than a normal school day ahem), practiced the piano, tidied, and got shoes on and prepared for pack meeting. Then a friend called to say that his wife, driving home along the same route Blaine would travel, had been detoured because of a head-on collision. He was hoping I'd get to Blaine before he headed up the canyon, so he could detour earlier and not lose much time. But when I called Blaine he was already on his way up the canyon.

He got to the turn-off leading to the emerald land of Fairview, only to be halted by highway patrol as we were warned. They said it would be at least an hour. He knew he had about an hour until pack meeting. He knew our friend (the wife of the friend, who is also a friend) had gone an alternate route he wasn't familiar with, but it was a few miles ahead. He pressed onward, after asking directions from the highway patrol.

Long story short, every time he asked he got bad, bad directions. His detour, which should have been about 40 extra miles, ended up being 250. He was driving on my birthday night for four hours trying to get home to me while the kids and I faked our way through a pack meeting we hadn't planned. At the end of pack meeting Macklin's finger got closed in a heavy church door and for the next hour or so I was convinced it was broken and was only trying to get all the other children settled, pajamaed, and headed to bed before we went to the ER. But Mack finally settled down (yay Motrin!) and fell asleep and I stared and my uncut, uncandled cake (which is actually a pumpkin pie, hey, it's what I wanted) and waited for Blaine's long detour to come to a close and for him to get home. Emma still had a lot of homework to do, so even after Macklin was asleep and Blaine was home we stayed up to support her.

It was a great relief to climb into bed at last.

But it wasn't a bad day. Even at pack meeting I was surrounded by good friends, joking with me and calling Blaine on their cells to give him directions on the unfamiliar roads and wishing me happy birthday. They sort of even wiped off their spatulas before turning our vegetarian meat-replacement products on the grill. And after pack meeting while Macklin was wailing about his finger and I was trying to get everyone ready for bed, one of them dropped by with an armload of chocolate and more happy birthday wishes, "Because I know Blaine isn't home yet and I still want you to have a happy night." And all of this is why it brings a smile to my face. Not a bad birthday, really.

So here I am, forty years old, and I feel fine. Not much different than 39, truth be told. ;) We're going camping tomorrow, to Kodachrome State Park with my sister's family. The fun never ends! We'll call this part of the extended birthday celebration. How lucky can one girl get?

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More on the economy freefall.

Just trying to make sense of my world.

Links to a CNN article from Ron Paul, former candidate for President.

"They seek to prevent the liquidation of bad debt and worthless assets at market prices, and instead try to prop up those markets and keep those assets trading at prices far in excess of what any buyer would be willing to pay.…Using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to purchase illusory short-term security, the government is actually ensuring even greater instability in the financial system in the long term."

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