penna day at last

figure hillary will win penna. by about 7 points- what do i know? she disappoints me more and more every time she talks. does she not get iran? not understand the state of our military? would we want her as commander in chief? not that she is a woman- my friend susan would make a better president and i would rather she had the red phone in her hand and be on the end of the 3am phone call. but is obama the man? why, when the democrats could have walked into the white house are they in this place right now? how does mcfight the war forever mccain win the white house? is it the war vs not the war? did the dems not win the congress last time because they promised to end the war and then did not? or is it the econonmy? am i better off now than i was 8 years ago. a little actually. but the world is not for sure. and for the next generation will they be? more rant later i am sure.

i blogged or will blog later an article in the washington post about fairfax county and real estate taxes. when we rely on those for our funding and have no backup plan
we will always run into problems every so often because of market fluctuations. those of us who got in at the right time are ok. we have some equity. falling prices cut into our profit, our fake money profit, not money that we had in our pockets, but money we had in our plans.

in the last fluctuation of real estate prices we had to sell a house that was worth less than the market and lost some money. timing is everything they say. if people owe more on their cars and houses then they are worth are they stuck holding onto them and will sales slow down? if the county real estate taxes go up- for greater irs deductions- or down for less county taxes paid in, will the county or feds be able to make that up? are we mortgaging the future again? will the schools suffer as they always do in times of financial crisis? and of course maintenance will stop -always the first thing cut. then roads. will richmond keep even more of nova's tax money? how much profit does exxon have to make before anyone gets upset? what price gas will make people change their lifestyles? is it possible to change? do the soccer fields move closer? does safeway? or whole foods? or do we give up vacations?

will be curious to see how it all plays out. what kind of mood am i in i wonder?

and so this morning on my almost normal five hours of sleep i headed out to run. about 40 degrees and the sun out a bit as i ran north thinking of where i wanted to go. thought i might head over to university parks and started that way. over the rainbow bridge with the oxford crew teams in the water. the 8's were out and the doubles and the pairs also. down the thames i went noticing how green the water was today. went all the way down and cut over under the train b ridge and back up the canal towpath. my head was fighting the run to the parks. not fresh but not that tired and i was moving at least. all the way up the canal towards wolvercote and then over the allotment bridge towards the parks i forced myself to go. but i never got that far. stopped for some water at a local newsstand store and knew i just didn't have it in mind to go that far today.

back onto the canal and ran all the way down to the end at the hythe st. bridge road. then down the road and behind templeton college and back up the canal. was doing my best to stay away from the trail headed home. about 7 miles in now, but knew i wasn't going long today. up the canal and finally back over to the river and went north a bit and then turned for home. past 8 miles by now and it would be nine when i got home and that is what happened. nine miles -ok, legs were not all dead and the mind couldn't only push so far today. think i was just hungry.

threw a load into the washing machine and settled down for some breakfast. lots i want to do today and time to get started. more later i hope. will post this before i read it so i don't erase my earlier ranting. can feel old age creeping in. interesting watching yourself age if you pay attention to it. and yet i have more energy at 61 than i ever thought i would. the pollen and the midges(sort of like gnats) here remind me that spring will come and it is supposed to get up to 17c here today- about 64F
for those of you at home. i see sun as i type. hard to believe. if you listen closely
you can hear BBC say that it will rain the next three days. that's better.

we have electric power and lights again. i hear the mailman leaving mail. 99 days to go. to what.............?
funny but there are four xmas cards in the mail from the states today. wonder where they have travelled huh?