Pleasant Valley Sunday

A couple of weeks ago, Cyn and I were out walking in her neighborhood. The whole area around there was built in the early fifties, and all the homes are those little cape cod style houses - very small, and similar. Sometimes I make fun of them, but we walked down one street, where all the houses were more "same" than on other blocks. There really was little distinction between them. No trees, similar shrubbery. No signs of life. No apparent pride of ownership. The song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" came to mind, but the neighborhood described in the song is nicer than the one we walked through.

The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
Serenade the weekend squire,
Who just came out to mow his lawn

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care

See Mrs. Gray she's proud today
Because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene
He's got a TV in every room

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul
And make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray
To places far away
I need a change of scenery

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

found on the internet

Al Gore pretty much predicted Bush's presidency with one line - "He'll give the US three wars and two tax cuts to pay for them." Now that Emperor Dummius has gotten his tax cuts it's time for him to find another third world nation to invade.

-timkintoral

Weaker dollar better for U.S. right now?

Bye-bye strong dollar policy

This story didn't explain much to me, but on the message board, someone who calls himself wonderbread posted this explanation:

Weaker dollar better for U.S. right now
A weaker dollar means that the goods and services we produce in the United States are cheaper to the rest of the world, that means we sell more of them. A weaker dollar also means that imports are more expensive, meaning that we would then buy more more domestic goods and services. The only downfall are things which we can't produce at home to satisfy domestic demand - namely oil. However, we are just happening to occupy right now a foreign nation with the world's 2nd largest oil reserves.

Weaker dollar? Good. Don't be fooled by the words "weaker" and "stronger". Used in this context, their implicit meanings are misleading.

If anyone remembers back to about 1994, the huge economic boom of the mid to late '90's was preceeded, and helped along, by a weak U.S. dollar.

In other words, a weak dollar isn't necessarily good, but it's not something to get very worried about.

forgetful

I forgot my eye drops again today. (I have an eye infection of some sort). I was suposed to take them around noon.

I just realized that I missed my 10:00 meeting. It wasn't important to anyone else that I be there, so nobody called me about it, but I wanted to be there.

After work, I have about an hour to finish packing, eat, stop by someone's house to pick up some compasses and stop at the bank before leaving for scout leader training. I have to make sure I don't forget anything important for my lesson, since there are people counting on me to provide a learning experience.

It's been foggy all day, but now the sun is shining through the haze.