Summer 2010 - A Recap

I'm back!

Yes, it's been a long, long time. As many (okay, just about all) of you that know me offline are aware, it's been a rather busy summer. My biggest project has been a new business as well as an accompanying blog. But more about that in a bit.

It's also been a busy summer on the national and global level, too. It would be impossible to catch up with you on "everything", I do have a few thoughts to share.

It would appear that Obama's veneer has worn off. Of course, he never was the knight in shining armor for fiscal conservatives who thought a McCain Administration would give them what they had been craving for eight years. But even some moderates seem to have become impatient and disillusioned about the pace and type of recovery the country has been undergoing. As for me, I see some success but also some disappointment.

As appealing as I would have found a single-payer health system, I feel that the health care bill that was passed was a reasonable compromise. While Obama, Pelosi and Reid would have done well to include some reasonable Republican ideas such as tort reform on medical malpractice suits, I don't see convincing insurance companies  to cover everyone to be a "government takeover". Unfortunately, unyielding/base-pleasing GOP politicians won't give the Democrats credit for that.

On the other hand, I'll admit that when I supported the economic stimulus bill, I had envisioned something akin to FDR's New Deal where unemployed/underemployed people would be put to work helping to restore the blighted areas of their own towns and cities as well as other plans designed to improve the overall infrastructure of the country. While I have heard of a lot of road improvement projects, it seems like more could be done. Perhaps it's because the stimulus funds are being released at a relative trickle.

Speaking of trickling, I do agree with Obama's intention to end the second experiment of Reagan-inspired "trickle-down" regressive tax breaks favoring the top 2% of the nation's wealth. If individuals are indeed reinvesting their excess into their businesses and communities - a scenario of which I am admittedly skeptical - then the effect has far from succeeded in lifting up the other 98% of the country. Then again, Obama's tax breaks for businesses that invest in equipment and even a GOP idea for a payroll tax "holiday" are ideas that I think are worth exploring.

I do think that illegal immigration is a problem, both for the United States and the (primarily Central American) countries whose citizens have left. But I don't think Arizona's SB1070 law - let alone a similar law enacted here in Prince William County - is the right answer. Not unlike how capturing drug lords would be more effective than putting drug users in jail for hard time, so should businesses who knowingly break employment laws face civil and criminal prosecution instead of a focus on deporting undocumented workers. I believe the immigrants are simply following the money. Meanwhile, the offending businesses are shortchanging these workers by paying them uncompetitive and often illegal wages. If/when this situation is resolved, I sure hope there is a gold rush to the seasonal agriculture jobs and low-skilled factory positions by those citizens who feel those opportunities have been "taken away" from them.

And now on a more personal note...

I left my government contracting position by the end of May. Whether I resigned or was let go depends on one's perspective.

Despite my best efforts, I realized by early May that the position just wasn't compatible with my skills. I shared my thoughts with my recruiting manager who said it was essentially up to the client unless I chose to resign as a salaried consultant. I was encouraged to stay until the contract ended in August while receiving a promise to talk to the client about coming to a more expedient resolution. So with the choice essentially out of my hands, I attempted to tough it out and I felt my production was improving if not necessarily at an ideal pace.

When I arrived home on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, I received a call from my recruiting manager with the news that I had been dropped by the client due to performance and other trumped-up concerns that I will not share here. The end result was that I was being let go from the salaried consultant program. So basically, the only difference between then and early May was four weeks' worth of pay and a heaping dose of anxiety.

Having mixed feelings about my new found freedom, I took advantage of the opportunity to work on the business that I had opened in March but had done little to promote due to work and school. At this stage, I'm still deep into the "marketing stages" of the business (i.e. not much $$$) but I am optimistic about the future. They say that some of the most successful businesses are started during the recession. I intend to be one of them.

 I decided to hire a personal trainer to set up exercise programs for me to follow on a weekly basis. I also returned to my volunteer gig at the nearby library.

Contrary to last year's cross-country experience, this year was spent mostly at home. In lieu of the week-long Vegas BBW Bash, I went to Atlantic City for a couple nights in June with my buddy Frank and attended  the rebirth of the Philly BBW Bash with Cathy. Before and after the Philly Bash, we had some visitors.

Cathy invited her two oldest grand kids Ben and Ella to stay with us for a week. It was a special treat for them as they had the opportunity to fly "by themselves" to DC (BWI) courtesy of Grandma. Now, as someone who grew up as an only child and would go on to raise four-legged children, having two youngsters in our home was a bit of an adjustment. But I appreciated the chance to get to know each of them better. I also had an excuse now to see some of the local sights I had wanted to visit for quite sometime: the International Spy Museum, Lincoln Memorial as well as the newish WWII Memorial. Cathy drove the grand kids back to Texas while I played cat-sitter and deprogrammed from an overdose of Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.

Last but not least, Cathy and I cherished the opportunity to another summer vacation together. It was nice to be able to sleep late and stare into each others' pasty faces without having to rush to get out of bed.

But alas, school has started again and I've been staying focused on the business, getting some household chores out the way, preparing for upcoming travel classes and thinking about when I might put my rusty fingers back on my piano keyboard.

Life could be better...but it ain't so bad at the moment.