On The Road Again

Life is getting tedious. I'm preparing, again, for a trip to Wisconsin for three days then back to Minnesota so don't count on too much Hawkeye wisdom after this post. If you think my life is a whirlwind of roller coasters and cotton candy think again. I'll be back in Ohio August 3--exhausted and promising to never, ever be away from home for such a long period of time. Does it count if I'm off to Minnesota and Manitoba Ontario for the month of September? Okay, then I'm done--until January.
In the meantime, I gave infrequent attention to Obama's speech today on tax cuts. He's vacillating on the pending tax rises beginning in January for everyone. Now he wants Congress to pass a law promising to tax only those making over $250,000. Geez Barry, make up your freakin' mind.
He says he wants to bring more Americans into the middle class. Why? The folks below the middle class are on food stamps, get cell phone service for free, don't pay one dime in taxes and God knows what else they receive. Some folks would call it a 'gravy train' and a great many of these individuals like it that way.  Personally, I never wanted to be in the middle grouping.
When I started teaching in '69 and was single I was happy to bring home my $404.10 per month. All I had to worry about was me and putting gas in my GTO. Two years later I had a wife and baby, then another and in '76 a third. We were in the lower middle class and struggling. After all, it was the Carter years. I hung in there until 1988 and got serious about my life. Here's the defining moment which I've mentioned to many acquaintances. It came to me in one brief moment. I was teaching juniors in high school American History. I was also a boys basketball coach. A hand came out of the sky and slapped me across the face then said, "The welfare of your wife and children, my house payments, the food we put on the table, my insurance policies, and car payments were being determined by a sixteen year old having the skill and ability to put a round piece of leather through a circular metal ring on a consistent basis more often than his opponent. That was scary thinking. I was determined to make a change and I did. I found a great job working for a wonderful boss in a magical company. After two years I wasn't in the lower middle class. I had jumped up quite a few notches. Yeah, I got lucky but I found out the harder I worked the luckier I got. It's the Great American Dream come true.
End of story.