Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sitting On My Porch Part Fifty Seven

My Saints hangover is gone. I have finally accepted that we lost to the Cleveland Browns. That was a bitter pill to swallow. Next week there will be no pre-game Saints post. I probably won’t have time to write it anyway with Halloween and birthday parties going on. We’ll just see what happens against Pittsburgh and deal with the second half of the season. I will say this; when you are trying to right the ship on offense the Steelers isn’t exactly the team you want to see.

I hope the chain gang man that was hit on the sideline is doing better and that Courtney Roby is not feeling too bad by running him over.

My Saints hangover ended and my city budget hangover started. After listening to those hearing two days in a row I feel dizzy. I knew everyone was going to be hesitant to accept this budget because of the property tax hike. I have been telling everyone for years that we didn’t have enough money to do anything. Marc Morial knew it. Ray Nagin knew it too. Mayor Landrieu knows it and that’s why he presented a plan with the tax increase. We’ll see how it goes once everything is approved. Something tells me that we will be in the same fiscal shape we are in now next year. If that’s what everyone wants them fine. But there should be no complaining.

Next week I have to vote for my new congress person. If I vote for Joseph Cao it will be because I was impressed enough with him personally to ignore anything that has came out since the campaign started. I have been pleasantly surprised with his performance. The downside is that his party has made it perfectly clear that they are not trying to spend any money on anything that my community would need. We just can’t afford that at this time so I might have to vote with the standard New Orleans black candidate in Cedric Richmond. He’s impressive, he’s smart, he looks like a leader and we’ll probably see him every six months. This is the kind of situation that makes the obligation I feel to vote something I wish I didn’t have.

Sometimes I think about it and I would love to be conservative. I would love to be so conservative that I would volunteer to hold a Tea Party rally in my back yard. I would love that because it would mean that I, and my neighbors, and the folks in the hood I grew up in and all of my other people in New Orleans and around America were educated and functioning at level that would allow them so sustain themselves without help. If that really was the case you could get rid of all the assistance programs in the budget. That would be a far better way of living than hustling from check to check and calling around looking for rent and utility subsidies. That’s not where we are right now and I don’t want to see hundreds of people sleeping in boxes before we figure out how to get there. I don’t really care about Republicans or Democrats. I care about struggling parents and their children. I sound like the Rent Is Too Damn High dude. One could make the argument that the current setup makes us dependent so we will never be as self-sufficient as we could be. I might agree with some of that but cold turkey isn’t the way to go.

With all the traveling he’s doing the governor should buy everyone a souvenir t-shirt that reads “My governor went away for a campaign fundraiser in another state while we had a budget crisis and all I got was this dumb t-shirt”. I used to love those things when my grandparents came back from Las Vegas.

I’m not trying to put anyone’s business out in the street but I have heard a few stories. I won’t get into any details. All I will say is that if BP takes a second look at some of these claims it’s going to be one of the most embarrassing things to hit the area since the guy took his FEMA check to the strip club or this brother right here. I hope the things I have been hearing aren’t true.

Since I have been spending time with these kids lately and throwing the football around, I am finally realizing just how much I let my body go as an adult. When I was their age I could go outside at 8AM and run until 8PM. Now if I start running at 8AM I am going to be ready to go back to sleep at 8:45. It’s just been too much steak, too much drinking, and too much watching sports instead of playing. These boys are bringing back my youthful spirit and I am starting to do better.

I’m feeling so inspired that earlier I bought a six pack of Bohemia beers from Mexico and no matter how awesome they taste when they are really cold, I am only going to drink three. …..during the first half of the Lakers game…..the other three are for the post game show.

I’m taking baby steps to recapture my youth.

Maybe if I listen to some music from my youth I will get inspired and workout. It probably won't happen tonight but this song goes good with my beer.





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