A Winter's Day

A Paul Simon lyric in the making ... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
“A winter’s day, in a deep and dark December”. I like that Paul Simon lyric, although he was probably in need of some Prozac when he wrote it. To me right now, it just evokes the season – the “Hallow-Thanksmas” period from October thru December. Technically it's still autumn, but let's not nitpick in this season of giving. I’m sitting in Starbucks with just a bit of holiday writer’s block and therefore choose to be reflective.

I just got back from beautiful Round Rock, Texas, where most of my relatives live. I know they say, “You can’t go home again” but I’ll probably end up back there in retirement. Austin has everything Dallas has, plus cedar-studded hills and rockabilly music. Throw in progressive politics, Sandra Bullock and Lance Armstrong – what’s not to love?

Looking at my previous blogs, I’ve already done a lot of reflecting about the election. It looks like Obama has picked a team of experienced “Clintonista” centrists for both his economic and foreign thrusts. It’s probably a good sign that he is putting a premium on practical experience. I love that Hillary may become Secretary of State – she is truly a cat with nine lives. She’s probably on her sixth about now. Also, the Clintons may have many epithets thrown at them – not one of them is “boring”. They do enough (Bill in particular) to keep the National Examiner in business. Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense is good for continuity – Gates has helped us shine a light on what’s needed in Iraq.

I rented a silver, Chrysler PT Cruiser for my Austin trip. The car was fun to drive – it handled like a sports car. I truly hope that Ford, GM and Chrysler lay out a good plan for Congress to give them a 25 billion dollar “hand up” as opposed to a “hand out”. All three companies are treasured parts of Americana that should be steered back to sound and healthy management.

Lastly, a pre-med student just asked me why I have a MacBook, not a PC. Well, my MacBook boots in 30 seconds and it dual boots to Windows. It doesn’t ask annoying questions when I want to open a file or load a program. Apparently a nation waits for Windows 7 to make PC’s relevant again. The pre-med lady (who admitted not being a computer nut) was told by a Best Buy geek-on-call to wait for Windows 7. Alas poor Vista, we knew ye well.

I guess that’s all I have to say for my “deep and dark” last day of November. I’m back to work tomorrow after a fantastic Thanksgiving week. Hope everyone had a great holiday and many more to come.

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