The Corners of My Car

Ah, it is already raining. So forget about washing the car (I can't make it rain, today). Cleaning out the corners of my car, 27 hundred water bottles (returnable! worth 5cents each!) I wish a band crew would come around and take them from me, but alas, they will now sit in bags in the garage, till they reach a critical mass (when we can't get past them to the lawnmower).

Also found, a little postit of things to do today, from days gone by: FY 09 budget, FY 10 budget. Has it always been thus? Are we always stuck between this federal fiscal year, and the next federal fiscal year? Right now we are at last content (or, have settled) on a FY 11 budget, and still fussing over a FY 12 budget.

What else was unearthed.. chile-cheese fritos. Ah, I remember those Stimulus Point of Contact meetings. I remember when it was a big thrill to attend those, with the movers and shakers. Back when the federal Stimulus held real promise - money to lift us out of recession! Put people to work!

And when federal data doesn't show the results, they change the reporting rules. Instead of cumulatively counting how many jobs were created or saved (tricky), it becomes a snapshot - only those jobs funded this quarter. Count every last piece - even if a research analyst only worked for 10 minutes, capture this in the jobs total. ok.

Back in the heyday people cared about the Stimulus and such things. While perhaps the most fun thing was getting a bag of chile cheese fritos at the Capital Market on State Street, a familiar place that always smelled like fried food. You could always park there at the end of the day and no one would care, there would be spaces for the taking. Though I miss the monthly interaction with the owner of the market in making my (cheap) parking payment, he always politely responded "thank you lady" with a smile.

Now its more like - when, girl, are you going to be done with these reports?! That is my boss. The higher ups sign off on these things and ask about format, the format that has been there from Day 1. Does it make sense? Do I even notice it anymore? It has become routine. A routine that has outlived its usefulness.

Now Obama is talking about maybe, maybe, another Stimulus. Seriously? And combine that with tax cuts. Seriously???? What does this combination do - throw money on states and simultaneously take money away from the federal coffers? And this helps the deficit and the debt how exactly?? Even the Chinese must be wary by now.

Oh, they are political chess pieces to throw on the table in exchange for raising the debt limit. So we now have three, 3, trois, ways to continue to spend money we don't have. Stimulus #2. More tax cuts (keep cursing them as the Bush tax cuts). And raising the federal debt limit.

My only hope is that if we have Stimulus #2 that we can have meetings back at the old digs, cause its been awhile since I've had any chile cheese fritos.