Not a skilled homeowner.

Sorry to the rest of you who don't live in the Bay Area, but the weather was pretty much perfect yesterday. I guess we could have used a couple more hours of sunlight, but that's about the only complaint anyone could have. So we stated the day the way we often start mornings on a day off. We went to the track and did some laps. Really, I only do a couple, and I have S strapped to my back, but we've found that this is a good thing. Just a little bit of running around guarantees that J burns off some energy and sleeps in the afternoon and is generally in a better mood. J also gets some practice running and going up and down stairs. Overall, she is getting a little less clumsy, but it's still something to work at.

In the afternoon, I cleaned out the gutters. During the torrential downpour on Christmas day, it became obvious from inside the house that this chore needed to be done. There was a clog and water pouring down from the roof instead of finding the drain. It was actually sort of fun but wet and tiring work. For the only time in my life I felt like a dentist. And I took a tool and washed out the gutter. I don't think it's in awesome shape at this point, but it's much better than when I started. It's very infrequent that I do this sort of work. Not my strong suit at all. I'm not the most skilled homeowner. I just hope the place doesn't fall down around me.

Bad Tax Deal.

Obama has got it rough. No matter what he does or doesn't do, someone is going to get upset. It seems like half the country wants to spit in his face if it gets the chance. Overall, I've actually been pretty impressed with what he's managed to accomplish. He hasn't gotten nearly the credit he deserved. I'm convinced that with either Bush or McCain in office, this country would be in a much worse place than it is right now. Obama was bold. TARP, stimulus, healthcare, everything else. He hasn't solved everything and the economy still sucks, but most people don't understand how much worse it was going to be without him. Internationally, I think he and Hillary have been right where we need to be too. I understand there is a faction of the country that believes Guantomino should be closed by now, and all kinds of other reforms, but again, given the state of what he inherited, I think he has done a great job.

But really this post isn't just to give kudos to the guy. For the first time, I'm really disappointed with a stand he has backed away from. I think he lost a big on the tax breaks for the rich. I think its a failure on a lot of levels. One, we've got a pretty big hole going and that 70 billion could have come in handy. Two, this deal for the rich really isn't the job killer or job promoter some people are arguing it is. We've had these cuts for the last 10 years and it didn't boost jobs as it was promised to do. The truth is most rich people just save that extra money, not hire more people. Any job creation is very inefficient. There are numerous ways to boost the economy that aren't simply a hand out to the richest one percent of Americans. And that's point, number 3, those rich people would have had their first $250 k at the same level as everyone else. Taking them a little more on the rest, really just seems like the right thing to do. This country has been getting richer and poorer at the same time for a while now. This little step to level out the playing field is in our country's best interest.

I understand that Obama felt he made the best deal he could. And he extracted some promises as well such as continuing unemployment and reduced payroll tax. And I can contend that I understand how the numbers will work out in the end, but it smells like a bad deal.