Denny's Thoughts part 1

The following is just some of the thoughts that invade my life from time to time. Some of them are from others and some are mine. I would give credit to the authors if I could just remember who the hell said them. You will just have to slog through them for a grain of truth (if you want) and put your own credit on them if you do. Here they are:

• Everyone at least once in a lifetime should have a new car. That's it, only once. The cost of depreciation the first year can be as much as $5,000. Add the taxes ($1,000), insurance ($1000) and financing ($1,000) you can see why at the end of the first year you owe more than the car is worth. Ask yourself if a one year old car on the lot at $12,000 is as good as a new one at $20,000? Those first 20,000 miles are a costly bitch. (divide $9,000 by the 20,000 miles) It makes the cost per mile for that first year at .45 cents per mile without the cost of gas, oil or further replacement. I estimate the cost of a new car at somewhere about $1.00 a mile. Like I said, everyone needs a new car once in a lifetime but after that you need transportation.
• Why doesn't Super Chevy magazine care about the cost of gas and mileage? They talk about an engine that generates 455 horsepower but don't care that most of the hot rods get around 10 MPG (at best). I want to get at least 25 MPG with my daily driver. I'll let the 57 stay stock at 13 MPG and just not drive it on a daily basis. HELP!
• If you want to know what is going on in your schools, don't look at the budget, look at the expenditures. That's where the money really goes and is the important thing. A budget is at best a "guesstimate" of what they are going to spend it on. The expenditure list is where it really goes.
• If you think the quality of our educational system is a risk, get off your butt and go there to see. Every parent needs to spend at least one day a year in the classes with their student. Yes, learning is inspiration, but it sure as hell is a lot of perspiration. Been there, done that!
• You'll miss your mother and father when they are gone. It doesn't matter how close you were or how old you are. You'll miss them.
• There will come a time when your description of friends will include the terms “He or she died”. The older you are the more it will be used. As the member of a class that graduated right when the Vietnam War was building up and I already use it a lot. I don’t even begin to count the people hat died in car crashes I didn’t read about.
• When old people say, “I hate it when people say I’m, such and such, because of my age” they really are not looking at the alternative to old age. The leading cause of not having people “arm pit deep” is death. If we really want a solution to the population problem, we need to issue everyone cigarettes and fast cars for their 60^th birthday.
• People talk about the “perfect game” in sports. Duh, it is a game and that’s why people play them. You win some and you lose some and next year everyone will be different and a different group will lose and a different group will win.
• Why does childhood seem so great in our memories? We remember the times we got ice cream and presents and forget the times we learned lessons the hard way. I look at the scars on my hands and know I was one, learning son of a bitch. The problem is we get distracted and often overlook some of the best lessons we learned earlier.
• The rule of unintended consequences should be a class in college and everyone should have to take it. We have some of our best minds “working” our economy and the things that are happening just seem to pop up when if looked at with an open mind it would be apparent that things happen equal (and sometimes greater) to any other action. For example: NAFTA should equal out the jobs in the Americas and make everyone come up to the same level of pay and lifestyles. No stupid! What it really means that the Mexicans making $1.00 an hour will make $1.50 an hour and a lot of our good jobs will flow to Mexico. If we build a fence and deport all the illegals, we will have to mow our own yards and our labor costs will double.

The cycle of life is interesting. As a small child I wanted to learn to read. I then wanted to do adventurous things. For a while I did a lot of those things and now I want to read about adventurous things while my eyesight is still good enough to read.