Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Livin in Frisco Texas

It has been way too long but I'm back. Been living in Frisco, TX since October 28, 2009 and so far I would have to say it has been very nice. Since Traci and the kids arrived it has only gotten better. We have spent time seeing as much as we can while we try and still attend church meetings, attend school and make work a priority. We have been able to spend some time in San Antonio where we saw the Alamo...very good, then we took a boat ride on the river and ate at the cafe on the river walk...best part of San Antonio hands down. Another weekend we enjoyed the stock yards in Fort Worth. Andrew is so in love with trains so we had to take a ride on the train and he was in a trance until the blew the horn. It was loud and it scared him. That is all we have heard about since...the train is loud, over and over and over. We made our way to the Fort Worth Zoo and that was a good time for all. Closed the place down and there was a train a little more inline with Andrew's liking. Much better experience. Later, Jared and I went on a scout campout to Camp Richards (?) in Jacksboro, TX. They had a small WWII reinactment. The boys loved it and I thought it was pretty darn cool as well. I really liked the weapons demonstration. The shot off all types of automatic and semi-automatic rifles and hand guns. Blanks of course but all the sound, smell and show.

The job here has been an interesting learning experience so far. Some frustrating things but nothing so bad it can not be fixed. All in all and good experience and glad I took the job. I would really like to get back to Utah and if a promotion or whatever does not come soon I would be looking for something to either bring back to Utah or find a way to sell our home and move here. Recently, my sales team has been doing well and been steady. In sales, no matter what you do someone always wants you to do more. So we are working on doing more.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

I have been watching the election, economy and the stock market. I am sorry to say that I was all but expecting the election results to be in favor of Obama. I sure hope it does not turn out that it is a four year test of endurance. The economy is already in question on stability and confidence we certainly do not need anymore reasons for questions. I lost a bit of hope when John McCain selected a running mate that very few had ever heard of. I felt his choice was centered on trying to gain the votes of Clinton's that were loosely based on gender rather than track record, political platform or country support. Sure many voters jumped on the ticket and offered their support but too many where not impressed and wavered on their support as became apparent in the election.

Now that Obama has won the election there is another item that might be of interest to consider as we move forward in the next four years. As I reflect back to my days in the Navy, I recall when Pres. Clinton was elected. It became apparent that the democrats did not support the military like the Republicans. A number of military bases were closed and jobs were lost. Not just military jobs but with all the base closures, a number of civilian support jobs were lost. Let's take a moment a consider our current situation. I hear how the unemployment rate is as high as it has been in a number of years and only expected to get worse. Well if the Democrats (Obama) follow suit then we will see an influx of military and civilian job seekers dumped into the already overloaded system. If it is hard to find a job now just wait until hundreds of thousands of individuals are dumped into the job market. The trickle down effect could look something like this...unemployment numbers increase which leads to an increase in demand on the welfare and unemployment payment monies which leads to an increase in taxes on a smaller number of workers which could impact the crime rate due to the unemployed turning to whatever means necessary to feed their families. Then the reasonably honest side of society has an increase in fear for safety and looks to purchase a gun. They are halted by the changes in gun laws by the newly appointed president and his democrat agenda in increasing the gun laws and making the lawful purchase of guns and ammunition difficult or impossible. This in turn increases the fear rate and causes the normally law abiding individuals to purchase guns illegally. This then causes society to demand more law officers. To increase the force requires an increase in taxes to pay for the greater need of government employees which is a start of bigger government...Democrats rule. What about the economy? Well with the companies getting smaller and the government getting bigger we need to figure out how to encourage the government to offer common stock so we can purchase shares on the largest growing entity in the US business marketplace. But why would you do that with so much debt on their books. Is there a good investment left in the stock market. If we are not careful we will be back investing in junk bonds and government run health care systems.

I hope you know most of this has been in jest but it sure gives you something to think about on the 'what-if' side or the ultimate extreme. Have fun and thanks for reading.