the first few weeks I had it and Dell had to send me a new hard drive. After the new hard drive was installed, the machine worked reasonably well, but it never quite hummed along as well as I would have liked. Frequently, Microsoft programs would freeze up or just stop working. I also had to deal with an occasional "blue screen of death," which would require me to power the computer down and re-boot it. Well, last week the wifi connection stopped working. One moment I was surfing the internet using our secure wifi connection, and the next moment I am being prompted for the logon and password for a proxy server. I tried everything I could to get the Inspiron to work, but this morning I gave up. I transferred all my personal files onto a back-up hard drive and I am now trying to re-install Windows Vista. I fear that the problem with my computer is a hardware issue, not a software issue. However, I needed to do something to try to fix the computer. I am now using one of our spare laptops (oh stop even thinking that we have too much technology here East of the Equator) while I try to re-install Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. Wish me luck.
layoffs totaling over 70,000 jobs. That is a lot of people. People who have a car payment or a mortgage or medical bills or some other life expense. This economic downturn appears to be much deeper than most economists expected. And for the record, I use the term "economist" loosely. In my professional experience, the economists I have met are people who wanted to be mathematics majors in college but could not do the math required to be a mathematics major. Most of the economist I see as a talking head on one one of a dozen different news channels can usually tell why some company failed or why some industry go to the sorry state it is in, but can rarely, if ever, provide a path to prosperity for the aforementioned company or industry.
unemployment rate for Michigan was just released and it was a 10.8%. Business are closing and I am reminded of that each day I drive into work and look at the Grand Rapids Circuit City with a big sign that says, "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS." However, where you stand depends on where you sit. My employer posted in Q4 earnings yesterday and reported profits of $18,100,000,000. That's 18.1 billion dollars. What was reported in the news? "GE profits down 44% from 2007." Well, almost all companies saw their profits drop in 2008, but my company still made money. To give you a sense of how much 18.1 billion dollars represents, in 2008 my employer made a profit slightly less than the entire gross domestic product of Denmark. This profit was based on revenue of $183 billion. That is an amount slightly less than the gross domestic product of the country of Malaysia. Times are tough, but there is still tremendous opportunity out there. I continue to work hard each day to improve my employer's position in the economy and I am also optimistic about the future.
and lawful exchange of power from one person to the next for a position that is, despite recent events, the most powerful this planet has ever known. After the election last November, the people who did not vote for the winner did not take to the streets in protest. Rather, they accepted that rule of law and that the majority of people voted for one candidate or another. That, dear reader, is what is so extraordinary about the recent election. While and individual voter might bitch and moan that their candidate did not win, but that we all, as Americans, accept that results of each election as vox populi, the voice of the people. Sure, in 2 or 4 years hence, the people on the short side of this election might work a little harder to convince their friends and neighbors why voting for the incumbent just does not make sense based on his or her actions the since the last election. However, the democratic process endures here as it has since 1776 when a group of angry citizens took up arms against the most powerful nation in the world at that time, pledging "our lives, our fortunes and out sacred honor" and made the change can still be felt today.
OK, it has been a week since I updated my blog. Mea culpa. However, looking after Deirdre is nothing short of a full time job. I needed to take a couple days of vacation before the General shut down for the year, so I was off 23 & 24 December. Having those two days off enabled me to plan all the meals I wanted to make over the holiday break, as well as to pick up the ingredients I needed. Deirdre worked until the Kingdom shut down at 4:30PM on the 24th, so I was able to move freely to make certain that when I picked her up from work on Christmas Eve that we would not have to go out for much of any reason until well after Christmas. I am happy to report that I accomplished that objective.
If you look at the two previous posts in this blog, you will see that we had a bit of nasty weather to deal with starting on 21 December. Close to two feet of snow fell from 21-24 December, which ensured a "White Christmas," but it made for horrible driving conditions. The roads on Christmas Day were nasty, but thanks to Deirdre's tank, the drive that morning was unremarkable. We got them to the station a little before 7AM and just before we dropped them off, Barbara thanked us again, saying that she was concerned about a cab actually coming to get them that morning. We were, of course, happy to help them. We returned home, woke up Samson and then enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas holiday.
that on a warm, sunny New Year's Day in Guam that Deirdre took my hand in marriage. We looked back on our time together and we realized that we have spent perhaps 8 of those 22 years under one roof. Indeed, I have spent more time at home in the year that has passed since I retired from the Navy than I had in the previous five years. We also reflected on 2008. While it was a difficult year in many ways, it was a pretty incredible year for us. I also want to report that we have great expectations for 2009.
CLINTON-ALLEGAN-BARRY-EATON-
It is a cold, wintry day here in the Enchanted Mitten. As I type this, the external air temperature is a 10F. The windchill index at GRR is a bone chilling -15F. The photo to the right of this text is one of the spousal unit taken earlier today as we worked to clear off the snow from our 
back patio. Samson, our rescue GSD, appeared once again impervious to the cold. He was outside frolicking in the snow while we cleared away the snow. We had about 8 inches of snow fall last night, so we had some digging out to do. We have a plow service do our driveway, but I still needed to clear the walkway to our front door, as well as the walk to our side door. The snow that fell was light and powdery, perfect for skiiing and perfect for blowing and drifting. As I mentioned a few sentences ago, the windchill here is -15F, so there is plenty of wind to cause the snow to drift. I cleared the two walkways of snow a little before noon and had to repeat the procedure a few hours later because of the drifting that occurred. Yep, this is a Mark 1 Mod O winter day if I ever saw one.
the search for red table wine. Our friends at Art of the Table were tasked to help us determine what kind of red wine we want to serve as part of our daily evening meal, or at least at meals were red wine is an appropriate beverage. 12 different bottles were selected, based on our past tastes. Dee and I prefer our red wine with a little bit of heft. Well, last night we had our first trial bottle with Stay in Bed Stew. The wine was Domaine Monpertuis, a French Vin de Pays du Gard. It was a good first showing, but the wine was a little young. One bottle down and 11 more to go.
