I have to confess. I thought the Super Bowl was tomorrow. That should give you some indication of how big a fan I am.

Give me college football anytime over the prima donna millionaire league.

Really, I don't guess I am too much into sports in general. I don't watch baseball or basketball until the playoffs, even though I may read the box scores. I watch the NFL highlights and that seems to suffice.

The only time I plan my day is usually around NASCAR, although the last couple of years I haven't been as emphatic about it.

I did take a look at the odds on the Super Bowl. (Wouldn't it be neat if Tidy Bowl toilet cleaner were the title sponsor for this game. It would just be the Tidy Bowl). Across the board the odds makers have the Steelers by 7 with the over and under at 47. Don't ask me, but I am getting a feeling. I would be tempted to take the Cardinals straight up, or at least with the points, and I think I favor the under side of the points.

This feeling is a lot like a few years ago when John Elway and the Broncos won their first title. I woke on Super Bowl Sunday with a feeling and called #1 son-in-law, who knows a guy who knows a guy, and I asked him to get the line on the game. He called me back with the information and I told him to put a hundred dollars on the Broncos straight up. Of course my hundred wouldn't influence the line in Vegas. My hundred dollars stood to return $800 if the Broncos won. At half time I got a call from #1 son-in-law and he told me he thought I was crazy and going to lose anyway so he tried to protect me from myself and took the Broncos and the points which would only pay $100, and to further protect me, he had taken half my hundred dollar wager. Long story short, the Broncos won and my $800 payout shriveled to $50. Come to think of it, I never got that $50.

Why I oughta ................

Krl and I have been busy, her with bank business, me with tax reporting. I am waiting on one gentleman's info, a part-time hire of Pepa's that drove on a limited basis for the company in 2008, and when I receive this info, I will be ready to load forms and print!

One thing I do periodically is try to clean up my employee data base in this tax program. If a driver hasn't worked for the company in two years, or if the separation was not on good terms and the employee is not eligible for re-hire, I will delete them from the system. Yesterday I was doing just that. I had a Bill, Bryan, George, Sam, Jeremy, and Dave. Some of these men had died in recent years or months, others fell into the last category. The one name I couldn't bring myself to delete was Fred's.

In an odd occurrence, Freddy and I have sequential social security numbers. Mine is XXX-XX-XX89 while Fred's is XXX-XX-XX90. In the tax program it puts every entry in order by Social Security number. So, in the record grid, much like in so many things in our past, Fred and I stand side by side.

I can actually remember when Memama took us to the Post Office to get our Social Security applications. It was the old Post Office on Cypress in Roscoe (By the way I can still remember the old combination on the family mail box. This was before the Postal Service went back to keys). I was 12 years old and I was working that summer for my Grand Dad McLeod. I didn't even know I was getting paid until one Saturday evening he asked me if I had forgotten something.

I thought and thought before answering, "I don't think so."

"Did you get paid?", he asked.

"No Sir, I didn't, but I didn't know I was getting paid", I said.

He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket with a rubber band around it and pressed it in my palm. I was rich! I had never seen so much money in all my life!

Closer count revealed it was only $15 (all $1 bills), but at that time and with all my benefits (room, board, vehicle, straw hats, and sodas) it was a fortune. I decided to open a checking account at the local bank. Memama thought it would be a good idea for Fred and I to open a joint account, so we did, and every time I made a deposit, Fred did too.

You can imagine the swagger in my walk to be 12 years old and walk in an establishment and give a check! Of course a $2 expenditure would be a big one!

Oh for the good ol' days!

Rian and I began a discussion yesterday about the "recession" or as he told me he had been told, "with the Wall Street bailout, it is a controlled depression". He said instead of the crash of 1929, institutions are gradually suffering the effects of the economic crisis. The big difference being back then it was over quickly and you knew where you stood quickly. Now it appears it may be months or possibly years before the full effect is known. I think back to an article I read that was against the bailout saying the cure could be worse than the disease. In other words, let the strong survive.

Rian is an administrator in a school that is predominately minority races with the majority of these students coming from poverty level homes, many being single parent homes. Obviously Rian is concerned for his students who's family's are already struggling before the recession.

Rian asked me how does this work, how does Wall Street affect a small street in Lubbock, Texas. I told Rian that a sad fact is that the people who are least equipped to deal with an economic slow down or recession are the ones who feel it first and most deeply. Hourly laborers are instantly affected with fewer hours resulting in smaller checks. Smaller checks mean selective buying. In cases where layoffs occur, if anything is purchased on time on credit, if a payment is late or missed, the ripple moves up to multiple levels, gaining size and strength. Put enough ripples together and it get serious quickly. I'm not minimizing the hourly worker's plight, their dilemma is very real and very serious although individually they don't even show up on the radar of Wall Street.

I had a flat fixed yesterday at a friends business. We were discussing "business". I told him ours had been extremely slow and he concurred. He told me his workers in the shop had been getting 56 hours a week, but due to the slow down of traffic they were now just getting 45 hours. I did some broad figuring and that affect each employee's check about $132 a week. Multiply times eight employees, that is $1056 per week for the group or $4224 for the group for the month. Then multiply times the number of businesses and it escalates rapidly!

This is serious. I am scared. I am concerned. Even though Krl and I are postured in a positive position currently, I am leery.

Less disposable income means less money traveling through the system. Consumers make hard choices between needs and wants, elective procedures become selective, survival takes precedent over luxury.

This morning I read an article about local businesses in Abilene laying off 70 workers. All of these businesses were intertwined, but the layoffs were 25% of their work force. I learned of a business yesterday that decided to close the doors. Workers are currently working themselves out of a job as they liquidate shop tools and equipment. Even though businesses make deep cuts, and report a reduction of 25% of the work force you can bet these cuts are a much smaller percentage of the payroll.

I watch commercials for Circuit City's going out of business sale and wonder what they are spending on advertising. I believe they say all 657 stores are closing. At least there won't be some over paid executive still abusing the system.

Then I read an article about a Wall Street executive spending 1.2 million dollars to decorate his office, and I get mad all over!

Our system has tilted. Excessive salaries to CEO's, golden parachutes, retirement packages, stock options, they are all part of the problem. They could probably fire one executive and keep countless hourly workers on the job. Doesn't that make more sense?

It's just not fair.

Rian posed a question to me yesterday, "If it hurts all these people Dad, who benefits from a depression or recession?"

"The rich get richer", I replied.

When is enough, enough?

I caught a report last evening on CBS news by Bob Schieffer on President Obama's aggressive plans. I was as impressed as Mr. Schieffer. He talked of a changed Washington, that after the huge crowd in town for the inauguration, many politicians have taken notice that America wants change. Bob continued that the new President has been decisive and deliberate.

I don't know about you, but I think it is high time someone took control. You go Prez!

Enough from my soap box. Have a day and a weekend!

FATHER, lots of people are hurting, many are scared. Help us to help others. Give us YOUR reassurance that YOU care and will provide. Greater are YOU who is in me than he who is in the world!