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Ken and I ate lunch at one of our local restaurants today. Unlike a small business franchise, this privately owned restaurant is expanding and doing an ever increasing business.

Besides having good food, she also caters for churches, weddings and parties. Her Sunday lunch crowd usually winds around the building for a couple of hours after church lets out. She serves “country” food in a “meat and 3″ format although you can also get hamburgers and sandwiches if you choose.

We had pot roast, squash casserole, green beans, rice and gravy, our choice of biscuit or cornbread, our choice of drink and dessert for $5.25 each. I think that’s pretty darned reasonable!

She’s upgraded her space over the course of the last few years with appliances, carpeting and air conditioner. Now she’s bought the space next door and sounds like she made a great bargain as she purchased the space with everything in it (it’s an old china shop) and has negotiated a deal with a china replacements shop in Greensboro, NC to purchase the stock of the shop and says she’s getting more for the china than she paid for the space!

I guess you would say either she’s a very savvy business person or very lucky — I’m thinking the former myself.

It gives me hope for my own future that someone in my small town is doing well and thriving despite the gloom-and-doom of the big financial guys.

So I give this New Year’s wish that her bright outlook is just one of many stars twinkling in the dark night we are currently experiencing.

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I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of you that we’re in the last 30 days before Christmas. For many this time of year is fraught with depression, frustration and worry. It doesn’t have to be and was never intended to be a source of such.

Rather, it’s always been about sacrifice, joy and hope.

With tough times upon us all financially, we are all searching for ways to keep the Christmas spirit without breaking the bank — after all, none of the TARP funds are earmarked to bail any of us out of our financial woes.

It’s imperative that even if you COULD go into debt for the holidays this year that you resist doing so no matter what. We have to scale back on our spending as we need to set the tone for our government to follow. We the people want a balanced federal budget. We the people want economic stability and we the people want jobs.

We’ve lost all of those in the past few years and it’s been our fault.

Yes, you read that correctly. It’s OUR FAULT. Not our elected officials, not Fannie Mae or Freddie Mack, Goldman Sachs or Behr Sterns. Ours.

We’ve let greed and desire for THINGS blind us to the road we were traveling and the lure of easy money corrupt our values. We have to set our own houses right before we can expect our governments to set theirs right.

We have to get back to our core values. Those of thriftiness, ingenuity, perserverance, honesty and integrity.

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This year in American Politics, we face some huge challenges as voters.

I’ve been rather quiet during these last few months on this subject, but it’s not because I’ve no interest in it.

It’s because the more these candidates talk (and I’m referring to the two majors), the worse feelings I have about them both.

On the one hand, we have Mr. Obama who is unapologetically for socialization of the US.

I’ve lived my entire life in the US and it’s always been a democracy. Socialism SOUNDS good, but as Gerald Ford pointed out, “If the Government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”

I just have a problem giving a bunch of people who have proven time and time again that they are subject to the faults of man that much power over my life.

Perhaps I’m fooling myself that they don’t already have it.

Look at what strictures Mr. Bush has been able to get away with; many of which are in direct violation of the Constitution which he swore (twice!) to honor and uphold. I’ve already seen my personal freedoms shrink under his command and all in the name of fighting terrorism. Only a crystal ball or time machine would tell me if it’s been worth it or not.

On the other hand we have Mr. McCain who gave up a lot of his personal freedoms for this country. I do honor him for that sacrifice.

But I’ve watched him change from the “maverick” he was at the beginning of his campaign — a man who I thought might just be the middle-of-the-road kind of person like I am — who fights for what makes sense rather than what the party line dictates — change  into a party puppet. And all in the name of getting the Republican base voters to vote for him and contribute to his campaign. Will he change back to that maverick once he’s in office? I don’t know. If he is elected he may owe too much to those Party Powers to be able to act independently.

Mr. Obama is a brilliant statesman. But speeches alone won’t bring this country out of the trouble it’s in. His own party cannot agree on things. This Democratic Majority congress has failed to bring to the country the reforms it promised two years ago when it came into power. It has continued to earmark every single bill brought before it, “bring home the pork” even on such bills as crucial and important as the bail out that was supposed to bring us out of the economic wasteland THEY got us into (NOT the Republicans, but the DEMOCRATIC led finance committee and the DEMOCRATIC run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and lie, cheat and steal from the people it is representing, so why would I want another one in an even higher office?

The elections are 6 days away and I’m still on the fence. If there were an independent candidate who the media would acknowledge (because we all know that without media acknowledgment you are dead meat politically speaking) and who could galvanize this country and pull support from both the major parties, I would vote for him or her in a heartbeat. It would not matter to me the color of his skin, his religion or his upbringing.

Voice of Reason where are you?

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Image by JamesBrighton-Apexdv via Flickr

I bank at Wachovia. In light of the recent financial woes that are surrounding that institution, it’s occurred to me that I could have spotted this coming if I had only paid more attention to the signs. So, in order to help other people who are customers of banks that may be facing similar problems, I thought I would put together this list of things that indicate your bank is failing.

10. There’s a bowl next to the cup with the suckers in it that has a sign on it saying “suckers 50 cents”.
9. When you go through the drive-through with your puppy in the car, instead of sending out a dog biscuit, the teller just says “cute puppy”.
8. They raise the interest rates on your loan even though you’ve never been late.
7. You get repeat phone calls from them wanting you to buy services you already have.
6. You get letters from them selling you life insurance.
5. Your investment counselor asks if you can have a dutch treat lunch to discuss your portfolio.
4. When you open a new account you’re given a handshake instead of a toaster.
3. They change their hours and are now open only between 12 PM and 1 PM
2. The ATM machine is out of cash.
1. When you bring in cash to deposit, all the tellers gather around you to smell it.

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