Monday, June 01, 2009

Huds(on)....


I got home from work and the house was empty. Judy had taken her father to Des Moines today for an appointment to remove a bit of cancerous tissue from his lower eye lid and hadn't made it back yet. I changed clothes and headed south with a tailwind. Saw Judy heading home as I was heading out.

The tailwind was stronger than I thought but, no matter, I was taking it easy today. When I got to Hudson I rode through town and up by the High School then back around to the north side of town to come back. That's when I realized that the wind was stronger than I'd thought. Oh well, I made it back home and got a pretty good workout in the process.

Lots of people on the trails today. Kids playing, folks pushing baby buggies, a few cyclists, walkers, joggers, the usual cast of characters. It's in the mid 70's today and the thought went through my mind that in a couple of weeks, when it starts bumping the 80's for temps, the trails will be nearly vacant again. Kinda funny....

Did you see that the U.S. Government now owns 60% of GM? Guess we'll call it "Government Motors" now. The U.A.W. got a 17.5% share with options on another 2.5% but they are looking for a buyer for their chunk of the pie. Apparently they don't want to be responsible for their own future and their retiree health care obligations, which are roughly double what their 17.5% stake is worth. (9 billion dollar value vs. 20 billion dollar obligation) I don't know about you, but the government taking over private (or publicly traded) business scares the hell out of me. (The owners of common stock get roughly ZERO out of the deal) I wonder what's next? Not exactly the change I was hoping for. We'll see....

Rain in the forecast. Whatcha gonna do? It's all good!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!

6 Comments:

Blogger Brian B said...

Didn't Adolph Hitler take over VW back in the 40's?????

1:51 AM  
Blogger bluecolnago said...

brian b....
actually, the vw was hitler's brainchild. the "people's car". they've changed a little over the years though. lol.

"how wonderful for governments that the people they administer do not think" ~~adolph hitler

6:48 AM  
Blogger Carl Buchanan said...

Hitler teamed up with Porsche in 1933 and after making some changes to Porsche's 1931 design, Volkwagon was born. Volkswagon, or "People's car", was created so that the common man could afford a car and thus utilize the immense highway system that Hitler had also put into Germany. This highway system is also what the USA has modeled the Interstate system after by the way.

7:10 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Our interstate system was put in place first as a way to move military equipment around the country for national defense. You and I taking our kids on a road trip to see the Grand Canyon came in second! :^)
But I'm sure the automobile industry had a few lobbyists on capital hill in those days supporting the idea. Remember when "what's good for GM is good for america?"
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. Hopefully, we don't get stuck making lemonade!

10:10 PM  
Blogger Guitar Ted said...

Hmm.....They told us when I was just a pup that we wouldn't be driving cars when we were adults.

Wouldn't that be awesome?

(Cause we'd have to ride bikes, decentralize retail, and rethink our culture)

I'd be down with it.

But anyway, I am on vacation, so how dare you write about such things! ;-)

6:39 PM  
Anonymous Sunshine said...

Is Orvin doing ok? I saw that Judy had to take him to Des Moines. Hope all is well with him

8:22 PM  

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