Today is going to be a wonderful day. No, it is not because of the weather, or my health, or anything like that, it is because my wife and I will have the pleasure of being "Reading Buddies" for some 2nd graders at one of our local elementary schools.

Have you ever been a "Reading Buddy?"

If you haven't, a treat is awaiting you if you give it a try.

This is one of my first attempts at this and it has been rewarding. I started out with four of the little folks about two months ago. One little girl and three little boys. Admittedly, the first debut to this new adventure was a little disarming when I came to realize that these kids were not really slow, as it was deemed, they were just lonesome.

The young lady I encountered could not sit still for five seconds. She spoke to everyone that came into her eyesight,(that was everyone that walked down the hallway in front of the classroom) and she felt it was her responsibility to know everyone's business. The fact was that her folks didn't have time for her, since they both worked to make ends meet so family discussions at home were nill and to get attention, a kid had to "act out" a bit.

Being a "Reading Buddy" gives you a new insight into family life today. Being a good listener, as well as forcing yourself to have patience with each child in their reading endeavors, gives you  not only that insight, but also a feeling of concern for our future generations.

Each person will have different theory about what is taking place. My wife was a teacher for this type of child for 22 years. Her insight, which she so graciously passed onto me, gave balance to my one-sided thoughts. I discovered a whole new world of people that I really didn't know about, and all from being a freind to a kid who needs one.

If you would like to help a little one be a better reader, a better person, and hopefully a much happier child...and I am sure you all would...check into your school systems and ask about their "Reading Buddy" programs...you will be glad that you did. An hour a week is a small time to give to something so important.

Oh yes, just a side note, my newest book, "Deavereau and the Napoleon Clock Incident" is now available at http://www.createspace.com/4210672

Another Day, Another Dollar--Wasted

Today is no different than any other day that I receive mail. Yes, you guessed it, another bunch of mail from people who want money.

I understand that there is a need out there for donations, but what is difficult for me to understand is, that if all of these folks can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on promotion materials, plus the postage to send them, and the people to stuff and get them to the post office, where do they get that money.

This week has just started and I have already disposed of donations requests from the Republican Party (three last week), An animal rescue center, the AmVets, the Hospitalized Vets, and of course, our church.

Now I don't want you to think I am a person who doesn't believe in sharing the wealth. That would not be true. Just yesterday I asked my neighbor to give me a buck or two and he laughed and walked away. He thought I was joking.

Every week I give time, talent and cash  to the church, I donate time to the local Retired Peoples group here, and of course to a school we, my wife and I, dontate an hour or so to kids that have a problem reading. I don't mind doing these things, as a matter of face, I kind of enjoy it.

I have a different perspective however, on those snail mail requests. A question that comes into my mind, especially about the Republican Party, and I am sure the Democrat Party and  doubt other parties as well, is rather than have ten different little agencies in the same party sending out information from several locations requesting donations, why don't they combine, regroup, put all of their money into one bucket and share the questionair information? I have received, in the last two weeks, from five different agencies (supposedly affiliated with the Republican Party) the same basic request for information and money, and all with almost identical "Infomercials" for me to digest.

Well, so much for the soap box! Just wanted to let you know that I don't intend to send out $10.00 or more (now they want $40.00 to $60.00) to five different parts of the same institution. You would think the "intelligent" people in our government could apply their college trained minds to something, shall we say, intelligent?

Can YOU Afford to Eat in Alabama?

Well, here I am again, on my soapbox, complaining about government...this time it is our wonderful, Home Sweet Home, Alabama that is on my mind.

Have you considered where you spend the most on tax during the year? One could say, "I think it was on my car," and that could be true this year but over how many years can that tax be spread, five years? Six Years" Ten Years? Maybe once in your lifetime? You don't buy cars everyday!

What about those appliances? The washing machine, the dryer, the refrigerator,perhaps an airconidioner? Yes, those are all things that we pay a sales tax on, but again, not every week, month or for that matter every year.

I guess what I want to say is the one thing everyone pays tax on, and pays it every day or at least once a month, food!

Let's say that you spend, as we do, about $35.00 each on food each week. Now that isn't a bunch of frivolous foods like chips and dips, special desserts, or beer and wine...I mean the meat and potatoes type stuff, that food stuff group that people need to stay healthy. Do you realize that you are spending $35.00 for groceries and an additional 8% or $2.80, each week? Let's see now, if we spend $35.00 a week and another $2.80 per week on taxes to eat, I guess we are spending about $145.60 per person per year. If you are a family of four, that is about $582.40 per year for the right to eat.

Don't misunderstand what my meaning here! I am not saying there should be no tax at all, although in many states staple foods are not taxed. But would it not be nice if you had perhaps a 2% tax instead. You would actually have an additional $436.80 per year or $8.40 per week for those needed vegetables, fruits, or what ever your meal plan may require.

Maybe, just maybe, our legislature people just don't understand that the one thing everyone in this state has to have is food. Again I am not talking about chips and dips, although I sometimes think that is about what a lot of our families live on these days. I mean real food.

Let's all push for a tax reform that addresses the needs of our people. What do you think?

What Happened?

All of us have those days when we have some unexpected event takes place and it happens so quickly and is over with, that we just exclaim, "What happened?"

Time's a Wastin'

It  seems like yesterday that I wrote in this blog, but I know it has been much longer than that. You know my time just wastes away, mostly while I am trying to decide if I want to write anything or not, and then when I decide that I should, I don't know what to write about. Do you have that problem?

Lately I have been reminiscing about  time wasted and lost. When I first was married, I thought living on an acreage or small farm would be wonderful, you know the fresh air, the unencumbered breezes, the smell of nature at its finest. I bought an acreage. It had no facilities, a pump for water, and a clothesline in the side yard. The furnace consisted of a small gas stove in one of the two rooms downstairs and a wood burning range in the kitchen that had a reservoir for heating water and  do the dishes and whatnot. We even used that for washing our hands and face. The upstairs was a real gem. Two bedrooms without doors, and you didn't have to go outside to enjoy the breezes either. You could just stand at the top of the stairs and smell those wonderful odors of farm life and enjoy the breeze as it waved between the boards on the side of the housr. I have to tell you we had it all. All of the misery you could ask for in that modern age that is.

We moved from there, after two years of hardship, and decided to return back to the real world where we purchased a rreal house. It was about twenty four feet each direction, had a furnace, inside plumbing, a detached garage and a fenced in back yard. Now, this was really moving up in the world. I had wasted over two years of our lives by that time. No, I wasn't out of work, as a matter of fact I had a great job; it started at 6:00 AM every morning and ended at 2:30 PM every afternoon, just in time to come to the acreage and start the tractor for the evening chores. Those two years made time go slow, and I figure now that it was just time a'wastin'.

Since that time I have moved my family into seven states, seventeen different places to live, and tore them from ever thinking of a normal life like other folks. Some folks just don't enjoy life like I have. I have a friend who stayed back home and took a job and at the same time I turned one down with the same company. He stayed there until he retired. He drives a new car every year, plays golf at least three times a week, has a very large, and new, home, two kids, seven grandchildren, and seems to have a great life.  During all of those boring years he spent at the same company, I had two jobs, spent twenty years trying to convince myself that being in business for myself was good, and finally retired with a shirt on my back, a small home on the lake, and a lot of time to waste. I have none of those problems he has, getting up early to go to the golf course, putting up with all of those kids, and having that big house to maintain. Just imagine the worry he has every time he parks that new car wondering who is going to hit it, or key it, or do something else to it.

Today, I spend somewhere near five hours a day on the computer with email, blogs, web sites,   miscellaneous stuff like PCH contests, and other not-worthwhile things. I am still a wastin' a lot of time, but you know what? I look around and see most of my old buddies have bit the dust. Yeah, they just folded in the card hand and gave up. Maybe my time of waste wasn't so bad after all. I never suffer from work related stress, I argue with no one, but in stead just leave when I get fed up with the way things are or the way they were back when.

Now here I am, married to wonderful gal from up north, living in mid-south, and enjoying this wasted time immensely. Why not join me and we will start a new world of just doin' nothin' but wastin' time.

Tom and Jake Enjoy Writng Their Books

If you would like to read some blogs, order some books, and just find out more about Tom Ault and Jake, click here!

Jake is now five years old. He is still inquisitive, loves everyone, and wishes he could talk. No doubt he thinks of himself as my little boy since I treat him that way, but if you have a pet, you know what I am talking about.

Jake's books of color photographs in the 8x10 size with descriptions of the photos, questions for the kids about color, numbers and other things wereoriginally written for my step-grandchildren and my great grandchildren, but have been enjoyed by many other children over the past couple of years. The latest Jake book is a gift book designed to give for Valentines Day, Birthdays, Christmas or just to say "I Love You" to your favorite child. There is a place in front for your picture and a note or two from you...this is a keepsake book of 184 pages...for the price, it can't be beat by any full color, 10x8 size book.

My newest book is  "Deavereau, and the Napoleon Clock Incident.". If you like suspense and unexpected endings, you will enjoy this book and meeting Deavereau, the new handsome detective and his beautiful sidekick.

Jake always likes nice emails. http://www.aultsplace.com Just click here for Jake.

Today's Battles

An Open Letter to President Obama and Speaker of the House, John Boehner;

I am the first to admit that I am just an ordinary citizen, with an average intelligence and lacking in college degrees since my only school was the one of hard knocks. With that being said I have a few comments with respect to what I understand could be a problem or two with respect to our debt problems and our gun problems, two totally different, but important issues today.

 First, with respect to the debt situation; we hear on the radio, from the television, and from the news media in general,  that there are certain things that need to be cut. We should all agree  that cuts are necessary .

 

1.       Let’s quit giving a free ride to the people of our country. Presently our government is  giving free cell phones, free and/or subsidized housing,  and money (in the form of income tax returns, where the recipient didn’t pay anything in in the first place, ) to people because they think it is necessary. Maybe we should let them pay a minimum income tax, say a meager $10.00 or so per year to help offset the cost of the military needs, the various research needs ,and other necessities of the government machine, just so they can say they really love this wonderful country and take some pride is supporting it? I have heard that there are many people that not only do not pay any income tax, but after not paying taxes , they actually are receiving refunds of money they didn’t pay in the first place. 

Let’s say “No” to those unmarried mothers with the many children that were brought into this world for the sole purpose of obtaining welfare money.  

Let’s say “No” the many people who claim they cannot work, get their social security disability checks each month, and then start lawn services, babysitting services, and many other services that require physical labor, and are paid for in cash. (under the table)

Maybe we should put some restrictions on the attorneys that represent those same people.  They must make quite a sum of money if they can afford to advertise on television the way that they do.  Consider  this,  that you and I are really paying those attorneys who are legally giving our social security  money  to these double-dipping  people they represent.

2.       What would happen if we quit giving our money , in the billions, to foreign country governments who squander it, whose citizens never see any benefits from it, and who could care less whether our great country survives or not? Why not spend it on our infrastructure, on our children’s education, on our storm ravaged communities.

3.       What would happen if the colleges were to quit spending millions on unnecessary programs and certain preferred teachers, and actually used that money to cut the costs for students. What if we decided that teachers that teach politics that are totally against our form of government,  were dismissed and replaced with logical, ethical, and United States loving professors.  What if professors could no longer tell the students they have to buy their  personally authored  and over- priced books, rather than those books written by intelligent people that have knowledge outside of the classroom and actually have experienced the things they are writing about rather than assuming what they are writing is correct.

 

WE have another serious problem called weaponry. I come from a family of hunters dating back into the 1800’s. My people were those that hunted for food, spent money on hunting equipment that was actually needed ,rather than on sub-machine guns and other types of guns for military use.

I am not against guns, but I am against military weapons being in the hands of anyone that wants one just to please some organization that over-emphasizes the need for such weapons and then hides behind certain amendments of the government.

Not too long ago my wife and I were privileged to be used as finger printers for a sheriff’s department. Our job was to fingerprint anyone that needed fingerprints for licenses or other reasons, such as pharmacy, child care, child safety, concealed weapon permits, doctors, and the list goes on and on.

In order for a person in that state to obtain a permit to carry a sidearm, he/she must go through a gun training class where they were to learn how to use the gun, how to clean and store the gun and all of the safety rules regarding that weapon. An excellent idea…however, when you have unscrupulous instructors you have no program. Many examples of what I am saying came through our office. One was an older gentleman in a wheelchair, who not only could not remember his name, but had to be pushed about. Another came in with a briefcase containing the paperwork but he could not identify himself and wasn’t sure why he was there. A lady, that could not hold her hands still to write, (it took over ½ hour to get most of her prints and we wrote a memo explaining why we could not get all of the prints done well) also came for her permit. Now I have to ask you how safe do you feel,  knowing these people passed the test and were given permits.

It was not unusual ,when we asked why they were getting a permit, to have them tell us their spouse thought it would be a good idea, or since permits might be harder to get later, they should get one now, even though they were afraid of the guns.

In order for regulations to work, regulators have to have the proper training and that should include mental evaluation as well as physical evaluation. Just collecting the sum required for the training and passing people through like cattle in a slaughter house is not the answer.

Well, as usual, I have now made more people disgusted with me, have upset many more, but hopefully have also given some a new slant on things of interest today.