February 13, 2008 - Another Wednesday come and gone. If I live to be 80 I'll see about 4000 of them in my life. I gotta start thinking about what I can do every day to move towards a goal or improve in some way. Today was pretty boring, although I guess I improved in one manner. Ellie and I went to the gym after work. This time we went to the Southwest Rec Center rather than the Highland Rec Center. This is a newer facility with better equipment. I think I'm going to keep going to this one as long as I have the extra 5 minutes to drive there. The weight machines are much nicer and the treadmills give more information, and there are twice as many treadmills. They have a bunch of TV's in this one too, although I tend to stay focused when I'm in the gym, and don't have much time to watch TV. I used to be able to run a 5K (3.1 miles) in nearly 20 minutes. Today I ran 2 miles in 18 minutes. I guess it will just take me some time to get back into that condition. That 20 minute 5k was after training in the gym for 5 months. I'm at week 3 right now, so maybe in a few months I'll be back around 20 minutes. I had band practice over in Tampa today. I brought some brand new guitar cables for everyone to buy. At the past few practices nearly everyone has been missing cables, breaking cables, and needing cables. I found a sweet deal online, bought 10 cables, and sold 3 of them tonite. Not too shabby. I think I'll sell at least 3 more, which will leave 4 for me to keep at home for in my studio. I've been doing some thinking about taxes recently. Pam Iorio, mayor of Tampa, was quoted recently in response to the Amendment 1 passed recently in Florida. Amendment 1 adds an extra $25,000 homestead deduction to everyone in the states property taxes, assumming your house is homesteaded and worth at least $75,000 (which just about all of them are). Anyway, Pam said she was surprised that it passed, but could understand that there are people in more rural areas outside of Tampa that don't have the economic conditions we have and would appreciate the benefit of a tax cut. Excuse me? Is she implying that people enjoy paying taxes, and that the amount of taxes we pay is generally accepted and fair? I'm all for reducing my tax liabilities as much as possible. There are very few services I feel we need to support at all with taxes, and of those, I think they could probably be funded at lower levels and still give the people an appropriate amount of support. While I do applaud Pam's attitude toward running the city of Tampa government, I think she still deep down represents politics and the entitlement that politicians have towards self-preservation. If she has a smaller budget to work with this year compared to last year, it makes her feel less important. If she has more money to work with this year because of increased sales tax proceeds, or decreased fuel costs, or whatever, she will immediately find a way to spend it. It would be nice to see a government run in the same way that Warren Buffet runs Berkshire Hathaway. Find the best use of the money, or don't spend it. Sit back on the cash, and evaluate what options exist, and then when the time is right, put the money towards that. As long as we keep electing politicians to run our government, we are going to keep seeing the same results, and our tax rates will continue to escalate to support the appetites of the politicians who are seeking self-preservation and self-validation.