This isn’t your grandparent’s (or great-grandparent’s) depression.  That’s right!  I said the “D” word.  I think, short of political cowardice, the government is going to have to call this what it is.  Of course, they won’t do that yet.  It seems these things are easier to determine after they have been going on for some time.  It took nearly a year, and the crash of Wall Street in October, to force the governments of the major economies to spit out the dreaded “R” word.  Now, depending on the organization, there are a couple of definitions for a recession.  Not so for a depression.  Ever since the Mother of all Depressions, The Great Depression, no politician has used the term.  We had a few before then though.  The Long Depression of 1873 to 1879 was The Great Depression until the 1930’s.  Is it possible that we have avoided them since then?  Learned our lessons?  Doubtful.  I think politicians just fear public retribution if a catastrophe of that magnitude occurs on their watch.  Murray N. Rothbard referred to the 81 – 83 recession as a depression in his Introduction to the Fourth Edition of his book, America’s Great Depression.  Could it have been?  I’m no economist, so I don’t know.  I have read articles where some of today’s economists are stepping up and saying that we are now in a depression.  The comparison’s to the two are striking.  In fact, and again, I’m no expert, the largest difference I’ve been able to find, is that their are protections in place to protect people from losing their savings and governments are jumping into action to keep the banks afloat, unlike the Hoover Administration.  But are those measures going to prevent a depression, or just minimize the length of time we’re in it.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Today, the Boys and I are celebrating the second anniversary of Rufus’ surviving being hit by a train.  It’s almost like a second birthday when you think about it.  Two years ago today, a Monday, the Boys and I went on our morning jog.  Rufus ran into an apple orchard, and Max and I kept going.  The orchard was about 50 meters from a stretch of path that wasn’t very far at all from the train tracks.  It was our misfortune to be at that area when the first train of the day went by.  I still don’t know why, but Rufus jumped onto the tracks at that time.  I found him between the two rail lines; unconscious, but still alive.  So I carried him to the grass and took off with Max to get the Jeep.  My wife was just getting ready when I ran in the house and told her what happened.  Without even getting dressed, she grabbed her phone and ran with me to the Jeep.  She called our vet on the way so they could make any necessary preparations.  We got to Ruf as he was regaining consciousness, and when he heard the Jeep approaching, he tried to lift his head and wagged his tail.  It was when I put him in the vehicle that I finally noticed that his foot was nearly completely severed and he had a large gash in his back.  I began a very long week spending mornings and evenings at the animal clinic doing my best to keep Rufus’ spirits up.  It wasn’t easy for either of us, but by Friday, he was able to stand up on his own.  The doctors then decided that he would be able to survive and scheduled him for surgery to have his leg amputated on Monday.  He came home on Tuesday, and we began working on his recovery.  It was a slow process, but today he can run (not quite as fast, but faster than any human), jump (not quite so high) and play tug of war like nothing ever happened.  He is still a happy (and sometimes irritating) dog, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

One Happy Guy

Thanks for sticking around, Ruf!!!

Today is the anniversary of my first day in the United States Army.  I joined the Army in March 1980 and October 14, 1980 was my first day on Active Duty.  That day forever changed me.  I remember not sleeping very much, being yelled at and sleeping in a strange bed with over 20 other men in the same room.  The time went by very quickly and I had many adventures.