"Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times." ~ Rutherford B. Hayes

Today is Monday, November 4, 2013, and I do bid you a hearty welcome to today's manifesto of musings. With less than three weeks to go before we make our first of the year appearances as the Jolly Old Elf couple, we pulled out and checked up on our uniforms during our weekend. I need some repair to my jelly-belly apparatus and the wife needs to work on her collar. You thought it was all fun and games, didn't you? But, let me move on. Trying to raise taxes is not easy, especially if folks have to vote on them. However, local municipalities have learned they can go crazy with fees. Since 2007 we have been paying a county registration fee for our security alarm system. The cost was instituted to cover the expense of police responding to false alarms. That made sense at $5 per year per alarm owner. For 2014 they have made an adjustment to the rate. This year the fee is $20, a 400% increase. One irate citizen investigated why the county commissioners had approved such an outlandish increase. He found there was a need to raise an additional $600,000 to cover the cost listed in the official budget as an Unknown Expense. Sounds like Washington DC has infiltrated our own camp!

Okay. I feel better. It's okay to complain when you see the 'good ole boys' network exposed again. It's not as if it is anything new but it still fogs up my glasses. What gets me is to see these same fee raising lifer politicians on YouTube making speeches to Tea Party groups where they indict Washington for everything under the sun. Meanwhile, back where they live they can designate funds to Unknown Expense. Who knows? Maybe they have an alarm fee collection two week summer seminar held in the Caribbean for folks to learn more about this critical collection activity. What's that you say? Sarcasm? That's not only a good guess but I would only say you missed one modifier, dripping. Dripping Sarcasm. Now I feel even better. Thanks for helping me to work through my fee paying anguish issues. You do know I am joking. A little. Very little.

Yes. I did pay the increased fee. And, yes, I do know there are much more important things in the world that need attention. But, as it relates to the View From Here, it generally is whatever seems to be trying to navigate its way through those pesky gray cells of mine, often without rhyme or reason. What they come up with even surprises me on some days. Regardless, we are off and running. It's a bit cooler although not as cool as predicted. We are already planning our Thanksgiving family gathering. Santa Claus is coming to town. What's not to like? We did get the "Duck the Halls", Duck Dynasty Christmas album. It was $14 and I think the performance and sound quality is really excellent. The Robertson clan has some very talented singers, surprisingly, including Phil and Willie, and whatever Uncle Si does is always worth the price of admission. That, of course, would be my opinion, and in this instance it likely is biased. Enjoy your day and may God add His blessings to it. Amen.    ....More later.