Nothing On The Bakken -- Just Some Light Reading -- September 12, 2016

It is my current routine to bike 5 - 10 miles to the local libraries -- the mileage depends on which libraries I visit and which routes I take -- Monday through Friday, leaving the house at 9:00 a.m. and returning home at 2:30.

I read The New Yorker magazine on Monday or Tuesday, and then read one "serious" book from start to finish over the course of as many days as it takes. I am currently reading Nathaniel Philbrick's Valiant Ambition, c. 2016. I take a break from that reading to look at other books. Today, nothing seemed to interest me, but then I saw the type of book that never interests me -- a "contemporary" political book. This one was titled Five Presidents and I had no plans to read much of it except to see what the writer had to say about the JFK assassination. After reading that short chapter, I went back and started at the beginning.

The few notes below will explain why I decided to take the time to write this note.

********************************

Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford

Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin

c. 2016

DDS: BIO HIL

A very easy book to read. Mostly short -- 5 - 8 pages -- vignettes of a personal nature.  It helps put things into perspective with regard to the Obama administration and the Trump-Clinton contest.

It's amazing to think back what happened in the 60s, starting with the Bay of Pigs / Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy Assassination and to the resignation of Nixon -- with the Vietnam War in the background/foreground throughout.

This is the first person account of a secret service agent who rose through the ranks to be on a first-name basis with those five presidents. In addition to what one would expect to read in a book like this, one also "feels" the relationship that grows among the people involved.

Clint Hill was the Secret Agent on the back of the car when JFK was assassinated and the one who protected Mrs Kennedy on the ride to Parkland. Even if you don't know his name, you certainly remember him if you were around in 1963.

Clint Hill was one of only three agents who was invited to attend JFK's 46th birthday party on that very famous presidential yacht, the Sequoia, on May 29, 1963. Some months later, Jacqueline Kennedy, on the plane that carried the casket with her husband, she requested to see Clint Hill before LBJ's swearing-in ceremony. Her concern at that moment, in her blood-encrusted outfit, "What's going to happen to you now, Mr Hill?" genuinely concerned about his future. 

Now for the "you've got to be kidding!"

Page 6:

"I never had any intention of becoming a Secret Service agent. Growing up in Washburn, North Dakota, my goal was to coach athletics and teach history. I have come to realize, that sometimes your life takes a turn in a direction over which you have no control -- ....

When I was seventeen days old, my mother had me baptized and then, on a snowy January morning, left me on the doorstep of the North Dakota Children's Home for Adoption in Fargo. Three months later, Chris and Jennie Hill drove to Fargo with their four-year-old adopted daughter, Janice, and out of all the children at the orphanage, chose me to make their family complete....

I had a wonderful childhood. Washburn, North Dakota, is perched on the north bank of the Missouri River, about halfway between Bismarck and Minot, ..."

He then tells of growing up in North Dakota which sounds so familiar.

Upon graduation from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, 1954, his first intention was to return to North Dakota to find a job in a local high school teaching history and coaching athletics.... but then drafted by the US Army -- the draft board in McLean County....Army Intelligence School in Dundalk, MD .. then to Denver, CO ... first met Secret Service agents when Eisenhower was hospitalized at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora.

It was pure serendipity that he ended up working for the Secret Service. He describes how that happened on page 11.

He was assigned to the White House detail in 1959.

Of the thousands of books I might have selected today for some light reading, who would have ever guessed that such a book had a North Dakota connection?

***********************************

Gameplan

 Seriously.

From today's page R7 of The WSJ. Helpful advice from the WSJ. After reading their situation, I did not read the WSJ's advice.

Here's the situation.

Mom, Dad, and a toddler.

Want to have it all.

Income:

• Dad: 34; unemployed until recently; now earns $60K selling insurance; expects to earn $90K next year
• Mom: 32 years old; part-time nurse; works only weekends; $60K
• Toddler: no income

Debt:

• student loans: $30K (2/3rds is hers)
• credit card: $8K
• recent medical bills: $3K

Forbearance:

• the wife's student loan is in forbearance: she does not have to make payments; interest accrues and is added to the principal; in February, 2017, she will have to begin paying $350/month
• husband: $100/month for student loan; never finished his degree

Expenses:

• rent: $1,300
• electricity: $200
• groceries: $1,200
• health insurance: $410
• preschool: $750
• car payment: $468
• car insurance: $90
• gasoline: $200
• cable and internet: $150
• cellphones: $200
• dog food, vet bills: $200
• credit card minimum: $381
• restaurants (estimate): $400 (actual, probably closer to $600)
• toys for daughter: $150 -- yes, that's right -- $150 per month on toys for daugther

Other:

• life insurance: $20,000 policy on the husband
• each: a 401(k)
• husband's IRA: 3% of his income, currently $2,800
• wife's IRA: not yet funded

Assuming they pay 10% in federal taxes and 5% in state taxes, their net is $102,000 annually and $8,500 net monthly.

• Total monthly expenses as they show above, including the $350 student loan payment starting soon: subtotal: $6,449 
• retirement: $233 for the 401(k)
• total expenses (monthly): $6,682

Balance: $1,818 or about $2,000 each month, rounding.

I wonder where the other $2,000 each month is going? Taxes? Note: there is no entertainment expenses for them except cable, internet, and restaurants. Maintenance on automobile? Clothing? Travel? Medical co-pays and deductibles (with monthly premium that low, the deductibles and co-pays are quite high).