Perhaps some of you provide freight transport services to the Amazon distribution center (DC) in Irving TX. The company is presently in negotiations with state officials, as reported by The New York Times, to invest $300 million in new warehouse and distribution centers. They claim they will create 6000 full-time jobs with health benefits. In order to do that, Amazon wants an agreement from the state to go 4 1/2 years without collecting sales taxes from its TX customers.
However, the TX state comptroller (last year) sent Amazon a $269 million tax bill, claiming that their Irving DC dictates that they collect taxes from its TX customers. Of course, Amazon disagrees. The governor favors Amazon and is pushing statutory changes that would make this deal a reality. For the record, The TX Retailers Association blasted the proposed deal they claim would leave the "state’s “brick and mortar” stores at a disadvantage. Amazon is a $35 billion company headquartered in Seattle WA with 35,000 employees. It was founded in 1994. The link to the full story is: Amazon NYT DC/Taxes
For the rest of the post, I was planning on discussing other pertinent topics in the news, but there’s something more personal I’d like to talk to you about. I was going to talk about my extreme joy over Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) calling officials of the TSA “clueless” when they testified about the absurd searches of infants, toddlers and the elderly as well as the ongoing harassment of American travelers. The link to that story is: Rand/TSA/Clueless. That’s a photo of the Senator and I would only hope that others in Congress have the guts to call officials of the ATA and FMCSA clueless, as well some other adjectives I believe are appropriate.
OK, so here’s my dilemma, actually not so much that as a slight debate going on inside of me. My wife and I have had Henry, a Terri-Poo, for many years. That’s a Terrier – Poodle mix. We got him after we saw him scared, shaking and huddled in the corner of a cage at the local shelter. Henry might be about 16 years old. That’s human years. I’ve never taken him on the road with me, but he has always been there to greet me when I got home and has been, for the most part, a model dog – an amazing member of our family.
Over the past year, as I tackled my own health issues, Henry got older faster and became less and less mobile. When I came in off the road back in April, Henry was in bad shape. He was incontinent and would cry all through the night. His appetite, however, was excellent and he could get up and walk to his water bowl. Being home, prior to surgery, I intensified my care of him. I would place and stack towels next to the bathtub and give him warm baths with oatmeal shampoo while massaging him. Even with the towels, the pain from kneeling down to wash him was at times excruciating. But Henry was making a quick comeback.
There appeared to be a new “spry” in his step. He stopped crying during the night. He slept calmly and his appetite was a good as ever. He still had a problem controlling #1, but he did his #2 business outside. We set up his own small area where he could see my wife and I and life went on. Then I went in the hospital. If you’re a dog owner, I think you know where I’m headed with all this.
I came home to begin this lengthy recovery and could not give Henry anywhere near the attention that I used to. Of course, if I was OTR – on the road – what would have happened to him, being left alone all day (my wife works) is clear to me – he would be dead. Anyway, he continued to hold his own and was a good camper every time the nurse and physical therapist came over. He just remained curled up in a ball, eyes slightly open, ignoring what was going on. It was painful for me to put out and feed the dogs right after the surgery, but I made it part of my recovery. We do, by the way, have a much younger Beagle mix, who, I’m convinced doesn’t understand why Henry isn’t the dog he used to be. He too is losing a friend.
About six weeks has past. Henry has some OK days and, once again, some really bad days. This morning he appeared confused, possibly suffering from dementia, couldn’t get up and walk and I was faced with cleaning up another “accident” before I had my coffee. But, then slept for hours and woke up as if everything is fine. He is driving my wife and I crazy. I have no idea if this dog is suffering. Henry can only communicate through his physical “behavior”, and that is confusing the heck out of us.
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