News Fatigue

From time to time I read current events on the various blogs available on the net. Actually, I must admit, I am obsessed. I cannot start the day without a zoom through the various places I always visit. I’ve written about this before and so let me reiterate, I have news blogs, plain old blogs, blogs of the soap opera type, blogs by shrinks, health blogs and religious type blogs. I am a blog nut. In order to shorten my morning fix I have a must see folder and today they are all abuzz with the John Doe amendment in some bill that the Dems voted overwhelmingly to cut. The amendment protected whistleblowers actually. When you see something suspicious you say something and it’s checked out and if it’s nothing the person or people you reported go on their way. Some go on their way to sue the whistleblower. This amendment protected the snitchers from those lawsuits which would probably whine that they were picked on due to their size, shape, color, religion etc. Never would the snitching be based on legitimate cause for concern such as the Fabulous Flying Imams and the actions they were taking to draw attention to themselves, get that report in and get a huge publicity campaign and lawsuit cooking.

What is the thinking behind the vote that was just taken? We’ll never know the truth so we are left to speculate and naturally, human nature being human, we think the worst. I have to go pray and read the Gospel of Mark. I am going all the way through start to finish and obsess about the Good News rather than the state of affairs in Washington DC. Bless you all. God is still on His throne.

Another Pizza Roller Incident

The firemen in our little town decided that they would use a home which had suffered damage during an electrical storm and was scheduled to be torn down for a practise excercise. Fire engines were dispatched and ladders climbed and windows smashed and holes put in the roof and roof joists (whatever they are) sawed through and you name it they did it. Wrong house. Is that worse than the Pizza Roller Incident or what? Our esteemed selectmen commended them for their proactive approach to training and then said they would take steps to avoid a problem like that occurring in the future. Can you see the training for that? OK Men. Read the address of the house out loud please! Will the address checker de-truck and evaluate the house that we think is burning? Will the street sign reader please report? Will the house number double checker please co-ordinate with the street sign reader?

I'll bet if they were able to increase our property taxes to the level they wanted, they would have had firefighters on the force who could actually read. I know I know knocking the first responders is so wrong. Sorry. Sorry Sorry.

Love that C.S. Lewis

An excerpt from C.S. Lewis, an essay titled Equality written in 1943. Could this have been written today?

"Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honour millionaires, athletes or film stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison."

Granted in this case the king referred to an actual monarchy since he was English and yet if we were to change king to any decent leader in the religious world or political world or whatever...if our heroes and honorable role models are ridiculed and thrown to the ground...isn't this what we have left? Look at what is going on around us now due to the sniping and back stabbing and ridiculing and undermining of every solid person of substance.

Just Rambling

Well work I did and what a nasty mood I brought with me. I tore into just about everyone about everything and surprisingly, got a lot accomplished. I am beat right now and ready for zoning out in front of the TV but first - - -



I came up with a whopping revelation.. again. I am in the middle of some turmoil and boy is this emotion stuff taking its toll. I had a situation in which an action I took has raised some eyebrows..you see, the thing I did I legally didn't have to do but I did it anyway and people don't understand that I had to do it because it was the right thing to do. I am so surprised that so many people don't connect with that. It seems that I am from a totally different planet.

Oh well. I am reading C.S. Lewis again -- one of his books that I have is called The Business of Heaven, it's a book of daily readings and I keep forgetting it exists and then I pick it up and I'm knocked out by how timeless his writings are -- not to compare it to the Bible which is the definition of timeless wisdom but since he was such a solid Christian he was steeped in the timeless wisdom of Christianity and God gave him such a gift that he could write it down in language anyone can understand. Those who say they can't are willfully blind . . just sayin'.

Gotta go forth and be corporate. Bless you all and pray as I do that we are able to stay in God's will. I wish we would get very clear memos on a daily basis and a check list at night. If Mom's were God we might.

To Play Hookey or Not

I have been toying with playing hookey since the weekend. I went to lunch with some lovely ladies I worked with for years. We are all in the area and twice a year whether we need to or not we get together for lunch. One is single and always has been. She lives such a fabulous single life. She has a condo here and in Florida. The Florida condo she shares with a couple of female friends. She travels several times a year to Europe or somewhere in the states. She volunteers for any number of community action things and works part time in the summer to supplement her winter wanderings. She has many friends and interests and when we leave, the gal I always pick up and drive home says....wow, she is so busy she wears me out. She makes me feel like I am doing nothing. Then all the way home the two of rationalize our doing nothing.

Anyhow my busy friend said that she is working for a real screwball this summer and she is feeling some stress. The other day she realized that if she is not happy at work then she should not go. I think she's right. That's what solidifies my hookiness. I'm going though. I will connect later and advise.

My Nice New Friends

I've been off on a few different directions. I am participating in a cyber girls' club. We are supporting each other in our dietary challenges. We all, whether for health or cosmetic or who knows what reasons, are working on our intake and output of calories. Calories can be taken in in many forms and burned up in many as well. If you don't burn much you should take in less if you want to lose or maintain your size. Notice how I have avoided the D word and the W word. What are those words you may ask? You may but I won't answer because if you don't know what they are.....go. away. Take your skinny athletic self somewhere and gnaw on some fruit and vegetables and lean protein. Don't gnaw on much though. You never do. You only gnaw when hungry and when not hungry you stop. Oh!!!! Go!!! Away!!

Well, glad I got that over with. The group I am writing with and reading are all really nice and I am very thankful for the connection. I am much more aware of the D word and really...isn't that what makes it work as it should? The awareness and being thoughtful.

It's nice to meet nice people and that's what I've done. My mother would be so proud. She always liked it when I went out and met nice friends. If she were still with me I would have her sitting here reading and writing with me. She would want to meet everyone.

I am sooooo tired now. It's hot and humid and I have been up and down stairs all day with laundry and such. Got to go sit and cool down. I'll be back...as Ahnold says.

Pray for the Day

So far , so good, I have managed to elude the pizza roller. Today will be a challenge however. Yesterday was a day of gathering and evading deadlines and establishing new deadlines for the same things. Sound cryptic? It all is. Today the rubber meets the road and all but two of the long list of projects that must be completed and handed off by Friday are mine. There are two that are the accountants and he has, I hope all the information he needs.

There are other looming things and meetings for today and I will need God to wrap me in His arms and keep me safe throughout them. Long long ago things are still in the front of people's minds. Bubbling cauldrons have been stirred and eyes of newts have been dropped in and I need God to put me under His wings and let me find refuge in that fortress and all of the other power prayers I can think of I have been thinking and praying. The big picture makes most of this silly but I can't seem to step out of the muck and get a glimpse of that picture. When I do step out, I'm hurled back. I heard a radio minister this morning say that life can be like a giant squid. It wraps those tentacles around you and pulls you down into the black ocean waters. You need to call out to God and He will pull you free.

I know I will be safe and only goodness and mercy will follow me and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Thank you Jesus.

The Pizza Roller Incident

Sunday was pretty darned good, a beautiful sunny day and not too humid. Hubby and I took a ride to pick up some not necessary but wanted items and it was a lovely ride along a little traveled but gorgeous part of our world. The route we took was winding and lined with old weathered shingled homes, fabulous gardens and antique shops and the closest thing to a strip mall was a corner store that expanded 40 years ago and later subdivided so that a family member could run a sub shop, I'm guessing at the history, I do that a lot. At any rate, as you can see we had a day of leisure and relaxed appreciation of the part of the world we live in.



Monday, another story. The news started my day and I had to listen to the later broadcast to be sure I wasn't dreaming and making up the lead story. A woman got her head caught in a pizza roller while opening up the pizza parlor for the day. She was air lifted to a major hospital for medical attention. Now, how in the world does that happen? And you think you had a bad Monday. Think of the pizza roller lady. Not only does she have the recovery from the injuries but the whole world around her knows about the incident. Imagine how her return to work will be handled.

The rest of the day was one minor irritation after another and finally good night. The pizza roller incident did keep everything in perspective. My mother would say, "If you think you can feel sorry for yourself just think about all the youngsters out there with no legs or no hands or no hearing . . . . " she would go on and on and come up with every known horrible affliction she could imagine and when she finally had us totally doubled up with pain for all those poor children well, then her job was done. Now I just have to think of the pizza roller lady and my day seems just fine thanks.

Hope your day is smooth and roller free.

Sundays are Glorious

The most beautiful day of the week. I just read Psalm 16 and I think that will be my Psalm of the week. I have never had a Psalm of the week but this week I am going to. This is such a joyful day and this Psalm says it all.

I am about to go with the spouse to walk the dog. My husband's been in an air cast to his knee for 3 weeks and has at least 3 more weeks to go. A high ankle sprain they say. Last night he felt a sharp pain just above that cast in the knee area. He is still sensitive and finding it hard to walk easily. Monday he will go to the orthopedic expert to see what if any other damage he has wrought. He doesn't realize that casts are to partially slow you down.


Off we go into the day.

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

Non-Vacation Blues

And for today. . . . we are doing the usual Saturday things which involve running and fetching and laundry and the dump and then collapse in the recliner to nap but not able to because neighbors stop by and say hi and what's up for later. Being in a summer place where people are on vacation or weekending makes it tough when you're here, living a non-vacation life. Vacations mean never having to do laundry or cook if you don't want to. Vacations mean all the clothes you have are freshly washed and ironed and sometimes new. Vacations mean lots of happy hours and snacks and yikes!!! We are the wrinkled non-vacationers here all the time vacuuming and shopping getting ready for work on Monday folks. Most of the time I love the easy going drop in and say hi have a glass of wine laugh and snack but there are days, and this is one of them where all the things left undone for the past couple of weekends due to my pain in the neck . . family duties. . graduation parties. . bridal showers . . all those undone things are calling to me. Gemma, your laundry wants you to pay attention. Gemma, change the sheets on the bed. Gemma dust for the love of Pete. Who is Pete? No one could ever tell me.

I must obey the call of the dirty dishes and laundry and the unused vacuum cleaner.

I will be back when things are a bit more sparkly.

Epiphanies and Burkas

I just had an epiphany....those crazy Muslims (not the nice ones but the one who behead and take stones to women and lop off body parts) should just trust Allah to take care of business and they should just take care of themselves and not their neighbors. Take for instance that crazy mullah or imam or whatever who exhorted his followers - all young and I emphasize young - men to stay and fight in the mosque while he, dressed as a woman in a burka (sp) tried to escape.

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July!

The sky is so blue right now, it appears that today will be glorious and perfect for those cookouts and parades and whatever anyone does outdoors for the Fourth. We are going to a cookout and the hostess was so afraid it would rain. She must be delirious with this beginning. We will all hope for more as the day goes on.

Because of this party, hot crab dip, seven layer taco dip, chicken and broccoli salad, greek salad, chicken wings, onion dip, not to mention all the grilling going on and the dessert table with lemon squares, red white and blue trifle which sits next to chocolate trifle with strawberries dipped in chocolate, I will not glom on about dieting but tomorrow? she hits the road for low calorie splendors and moving along the walking path.

See ya then. God Bless us everyone.

PAIN

All right, I have been working and working and not learning any new things and I have set me some goals for sure. I want to learn all there is to learn about EBAY and selling stuff. Help me out here. What do I have to do, where do I go to learn all of the super selling skills to unload me of tons of tons of stuff.



Also I have to read my Bible more diligently. I listen to everyone who talks about the Bible. Woodrow Kroll(sp?) and John MacArthur and Robby Zacharias and David whatsisname....oh I could go on -- and on -- and I might but I won't...I listen all the time early morning and late in the night. The Bible answer man is another and Focus on the Family and yadadayada. BUT I must do my own reading of the Word. I love it and need to do it. I must get disciplined.



I also must strectch and strengthen my body.... I am old Father whatever your name is and I need to work on

Since leaving off there and now I have been suffering with such severe neck pain that in order to get the head looking to the left, the whole body must move there. I am typing now to clean this post up but it hurts to do this so BYE......

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I wrote this earlier

A beautiful day in the neighborhood, the sun is out, the sky is blue, my husband is glad to be with me and vice versa, we have a great rescue dog who is improving daily, no, make that monthly. She is a really lovely dog but like all of us she has flaws. The flaws are not fatal thank you. She LOVES people and zoooooms in on them with all 94 pounds of her. Yikes! That plus the Rottweiler face will do it for most. There are those who hold their ground and are rewarded with wagging and wagging and my husband huffing and puffing to hold her back. Great leaping whines of joy and licks follow.

We are done with the walk and she has twanged herself into a nap. It’s exhausting being a giant puppy.

I am attempting to work from home and the computer remote access is on again and off again. I have downloaded most of what I need to this computer so I should be able to get most of what I want done. This has been a very funny time for me. I keep thinking I’m depressed and then again I feel fine. I think the change of seasons always has me in a bit of an emotional swirl. Just when I think I’m so well balanced. Well the point of that statement is to say that I should have taken some vacation time for this week and just stayed home. No. Couldn’t plan ahead so here I am finding any excuse to stay home and try to get the guilt of not working washed away by working at home. Make sense to you? Me either.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Another day, another day, as they say. Who are they that say that?

At any rate it is Friday and soon the weekend. Today is a day of meetings meetings meetings and during the mix, I have to have brake fluid put into my car which seems to be leaking that stuff. I don't have time to leave the car so fill the fluid, leave for the weekend and then upon return, drop off the car and leave it for repair.

Such is my lot in life. Meet and fix and meet some more and clean and haul and

I could go on and on but won't. Today is a glorious sunny day, a beautiful fat red cardinal of the loudest mouth ever is sitting nearby in one of those trees shouting out how happy he is to be here. How could I not be too? God Bless us everyone. Happy Friday and have a Wonderful as well as Wonderfilled Weekend.

Paying your own way

Haven't posted about a dream for ages. Had one last night that sort of woke me up. Some boy was going to college and was given the amount of money he had to pay. He was on his own and couldn't get a loan I guess. I don't know who he was or how I was involved beyond hearing and seeing him. I couldn't see who was talking to him I could only hear. Once he was told how much money he had to earn to pay the tuition he was told that going to college and graduating, Paying for everything on his own would be a major or significant feat. It would not, however be the most significant and thus would not be the only significant event in his life. I woke up.

What the hey? I don't have a clue but it still is with me.

Too Much to ponder

I am organizing my Internet favorites folders. I do this every now and then and I discover things about myself. I have to name the folders that I put blogs into and today I discovered that I like blogs that deal with current events and do it in a cut and dried way -- there aren't many of these and I tend to mix them in with CNN and Fox and Drudge and call that my news folder and I call that News1. Then I have a LOT of opinion laced ranting type blogs and these are portioned out between my lesser news folder entitled News and the pure blog stuff called Blogs1. Pretty darned clever of me so far right? Stick around. It gets better.

In the blogs stuff I have those I have to check every day and so I left them in the Blogs1 folder and created a Blogs folder for those others that I don't want to lose but sometimes they go stale (in my opinion) so I only check in from time to time. So far, four folders. Today I created a new category, I call it Soap Blogs. Here is where I find my greatest interest. These are a blend of news, rant and day to day activities of the blog host/hostess. I love to check and see what the bump on the ankle, the nausea, the unopened letter turned out to be. The pregnancy test, the sex of the child, the name of the new puppy you got it, I am a voyeur. I love to read diaries, look through anybody's photo albums check out yards and rooms and WHAT is wrong with me. I think I said ages ago that I could be, with a bit of encouragement, a peeping thomasina. I don't want to see any titillating actions, setting a table or washing the dishes is OK. I am way too curious about everybody on this planet and what makes them tick, how they live, what they do for recreation and how relationships are working for them. I am the same way with me by the way. I "search and ponder" the motives for my thoughts and behaviors. I look at my surroundings with an eye for . . would this appear normal to a visitor?

Oh me. Time to carry on. Why did I say carry on as opposed to get on with my day? What do you suppose I meant by that. Is the day ahead some kind of burden to be lifted on my shoulders and hauled along? Hmmmmmm

If wishes were horses

I am determined to enter a thought or at least words every day. There are great gaps of time during which I have no thoughts which should be recorded. The words are not easily found at that time either. The fingers on the keys typing are heavy and slow and .. .. .. you get the picture.

A friend of mine called yesterday. I saw her less than a month ago close to her birthday. She has spent years allowing her husband and mother to do for her and define her as helpless. I think that she thought she was very clever back then. She never had to food shop or clean the house more than a swipe here or there. Laundry was ok but not done on a regular basis. She had two kids that she brought up but the big stuff with the kids seemed to be left to the husband. They were boys and so that was right.

Now she is fit to be tied. The boys are gone and husband and mother, very old but capable, still treat her as a doorstop. They dismiss her opinions and mother orders her lunch for her, buys her clothes, tells her how to wear her hair. Husband picks out the drapes and the furniture, hangs the pictures, picks the tile for the bathroom, sends her to stay with her mother when his family arrives to visit for several weeks in the summer. Boy does she have anger issues. Boy when I think how I envied her years ago. As I worked two jobs to get through those bad days. As I watched everyone have kids and didn't. As I saw husbands providing for the household while mine drowned depression with scotch and eventually committed suicide. As I as I as I....

When my mother was in her dreary poor me moods I would cheer her up by telling her about everyone else's troubles. How sick is that? Am I still doing it? I hope not. I hope I am planning my future by not doing what I did all those years ago....I don't want to wish my time away by looking at the outside of someone else's life. The inside is messy just like my own...it's their mess and they have to deal with it just as I have to deal with mine.

God has us in the palm of his hand and loves us more than we ever will love ourselves. Let God take care of us. Blessings on all. Have a good day.

Done in and Done

Totally exhausted. Meeting after meeting after meeting today and then call after call from my friends and their reports on dysfunctional families. Believe me!! I have some experience there. Top it all off with political news of a migraine nature and I am done. Tomorrow is another day and on that note...God Bless you everyone.

Role Models

Just a quickie to keep this thing current. I was just reading Page Six in the NYP and what a hoot! The modern day celebs are all either in Jail or rehab or out on the town conflicted about their sexual identity. Five more years and the state asylums will be back and filled with the stars of tomorrow. Our young people have such fabulous role models.

The Need for Consistency

This immigration thing. Can the politicians really be so tone deaf? No one, well almost no one wants to throw the baby out with the bath water but honestly, do the politicians really thing that in the USA we want to reward line jumpers and law breakers? I guess they do. Rather than do away with the laws to deal with illegals why don't they concentrate on making it easier for legals to move into our system. . . what a world. The people they can make jump through hoops are given hoops higher and smaller to jump through. The people that defy them they appease. We are so conflicted. No appeasement in the Iraq arena but roll over and grovel here at home. People are angry because of the inconsistent application of law. Order depends on the agreement of both groups of people...those the order is imposed on must agree to follow the rules and when the rules are broken, those charged with maintaining order must agree to impose the penalties according to the rule of law. Chaos and frustration reign when the balance is disturbed and boy, the balance she is being disturbed.

No Stress At All

I just read Dr. Helen and she talked about how stress on the job affects your health. I tried to comment but had some trouble and since stress everywhere directly affects my blood pressure I thought I might comment here. First let me get the stress of weight gain out of the way. I MUST get a grip -- so far 5 of 6 pounds have crept up on me it depends on which scale I sneak onto. TODAY I march against weight gain. I know exactly what it is all about. Start of season. More wine more food more more more and less walking.

My first real job was teaching and I did that for one school year. I absorbed every pain and trauma those kids had. It was 6th grade and it was 1965. There was a ton of trauma but thank you there were no cell phones, sex in the hallways or gang bangers. The closest we came to anything sexual was when BG stood on her head out on the playground. All girls wore skirts or dresses so there you have it. She knew and loved the attention her lollipop undies got. I stapled the skirt between her legs and off we went. Couldn't do that today. No girl in 6th grade wears skirts or dresses anyway. Sigh.

That job had me crazy. I stayed at school way past the closing time preparing for the next day. I brought papers home to grade and lesson plans to write. Most of my friends were teachers and they never had all the junk I had. They were free every weekend and evening and were home by 3pm to work on their lives. I don't know how they did it but I didn't and it wore me down and I left after that year and went to work in the corporate world. I wanted a job from 9 to 5 and when I left the office it stayed there. I brought nothing home to work on or worry over. That worked for a while and then came the promotions. For 30 years I stayed late and went in on week ends and you got it!!! It's not the job it's me.

I have since retired and am locked into a family mess that one day I will write a book about. The stress is never ending but I keep recalling a discussion with a doctor years ago. My period was so irregular I thought I must have some dread something. Too young for menopause I went to the doctor and he asked a series of questions. Any stress in your life. I answered no and then he chatted with me about my life of late. Well, I said, my husband committed suicide several months ago. He had no insurance and had what I now see as manic depressive personality. He charged up a storm before he went and I had to pay off all the bills. The bill collectors, they were calling. I owed money to the funeral home. We had sold our home in another state and basically just paid the mortgage off and had enough to pay the mover. I was living in my parents home while they were in Florida for the winter. All my furniture and boxes were piled in two rooms. I had no real job. I was waiting for a transfer to come through from the place I worked out of state to the state I was now living. Major corporation, the job will come sooner or later but at the time I was a Kelly Girl. No. No stress in my life.

Imagine I didn't see any stress. It doesn't hit all at once. It drip drip drips on to you and accumulates bit by bit day by day until you creak under the burden but you are so used to it you don't even fell it any more. Your body does however and your spirit does and your mind has those little cubby holes where problems lurk and ....


I pray every day for those that burden me and for those I burden. Please Lord, just enough stress to make it interesting. Use the painful scrapings of problems to polish me like a stone in the river. Give me the strength to know when I should not resist. Keep me in the palm of Your hand and widen my horizons. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Lazy Post

OK so I know what I said yesterday but ... here I am and not in the mood to post anything least of all the uncles' WWII stuff. I will say this about the Uncs, they all served. One was in the Air Force, he was a paratrooper. He jumped on Corregidor. Lost for six months. Another served on a submarine and three others in the Navy as well. Another 2 in the Army. Lots of Uncles and all served. My father was not in the service. My mother said he had me to thank for that. I was born just in time to move him further down the draft list.

My husband was in the Air Force and would sign up again right now if he could. We fly the flag proudly and love our country, respect our President and are disappointed in the House and Senate. What can I say? We're from Massachusetts and are particularly embarrassed when our Senators are named. Memorial Day is a day to be proud of our troops and history. It is also a day to go to the cemetery and put flowers on the graves of loved ones who have gone home ahead of you. I did. My mother is proud. She has a beautiful box of blooms in front of her stone and Dad's. I also brought a pinwheel with an angel on it. She loves that kind of stuff. Love you Mom and Dad. Later

Happpy start to the Season

It has been so long since I last surfaced and wrote anything. I have been here and I have been verbal, I just have not sat and typed. Happy Memorial Day to all! At this time of year, in my neck of the woods, every one is here and opening their summer places. The restaurants that are seasonal are open or opening and there are so many options that were not here a week ago.

Memorial Day is the opener for the summer season. Wear White!! Yikes, how great is that? Used to be that patent leather was ok from now on too. Easter was so close that Patent leather of the black variety was ok. Now. I hear. Patent leather is an all year round kind of thing. How grim is that? No fashion rules at all and I find that to be chaotic. About the only fashion rules I ever knew about was the no patent leather until Easter and the wear white from Memorial Day until Labor Day. What is happening to the civilized universe?

I am too old to keep all my rules and regulations to myself. I am at that age when I must impose my nonsense on everyone around me. I must go forth and Miss Mannerize....... I will post more tomorrow since I am calling in well and taking one more day of this loooooong week end. I look back on the recent demise of Mom and Dad and Brother one and Brother two and I have to say that my entire immediate family checked out at a rather early age. My mother and father didn't, they were both 87 but the brothers.....each were 66 and here I am .... 63. If I only have 3 more years well then .... hell and all..... I am going to relax and enjoy things. My luck though.... I will be more like the mother and the father.

Did I ever tell you about the Bay of Pigs incident? There I was, a sophomore in college with a test of some sort, probably a midterm the next day. There was, on TV my absolute heart throb of the moment, Andy Williams. My choice was, watch Andy or study. Then I hear of the possibility that the world as we knew it would probably end. Everyone on my dorm floor was lining up to use the phone and call home to say good bye, I love you to the fam. Yes, in those days we did not have phones in our rooms or in our pockets. Payphones in the hallways shared by the whole floor was the order of the day...that may explain why we are all, at our age, able to stand in line and wait our turn. At any rate, I chose to watch Andy Williams since we would all be dead tomorrow. Why study? I talked to my mother every ten minutes so why wait in line to say any more than I had already said. Off to the lounge where the TV was. Yes, we had no TV's in our rooms. Only one in each dorm and it was in the community room....how deprived were we? Well. The next day...you know we were all still alive and DAMN!! That was the start of all the wrong decisions I have made for lo these 63 years. Nevertheless....I love it here and I will probably live like I won't make that 87 thing and I will spend what little money I have saved and stay out of work to linger here rather than go back to the winter house and not sell the winter house because I love it and and and ......

O I am so happy that summer is upon us -----Happy Memorial Day! Tomorrow I will write of my uncles and their service experiences..... that's during the big one....WWII

Sad Time of Year

When isn't it a sad time? I guess when I'm not sad.

May 9th, 1999, Mother's Day, Mom died. Life has never been the same. But then, life has been changing every day for the past 62 years. Life always changes. Things are never the same. God planned it that way. Everything changes but God. He is eternal and everlasting

Don't Worry Be Happy

I just read that I have posted a lot of times and Oh My! am I proud of me. I really am since I am seldom a finisher. I am a starter and a plodder but the finish line??? she eludes me. I am very pleased that I have been posting as long as I have. I have always kept journals and worried. I think I talked about this before. I always worried that someone would read what I really thought about something or someone and what's that about anyway? I have as much right to an opinion as Rosie for Pete's sake or Al Gore or that Crow lady.

Aw shucks! Life is too short and every known radio minister today has told me and millions of others to stop worrying. God is on His throne and by golly I agree. Why worry about Global Warming (notice how I put that in caps?) There's nothing we can really do beyond police our own area. No one is going to turn out the lights (I hope) to save the world..my goodness, the Lord is in charge of everything.....same thing in Iraq and the streets of Boston and Philadelphia where, it seems many of America's youth are being shot and injured and honestly! why aren't we more outraged about that? I guess because the press isn't pounding it into our lives every waking moment. They. don't. care.

I'm exhausted at the moment but still.....I love my life and my country and those that protect me and mine. Bless all of our first responders and those brave men and women serving and protecting here there and all over the globe.

Life is Gooder than Good

We had quite a scare here. Last Saturday Hubby was working on tax things and when I checked on him in his office he told me he felt kind of "punky". He was sweaty and cold and told me his chest felt heavy....nuf said. 911. Sure enough when the EMT's arrived and took his blood pressure they strapped him in and off he went. Admitted from the ER and held until Tuesday when he had a cardiac cath which thank you God showed his arteries to be clear and that, combined with all the other testing done days prior showed no heart attack, ridiculously high cholesterol and blood pressure needing a goodly slam of medicine. He's home and healthy and I'm about to have a nervous collapse.

Not really. I am so grateful for our life and health that I can't believe I let all the other nonsense circling our lives bother me. It really is. Just. Nonsense.

How fortunate we are and how I have to be shaken into realizing it. Thank you Lord.

To put the top on the cake, today is brilliantly sunny and warm, daffodils are breaking into bloom and the air....the air is intoxicating. Birds are singing like lunatics and I am going out in this day and sit in the sun with a gooooooood book. Gotta love it and I do. Happy Sunday everyone!!!

Truth Be Damned

This is the craziest news cycle ever known to man......except maybe for the time when Nixon was being hunted down like a dog. These crazy left wingers are like hounds in heat and when they smell any kind of weakness they howl and froth at the mouth. Subpoenas and headlines and frenzied acqusations are all the rage. Don't stop now and who cares about truth.....we only want what we want and shut up...otherwise things might go all right wing on us.


Oh Help!!

Boring

Everything is so darned predictable isn't it? I mean, honestly, you knew it was just a matter of when the USA would be blamed for Iran taking those British sailors didn't you? It's still only a matter of time when USA will be changed for GWB because truly.....it is all his fault isn't it? How boring this loud mouthed crowd of "reporters" are. How deadly dull and uncreative. They are all nothing but echoes. Do you think the puppet masters think they can keep the madmen under control if they ever knock this country out? Do you think that Arianna thinks she will still tool around in her jets if the mullahs are in charge? What about our girl Pelosi? Does she really believe that anyone with a smidgen of awareness has any respect for her?

Mindless. Predictable. Children.

Another Day

Another day another day. Didn't earn that dollar yesterday and probably won't today. It's Saturday and I recall my mother saying years ago that she didn't work on Saturdays. Of course, she didn't work outside of the home so everyday was a work day for her. She did vacuum however on Saturdays if any of her young had partied on Friday and thought they could sleep in. Her favorite thing to do was to vacuum under the bed you happened to be sleeping in and if that didn't do the trick she would empty ashtrays, yes, everyone smoked, into those metal wastebaskets making sure to rap the sides often and hard. She had to gather those ashtrays from who knows where because no one smoked in the bedrooms. Or maybe we did...I only remember smoking in the bathroom as I put on my makeup to go out. Now not only do I not smoke, I don't wear makeup and as far as going out....well I go outside but not out as we used to refer to out. Ah yes. Another day indeed

Culture of Corruption my Foot

Dear Harry Reid,

You are a liar and a poser and a cheap politician. You are playing a nasty game with the American people and most of us, regardless of the results of the last election, see through your ridiculous posture. There is no way that you can blame the President for the non-funding of our troops. No. Wait. You can do anything can't you? Well yes. You have for all the years you've been sitting in the power seat reaping all the rewards possible for you and your family and those that worship at your throne. You're not alone either. Check out that Diane Feinstein and her grasp of political nuance. She grasped in the hundreds of millions and yet still had the breath to accuse those rascally republicans of corruption. Then there's that Jefferson fellow and those Clinton rascals and yet.....damn those right wing wackos. That culture of corruption. That culture seems to be all inclusive and I shun all of you. As if you care. I'm only a tax payer who has to live by the laws you all impose and then disregard. The laws after all are only in place to control the unwashed mouth breathers who grind out the fodder you need to fluff up your happy little lives of privilege.

Feet of clay and then some.

We're surrounded by them. I'm in Massachusetts. Pray for me. I pray for God to change their hearts every day but I fear their hearts are harder than Pharoah's.

Heaven Help Us

I am so deadly exhausted from Democrat self-righteous lies and nonsense. I don't want to hear yeah buts and then listen to a litany of what republicans ever did because just as your 12 year old shouldn't get away with that, oddly enough, I don't think that's appropriate for adults. Oh. Wait. No adults out there.

Isn't that the truth? This country is being run by a bunch of entitled moronic 12 year olds. Maybe they're not even 12. They attack and fight like less that 12 year olds. They're vicious and petty and make the Lord of the Flies look like a warm cozy fairy tale. Oh, soo sorry. Can I say fairy tale?

And that's even more pathetic. The HATE SPEECH junk and HATE CRIME LAWS. As if you can't tell the difference between words used in their correct form and words used as insults or for hateful purposes. Oh. Wait. Those adolescents running our lives think they are the grown-up intelligent people of the bunch. We are mired down here, unwashed and drooling. We are only capable of bowing and paying whatever taxes they impose to make their lives more secure and luxurious. Look at that Feinstein woman. Merciful Mother. After her husband's company or maybe her family's company making millions or more thanks to contracts she oversaw, after overseeing the branch of the congress responsible for the mess at the veterans' rehab sites, after both of these bits of news poked through the fog of propaganda we are buried with every waking moment, she resigns. Not that she leaves her elected position, no she resigns the seat on the committee that entitled her personally to so much.

I'm amazed that there are so many of us that think this is fine and dandy. I am praying for all of us now that our eyes will be opened so that we can see and our ears start working so we can hear. Heal our hardened hearts Lord and lead us out of this enslaved madness that our leaders have created.

Trash talk and Consequences

Just read an editorial on the Opinion Journal of the Wall Street Journal and it was concerning trash talk on the internet and how some site had wild conversations naming names and ruining the reputations of a number of law students. Evidently the site was well read and a particular student was denied employment due to the trash thrown around on that site. I think that the main concern is that the internet is like the wild west and needs to be regulated. My feelings are that the internet is a mirror of the normal lines of communication to the masses. Take those talking heads for instance. Dan Rather, who could ever forget his attempt to trash talk GWB. He used actual evidence. It could have been real at least. His story, he claimed, was real. The evidence must be out there somewhere. I know he wanted to further damage W. He had a lot of support. When the evidence proved to be false he still didn't care nor did many others. Truth after all is relative, right?

Then take most of the articles in the NY Times. Get someone to say what you want and quote them. That person may be a paid spokesperson for the side the NYT is supporting but no one has to know that. What that person may be saying could be the biggest fattest lie known to man but who cares? It's a quote and a good one and it serves the purpose of taking someone or something down.

Look at Jimmy Carter. Does he care that his recent book has been criticized by many scholars and well respected intellects? Not at all. It says what he believes to be true and if he gets enough people to listen to him it will be true.

Do I have to mention Al Gore? I thought not, or the Dixie Chicks or George Clooney or Cameron Diaz for Pete's sake. Experts each and every one with a bagful of facts to back up the nonsense they spew forth.

These college students are merely falling in line with the role models of the MSM and the people holding the microphone.

Offsets for Sale

Erin goes bra-less. That was how we used to greet St Patrick's day back in Jr. High. I guess there is no such thing as Jr. High now, is it called Middle School? That's like Middle Earth right? Anyhow it sure didn't pay to be named Erin back in those days and actually I don't think I even knew an Erin.

We had the usual Global Warming kind of weekend. Twenty degrees Fahrenheit, windy and snowy followed by buckets of rain and more wind and milder temperatures, thirties or so and then cold again. Imagine what the weather would have been if it weren't for that Warming thing? My husband and I were chatting as we drove around the world to do errands and he was going on a rant about those carbon offsets that people were buying. I think there's a sale this week. They are putting up tables at the Middle School and the kids can buy enough offsets to allow them to actually breathe heavily and fart. You think I joke? Wait and see. Girl Scouts will have to ditch the cookies due to trans fats and they'll be selling those offsets door to door.

Now that the foundation is in place, Al is set up like Jimmy Jones, he just hasn't moved his minions to an isolated location yet. His followers will be selling offsets at the airports and bus terminals dressed in green. Offsets for Mother's Day will be all the rage. Hallmark will be printing special gift cards. Tom Cruise - Eat your heart out. Forget that Clear stuff . . save the planet....buy an offset.

I have to get a life...I really do.

Sharing the Gospel

Went to a friend's house last night and of late we have been talking about Christianity. She was raised Catholic and for a spell fell away but since her mother died she has been back to church. Two weeks ago we were discussing the trinity and she was astounded that Protestants knew about and believed in the trinity. She, being a child of the times, had never strayed from the Catholic church except to leave. She never went elsewhere...that lightening bolt thing you know. She told me that until our talk two weeks ago she never really thought about the cross and being washed clean. She thanked me for the understanding she now had about Jesus and what He did for us.

I truly feel like a disciple. I have shared the Gospel and that person heard me....Praise God.

Flying Fears

Had a thought in the shower where a lot of thoughts come and go. The thought sprung from a headline story, biggest joke in the world what the news thinks of as headline, stop the press kind of stuff. A woman is suing some airline because they won't guarantee a peanut free flight and her 2 year old is allergic to peanuts. What a life this 2 year old will have huh? The world changes to accommodate his/her problems. I thought, what if he/she had a fear of the color blue. It could happen. Would the parent then sue to ensure that all blue-eyed people wear goggles? Should all car manufacturers cease and desist and re-paint all existing cars. I mean this child has such terrible panic attacks when confronted with the color blue that he/she passes out due to lack of oxygen, or is it too much oxygen. Regardless. What then? So the germ of an idea about a children's book has been born -- Blue Man Group must go!!!!

GROW UP!!!

I just heard Bob Dylan, the Bob Dylan from , I don't know 1962, the Bob Dylan I LOVED back then. I knew all the words to everyone of his beautiful poetic Guthrie type songs and WOW. That was then. This is now. I am no longer 18 and determined to be different than my parents and actually everyone of my peers. I am no longer determined to be singled out and stand above the others as someone unique and DEEP thinking. I have gotten over this nonsense since I am over 60 and comfortable with who I am and what I am doing with what I have. Why aren't all the other fools I was moving with doing the same? It's like they have all suddenly discovered Dylan and the poetry of the 1960's which was really garbage but not in the brain of an 18 year old. This baby boomer stuff is ridiculous because most of them are still babies.

A Matter of Money

I guess I'm a once a week poster girl. Seems so. All week I work at the office and on Friday's I work at home and so it's easier to do this now. I would normally be commuting at this point in the day so I feel no guilt sitting here at the computer seeking my own pleasures.

I just ran through the headlines of the day and see that Anna Nicole is getting ready for the viewing. Bout time. Even the church is making a buck or rather 5000, per satellite dish. Wow! This should be an uplifting and edifying service.

There are two lawyers on the front page of the NY Post and they have moved some money for sure. The female of the species worked at a major investment firm and her husband, lawyer as well, he helped. Fifteen million the story says, at least that's what they know of. The two appear to be young, hip and are described as the top echelon of whatever investment firm it was she worked for. I hate to be judgemental, ok, I don't so I will. Money and privilege and entitlement breed this behaviour. Young and bright and catered to brings it out even more. I'm sure the whole thing is borderline and defensible. After all they're hardly more than children. Who wouldn't want the children to have whatever their ego's need to move through that other America and hold their heads high. How could they live properly without the $$$$$.

That's all for now. An old acquaintance once told me, when all sorts of horrible stuff was happening, that I shouldn't be concerned about any of the issues. When all was said and done it was always only a matter of money. Sigh.......

Crazy like Al Gore

Is it just me or does Al Gore behave like some crazed cult leader. Jim Jones or that Hale Bop comet crew were possessed too weren't they? Oh, maybe it wasn't the Global Warming thing but they had their minions who, despite all the evidence to the contrary, believed whatever they were told and worshipped at their altars. Al Gore is spewing nonsense, and by the way has been for years. He has been caught in any number of tall tale spinning and yet.....here he is. An Oscar? The Nobel Peace Prize? What is going on? Am I the only one who can see the emperor has no clothes? Help!

Spoled, Rich, Frat Boys

I was just breezing through the various spots I always do in the am and in the NRO blogs someone was referring to the Duke mess and the phrase "spoiled, rich, frat boys" was used as it always has been and that has had me pondering, as I often do. Aren't those the words that used to be used to describe GWB?, at least back in the day when we had a "kinder gentler group of critics. The answer is, yes. Then as an amateur student of human behavior I pondered some more. This nasty persecution, sorry, prosecution of those boys is really a classic case of transference. The professors who signed that ridiculous letter condemning the boys are really GWB haters who couldn't get close enough to him to show their contempt on a personal level and here, right in front of them, are living breathing representatives of the qualities they began to hate GWB for. Those terms of hatred have since, in the case of GWB evolved into more "sophisticated and nuanced" areas. What are they now? Oh, yes - Halliburtonchimphitler or something equally intellectual and fact based.

No wonder the whole Duke thing is so incomprehensible. It has as much basis in fact as the memes thrown around about everything Bush, Iraq, Cheney ya-da, ya-da, etc.

Lucky someone in the press got a grip and turned to the facts when they were reporting the on-going train wreck at Duke. I wish the same would happen in the GWB area. Hope there are no other "spoiled, rich, frat boys" out there without body armor. The natives are lighting their torches and marching on the castle.

Exploding head alert

My head is going to blow up if I listen to any more news. It will also explode if I read any more MSM print media. Between the cowardly back stabbing rotten anti-war holdovers from the Vietnam era who have gotten themselves elected so that they are able to line their pockets and live a life of luxury like they never knew or so that they, living a life of luxury like we will never know, may impose their socialistic madness on us because they know so much better than we how we should live. They also know their rulemakings will only be imposed on everyone but themselves.

I got distracted with that rambling raving madness. Anyhow between that nasty DC group who wants to teach us all a good lesson in losing and the crowd in my state, yes Massachusetts, who elected a governor who would be king, I am tired, tired, tired.

What is wrong with the world? I must stay in and be silent and recharge my core battery.

Missing all the Missing

A weekend and the sun is up and shining. My mother would always tell me, from her Florida respite, the sun is out but there's no heat in that sun. She and Dad were always cold. Well mostly cold and wherever they were in their 80's the heat was turned up to their age and the windows were never opened. Add that to the fact that whenever my husband would come with me to visit she made a boiled dinner and boy do you have some heat in that house.

Boy o Boy o Boy.....I sure miss her.

Went for a hair cut and such yesterday and while talking to the stylist I called her a peanut. She said she was the smallest one in her family (and she isn't small). I said why, you're just a peanut and she burst into tears. Yikes! What did I do? Seems that was what her father always called her and he passed away some time ago. It's a week end for missing people.

Time to walk the dog and start the laundry. Love the weekends.

Bless you everyone and have some fun.

A New Approach to Scientific Fact

Work, work, work. What else could be occupying one's time during the deep freeze nasty month of February? Well at least my time is occupied (mostly). This is the time of year that I feel like a mole. Up at the crack of dark, work without ceasing, too cold to walk at lunch time as long as I need to or want to, home in the dark and shut the door. It's like being in a sensory deprivation chamber. Then when the drive time is on I listen to talk radio and help me Hannah with the Global Warming nonsense. The Sky is Falling, FALLING I say. It's wonderful how the definition of science has changed. No longer do facts need to be determined, tested and proved out. No. Now all you need is the mainstream press to say over and over and over the same blinking thing. You need high profile people to speak "truth" to the microphone. You need to hear whining nonsense about the fascists in power suppressing the "truth". You need dissenters fired and punished. Keep going and going and going........If we say it over and over and over enough and enough people start to say the same thing -- BINGO proven scientific fact is born.


God Help Us. He will but His time is His time.

Later.

Just two things

OK two things to say. Number one....with the onset of real winter temperatures (Global Warming my Aunt Fannie's Garter Straps!) my fingers are all cracked at the fingertips and feel like I have a bazillion paper cuts. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

And the second thing is , last night while watching I don't know what, some mundane TV show, the statement was made that God doesn't send you more that you can bear and of all things, my Husband, Mr. I am an independent thinker and need no spiritual guidance , well didn't he point out to me that I had better remember that as I whine my way through February (always a nasty mood month for me). I retorted (love that word) that I know that and lean on it heavily but that still didn't mean that I wouldn't feel sorry for myself from time to time to time.

I am so happy that he has those thoughts and is probably only putting up that macho thing, no Religiosity here while he truly is a man of deep spiritual thoughts.

I Hate Re-runs

Talk about emboldening our enemies. That foolish and cowardly non-binding vote that Congress feels is okey dokey has just pulled out of the mothballs every one of those tired leftovers from the Vietnam War era --- POWER TO THE PEOPLE. Gag and wretch...why don't they, the press, talk evenly about this issue. The thousands who marched Pro-Life were swept away like dust and the rag tag rubble following Cindy Sheehan and that damned fool Jane Fonda are touted as the next coming. HELP ME! I couldn't stand this back in the 70's and the re-runs are so horrible it makes the return of the Partridge Family seem heavenly.

Imagine David Cassidy dressed in his Partridge Family togs, on stage wrinkled and Steven Tyler saggy... that is what this whole "peace" crap is to me. Peace in their minds merely means surrender and run away with your tail between your legs. Then the "peace" activists can puff up with self righteous congratulations and speak for all of us when they say "We are so Sorry Sorry Sorry." And they damned well should be. They have been a sorry excuse for productive humans for all of these past decades.

And so on and so on and my blood pressure is too high to continue.....Later

Conversations with an angel

Reading NRO book reviews and The Truth About Muhammad-Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion by Robert Spencer is reviewed by Andrew McCarthy. I think I might buy it since I read Spencer's blog from time to time and he seems very scholarly in his discussions. No emotion but researched fact is more in line with his comments. Anyhow, as I read the review he talked about Spencer discussing all of Muhammad's life and it seems that Muhammad claims to have taken dictation from an angel and the words he wrote are directly from Allah. Now I may be wrong but didn't the founder of the Mormons also claim to have had direct conversation with an angel, Moroni or something of that sort? Abraham as well had angelic conversations and Mary did too. So whose angel should be the right angel? Maybe the research and arguments should begin there....

The Mighty Brady was Intercepted

This is like that Mudville poem but the mighty Brady got intercepted. Gloom and dark skies abound here in New England. Our mighty Patriots had feet of clay and showed their human side. The first quarter was spectacular but our team is a last quarter team. They wore it out in the first quarter and had no reserve to draw on. Flu and aches and injuries and might extra efforts all year took their toll and left our boys on the field but at least the score was a respectable one. And on the bright side? That Superbowl Party? She is a thing of the past. Whew! the entertainment options are boundless now and include the option of no company, no football and Lifetime movies.

We are having a light and snowy morning here. It seems right for some reason. I guess this means winter has officially begun. That global warming thing is behind us for a while. Damn!

Faith not Works

Heard this morning on the way to work. A man in the radio minister’s congregation was well to do and a wonderful pillar of the community. He owned his own business, treated his employees well, paid a higher than average wage with full benefits. He contributed to the local charities, endowed a wing at the hospital, sponsored scholarships at the high school, was a mentor to many. He was a good father, a loyal husband and caring son and brother. This was a good man. Following the sermon which dealt with the fact that you are saved by faith not works he stopped the minister to explain to him why, after all that he has done with his life, is he no better than a pimp or murderer who repents and is saved? The answer was rather limp, I thought.

The minister explained that there is no perfect person and even when you think you are 99.99% perfect, the truth is that there are sins and imperfections that you are unwilling or unable to see. Everyone needs Jesus since He is the only way to be washed clean. I understood that answer but there is still, in my mind and many, that nagging “Why? Why did I live my life watching out and taking care and doing good deeds when I might rather have gone out with my friends? Why when it doesn’t matter?’’ I have struggled with that one forever but what I have found is that the person who toes the mark has fewer regrets and less to repent of. I don’t think the person who dishonored his mother and father, stole from his friends, assaulted his loved ones and generally lived a disreputable life was having fun. I think that when that person is brought to his knees and cries for mercy, he will be granted mercy and forgiven. God won’t remember your sins and hold them against you but he doesn’t wipe them out of your memory. You have to live with that and that’s when that WHY is answered. No one wants to tote that bag around, the one we have is full enough and we think we have behaved. Yikes! Who wants to add to the load. Not me! God’s plan is perfect since we sure aren’t.

Thank you God for running the show.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

And now the news for the day!!!!

I had a dream last night about civil rights and minorities, yes that's right. How can I waste all that dream time on something like that as opposed to being queen of the universe and indulging in expensive pastimes that will never be available except during that dream time? And yet, that is what happened. I was in some kind of focus group and we were being presented with the Homosexuals are a minority group and their quest for equality is on the same level as the civil rights efforts in the 60's. I must have had the radio on and the discussion pushed it's way into my dream so that I would not wake up. I was awakened at some point and the radio was not on nor do I recall putting it on at any time so that reasoning is not very powerful. Any how back to the point at hand. The argument that homosexuals are a minority group began and I was very hung up on the fact that they were not recognizable until he or she put on extreme mannerisms which would identify them as a feminine man or a masculine female. What of the homosexual man who was manly or the lesbian female who was feminine? After all, in a couple aren't there usually a male and female or whatever the combination should be called? I don't know enough about this but in this case aren't we saying that the minority position has to be self declared as opposed to immediately evident? Am I into the don't ask don't tell and if so don't you have to tell and tell and tell everyone everywhere all the time and isn't that exhausting? If there are no distinctions unless you tell then how can you claim discrimination? I just wonder.

Today's Prayer

When I woke this morning I thought about the prayer of Jabez and how that book has sold millions and how people pray that prayer. It's a simple one 1 Chronicles 4-10 "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.! Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain."

I was saying that in my own words and it became kind of a chant. Not good. A mindless chant is like some pagan ritual. A prayer is a chat with God. I think it should be from the heart and changing each time as your circumstances change. It should be a running conversation keeping the Lord informed of your failings and appreciation and needs.

Oh Lord, You are so powerful and loving and good. The world You have created for me is magnificent and contains all that I love and need. I thank You for my family and friends, my employment and dwelling. I am so grateful to be living where I am. I can see the ocean every day. I walk the streets of my childhood where my memories are stored. I am able to indulge myself in my nostalgic trips through the neighborhood and then sort through the pain I caused and the pain I survived. Dramatic as it sounds it was nothing compared to others. It was all I could bear and grow from and I thank You for Your loving kindness.

Please keep me from evil. Keep my feet on the path that pleases You. Protect me, my family and friends from pain and evil. Bless my enemies for I have those as well. Change their hearts and mine to achieve some peace in our lifetime. I know You are with me always.

Bless my country and our President. Hasten a victory for him and us. Keep his enemies at bay and protect our country from the bad intentions of the press, from the good intentions of the peacenicks and turn the ill wishes of our enemies inside and outside of our borders against them.

I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen

Hard Hearts

Sometimes that "still small voice" you're supposed to listen to is on the radio. I have posted tons of times about the radio ministers I listen to in the morning and often, if I wake up in the middle of the night and I am here alone, I will put the radio on for that automatic time and there they are, the radio ministers, to soothe me back to sleep. Anyhow, last night and this morning the messages wereconcerning meekness. Meekness is submission, strength under control Give it up to Jesus. Another message was about how your heart can harden. Consider Pharoah, he had all those plagues sent to him and each of them hardened his heart. At first he hardened his own heart and then, the Bible says that God hardened his heart. If you hear the truth and deny it, knowing it is true, that is a step toward hardening your heart. If that still small voice tells you to aplogize to someone for whatever and you know that is the right thing to do but you don't, your heart is a little bit harder. If you disobey God's commands, there goes that hard heart thing.

Submit and obey and your heart will not harden. Glory be to God. On with my day. Remember, that submission thing is to God and His commands.

Once again. On with the day. Bless you all and me too.

Football Fever

Yesterday, Sunday, football, friends, food and what else do we need to make life good? To top it off, our team won. Who is better than Tom Brady? We had such a nice time and the dog? She relaxed into it and never once had a melt down. Every now and then she thinks we are all her playmates and Yikes. The house is small and cluttered. Add one large puppylike Rottweiler and stir her up. There you have it folks. A quick and wild ride to total mess, broken whatevers and bruised folks. Thank God that didn’t happen. She walked and walked beautifully before the company arrived and after a very short but vigorous greeting she threw herself down on the Pupopedic mattress and never again frolicked in the house. YAY.

Happy New Year

Had some friends in on New Year’s Eve and Hubby and I were the only non-Democrats at the table. Naturally talk turned to politics as it always does. One of the couples is our age and the other about ten years younger. We older types get into it and voices are loud, sometimes only because our hearing is not as it used to be. The table is always pounded for emphasis, we shout and pound and then have a drink with our after dinner desert. The younger couple is way too liberal but we love them anyhow. She couldn't stand our line of discussion and yelled at all of us to “Shut UP” as she left the room. I had to point out to her that she, the most liberal, had no tolerance for spirited discussion. Funny. Huh? She really couldn't believe that we could all be so vehement and not get angry with each other. I had to explain to her that if she listened to the discussion she would not have heard any insults of a personal nature. We all like each other. We don’t like the political leanings of each other. We talk facts and figures. We question each others sources and go deep. Sometimes we even change our minds if the information is real and persuasive. At the very least we think about differing points of view brought to the table by sincere and honest people. They are not twisting facts to make a point. We had a great time.

:Yikes, time flies

Last post was December 14th. I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly....and then again there have been moments or two of draggingly slow motion. I have to say that the most horrible thing about the Christmas event was the fact that I never got the tree up. I also have to say that the best thing about the Christmas event was the fact that I never got the tree up. On the day after Christmas I looked around, saw that the majority of the mess was cleaned up and to put the decorations away all I had to do was remove the red candle from the mantle and carry on. How amazing is that? Years past I was still staring at that tree in February. One year I thought that if I just changed the ornaments to birds and flowers I could just leave it there year round. People would eventually stop staring and move on with their comments.

Well, the Christmas Eve dinner festival was so nice. Days before, because of that no gift exchanging and Hubby not passing the word to the people we would spend Christmas Day with, we baked cookies and cookies and more cookies. Bags were bought - of the small variety and then of course more were bought since I couldn't find a bag of those that I bought and cookies were wrapped and wrapped and decorated and wrapped and packed into bags and bags and. You get it right? Next year? Gifts.

Christmas Eve. Standing Prime Rib. Giant Spiral Sliced Ham. Wine. Food. More Food. More wine. Seventeen of us. It was great and we ate early and the kids (in their 20's) reminisced like old timers. I loved it. My niece's two little ones were the hit of the night. It couldn't be Christmas without little ones and Hubby's dad was there -- what a really nice time.

New Year's Eve. Quiet dinner at home with good friends and watched the ball drop, said good night and asleep by 12:30. Perfect.

Hope all went well with everyone out there and by golly, 2007 will be such a good one. We're overdue for some smooth sailing aren't we?

God Bless.

Tough it out

I have come to realize that I have been, if not deeply then, skimmingly depressed for quite some time. I live in my car commuting from home to home. I hang on to the house of my childhood saying that I have no time or energy to clean it out and ready it for sale. I am doomed to being the last (wo)man standing in my immediate family and dealing with the company my father loved so much.

I have the dubious honor of being the family member who must clean up. I have emptied closets and my parents homes and thrown out clothes my mother saved from my high school days. I have had friends and family take bags and boxes of trinkets mother and dad collected over their many years on earth. I have swept and hauled off to the dump or salvation army any number of things so that those houses could be renovated and lived in. The one down south? Sprung a leak, mold and mildew, fights with insurance and condo managers and neighbors, all from a distance and finally selling as is for a loss. The other which was left to me is where my husband has moved thinking we would be there way sooner than this.

The business is now in process of being moved into the world of business. Accounts kept on matchbook covers and slips of paper somewhere are being gathered and updated and computerized. Records are in process of being created and people are being charged with behaving like employees and managers rather than fraternity brothers and club members. None of these things are easy or fun. All take time time and more time. People have to buy in to change and what person in their right mind would want to go from easy and relaxed to accountable and often grinding.

I'm no spring chicken. In most of my previous life with a very large corporation I was on the sweep up end of some high flier's mess. The project would be dazzling and sparkling. It would, in reality, be a non-starter. It merely fizzled out and lay there in a lump of wet ashes. Since the project managers had made a huge splash and been promoted and praised and received HUGE bonuses, upper management felt that at the very least the project should function somewhat. Call in the work horses (me included) who could put the parts in some semblance of order, get the codes needed to build it, bill it and make it sell. Since all the kudos had already been given out, this crowd couldn't be recognized for their efforts which about 99% of the time worked. Not to worry, some day, ya da ya da retire now please....you're old. Oh, and by the way, since your salary never really peaked much due to the insignificant (NOT dazzling) work of reviving the sizzlers, your pension won't be much either. Buh Bye!!!

As a child, I was the only girl. One would think that alone would have brought praise and red carpet stuff. Well, the only girl was not the charmer, not the dazzler, she was somewhat plump and awkward and shy. The boys however, they were, well, boys. Their mother was Irish and we know how that story goes. I think I've told this one before. The birthday cards with the slots for change were filled for the oldest, half filled for the next and the youngest, the girl? Well a couple of slots were ok. Girls are happy with whatever they get. Girls don't need things like boys do. Younger people have fewer needs....don't worry when you're older you'll catch up.

Life is not fair and it wears me out. My life saver however is this line from a radio ministry. Most drownings occur very close to shore. People give up. If they had just toughed it out a little longer they would have been able to touch ground and walk ashore. I'm tired but not worn out. I will tough it out and who knows what is in store down the road. Dealing with the unfair aspect of life has been going on for as long as man has walked this earth. God's ways are not ours and all is as it should be. Knock off the depression and deal with what is. Do it as best you can and be proud of what you have done. You do it for the glory of God.

Amen

Truth Is

Well years ago when I first started this thing...my first real post was on my birthday. Here we are again. Happy Birthday to me. The day after Pearl Harbor. My mother told me that dad may have been drafted except that I was born. Of course he also had two other very young children and I came along after the attack...no, not just one day after .. but before the end of that pesky adventure called WWII. Never mind, I still saved the day and the family.

The family, if you have read any of the previous postings, have all passed on, mother, father, two brothers and then there's me, the last one standing. Of course there are nieces and nephews and they are certainly family but my immediate grouping is gone. My memory banks are not here. Of course the only memory bank that worked was mother's and I have learned that hers were sometimes very pepped up to suit her particular needs. I guess we all do that to a certain extent. An event from the past changes as we do. It is never related in the cold black and white tones of documentary but in the more colorful palette of story telling. It's like the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first enters Oz.....we go from black and white to bursting color.

My life needs more color....black and white can be troubling. The truth is gritty and hard to deal with. It certainly works best for everyone but it is unsettling.

Truth is..today, I'm 63 years old. Yikes and away. Thirty more years are a possibility and each and every one should be a marvelous adventure. Off I go. Wish me luck. Bless everyone.

Bribes

Just read that Muslim women in some countries have been paid to wear the veil and it is all in the interest of Islam and the intimidation of everyone else. I think that most major news sources are being paid to slant the news in favor of Islamic causes and to bash Christians. Just sayin'

Just some Thoughts

Still cold. My niece is with me for a while and I have forgotten how nice it is to have someone else in the house. Weekends of course I have my husband but during the week when I have to work I am at our second house, the one I want to sell but have to empty first. This second house is really a huge part of our budgetary concern. The utilities and taxes are, to use a horrible phrasing, taxing. My niece, well, our niece, is going to school nearby. She is studying to be a nurse and is just a great girl. She is very conscientious about everything. Her family life (excluding us or course) has been tumultuous and yet, she has moved through with grace and has goals and targets and yow. If only I had been so directed at her age. I'm not sure how prepared she is for life getting in her way but, honestly, if she has moved through the rubble of her early years and come out as I see her, she should have developed remarkable resilience. I hope so.

I am surrounded by nieces and only two nephews. The girls, they are so special. I see in them possibilities for whatever they choose. Of course, a couple have chosen the hard road. I guess we all do from the viewpoint of other people. Everyone knows the better way you should go. It is apparent to the onlooker and the way they think you should take is their way of course. The Lord left us in a tough place. Thankfully he left us with the life preserver of Jesus and the instruction booklet called the Bible. Now if only we grab for them.

God bless us everyone.

Belt Tightening and Stream of Consciousness

Well. Here we are at 27 degrees (Farenheit) and winter, it seems is creeping up on us. It snowed yesterday, not a lot, big wet flakes that stuck for a while and then melted away except in those nooks and crannies where the sun doesn't warm. The leaves have been gone from the trees forever so the cold and the snow? It's due. Christmas however can wait in the wings for quite some time. The decorations and the singing and the shopping and the wrapping, that's not so much of a good time. The shopping and the wrapping this Christmas I have been told will not be a part of our lives for budgetary reasons. We go through this from time to time in our lives. This is one of those times. I hate it. I whine and moan through this time.

At least this time around the heat is on. I hate it when we are broke due to budgeting and we are cold too. Last winter (or the winter before - I forget) we lost power for more than 4 days and it was during a super cold awful time. The house was sooooo cold that you could see your breath in the living room. We went to the Community center to get warm...not all of the town was without power so there were restaurants open etc. Problem was we weren't able to shower so felt ghastly -- cold water splashing on your face and where ever doesn't make for a great start to the day. At least we could brush our teeth properly. Walking into any place that was open and warm made me feel like a homeless person. Untidy and unwashed . . poor .. cold...

OK enough already... that is not the case now. We are merely pulling in our belts to wipe out some credit card debt and face the new year more responsibly blah blah blah.....The husband, he loves to be austere.

I keep telling myself that this too shall pass and we will be prosperous again.....Help

Make the time go by fast Lord.

74.6.71.#.

OK ... I have one question, I check Sitemeter more frequently than I ever should. Honestly. As you know, most of the people who read this blog are ME. I check it and re check it and check it again. I fear that someone will read my writing and then I fear that no one will. Yikes help me@!

So as I check that Sitemeter place I find that there is a frequent checker and the information that is gleaned is that the checker is 74.6.71.#. -- I don't know who you are and I don't really want to but honestly couldn't you some time just say hi.....read this and pffft or whatever.


Just Sayin

Stains and all

Our holiday was so nice, except for the weather which was wildly blowing wind and driving pounding rain. The fam arrived around 2pm and the eating of everything in the house began. This year it was just my brother-in-law and his family. He has two girls and they are just so great...one is 19 and the other is about 23. They are a joy. We just talked and laughed and for two young women, they have the memory thing going. I always have used the same crocheted table cloth for ever at every holiday and for many many years now the holidays have mostly been at our house. Although all the family wasn't here for Thanksgiving (they will be on Christmas Eve), I still did the usuals. All the nieces and nephews look for the cloth and ask about the stains. "This one," I will say, "is where your grandmother spilled the gravy and here, the blue stain, is where the candle dripped on Christmas Day 1990. It fell over when your Uncle so and so passed the plate of cranberry sauce and I know that because here, here is the stain from that." They love that cloth and have told me that I have to leave it to each and every one in my will. I love that they love the thing and the foolish stories made up long ago about stains that I just couldn't remove and the Scottish penny pinching that kept me from buying another. The big thing about that table cloth is that my grandmother crocheted it and so....how could anyone not use it on a family day, stains and all. (To tell the truth, the stains aren't really that obvious....except for the blue one.) Have a wonderful day and share some family memories...that's how we live on here on this planet.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. We are smoking our turkey. I use the word we loosely. By we I mean my husband. We are having family late in the day since some have to work. The work of people in nursing homes never ends or takes a holiday. Anyway. The husband, he is smoking the bird and cooking up a storm. He loves to do it and I love to watch.

Big surprise! We are keeping the rescue dog who arrived last saturday. She is such a wonderful dog. She is loving to all and fun and smart and beautiful. And that is just the beginning. More on her later.

Hope everyone has a great day with good friends and family and pets and good food and on and on I go.

Wrong holiday but God Bless Us Everyone.

Some of my Week (weak?)

Well this week has been so tough. Yeah, I know it's only Wednesday. I am thanking God that He only made the week 7 days long. I'll just hit the highlights. Vegetable soup. I love it and make it in vast quantities since the Jenny Craig way allows free vegetables and beef broth, low sodium of course. The soup can be eaten in vast quantities all day long and not interfere with the diet. I am now only semi-Jenny but determined to keep going in a less costly way. Enter the soup which I make every other week or so since, let me repeat, I make huge amounts. Well there I was, making huge amounts and it was on the stove and I have made two trips to the store since I forgot we ran out of carrots and hubby needed onions for the beef stock he was going to make. Bubble, bubble soup on the stove. Enter my helpful husband who, perhaps like most husbands, has a habit of being helpful when I am doing just about anything. He rearranges, alters, moves, suggests, you know, helpful things, the kind that make your teeth ache and shoulders seize up with the tension of not saying much more than "Thank you Honey, I appreciate your helpful hints and actions." Right. The lid is lifted, the soup is stirred and he says, "This might taste even better with some tomato paste", of course he said that as he was adding the paste. The paste was in a tube, had been opened, had been stored unrefrigerated in a cabinet. As he added it he read the refrigerate after opening direction on the tube. Voila, ruined soup.

Then the bloodwork I have to have done on a regular basis. No big deal. Usually the order is good for 90 days from the doctor's visit but the rules? they have changed. Thirty days from the visit the order is gone. I called both doctors who wrote these things over a week ago to have them renewed so I could go in this morning and wrap it up. Fasting. Got to the lab at 7:30, filled out the paper work and at 7:40, record time by the way, I am called in. There I find only one of the tests has been re-ordered and it is the stupid one, the one that was just an after thought, the might as well check this too as long as we're doing all of this other stuff. That one. Here I am, back home with every bit of my blood still coursing through me instead of some in a test tube.

Sigh. There's a lot more but those are the two that are making me filled with rage. Forget about the Democrats and cut and run and OMG George McGovern???????? WTF and I mean that in the most civilized way. I know God is on His throne and in charge and always with us. I want lightening bolts to come down in the very near vicinity of the big mouthed gloating fools who should have gone off to the Zen seminaries they so admired in the 60's and contemplated their own navels instead of inflicting their wacko lunacies on the rest of us.

Peace, Man.

Where's my dog??????

Searching for what? Well, I told you my, our, dog passed away. Eleven years of a dog in the house and prior to him ten years of another dog in the house and prior to him....well, you get it. Yes, we are missing our dog. I also told you that we are on the adopt a dog train and by golly it has pulled out of the station. Like a horse with the bit in his teeth, my husband is on the move. We head for New Hampshire today to meet a Katrina dog. He is about 3 or 4 and a Rottie of course. We met him last week but in a rather chaotic situation. He seemed like a well mannered boy and considering the circus going on around him, he behaved quite well but he was rather distracted. He was more interested in keeping his eye on the other dogs and people around him than getting to know us. So, off we go to meet him again.

Well, this is much later and we have driven through rain and wind and fog and indeed the dog, he is still distracted. He is a really nice boy but we found that he has been in a kennel for more than a year and probably longer than that. No one knows if he is house broken since he has not been in a house. The reality is we will be adopting a 4 year old puppy. Do you know Rotties? Well, a 4 month old puppy is tough enough. Add the years and the poundage and wow....so we have moved on. It probably broke my heart more than hubby's even though he was the one with the big yen. This pooch was a nice boy. He just needed a lot of us and I'm not sure we're up to it. Fortunately there are more outside the door. The liason is meeting more prospects as I write. Now we are making contact with the foster parents of a 2 year old female. She is a beauty and as sweet as can be. She has been in a home for the duration of her orphaned period and will be coming to our home this weekend. We can keep her for a day or three or forever. Her only downside is that she loves people so much. How bad can it be? We'll find out.

I am really ready to drink some wine now and relax. God Bless.

Love the Veteran.

I had so many uncles I lose count. On Veteran's Day, every one of my uncles.....they were Veterans. One was asked to return to the Philippines to be honored since he jumped on
Corregidor and was lost in action for more than six months. He, my uncle Doug, said that his father would say at the dinner table ( there were nine kids, two of my grandmother's sisters and two of my grandfather's brothers at the table -- lots of mouths to feed) that if any one left any food on their plate that they would chase a crow for a number of miles for whatever was left behind. My uncle Doug, parachuted onto Corregidor and was lost for months. He only ever said that he would have chased that crow that his father told him he would have chased. I loved my uncle a lot and more than that. He was the bomb. Thanks Uncle Doug.......... Love You....

Shaking it Off

I'm back and I'm better. Don't know how or why but I can guess that God has shakem me around and said that I am indulging myself in self pity and that's so unattractive and unproductive. I heard a fellow yesterday talk about Bishop Tutu (sp?) stating that you could be an arrogant victim or a wounded healer. I realized that arrogant victims practice very hard as I was. It's not that easy to fall into the victim place and feel entitled to special treatment because of the way the world was treating you. You really have to work at it -- so I am not going to stay in that place and hone those victim skills.

Case closed.

My husband has decided that we will be getting another dog and it won't be a puppy. We will rescue one and has pulled us into the world of dog adoption which is very comprehensive I must say. They want references and call neighbors and make house visits and contracts are signed and so on and so on. We are to meet some possible new kids and of course will want each and every one.

I'll be letting you know how it goes.

Other things have occurred which make me state loudly and clearly. God is on the throne and whatever is whirling around us, He is in charge. That should settle your inner storms. I also read today's thought in My Utmost for His Highest and it concerned the Holy Spirit praying for things that we don't know we need but do. Isn't that amazing? While we go about our business the Holy Spirit is taking care of us and those prayers go direct. When things occur, it may be that the prayers of the Holy Spirit have been answered. I have to go think on that. Ponder as they say.

God Bless and Take Care.

Grief

I'm up with the birds since the Terminix man is supposed to be here for the regular check up. My blues are bluer. We had to put our wonderful dog to sleep on tuesday. I don't know how to get rid of the pain but I know I will. He was such a good boy for all 11 years we had him. He was a clown and good friend and the joy of the neighborhood. He had certain stops he had to make daily and if his friends were in they would come out, greet him with hugs and pats and cookies. He would wag his body since his tail was docked and he was always very vocal, whining and singing as he waited for his hugs and treats. If the house was empty he would pine all the way to the next house. His whole body slumped and he had that eeyore look about him. If he met his friends on the street he had them trained to carry cookies so the greeting and hugging and treats could happen wherever they met. He would still stop at their house however, convinced that somehow they would be there too. I miss him and grieve for him and worry about my husband who is taking this even harder than I.

I thank God that we had that wonderful companion for all the time we did and thank Him again for being so merciful by allowing us to be with our pal as he drifted to sleep. His onset of terrible pain was swift and short lived, another of God's mercies.

God will ease the pain and dry our tears. He is ever with us and always merciful.