ZephyrBird Speaks

Considering deleting this.....

2010-01-31T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm considering deleting this blog. Too many jerks are posting crap on some very sensitive posts...how to get rich by contacting them...pornography links...and the such on notices of people who were close to me and have passed away. this is sick. i don't want to have to make friends and family have their posts approved by me when they want to post something, yet, at the same time I am tired of having to delete all those unwanted comments to these posts. Let me know if you would mind having all your messages approved before they are posted.

Root of all evil

2010-01-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

If money is the root of all evil, then why do we have in God we trust on all our currency? And why do Christians fight so hard to keep it there, when basically we are saying God is the root of all evil? Just my thought for the day.

A sad way to start the year

2010-01-15T09:43:00.001-08:00

My sister-in-law, Susan Rivas, passed away yesterday at the age of 56. Although I knew she had been ill, not being in Erie with the family, I didn't realize how ill she had become so her death was a bit of a shock to me. There is an online obituary and guest book for anyone who would like to send Vinny and her son Chas a message.

Susan B. Rivas, 56, of Erie, passed on to a greater place on Thursday, January 14, 2010, at St. Vincent Hospital. She was born February 23, 1953, in Erie. She graduated from East High School. She was employed at Twinbrook Nursing Home and did private duty nursing care for 25 years. She loved and enjoyed flowers and plants. Susan was a loving and dedicated wife and mother. Preceded in death by her mother, Kathryn Schuster Bojack, and father, John Bojack. Survivors include her husband, Vincent L. Rivas, and son, Charles V. Rivas, both of Erie; brother, John Bojack and wife, Beth, of Richlands, N.C.; half-sisters, Kathy Sanguliano, of New York, N.Y., and Shirley Marchal, of Erie; and many nieces and nephews. Friends are invited to call at the John J. Quinn Funeral Home, West 9th & Liberty St., Friday, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. only, and are invited to attend Prayer Services there Saturday at 9:30 a.m. followed by a Mass of Christian Burial Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew Catholic Church. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery. Memorials may be made to St. Andrew Catholic Church, 1116 West 7th St., Erie, PA 16502.

For my husband :-)

2010-01-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

My husband has been complaining I haven't posted anything new here for the past couple months. Here I was trying to spend less time on the computer and more time cleaning the house and doing things for him. Oh well... so what's new....

The bitter cold weather here in the south for one thing. Generally my northern friends get to gloat in the summer when we are roasting in 100 degree temps, but I get to gloat in the winter when they are freezing their asses off and we are having temps in the the 60's. HA!! it's been in the teens in the morning here and up to the 30's and maybe 40's by afternoon. So dang! not fair! we are going to get a bit warmer come mid week though and get temps in the 50's.

The cats! We have a new saying. For those who saw the movie Jaws there's a line where on character says that's some bad hat Harry. Well, we now say, that's some bad cat Harry. I wrote a poem that I will post today called Homage (From a Cats Point of View). It will be on gotpoetry.com

On Jan 20th I go apply for my social security!!! Yikes! While I'm glad that we will be getting a little more income, it doesn't seem possible that in a few weeks I will be 62!

Okay, enough updates for now. I'll try to post at least once a week, but dang, I also enjoy having the house clean..well, cleaner that it was when I spent a lot of time on this computer.

trying a rate this poem link

2009-11-19T15:33:00.001-08:00

Rate this Poem @ GotPoetry.com

The Cowardly Terrorist of Fort Hood

2009-11-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

I wasn't going to write anything about this because I figured the media would be all over it and it would be a 24/7 update on all the news stations. Instead they are molly coddling this cowardly terrorist who opened fire on a roomful of UNARMED people. Some are even trying to make him the victim and not even mentioning the 31 he injured and 13 he killed. Does anyone know their names? It's poor Nidal Malik Hasan. He was so upset over the thought of being deployed to Afghanistan and posted on the web he could not kill fellow Muslims. That he believed in their cause and felt the suicide bombers were doing the right thing.

He purchased the guns days in advance. He gave away all his belongings to a neighbor saying he would no longer need them. He passed out the Koran and preached Muslims as in the right. He entered the base with his military identification and carried unauthorized weapons with him. He stood up from his desk and proclaimed Allah is good and opened fire. This is not a random act of a man who suddenly cracked as some are trying to say, but the planned act of a terrorist who knew what he was doing and planned on dying a hero in the eyes of fellow Muslims.

Thank goodness for the bravery and forethought of a young female police officer, who even after having been wounded herself by this coward, had the guts to fire back and wound him to put him out of commission.

U.S. News "Cone also said that a female officer who was thought to be the first responder shot Hasan and was herself wounded and had undergone surgery at a hospital. It was not clear if the officer was a military policewoman or a civilian officer."

Oh, and what was resident Obama's response to this horrible tragedy? To this massacre of brave American military personnel, on American soil, on an American base?
Don't jump to conclusions. Oh wow! gee... like he didn't when Sgt. James Crowley (a white cop) was forced to arrest Professor Gates (a black man) because Gates himself made such a scene when the officers responded to a call by a neighbor of a possible break in at his home. The snippet is he was new to the neighborhood, had been away, returned home late, the lock didn't work so he broke in. When asked for identification he threatened the officer asking do you know who I am? Screaming actually and calling the cop a racist. Okay... so Obama immediately sides with the black professor and when he find he was in the wrong does he apologize? No, he calls a beer conference. HUH???

So, what are you going to do now mr. don't jump to conclusions obama. call a beer conference between this cowardly murderer, if he survives, and the brave people he killed...oh wait...their dead...I guess it would have to be the grieving familes of the brave people he killed. And what? Ask them to understand this poor misunderstood muslim coward and forgive him for the cold blooded murders of their children?

Addendum: I wanted to respond to Victoria stating that the majority of news stations were reporting this as a terrorist act and stating this coward was a muslim here so I could post the link showing this is not true. Of the networks reporting 85% never mentioned the word terror or called it a terrorist act and only 28% mentioned the muslim connection. We heard this on the news last night and I also found a link here on the internet. We watch many different news reports and were shocked to find out how little coverage this actually got.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....

2009-11-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know! I haven't posted here in a long long while. Not because things haven't been going on, but just nothing worth writing about.

I did record one of my poems on dvd and am now trying to see how to get it up on youtube.

Tomorrow I take two more cats to the vet for their annual shots and then later take my husband to another doctor appt.

Let's see...what other exciting things are going on... somehow October got past me and I never saw it coming or going!

Well, I'll try to live a more exciting life. Actually my previous years have been exciting enough and it's about time I had some time that isn't all thrills and chills.

until something exciting happens... zbird

OUCH!!!!! That hurt!

2009-09-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

My husband has hundreds and hundreds of vhs movies and even though we've given boxes full to goodwill we still have way too many. As they are replaced with dvd's we pass the vhs tapes on. But, we also don't have enough wood bookcases to hold them all, so some were stacked on metal utility shelves. So, picture this....

In the room where I pay bills, etc, I have a table in the middle of the room. On the wall to the right was (not the word was) a metal shelving unit with vhs tapes 3 deep on each of the four shelves. Behind my chair was another metal utility shelf also with vhs tapes 3 deep on each shelf. So, I sit down at the table to pay bills yesterday and our 25 pound cat follows me. Not paying attention to what he is doing I am not able to stop him when he decides he needs to get up on the shelf to the left of me.

Creak!!!! Rumble!!!! Crash!!!! It falls over partially on me and I am buried in video tapes, but it also manages to crash into the one behind me and it is now skewed to the left. The only thing holding it up right now are the boxes of videos I have stacked next to it.

To say I was a bit sore is an understatement, but I did survive. Today I went out looking for sturdy wooden bookcases. Yikes! the prices! None at the thrift stores, so after a break I will be boxing up more tapes and finding homes for them until I can replace the old shelving units. Needless to say the metal utility shelves will not be on the list.

One of those days!

2009-09-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Last night my plans for today were to go do laundry and then since it was to be a nice day outside take a nice walk! Yep! those were my plans. When I got up this morning I found water on the back bathroom floor. Thought nothing of it and wiped it up. Went back later and dang! more water! Well, the kitchen sink was clogging up which meant I would have to call our favorite plumber and I do mean favorite. This guy is the sweetest old guy who loves his work!

My day went like this. Did laundry but got a call from Keith that he had left his cell phone at home. Would I look for it and would I mind bringing it to the school for him. Nope! no problem. Did that and then came back home and called the plumber. Left a message with his wife and two hours later he was at the door! Fixed the leak in the bathroom, unplugged the kitchen sink and checked out why the garbage disposal never worked to see if he could fix it today, too. Had to leave to pick up Keith, but plumber was gone when we got back. He called to check to make sure we got in because he had locked the door when he left. And yes, we do trust this guy alone in the house. He also informed us the garbage disposal unit didn't work because it was rusted out. He can either replace it or exchange it out for a regular pipe and drain. Probably should ask the landlady about that one!

In the meantime we've been here four years without a garbage disposal so probably don't need it.

Somehow I did manage to get a lot of housework done as well so the day wasn't entirely wasted.

Tomorrow - I get that walk!!

You never know what you're going to get!

2009-09-19T12:04:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I told my mom I was making meatloaf this weekend. The first thing she said was don't forget the egg. My mom is 88! You'd think she would forget my meatloaf fiasco of 40 some years ago when I made my first one and it fell apart as I took it out of the pan. I had followed the recipe exactly! I knew I had. Until we found the egg still sitting on the kitchen counter. It was the egg, my mother informed me, that kept the meatloaf together. So, today, I did not forget the egg.

But, it did bring to mind another meatloaf fiasco for me. I was in the middle of making one when I realized I didn't have any tomato paste of ketchup. Well, I did have a can of tomato soup and figured that would be the same. Wrong! But I did invent meatloaf soup!

While talking with my current husband about these mishaps he commented on my experimenting with cooking and said, 'yes, sometimes you invent some real gems and other times you come up with entirely new life forms.' He's such a sweetheart.

Husband number 2 used to say he knew dinner was ready when the smoke alarm went off. So, I have never been a great cook, but I do get industrious every once in awhile amd come up with some really good concoctions. Some husband number 3 names Zephry goop. He likes my goop experiments! But as he says sometimes ... well, you just never know what you're going to get.

Poor Joe Wilson!

2009-09-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

When (p)Resident Obama was giving his fairy tale story of how the health care plan would work, our representative, Joe Wilson (R), did the dumbest thing he could have done. He stood up and spoke the truth and said Obama lied when he said the health care plan would not cover illegal aliens. Should he have done it? NO! But to call him a racist for saying Obama lied is just as stupid as him breaking protocol and calling Obama a liar in a public forum.

I ask, where are the racist remarks here? Did he use the 'N" word? Did he make any reference to race, color or religion? Let's listen and hear.

One of the teachers at the college where my husband works went as far as to say Joe Wilson proved he was a Ku Klux Klan member with his racist remarks. Again, I ask where are the racist remarks. It is one man calling another man a liar. So, every time a white person questions the integrity of another who is black, regardless of the legitimacy of the charge, then that person is a racist? Then why doesn't it work the other way around? If you ask a black person why Joe Wilson's remark is considered racist the only answer I get is because he's white and he called a black man a liar. So, if he had called Bush a liar, which happened many times during his (P)residency then what would we call the white people who called him a liar? And better yet, wouldn't that make all the black people who called Bush a liar racists? Interesting concept and if you think about it at all to call a man a racist for calling another man a liar is ridiculous. The word racist is used so liberally these days it is losing it's power and it's meaning.

So, let's see how the dictionary defines racist.

One online dictionary gives this definition: racist: a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others.

Answers.com gives this definition:
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

The urban dictionary has a great definition and really goes into depth of how ridiculous it is to call someone a racist just because they are white. Here is the first paragraph but it is really worth going to the link and reading it all.

If you're a white man, this is what you are. It doesn't even matter if your wife is black and you have an adopted child from India, or how many black friends you have, somehow you're going to end up being a racist according to how the media portrays the white man as "racist whities".

Gone 500 Miles

2009-09-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday another important person from my coming of age period passed away. Mary Travers, of Peter Paul and Mary left this world, but left it a better place for having been here. She may not have left on a Jet Plane and is more than 500 miles away from home, but her leaving left a big hole in my heart.

Peter Paul and Mary were very politically active. They performed If I Had a Hammer in 1963 during the march on Washington. They were big promoters of Bob Dylan and one of their biggest hits was his Blowin' in the Wind. They also performed other songs of his including The Times They Are a Changin' and Don't Think Twice.

Don't think twice it's alright, Mary. You did a lot of good with your time on this earth, touched a lot of lives, and you made a difference.

So, now we must say goodbye to another great person who made more than a small impact on the world around her. Good bye Mary Travers. Sing Autumn to May sing tarrry-o-day.

The facts ma'm, just the facts

2009-09-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

New York Times, June 18, 2009

Each day, the New York Police Department announces major crimes, including most homicides, in the five boroughs. This data is compiled from those reports, in addition to news accounts, court records and additional reporting. The map will be updated as new information becomes available.

And per the U.S. Census bureau the races break down to:

Whites make up 73.4% of NYC population
Blacks 17.3%
Asians 7%
Hispanic 16.7%

Serena Williams acts out at the U.S. Open

2009-09-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

It’s time for me to put my two cents in on the Serena Williams outburst during the U.S. Open semi-finals. There are those who compare her to John McEnroe and claim he was never fined or penalized so why should Serena pay a fine. First, of all, that’s like comparing apples to oranges. As angry as John McEnroe got he never threatened a line judge with bodily harm. And yes, indeed! He was penalized, fined, and lost games, sets, and even matches due to penalties.

But, Serena went too far. When a 5’10”. 185 pound woman charges at a line judge, waving her racquet at her and shoving a ball out at her with her other hand screaming, “swear to God I’m f*cking going to shove this f*cking ball down your f*cking throat, that my friends is a threat to do bodily harm. To give the line judge credit she sat there and said nothing to instigate the situation further. (BTW this was all because the line judge called her on a foot fault, which if Serena truly believed she didn’t do she could have issued a player challenge). Serena then walked back to serve her second serve and then suddenly turned and charged at the line judge again screaming obscenities at her. This caught the attention of the chair umpire who called the line judge over and asked what Serena was saying to her. When she heard what had transpired she called out the tournament referee. Serena lost one point for the foot fault and then lost the match point on a penalty for her abusive language. She found nothing wrong with what she did and later stated she didn’t understand why the woman felt threatened. As one news person stated, did Serena watch the tape and still have to ask that question? It was a scary moment for those of us watching as it did look as if she was going to go after the line judge physically.

There have been many arguments on both sides, but my all time favorite in defense of Serena was on a discussion site. The person stated we were all racists for expecting Serena to act white. That the f-word is a part of the black culture and is used liberally and accepted and anyone who thought she was wrong is a racist. Hmmmmm…..

Okay, personally, I have no issues with the use of the word, but when you play a sport you abide by the rules of that sport, tournament, etc. and Serena knew the rules before she started the match. Yes, she should have been fined and yes, she should be suspended. So far all she got was a $10,000 fine and when compared to the $250,000 she got for making it to the semi-finals that’s chicken feed. She and Venus were allowed to play in the doubles and by the tournament rules they could have suspended her from playing.

My take on this is that this woman who when she loses always has an excuse – I sprained my ankle, hurt my back, broke a fingernail…. Knew she was losing and losing badly and rather than allow Kim Clisters the victory she took that away and put the attention on herself. As Kim said later she never got to experience the thrill you get when you serve that final ball for the win. So, Serena, got what she wanted. Even though she lost in the semi-finals she denied Kim her victory. But, Kim Clisters did go on to win the finals and take home the U.S. Open trophy.

Where have I been?

2009-09-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

I was reminded today that I haven't posted here for awhile. There is really no excuse except I've been busy on gotpoetry.com, bookcrossing.com and various other sites that take the little time I have to be online. Scrabble calls me and entices me away from my duties to my blog. So, I am hereby making an announcement and pronouncement and whatever else you may call it that I will loyally come here and post once a week even if I have nothing say. Oh heck, especially if I have nothing to say.

The problem is lately I have had too much to say but am trying to be good and not post my opinions on what is happening in Washington, DC these days. It's too scary for one thing and more than ever I fear for the future of our once great country.

But, I won't go there... in fact I have to leave in a few minutes to pick up my husband at work and bring him home. We will watch more of the U.S. Open. For me all other news is moot right now anyway.

Good luck and good night.

Before you go to cash for clunkers....

2009-08-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

...you want to watch this. Basically you are giving the govt. the right to access everything on your computer and your computer becomes govt. property by agreeing to their terms. Watch before you act!

Healthcare in plain English?

2009-08-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

As I listen to all the debates and questions and answers regarding this so-called healt care reform bill what is most blatant is it seems none of the govt. officials involved have any idea what this bill is all about.

Take the question on illegal aliens, for example. When asked if the new bill would cover illegal aliens the speaker of the house gave this response.

KING: What about illegal immigrants, what should happen to them if we have national health care reform? Should they be able...
PELOSI: I'm sorry?
KING: Illegal immigrants.
PELOSI: Illegal immigrants?
KING: If you're in this country illegally, should you be able to get health care?
PELOSI: No, illegal immigrants are not covered by this plan.

Pelosi knew just what the interviewer meant—her questions made a subliminal statement. Like other politicos from both parties, Pelosi refuses to uphold laws governing immigration.

and then went on to say the following:

KING: And so what happens to a public hospital then if they walk into the emergency room? Again, the hospital I was at this week, they said, you know, they do 6,000 births a year there and 70 percent of them are for undocumented.
PELOSI: I don't know about that. But I do know that the law requires that if somebody comes in off the street and needs care, that it is extended. What we see in this legislation is that people will have access to affordable health care, and it will diminish the number of people going into those private -- public hospitals in the manner in which you described.

So basically the illegals will still get to drain our system by receiving free health care that we the American citizens will pay for. And how is that different from the current healthcare?

There are many other confusing issues. Abortion will be covered but not paid for by the taxpayers. But it's the taxpayers who are paying for the plan!

First, we checked a claim by Rep. John Boehner that the plan would require Americans to "subsidize abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars." While there are several versions of the health care plan floating around Congress, and it seems that full abortion coverage would be permitted in the government-sponsored program, we didn't see anything in them that would put taxpayers on the hook for subsidizing abortions. In fact, we found an amendment in a key version of the House plan that specifically seeks to ensure that federal funds are not used to subsidize abortion coverage.

So are abortions covered? if so who is paying for them? and who decides who can have an abortion? If we want to keep the government out of our wombs, as we used to say when pro-choice was born, aren't we letting them in even deeper with this health care reform? bill?

I watched the town hall meeting with Arlen Specter and he hemmed and hawed and sputtered and stammered and finally admitted there wasn't even a bill before congress right now so no one was clear on what was going to be in it in the end. No one understands it as written and no one knows what or who it will cover and yet we debate it day in and day out.

Give me the facts, not the rhetoric. Wtite the bill in plain English so even those of us who don't have college degrees can understand it. Oh, and then, let US vote on it since it will affect us...the general public...you know of the people, for the people, etc. It certainly won't affect those who are attempting to shove some garbage down our throats because they already have a great healthcare plan.

Which leads me to one final question. We are told we can choose between our current plan and the govt plan, but if we lose our current plan we must opt into the govt plan. And if you don't you will be fined. So there really is no choice. You can't choose to self insure, you can't choose a private insurer if you lose your current insurance...oh my! this is confusing! no one has given a straight answer on that one either.

According to CNN we stand to lose many freedoms under the Obama plan.

So I ask again...please write this in plain english, keep it under 25 pages, and put it out where the public can find it, read it, and then let us be the ones to decide if we want it. This is still America and we should still have freedom of choice. I want the right to choose. Why does the govt. think it knows better than I do what would be best for me?

.

R.I.P. Rich

2009-08-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Richard S. “Ebster” Napierkowski Richard S. Napierkowski, age 62, lost his courageous battle with cancer Sunday evening August 2, 2009. He was born in Erie September 1, 1946 son of Anna Skolnik Napierkowski and the late Stanley Napierkowski. Richard worked at Zurn Industries for over 30 years and then for ACL Laboratory. He was a U. S. Army veteran serving during the Vietnam War. Richard was a NASCAR fan and a Pittsburgh Steeler fan. He was a loving and devoted son and father. Besides his mother he is survived by his four children Mark Napierkowski and his wife Julie of Erie, Brian Napierkowski and his wife Kelly of West Springfield, Lori Lanagan and her husband John of Waterford, Arlene Falletta and her husband Craig of Lake City, his adored thirteen grandchildren, three brothers and five sisters: Bob Napierkowski, Mary Simanowski, Kathy Dylewski, Stan Napierkowski, Carol Gradler, Sue Powell, Ron Napierkowski and Lena Trojanovich. Many nieces and nephews also survive. Richard will be missed by all those who knew and loved him. He was preceded in death by two infant brothers. Friends may call at the Mark G. Razanauskas Funeral Home 701 East Avenue, Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. where a prayer service will be conducted Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at Holy Family Church at 11 a.m. Interment Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Sign the guestbook at www.GoErie.com/obits

Dying for a response

2009-07-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

This weeks Ob-la-di meme asks.....

To dye or not to dye, that is the question. Do you dye your hair? To cover the gray or just for fun? Are you planning to stop dying it at some point, or if you don't dye it, have you ever? Tell me about how you want to dye.

The funny thing is I dyed my hair in my 30's and 40's. I stripped it wanting to go blond and ended up with the weirdest shade of red for awhile. So, I dyed it auburn over that and still it wasn't quite right. I have had my hair dark brown, ash brown, auburn, and highlighted and streaked in various shades. I stopped dying it in my 50's when I realized I liked the various shades of gray and white that were forming natural streaks in my brown hair. It looked cool! I am now 61 and while my hair gradually turns more and more gray and white I don't mind. I doubt I will ever dye it again. No, I know I will never dye it again. My hair has gotten quite long as I also tired of getting it cut. In the front it is past my shoulders and in the back it is almost to my waist. It is very fine so not thick. The long gray hairs and white hairs blending through the brown are more artistic to me than a sign of age. I like it!

Happy Birthday, Victoria!

2009-07-12T10:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sister, Victoria!

Musical influence - Obladi meme

2009-07-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

This weeks Obladi meme is about how music affected our generation. Do you think music influenced our feelings about the times or did the events influence the music? And what were some of the songs and singers that had the biggest impact on you or that you still enjoy today?

I think it might have been both of the answers. The songs reflected the mood and the passion of the times while at the same time the events gave birth to a lot of the songs. But the music and the words gave passion to the movements and I think that’s what draws me most to the 60’s and 70’s. We were passionate! Regardless of what side we were on we drew lines and marched and protested and made our voices heard. We were the young generation then and we were determined to make a difference. I don’t see that in today’s youth. I see a lot of selfish, spoiled, self centered children who care only about how the next minute effects them and not how anything affects the world as a whole. We cared and our songs gave voice to our feelings… like…

And it’s 1 2 3 what are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn!
Next stop is Viet Nam
And it’s 5 6 7 so open up them pearly gate
There aint no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We’re all gonna die

And then more gentle songs but still with a powerful message

Blowing In the Wind – the answer my friend is blowing

Or Boy Dylan’s Rainy Day Women that reflected the drug movements of the times, yep, according to Bob Everybody must get stoned!

We carried our songs to the streets, to the coffee shops, to the city parks where we sat and sang and played guitars and tried to live for today because tomorrow you will die. We really believed our time was limited because our government was determined to kill all the young people in the Viet Nam war. Now it’s Iraq and Afghanistan but where are the songs protesting the wars? Where is the youth of today speaking out? They’re in Ipods, and cell phones, and texting LOL and BFF instead of taking a look at the world around them.

Yes, the music definitely helped form opinions and feelings and also informed us of events that may have gone unnoticed. The songs were our messengers.

We were the generation of sex, drugs and rock and roll and yet we were so innocent and so naïve. We really believed we could change the world and damn it! We tried. But when I look at the corruption in the government today and that regardless of promises made on the campaign trails all politicians are liars, cheats, and could care less about America and its people, but only what benefits them. Nothing has changed. We tried. And maybe for a moment…maybe for that moment in time we did make a difference. We certainly got people to notice us and hear our voices. Maybe if today’s youth were as involved as we were…well, maybe they could make a difference, too. But they will never have the passion and the depth of understanding we had then.

To list all the musicians and songs that influenced me during those years would take another two pages, at least! Some were Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tom Waits, Pete Seger, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie, Janis Joplin, Janis Ian, and the list goes on. Each brought their own special personality and message and we listened.

We had Greenwich Village, Hait Ashbury, and Woodstock! We were one of the most eclectic, passionate, and politically active generation and I doubt there will ever be another generation to compare.

Fly Ribbon

2009-07-10T12:04:00.001-07:00

We have flies in the house. Mainly in the downstairs room and they seem to come in from the door that leads to the outside. So, my husband says get some fly strips to hang up and get rid of the flies. I went to Walgreen's to see what they had and all I could find was something called Fly Ribbon. So, I buy it and take it home.

The instructions are easy enough. Pull out cord slowly with twirling motion until thumbtack is exposed. Remove and place the thumbtack to a secured position for later use. Hang the ribbon using the thumbtack away from the sunshine. (okay, that last line needs some rework but who am I to tell them how to write instructions. Sounds to me as if we are to use the thumbtack away from the sunshine. I think they meant to hang the ribbon away from the sunshine.

Anyway, I do as the instructions said. I pulled the cord with a twirling motion until the thumbtack was exposed. I then removed it, but in the process the ribbon part stuck to my fingers and I ended up with sticky gunk on my fingers. I pull them away and the ribbon flies! And not on the flies! I ends up stuck under my arm. I had on short sleeves so the ribbon was literally stuck to my arm pit! I managed to pull it off, but in the meantime it had moved to my shirt! So, now I had gunk on my fingers, under my arm and down the side of my shirt! Okay..deep breath! I get the tack and stick the strip on the side of the door frame and some how manage to get my hair stuck to the ribbon! It is now hung so I head to the bathroom to wash the gunk off fingers, arm pit and hair and change my shirt. Well, regular hand soap had no effect on the sticky stuff except to make it stickier! I ended up getting detergent to wash it off after I had removed the shirt. I am now stick-um free but still have three more ribbons to hang! And you wonder why my mother calls me Lucy!

Oh, and it's been hanging for half a day now and not a single fly is stuck to it! Maybe I'll try to hang another one tomorrow.

Tuesday Newsday July 7th

2009-07-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

This weeks tuesday newsday, and yes I am doing it on the right day for a change, asks about the prolonged media attention on 2008 candidates.

The last Senatorial election is finally decided. The Governor of Alaska, former Vice Presidential candidate, resigns. Franken and Palin. Do you find it strange that two people from the LAST election are still making news?

I find it more strange that Michael Jackson, a self proclaimed king of pop (coke maybe?) is getting all this attention. Okay, he died. It's sad when anyone dies, but what makes him so special? Jesse Jackson says it's because he had more international influence than any president and he said it with a straight face! Everyone is acting as if this man was a great war hero or something instead of a pedophile and drug addict! If this is what black people honor and feel is worthy of a media circus then I have to wonder about how they form their ethics and morals.

But as for Franken, well there's another laughing stock. He sure played up his comedic talent and stole that election. I am glad Norm Coleman finally had enough class to realize it was a lost cause and move on to bigger and better things. Sarah Palin will always be in the news regardless of what she does or doesn't do. She was fresh, unique, and very off the wall and no one knew what to make of her. She could have chosen a better time to resign, but from what I understand she did it at that time AFTER talking with republican leaders and her Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. So, it wasn't as if she just woke up and said this is it.

But, no I'm not surprised the media is still focusing on the 2008 election and it's candidates long after it should have been over. It was one of the most disgusting as well as interesting elections I've ever witnessed. Hopefully we will never see the likes of it again and hopefully by the end of this year the fascination with all the crap will be over.

Tuesday newsday June 30th

2009-07-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yea, this was my post and yes I did forget to go back later and put in a response. So here is my response to my last tuesday newsday post that dealt with the cap and trade tax... I mean bill :-).

The question is not whether we need a cap and trade bill. How do you feel about this new bill?

There's an old line that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet and that holds true here as well. A tax by any other name still stinks. Yes, they are making it look good on paper that it's the big businesses that will be taxed... I mean will be capped on the emissions they are allowed to emit, but the costs to them will be astronomical even with the trade for greenhouse gas credits. And who will end up paying? Not the businesses? They will simply do what they have always done and pass the additional charges onto the us...the public. And who will be hurt most by these increases for products and services? The poor and the lower middle class! The ones Obama said he would not put any additional burden on during his reign of terror... I mean power. Yet, every time we turn around the changes he is making are hurting mainly the poor and lower middle class. Can we afford to do this now with the economy sinking into a swamp of deficits, out of control spending, bailing out of banks and auto makers who end up squandering the money? The answer to anyone with common sense is of course not! No, not now Mr (p)Resident. As I said anyone with common sense would see the disastrous outcome this would have right now.

Friday - Ob-la-di meme

2009-07-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

This weeks Ob-la-di meme asks if we are more or less active as we get older?

"If you were retired (or are retired) are you planning to take it easy, lay back and do nothing, or are you looking forward to doing all those things you've been waiting your whole life to do? Will you slow down? Will you speed up? (I feel like going into a "Green Eggs and Ham" parody here, but I will refrain.)"

I don't like going slow
I don't like it, no! no! no!
I don't like the arthritic pains
I don't like it more when it rains

okay...my little bit of fun. But there is a serious side to that goofy poem. At 35 I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. In a nutshell this is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the joints.I was told at that time I would be in a wheelchair by age 50. I am now 61 and am still walking. But, yes, it has slowed me down. The pain can be so excruciating at times I have to stop what I'm doing and sit down. I find myself cleaning house in spurts rather than one long cleaning session. There are nights when sleeping becomes almost impossible due to the pain in my knees, left hip, and back. Yes, it affects many parts of the body. My hands show it the most with my fingers twisting and the joints swelling. There are medications, which I take with care, and only when the pain gets beyond what I can endure. The side effects of the medications are often worse than the disease and my asthma can react badly to the meds.

This is not the type of pain I used to get when over extending myself skiing or bike riding or playing tennis. Those pains could be relieved by stretching exercises and making myself get moving. Unfortunately with RA you just have to deal with it. There are good days when I am pretty much pain free and I take real advantage by getting outside to prune and trim. I will mop floors and scrub the tub on those days. So, it's not all bad. But when it strikes I am at the mercy of the pain.

But the point is I don't give into it. I learned years ago I could let the pain control me or I could control the pain. So, even on my worst days I am up and moving and getting things done. It takes me four times as long on those days and I can work in 15 to 20 minute spurts before I need to sit for awhile and let the pain in my spine let up. But I am not going to stop living because of it. As long as I refuse to give into the pain it cannot control me.

And I still dream and still have ambitions and yes, I do look forward to doing things I had planned on doing when I retired. And someday I'll actually do them!

Do what I say?

2009-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well, by now the entire nation knows what's been going on here in SC. You know, the Baptist bible belt where everyone is holier than thou and never sins themselves. You know, the place where the governor condemned Bill Clinton to hell for having an affair in the white house and wanted him impeached. Well, well, well, so now we have a case of do what I say not what I do. Our dear old governor decided it would be okay, to use our tax money, to finance trips to Argentina so he could screw his bimbo and we would just forgive him. After all he did say he was sorry and that should cover it. He has no intention of stopping the affair, cares not that he hurt his wife and children, cares not that he abandoned his state and left us without a governor, as no one knew where he was for a week, or that he stepped over the bounds of good sense into the totally ludicrous. Oh yeah, we are so proud of him we could just...s*it!!

Product Endorsement

2009-06-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

I don't normally do this. In fact, I don't remember every posting about a product on my blog. A few weeks ago I went to Kmart and got one of those steam mops. A bit skeptical but it did have a warranty. I tried it on my horrible kitchen floors first. The cats track litter and it gets ground in and even the swiffer couldn't remove it all and the floors always looked a bit dingy. Not after the steam mop! Wow! That thing really does pull up all that ground in grime. Then I tried it on the hardwood floors where the cats had left some hairball type presents that never came completely up, unless I held hot wet cloths to them. Those days are over! This steams them right up and you can't even tell they were there. The biggest trial, so far, has been the bathroom. No matter what I did the main one never felt quite clean. After I used the steam mop on the floor in there I asked my husband how it smelled when he went in. He said he didn't smell anything, which was what I wanted to hear. No cleaner cover ups, but just plain clean. In fact, even with all the cats, since I've been using the steam mop he says he doesn't get any odor when he walks in the door. Next, I plan to try it on the carpet now that I have the carpet attachment. I'll let you know how that goes. But, for anyone thinking about getting one believe me...it does work! it does do what the ads clam.

Obladi Friday Meme

2009-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

This weeks Ob-la-di blog deals with the passing of three icons of our generation. Ed McMann, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. It asks the question "What celebrity deaths have affected you the most and why? What affect did their lives and careers have on you?"

This was a tough one for me, because three immediately came to mind. Richard Farina, Janis Joplin and Harry Chapin. All three deaths shook me, but in the end I realized it was the death of Janis that affected me the most. She was the one with whom I identified the most. Her music and songs were as tragic as her life, yet, there was something so innocent and vulnerable about her you wanted to hug her and try to make things better. Joan Baez summed it up best in her song tribute to Janis, after her untimely death at the age of 27.

In the quiet morning
There was much despair
And in the hours that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
Tossed by the tides of misfortune
Barely here to tell her tale
Rolled in on a sea of disaster
Rolled out on a mainline rail

She once walked right at my side
I'm sure she walked by you
Her striding steps could not deny
Torment from a child who knew

That in the quiet morning
There would be despair
And in the hours that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
She cried out her song so loud
It was heard the whole world round
A symphony of violence
The great southwest unbound

la laa laa laa la la la laa laa
la laa laa laa la la laa laa
la laa laa laa la la la laa laa
la la la laa laa
la la la laa

In the quiet morning
There was much despair
And in the hours that followed
No one could repair

That poor girl
Tossed by the tides of misfortune
Barely here to tell her tale
Rolled in on a sea of disaster
Rolled out on a mainline rail

Tuesday Newday Iran Elections

2009-06-26T08:30:00.001-07:00

This weeks tuesday newsday asks about our feelings regarding the Iran elections and the chaos that has followed. I've been slow in responding to this one because I am conflicted over the whole affair. AFter all, our last three elections (George Bush twice and Obama) were won by hook and by crook. While the powers that be couldn't prove all the underhanded tactics Obama was using to steal this election, they knew he was doing it. But as they said his years as a community organizer taught him how to hide a lot of sins and illegal funds. As for George Bush it was so blatant even he never denied it. He just laughed at us. So, now we have Iran where the regime has taken over from an elected president and our president says little to nothing. In my humble opinion, it's because it would be hypocritical of him to come out against the illegal taking over of the presidency when he did the same thing - just in a more subtle way. As for what happens in Iran? Well, that's Iran's business. We need to allow them to settle their own affairs and worry about our home and country and the mess we're in right now. The rioting will stop, the people will calm down, and maybe they can work it out maturely and intelligently. So, in one sense I agree with Obama's hands off policy. But I also feel he's only hands off and soft on the Iran regime because he's afraid of what would come back to haunt him.

Obladi Friday Meme

2009-06-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

This weeks Obladi meme asks our opinions on facebook and myspace.

Do you think Facebook, MySpace, etc., are for kids? Do you use them? Do you find them useful?

If you do use them, which do you use? How often? What for?

I use myspace, but not facebook. I started using myspace because I have a lot of nieces and nephews who wanted me to set up a page. Mainly it was for family and a few close friends to keep in touch. That's pretty much how I use it. I post a few pictures, but am not into all the things you can do with it. I don't feel the need to have hundreds of friends and am amazed at how many requests I get from people who don't know me and have nothing in common with me. I use the message section to keep in touch with friends, but have not been on a lot lately. I may go on once a week, unless I get a message in my email that someone has left me a message on myspace. I know the younger generation thinks this is only for them, but I think they would be shocked to find out how many of us "old people" have myspace and facebook pages!

Tuesday newsday - bad news

2009-06-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

This weeks Tuesday newsday asks if we think there is too much bad news reported and do the news programs exaggerate the bad news for the purpose of higher ratings.

While the news media may get higher ratings with the bad news than with reporting good news, I don't think all the blame can be put on them.

I have long felt the news media was controlled by the government and whatever propaganda the government wanted told would be told. We not longer have brave news journalists who will go out and get the real story. They are handcuffed, blindfolded, and gagged by a media controlling government. And what does this government want? They want us to be afraid so they can scare us even more and control us with that fear. Using the fear one by one our rights are being infringed upon and taken away for our own safety, per the government spin.

I remember once a bland faced reporter made a statement that good news is boring. He made some references to we didn't get a storm today, or Mrs. Jones wasn't mugged today. In other words, he trivialized the news in general. By good news we mean report good things people do for others or happy events. Mix the good with the bad to buffer it a bit. But this is not what our government wants, so the media is bound and gagged if they want to keep their jobs. Keep the public in fear and they are better controlled. Just my ever so humble opinion.

Duh! why I say not to rush with changes

2009-06-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

My big complaint with Obama is he is pushing so hard to make everyone do what he wants that he isn't looking at the big picture. He said he wouldn't do anything that would hurt the poor or middle class, but dang...check this out!

STIMULUS WATCH: $25 check may cost you food stamps A must read!

Obladi - Female expiration date

2009-06-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

This weeks Obladi post talks about how women are no longer considered sexy after they reach that "certain age", yet men consider themselves sexy long after they've gone to pot. Sadly, so does the media. Here's the post.

Female: Best if used prior to age 50!
Have you noticed how when a female actor turns 50 she is suddenly no longer considered a leading lady! She is no longer considered sexy or sexual, yet a male actor remains the leading man far into his 70’s and his female leads get younger and younger and younger. Sometimes the female lead is young enough to be his daughter and the older female, probably even younger than him plays the part of HIS mother!

Look at the news reporters. All the women must be under 50 and probably even under 40 and once past that age they are gone! But the men stick around long after their in their graves because it’s okay for a man to age, but not a woman.

You see ads for beauty products to keep you looking younger and who are they aimed at? The female audience! After all we certainly want to keep ourselves looking young and beautiful for our male counterparts who are getting fat and bald and still thinking they deserve that sexy twenty year old who can fit into a size 3 bikini.

Okay, end of rant! Anyone have any views on this topic?

I first noticed this long before I reached that "certain age" when Jane Pauley had to leave the today show, because she had become too old! Yet, there was Willard Scott, old, fat, and balding, but still considered able to do his job. Why is that when women reach 40 or 50 suddenly they aren't qualified to do the same job they'd been doing for the past 20 years? Do we lose brain cells with every new wrinkle, every gray hair, every extra pound? And do men's brain cells increase with every wrinkle, gray hair, etc? I think not! Yet, women are cast aside like yesterdays garbage when they reach that magic age.

It always makes me chuckle to overhear fat old men talk about how their wives have gone to pot, after having born their children, nurtured and nourished them, and stood by them faithfully through years of trials and tribulations. They either didn't have a mirror or saw something totally different when they looked in it! Do men seriously think they are still sexy with that extra roll around their middle, sagging jowls, and gray hair or bald heads? They can have huge pouches hanging over their belts, that get lost in the fat, and still make fun of a woman with a few extra pounds on her. They sit there ogling the young girls, who are laughing at them, and thinking those girls want them.

Someone once said something I totally agree with... the difference between a 50 year old man with a 19 year old girl and a 50 year old woman with a 19 year old boy is the 50 year old woman KNOWS she looks like a fool. Think about it.

Tuesday Newday - Health care question.

2009-06-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

This weeks tuesday newsday is "Taking care of healthcare" and asks....

During the second Presidential debate the candidates were asked if they thought health care was a privilege, a right or an obligation. What do you think? Any of those, or something else?

I'm in between the right and obligation line. I think everyone should have access to health care insurance, but are we obligated to get it? If someone can afford to pay their health care bills and want to avoid the middle then why should they have to get health care insurance? Right now every medical procedure, through any health care plan, has to be approved by someone who isn't even in the health care business! And it's their job to try to save the insurance company money by denying as many procedures as possible. I heard that Obama wants to pass a law that actually penalizes people who don't have health care plans, but why, if they can afford to pay their own bills should they be forced to go into a controlled plan?

And if that isn't enough for you, how important is it to pass something quickly? And how do you think it should be implemented and financed?

Should something be passed quickly? No, I think if we go too fast we get something that isn't thoroughly thought out and will end up a mess. I don't like the idea of the VAT to pay for it either. If the govt. doesn't have available funds, then like the rest of us, they need to rethink their budget and put this on the back burner until they come up with a valid plan to pay for it, or decide to scrap the idea of socialized health care and leave things as they are for now.

Working cats

2009-06-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our cats may live well with food readily available, warm beds to sleep on, water bowls filled, and litter boxes cleaned regularly. But they also work for their living.

Delia is a self appointed guide. Wherever I go, especially to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she is there to lead the way and make sure I don't get lost.

Ginger's job is to sit on top of Keith, in the morning, to make sure he doesn't float up out of his bed.

Marmalade's job is to keep our feet warm. Whether we want him to or not!

They all share in one job, that I really wish they would quit. Keeping the laundry warm! When I bring in the laundry, warm and fresh from the laundromat, they take it upon themselves to lay on it to make sure it stays nice and warm.

So, as you can see it may appear they are pampered pets, but they do make sure they work for the services provided them.

Obladi - Identification Please

2009-06-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

This weeks Obladi post asks about how our ideas, opinions, etc have changed as we grow older.

I heard an interview on NPR where the person talked about watching plays he had loved since he was a young man. He said that the first time he watched "Death of a Salesman" he identified with the son, Buddy, but now he was Willy Loman.

As well as which character I identify with in a novel, my perspective has changed on other things too. Movies and books that I thought were incredibly wonderful when I was younger, now seem to be... well... somewhere between wretched and stupid.

As you've gotten older, has your perspective changed on media you watch, hear or read?

This is something my husband and I discuss from time to time. How a movie we thought was so earth shattering when younger, seems a bit stupid now. I kept telling how wonderful the movie Soldier Blue was - I saw it in my early 20's - and in truth the movie itself was still pretty good, or would have been. See, when I first saw the movie I identified strongly with the heroine, Cresta Maribel Lee, played by Candice Bergen. Thank goodness she did become a good actor later in life, but when I got my husband to watch this movie, her portrayal was so overdone, overacted, and just plain silly that it detracted from the important issue of the movie. In 1970, when this movie came out, I was 22 and much more impressionable.

Other things I see differently are politics and religion. But I won't get too deep into that here. From a yellow dog democrat, when I was young, I have grown more into an independent voter and tend to look more at the issues and realize everyone who says they are persecuted, aren't. That there are groups who take advantage of the liberal democratic way for self gain. I am more open to both sides of the argument. The same for religion. I have gone from a total Jesus freak to an atheist who believes everyone has the right to believe or not believe as they choose.

I think we all grow and change and see things differently as we age. I know I never thought I'd say things my mother said, but find myself saying things like...you call that music? Things irritate me more as I get older. While I am tolerant of differing opinions, I am not tolerant of rude behavior and obnoxious children. Things when I was younger I didn't even notice.

Well, I guess all that to say yes, I have changed my opinions and ideas as I age. I think it's called maturing.

Tuesday Newsday value added tax

2009-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Tuesday Newsday question for this week is about the value added tax. Our current policy makers are seriously discussing VAT, so I thought it would be timely post and hopefully will generate some discussion.

In my humble opinion this is a form of double taxation and a tax that will hit the poor harder than any other group. When studying American History I learned that double taxation was illegal. Now policy makers are debating on whether to add a value added tax to our daily purchases, on which we already pay taxes. This is how they plan on paying for the health care that wasn’t supposed to cost us anymore in taxes. The taxes on the poor were not supposed to be increased, but this is sneaking it in the back door.

So, do the benefits outweigh the impact it will have on the poor? I doubt it. The idea of providing health care for the poor was so they would not be hurt financially to pay for medical services. But, since this tax will affect all purchases in effect the poor will be paying one way or another.

We are already paying so much tax out of our paychecks sometimes it doesn't seem worth the effort. Adding one more tax will just tax us to death and put more people in a position where they are unable to purchase the necessities of life let alone do things like go to a movie or just out for dinner once in awhile. The government needs to come with a better plan than tax, tax, tax. In fact, didn't this president promise he wouldn't raise taxes on the poor?

Obladi

2009-05-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

This weeks Obladi post is on forgetting things as we get older.

One of my friends keeps saying she has senile dementia because she forgets things. She feels she is forgetting more than usual. For one thing she couldn’t remember Tom Cruise’s name. That really is understandable to me and something I would happily forget, but this upset her when it took us awhile to get the name.

A doctor once explained it to me this way. Everyone tends to forget things regardless of age, and yes, we do start forgetting more as we age, but that’s expected. Forgetting where you put your keys, your shoes, the remote control is just that – being forgetful. Dementia or Alzheimer’s is when you forget what the keys, shoes, or remote are and how they are used.

Do you find you’re forgetting more the older you get? Any funny stories? Crazy stories? Sad stories? Stories about things you have forgotten.

I guess the funniest thing I've done is something I've done not once, but twice! When sending cards to my mom I put her name, her street address and then instead of Erie, PA I put Sumter, SC. I tell her I keep trying to move her. It's not that I forget where my mother lives, but that I am used to putting Sumter, SC as the city and state with most of my mailings, so it is an automatic thing to do. My mom thinks this is the funniest thing and calls it my senior moment.

Oh, I forget other things, but nothing much more drastic than when I was younger. With a lot on my plate these days I have to make a grocery list for anything over five items or I will forget something.

I think one of the reasons we forget little things as we get older is we are doing a lot more with our time. As young people we didn't have a lot of the responsibilities we have now and the more you have to do the more you have to remember, and as a wise doctor once pointed out, thus the more you have to forget.

The Business of Murder

2009-05-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

One thing about doing memes is it gets me on my blog and posting again. For anyone living in Sumter I hope you got to see the Sumter Little Theater's production of The Business of Murder. My friend, Cyndi, and I went last Saturday and believe me it was worth the price of the ticket.

Sumter Little Theatre, 14 Mood Ave.
Description: SLT will be Performing the Last Show in its ‘08-‘09 Season The Business of Murder.

If you like suspense then Sumter Little Theatre has a thrill for you. The upcoming production The Business of Murder written by Richard Harris and directed by Jean Dancy Jones is a captivating psychological thriller that will make anyone a mystery fan. This play has many bewitching twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat and hanging on every line. This is a must see production that will close SLT’s ’08-’09 season with a bang.

Tuesday Newsday response

2009-05-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

This weeks Tuesday Newsday is about the division in the republican party. It asks the following:
The Republicans seem to be searching for an identity after their recent electoral defeat. The "Colin Powell Republicans" and the "Rush Limbaugh/Dick Cheney Republicans" seem to be having a very public war. Do you think the Republicans should split into their ideological factions, creating a viable third party, or should they work out their problems internal to the party?

And if that isn't enough meat for you to write about, what about those other “third-parties”, the Libertarians, the Green Party, and so on? Although “third-party” candidates have existed for as long as we have had elections, they are called “third-party” no matter how many parties there are. Do they have a place in American society and will any of them ever become equal with the major parties?

For that matter, even the Democrats have majorities in both houses and yet can’t guarantee the White House success in all of his votes since the views of Democrats differ from the conservative Blue Dog Democrats to the liberal Yellow Dog Democrats. Maybe they should split too. What do you think?

First I think the division in the party is a good thing. But, it isn't just the republican party that is in trouble. With the election of Obama I see a lot of inner struggle with the democratic party, also. He wants to dictate, they want to vote on issues and at times neither the twain does meet. But, in my humble opinion, both parties were getting too corrupted to work anymore. They needed a good shake up and hopefully the last election gave it to them. They need to stop believing they are infallible and that the only opinions that matters are theirs.

As for the third party category that has always irked me. It's insulting. Like a third world country has no power, they keep the other parties down by not giving them full recognition or status. All candidates should be invited to ALL debates! It isn't just the democrats and republicans running, so each group should get equal recognition and equal time. These are viable parties with viable candidates and I think the republicans and democrats do themselves and the country a disservice by not allowing the other voices to be heard.

My last word is the republicans need to stop licking their wounds and find a common ground to rework their party. The same advice for the democrats. I see them still running scared thinking ahead to the 2012 election because they aren't as thrilled with their chosen one as they thought they would be and know he may not stand a chance in the next election. And they need to stop denigrating other parties by designating them as third world... I mean third parties and give them fair and equal treatment. I wonder why they are afraid to give merit to other parties?

Obama vs I Spy

2009-05-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

I have read Obama’s book Dreams of My Father and had I read it before the election I would have worked even harder to have keep him from becoming president. Reading the book made me glad I was not a relative or friend of his, because he slammed everyone of them! They, not he, were racists! His white family, who raised him, loved him, clothed him, fed and nurtured him, educated him, and gave him the courage to run for president were slammed worst of all. His white grandfather is a racist because OMG! He plays poker with black men! How dare he be so racist! And his white grandmother is a racist because one day at her bus stop a black man acting suspicious made her nervous. Well, dang! I guess if it had been a white man acting suspicious who made her nervous that would have been okay. As long as you don’t get nervous when someone of a different race is acting strangely.

Whoever wrote this book for him really needs to learn to write dialog! The dialog was stilted and sounded so phony at times you knew it didn’t actually take place. It was supposed to have been conversations between Obama and his friends, family, etc., where he set them straight on racism. But it was terrible! The conversations were either embellished or just made up, but either way the dialog was very badly written.

But the part that cracked me up the most was where the writer started slamming I Spy! Yep, Obama is supposed to have said it was a racist show because the white guy always got the girl. OMG! That is so stupid! He obviously never watched the show, and I think I will remind him that black people didn’t like Bill Cosby (Scotty in I Spy) because he acted too white! Oh, and BTW, Scotty got the girl in many episodes.

So here’s the thing…Sheldon Leonard broke the color barrier in television when he cast a black actor and white actor in equal parts in a TV drama. In many of the episodes the cast was over 50% black and all were serious dramatic roles. Alexander Scott, (Bill Cosby) was a Rhodes Scholar and the brains of the operation. When he had a relationship with a woman it was serious. Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp aka the white guy to Obama) was a tennis bum who had many frivolous affairs and a couple serious ones. They were cast as good friends and if the color barrier was mentioned it was in joking between them as friends will do. It was equality for both actors and just for future reference in 1967 Bill Cosby won the Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series.

So Mr. Obama and whoever ghost wrote your book for you. Before you start making empty statements about racism, get your facts straight. This show broke the racism barriers in television dramas! It did not set them!

Aunt Bea

2009-05-23T08:06:00.001-07:00

This week’s topic for Obladi, a new blog about getting older and all it entails, is changing expectations.

As you've gotten older, have you found that you are doing things you never thought you would? Maybe something you never thought you could and finally learned? Or maybe something you swore you never would, but find yourself doing? Or even maybe something your mother said you would do one day!

I had been planning a blog post called I wanted to be Aunt Bea and this seems to fit perfectly here. When I was growing up, and I’m sure it’s still the same today the emphasis for girls was you had to be thin. Even a hint of extra fat was unacceptable. I wasn’t a fat child, but I was a healthy one. I bordered on just over the acceptable and was called chubby. I look at older pictures and realize that all my angst about this was not necessary as I was just a normal sized child. While all my friends wanted to be Sophia Loren or any of the other super beautiful thin women I wanted to be Aunt Bea. For those who don’t know who Aunt Bea is catch some old episodes of Andy Griffith. Aunt Bea was the maiden aunt who took care of Andy and Opie (his son) after his wife died. She was a big happy loving woman whose baked goods and canned fruit and veggies won prizes at the state fair. Everyone loved her and no one care whether she was fat or thin. All through my childhood I couldn’t wait to get old so I could get as fat as I wanted and no one would care.

Well, one day I found I had gotten fat. I mean really fat! And suddenly realized it wasn’t what I wanted. Oh, I still didn’t want to be thin and could care less about my size, but I did reach a point where I had to trim it down some. After all, even Aunt Bea wasn’t that fat. Of course, I fell short of my plans and expectations in other ways too. I can’t bake worth a darn! I couldn’t make a pie crust if my life depended on it. Canning is too much work and not worth the time or energy! I am not a very nurturing person, as Aunt Bea, was and certainly wouldn’t put up with the things she did with such a good nature. No, I am not and will never be Aunt Bea. But, I find while that was an interesting ideal to aspire to, it is not my reality.

So, Aunt Bea you were an inspiration to me as a young child, but dang, I am not and never will be Aunt Bea!

Tuesday Newsday

2009-05-19T05:46:00.001-07:00

My sister, Victoria, and I have restarted an old meme, tuesday newsday. Each tuesday one of us will post a news topic and invite others to comment on the post. I had the honor of doing the first one, and had just heard some news that really upset me. While listening to early morning talk radio some one called in about gender based abortions now being legal in Sweden. So, the host invited callers to call in and give their opinions. What bothered me was this was the only place I heard this and it may have passed quietly by had I not had a sleepless night.

Why did this disturb me since I am pro-choice? Because that was a difficult decision for me to make. I don't believe in abortion and when faced with the choice I chose adoption. But, I am also aware there are others who can't afford that option. Rape victims, young college women who's entire lives could be changed and futures ruined,women living in poverty who can't afford to care for the children she now has. And the list goes on. So, I decided I had no right to choose for these women and stepped over to the side of pro-choice.

But we aren't talking about any of the above named circumstances. We are talking about healthy women who want a child and can afford to have a child, are deliberately getting pregnant to have a child, and then aborting if they don't like the sex of the child! Now, there are some who would say, oh, so you're pro-choice as long as it fits your agenda, but not pro-choice for everyone. I am pro-choice for those who need that option not those who choose it for selfish reasons. That's like saying I'm for welfare as long as it only benefits the poor, but the rich shouldn't be able to get it. There is a difference between having to choose abortion and choosing it to get the gender you want. In my humble opinion this does empower the anti-choice side.

It doesn't matter which exit you use!

2009-05-17T17:14:00.001-07:00

We've been having rain a lot this past week and today was no different. Our little stray, Little Friend, likes to come in out of the rain. The problem is once inside she figures if she can exit through a window, rather than the door she entered, there will be no rain. I keep trying to explain to her no matter how hard she tries she can't get out through the closed window and besides it will still be raining regardless of which exit she uses. She doesn't believe me and will keep trying. I keep opening the door for her to which she runs and then stops when she sees it's still raining. She also seems to feel I have some control over this wet stuff that falls from the sky and complains bitterly to me until it finally stops. Then with great indignation she will leave the captivity of this room and go back outside. Her attitude seems to be that I make it rain so she will have to come inside and then I force her to remain indoors by not stopping the rain. When I did stop and she went back out her cohort Scarface was waiting and he had a few words to say to me also. This is the thanks I get for feeding them every day, providing a warm dry place when it rains, and getting them to the vet when they're sick...and they aren't even our cats!!!!!

Graduation chaos

2009-05-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday was graduation day for Morris College and as usual it was held at the convention center here. There is a huge parking lot and you get their early to get the closer spaces. So, I drive Keith and bring books, writing materials, cell phone, etc. Things to keep me busy while he has to sit in there and listen to all the boring speeches. I won't even get into those and why I stopped going in. Let's just say hearing about all the evil white people who are holding them back, when it's white faculty sitting there who are educating their precious little darlings. Note sarcasm. Anyway, the ceremony started at 10 a.m. and of course, people were still arriving long after 11 a.m. And instead of parking in the parking spaces in the back of the lot they started double parking (0n both sides) and blocking in the cars in the first rows.

Picture being at the supermarket and parked in a space and coming out to find someone had parked their car on the lane in front of your car.

So, they were blocking people trying to get in as well as blocking those who would be coming out to leave. Well, I figured I wasn't going to let them block me in, so moved the car up far enough no one could park in front of me. There was a car blocking the car to my left and soon one blocking in the car to my right. Another late arrival, four young black men (and I use the term men loosely) stopped and one approached me in a threatening way and said...so whatcha gonna do. you be comin or you be goin'? I said, neither I'm sitting here and not moving so you can't block me in. He glared at me and started to move towards the car and said, no, whatcha gonna do (sneering) go or move? I said, neither, I am sitting here. Another got out of the car and I stood my ground. They left cursing and cussing me and I will refrain from posting the words used to describe this white honky bitch....whoops! anyway...

back to the cars on either side of me. When the young man in the car on the right came out, for some balloons, I made a remark about these rude people blocking others in and he got snotty and said, it be a gradyeateshun so dey gonna park dere. I am using the vernacular used when they spoke...these young college students. Well, I got the last smile in when he came out to leave early and found his car blocked in and mine not. He glared at me as if I had blocked his car in, got out his cell phone, and started cussing into it about being stuck there. Some others got the security guard but little he could do, so they had to wait. When Keith came out we pulled out and left. On a side note, when the security guy drove by my car and saw what I had done he gave me a big smile and thumbs up.

I will give the security man credit. He did try to keep up and keep people moving, but he would be at one end making people move and others would be blocking in cars at the other end and leaving before he could get there. Once the proceedings started he could not longer go to the mic and ask people to move their cars.

This rudeness and lack of consideration is something I am seeing way too much of here. If I hear one more person talk about southern hospitality and how rude us northerners are I think I'm going to puke on their shoes!

Seven years!!!

2009-05-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe, but yesterday, marked our 7th wedding anniversary. We almost forgot and let it slip by. Keith remembered this morning. Yesterday we were busy with the last day of school - getting all checked out so we could start vacation. I probably wouldn't have remembered at all. Maybe I don't want to remember how long I've been in Swampter, SC aka Bumf*ck Egypt, USA. When you are surrounded by so much ignorance it makes it easier to pretend you are leaving soon and not remember how long you've been here. I tell my husband I must really love him, because if not for him I would have been out of here long ago. So, it's been 8 years total I've been here and 7 years married. I keep saying it's three strikes and your out or third times the charm, as this is the third time for me. So, we had a mexican bake to celebrate and hope for another good year together.

Same track minds

2009-05-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well, figured I would take a few minutes to write on my blog today, since I have been neglecting it as of late. I was going to write about how I had all these great ideas for postings while thinking when I wake up in the middle of the night, or when sitting at the laundramat watching the clothes spin around, or.... but then I always forget and thought today I would write about nothing and all that at the same time. But, along the way I stopped in at my sister, Victoria's, blog and had to laugh because she had done the exact same blog, except she beat me to it. So, go read her blog!

Tax break my A**

2009-04-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the few extra dollars they're seeing in their paychecks, thanks to Obama's tax break. But just in case you think this is really a good thing remember what I tried to tell you all that this would come back to bite you in the end, because it would be taken back when you file your taxes next year.

INSIDE WASHINGTON: Taxpayers to get rude surprise
INSIDE WASHINGTON: Millions of couples, retirees may have to repay some of Obama tax credit
Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer
On Thursday April 30, 2009, 6:55 pm EDT

Buzz up! Print WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of Americans enjoying their small windfall from President Barack Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit are in for an unpleasant surprise next spring.

The government is going to want some of that money back.

The tax credit is supposed to provide up to $400 to individuals and $800 to married couples as part of the massive economic recovery package enacted in February. Most workers started receiving the credit through small increases in their paychecks in the past month.

But new tax withholding tables issued by the IRS could cause millions of taxpayers to get hundreds of dollars more than they are entitled to under the credit, money that will have to be repaid at tax time.

At-risk taxpayers include a broad swath of the public: married couples in which both spouses work; workers with more than one job; retirees who have federal income taxes withheld from their pension payments and Social Security recipients with jobs that provide taxable income.

The Internal Revenue Service acknowledges problems with the withholding tables but has done little to warn average taxpayers.

"They need to get the Goodyear blimp out there on this," said Tom Ochsenschlager, vice president of taxation for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

For many, the new tax tables will simply mean smaller-than-expected tax refunds next year, IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said. The average refund was nearly $2,700 this year.

But taxpayers who calculate their withholding so they get only small refunds could face an unwelcome tax bill next April, said Jackie Perlman, an analyst with the Tax Institute at H&R Block.

"They are going to get a surprise," she said.

Perlman's advice: check your federal withholding to make sure sufficient taxes are being taken out of your pay. If you are married and both spouses work, you might consider having taxes withheld at the higher rate for single filers. If you have multiple jobs, you might consider having extra taxes withheld by one of your employers. You can make that request with a Form W-4.

The IRS has a calculator on its Web site to help taxpayers figure withholding. So do many private tax preparers.

Obama has touted the tax credit as one of the big achievements of his first 100 days in office, boasting that 95 percent of working families will qualify in 2009 and 2010.

The credit pays workers 6.2 percent of their earned income, up to a maximum of $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples who file jointly. Individuals making more $95,000 and couples making more than $190,000 are ineligible.

The tax credit was designed to help boost the economy by getting more money to consumers in their regular paychecks. Employers were required to start using the new withholding tables by April 1.

The tables, however, don't take into account several common categories of taxpayers, experts said.

For example:

--A single worker with two jobs making $20,000 a year at each job will get a $400 boost in take-home pay at each of them, for a total of $800. That worker, however, is eligible for a maximum credit of $400, so the remaining $400 will have to be paid back at tax time -- either through a smaller refund or a payment to the IRS.

The IRS recognized there could be a similar problem for married couples if both spouses work, so it adjusted the withholding tables. The fix, however, was imperfect.

-- A married couple with a combined income of $50,000 is eligible for an $800 credit. However, if both spouses work and make more than $13,000, the new withholding tables give them each a $600 boost -- for a total of $1,200.

There were 33 million married couples in 2008 in which both spouses worked. That's 55 percent of all married couples, according to the Census Bureau.

-- A single college student with a part-time job making $10,000 would get a $400 boost in pay. However, if that student is claimed as a dependent on a parent's tax return, she doesn't qualify for the credit and would have to repay it when she files next year.

Some retirees face even bigger headaches.

The Social Security Administration is sending out $250 payments to more than 50 million retirees in May as part of the economic stimulus package. The payments will go to people who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, railroad retirement benefits or veteran's disability benefits.

The payments are meant to provide a boost for people who don't qualify for the tax credit. However, they will go to retirees even if they have earned income and receive the credit. Those retirees will have the $250 payment deducted from their tax credit -- but not until they file their tax returns next year, long after the money may have been spent.

Retirees who have federal income taxes withheld from pension benefits also are getting an income boost as a result of the new withholding tables. However, pension benefits are not earned income, so they don't qualify for the tax credit. That money will have to paid back next year when tax returns are filed.

More than 20 million retirees and survivors receive payments from defined benefit pension plans, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. However, it is unclear how many have federal taxes withheld from their payments.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union raised concerns about the effect of the tax credit on pension payments in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in March.

Geithner responded that Treasury and IRS understood the concerns and were "exploring ways to mitigate that effect."

Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said Geithner has yet to respond to concerns raised by committee members.

"So far we've got the, 'If we don't address this maybe it will go away' approach," Camp said.

IRS withholding calculator:

Cats and windows

2009-04-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks we have had such wonderful weather we've been able to open windows. The cats love this as they get to sit in the window and enjoy the air and get closer to the nature outside. Bug likes the one behind my chair, in the living room, and Marmalade is partial to the one in my bedroom. Yesterday, Bug, kept bugging me (pun intended) to open the windows. I told him I would when I got back from dropping Keith off at work. As soon as I got in the door Bug was after me open the windows. I did and he quickly claimed his favorite spot.

This morning, as I was getting ready, Marmalade was actually trying to open the window in my bedroom. I told him I would do it when I got back. Well, I had laundry to do and a few stops to make, but when I got home I went around and opened windows. When I got to the one in my bedroom Marmalade was patiently waiting. Well, as patiently as a cat can wait. As soon as I unlocked it he had his paws on it trying to push it up. I helped him and together we opened it and he took his perch to watch his kingdom from the window.

The great outdoors part II

2009-04-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I was having lunch with my friend, Cyndi, yesterday and we got to talking about all the work I'm doing around my yard. Cyndi loves to work outside as much as I do, so when we finished lunch she said she would go to her home and get her equipment and join me in my yard. We had two hours before I had to go pick up Keith from work, so off we went! OMG! We cut, sawed, pulled, and stacked brush, saplings, and some unidentifiable things, but we got it done! wow! and then Cyndi went home to trade her car for her truck and friend that she is she hauled it all off to the recyling center for me. Of course, today, my ribs and stomach hurt from all the additional excercise but I'm enjoying it. It's a good hurt. Over the weekend I'm going to work more on trimming the holly back and down to a managable level and clean out the back shed a bit more. That is actually looking pretty good these days with me hauling out all the junk, old boxes, and yesterday (another reason my ribs hurt) a huge! roll of old insulation that had gotten wet and was rotting and mildewy. That made a big difference in the shed. Hauled it out to the curb for the city to pick up and they took that away this morning. Ah! Spring cleaning. I know, I know, it's supposed to be spring cleaning inside, but dang! I hate housework! I do what needs to be done but don't get all that carried away until I get into a mood of... hmmmmm...this furniture needs moved, this room needs to be changed with another room...yeah...i feel one of those moods coming on!!!! Happy Spring!

The great outdoors

2009-04-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, the young couple on the right side of our house, trimmed the hedges between the two yards. The wife came over and worked from our side of the hedge and the husband worked on the other side. When they were done it was beautiful and all the flowers looked big and lush and lovely. So, today I decided to work on the ones in front of the house. Unfortunately a lot of small saplings are growing up between the beautiful flowering hedges making it look awful! I got a bit done today and it looks so good I'm going back out to do more tomorrow. There is one drawback to all this exercise and fresh air, though. It tires me out and I fall asleep sitting in my chair. It's a good tired, but dang, I'd rather wait until I was in bed to sleep. Oh well...at least I got some good sleep.

His last April Fool's joke

2009-04-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

My ex-husband, Ralph Braueler, had a very offbeat sense of humor. In the fourteen years of our marriage I learned to appreciate his dry humor. He reminded me a lot of Bob Newhart. You had to pay attention to realize how funny he really was. When he was teaching our nephew, Brian, how to drive he told him the deer on it's hind legs meant dancing deer and that the two wavy lines with a car in the middle meant drunk driver ahead. A truck on an incline sign meant falling trucks ahead. Sadly Ralph developed esophogeal cancer and the doctors didn't expect him to live through the Christmas holidays. (Christmas of 2008). Well, Ralph surprised us all and lived a few months longer than the doctors predicted and typical of his offbeat sense of humor Ralph passed away on April 1st (April Fool's Day). Even in dying he got in the last laugh. Even after our divorce we remained friends and stayed in contact over the years until he became too sick to get online. I am deeply greatful to his lovely second wife, Belinda, for understanding I still cared about Ralph and for keeping me updated on his health. The first picture is how I remember him, but I wanted to include the one taken last Christmas because it showed that even facing a catastrophic illness he had not lost his sense of humor. Check out the reindeer horns. Goodbye my friend you will be missed!

Three Years

2009-03-26T07:03:00.001-07:00

March 28th marks the third anniversary of the death of my friend Rick. I had written a poem commemorating this day and thought I'd post it here. Hard to believe three years have passed and I still miss him and still forget at times he is no longer here.

Three Years

It’s been three years
yet I haven’t been able
to delete your name and
number from my cell phone.

To do so would admit there
will be no more calls
no more shared jokes
no more songs sung over the lines.

It’s been three years
yet I haven’t been able
to delete your name
from my email account.

To do so would admit there
will be no more “hey you”
missives waiting, no more
letters exchanged over the lines.

It’s been three years
yet I haven’t been able
to delete you from my heart
or from my thoughts.

To do so would admit you
will no longer be there
when I need you as a friend
or to hold me as a lover.

It’s been three years
and I still think of you
when I hear a story I want
to tell you to make you laugh,

See something and think I should
share this with you and then
a fresh pain as I remember…
it’s been three years.

Friends of the Library

2009-03-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

As a member of the Friends of the Library I'm kept updated on events. Last tuesday was the annual Friends of the Library meeting and the guest author/speaker was Fran Rizer. Ms. Rizer is the author of the Callie Parrish mysteries. She was a wonderful speaker who had us all in stitches by the time she was done telling us about Callie and her adventures. After the meeting I did purchase some of her books and had her autograph them for me. Now, I am a big mystery buff so was looking forward to meeting a new character and getting involved in some new adventures. I have to admit I was disappointed in the first book. Oh, it was written well enough, but I guessed the murderer at the characters first introduction into the story. Ms. Rizer, at that point, had not learned the art of deception in character development. I am now reading the second book and am hoping she has learned to fool the reader a little better by her second attempt. The books are fun to read, I will give her that, so I am not totally disappointed in her writing. I just like to be fooled for awhile about who the villain is in the story. And if you are ever looking for an entertaining speaker you might call on Fran Rizer. Oh, and she looks nothing like the picture on her books or her web page! Imagine my surprise when the little white haired lady sitting up front turned out to be Ms. Rizer! On her books she has brown hair and is quite young and on her website she has Blonde hair and is still a much younger version than the one who spoke at the FOTL meeting. Hmmmm...maybe she does know more about the art of deception than I thought.

3/15/09 Update: Well, I read the second book (the one pictured above) and it was even easier to find the murderer, if that were even possible! This poor writer has no idea on how to use red herrings, misdirection, or subtle plot turns or hints regarding the bad guy. She does try one red herring but the explanation for it at the end of the story is so out there that it doesn't even make sense. And when at the end of a book it has to be explained then you know something was missing in the story line. Also, I find it humorous that her sleuth never does any sleuthing. Just asks simple ordinary questions and people fall all over themselves confessing to her. Sorry. This is just really bad writing in my opinion. But, remember this is just my opinion. I am sure there are many out there who love this easy to figure out style, but for myself, I prefer to have to use a bit of the gray matter in my head to figure things out as the story progresses. Knowing before the book is even 1/3 of the way through is just no fun.

Fun with books!

2009-03-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

I am an avid reader. I can ready two to three books a week. When I'm finished I generally pack them up and mail them off to my mother in Erie, PA. Mom is 86, soon to be 87 and reads as much as I do. But sometimes I find I have doubles of books or books I don't think she would enjoy so what to do with those books? Well, I found a site called bookcrossing.com and it is wonderful. You register your books with them and release them around town or use a controlled release and mail it to someone else. You put a msg in the book asking them to visit the url listed and to make a journal entry on the book. This way you get to track the book and read others impressions on it. It's a lot of fun, so if there are any other readers out there in Sumter....I know you're out there! and want to have some fun, check out bookcrossing.com

ScarFace - cat story

2009-03-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

As most of you know my husband and I do cat rescue. We try to socialize strays, get them spayed or neutered, get their shots and then place them in homes. Sometimes we end up with ones no one else wants and sometimes they just can't be socialized. Scarface is one that won't be socialized. I can put out food and he'll eat it and even rub against my leg on occassion. But! try to touch him and he goes ballistic. About a week ago we noticed his left eye looked really bad, but of course, I couldn't get close enough to check it out. Claws and hisses greeted any attempts.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, last Friday, I opened the door to put out his breakfast and he walked into the house, and into a cat carrier! (We have a room that
is separated by a door from the rest of the house). I closed carrier the door and called the vet who was willing to get him in right away. Scarface didn't react at all to the carrier door closing. We took him to the vet and got him out of the carrier and he was still pretty docile. Not like the old fighting Scarface we knew and loved. When the vet tried to touch him to check out his eye though the hisses and claws started. So I held on tight and the vet looked at this eye. It was, of course, badly infected so he gave him a shot, but only after I had the cat totally turned around and facing me so he couldn't see the needle in the vets hand.

Scarface spent the weekend down here, in this room, being fed and he even used the litter box! So, how did this happen? We can only conclude, that Little Friend, who has been ill herself and taken to the vet in that carrier somehow conveyed to him he needed to let us take him. Little Friend is also one who won't be totally socialized, and she and Scarface hang out together. Unlike Scarface she does allow us to pick her up and pet her and will stay inside down here, when the weather is bad, but wants out immediately when the weather clears. She doesn't like being inside for long.

Scarface's eye is much better and he is once again wandering and protecting his domain. Oh, and try to pet him and he promises to claw your hand off :-). Yep, he's back!

Pink Slips

2009-02-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

I have reached that certain age where many of us are looking forward to collecting our social security next year. But also where many of my friends are suffering from ailments that go along with the aging process. Sadly some are suffering from more serious ailments and will not be with us much longer, while others have already passed away. But all of this is to expected at our age, but what is not expected is to receive that pink termination notice! I received a message, from yet another friend, today that she had received a termination notice due to cut backs. What is a person of our age to do about income? There are no jobs out there and those that are available go to the young people. Why would anyone hire someone so close to retirement, which brings me to another question as to why someone would fire someone so close to retirement. The answer is clear...so they can hire someone younger at half the pay. No longer does experience count, it's the bottom line that matters. I get more and more angry at the Bush administration for this mess and wonder how The Shrub sleeps at night as more and more Americans are losing their jobs due to the economy his administration created. I won't rant and rave, I just wanted to voice my opinion on the injustice of firing the elderly workers who are the ones who truly have no chance of finding new employment. End of rant. thanks for reading.

2009 Friend Survey

2009-02-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Because I got this from more than one person I decided to post it here with my answers and refer the senders here for the replies. Besides it's kind of a fun way to let people know more about me and gives me another blog post.

Welcome to the 2009 edition of getting to know your friends. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!!!!

1) What time did you rise out of bed this morning?

5:21 a.m. - no one should have to get up that early in the morning!

2) Diamonds or pearls?

I don't care for either. I don't like jewelry and consider it a waste of money.

3) What was the last movie you saw in a theater?

A theater? I'll wait for it to come on DVD

4) What is your favorite TV show?

House or Monk

5) What is your middle name?

Anne

6) What do you usually have for breakfast?

cheese grits with an egg on top and coffee

7) What food do you dislike?

green beans

8) What is your favorite song?

Hmmmm...this is a tough one since I like so many but if I had to pick I would say Two out Three by Meatloaf...or maybe Lost Boys and Golden Girls also by Meatloaf.

9) What kind of car do you drive?

1995 Ford Escort

10) Favorite Sandwich?

tuna

11) What characteristics do you despise?

people who are nice to your face then talk behind your back

12) Favorite type of clothing?

Blue jeans and t-shirts

13) If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?

Ireland or Alaska

14) Favorite brand of clothing?

don't get into name brands. anything that's comfortable.

15) Where would you retire to?

VT, ME, CT, PA...anywhere up north

16) What was your most memorable birthday?

my 30th and I don't want to talk about it.

17) Favorite sport?

to watch - football
to play - tennis

18) Furthest you are sending this email?

all depends on who comes here to read

9) Person you think will respond fastest? hmmmmmmmmm.....

20) When is your birthday? Feb. 5

21) Morning or night person? Night

22) Pets? 7 cats

23) Any exciting news you'd like to share?

uh....nope!

24) What did you want to be when you were little?

a ballet dancer or a singer or a musician

25) How are you feeling today?

pretty well actually, thanks for asking.

26) What is your favorite candy? dark chocolate or fudge

27) What is your favorite flower? calilillies

28) What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?

tomorrow and after that the next tomorrow ....

29) What's your full name?

Bonita Anne Teresa Rivas Wilsdon Braeuler Johnson - the ex husbands keep adding up!

30) What are you listening to right now?

the hum of the computer and birds chirping outside the window

31) What was the last thing you ate? a peanut butter and black raspberry jelly sandwich

32) Do you wish on stars? No

33) If you were a crayon, what color would you be? purple

34) How is the weather? gorgeous day! sunny skies and warm temps

35) First person you spoke to on the phone today? my sister Linda

36) Favorite soft drink? A&W diet rootbeer

37) Favorite restaurant? don't really like restaurants

38) REAL hair color? brown with lots of white!

39) Eye color? usually light blue but they change with my mood.

40) Favorite toy as a child? Books-especially Louisa Mae Alcott

41) Summer, Winter, Spring or Fall? Autumn

42) Hugs or Kisses? not really into either but will hug on occassion

43) Chocolate or vanilla? strawberry

44) Coffee or tea? coffee in the morning or green tea with gingseng. decaf green tea at night.

45) Do you want your friends to respond? only if they want to.

46) When was the last time you cried? wow! I can't remember. been awhile. i'm not much of a crier.

47) What is under your bed?

a box of my husbands stuff, a chair cushion (don't ask), cat hair I'm sure!

48) What did you do last night?

Watched Wheel and Jeopardy then House and went to bed.

49) What are you most afraid of? being in closed in spaces.

50) Salty or sweet? are you talking about me or the foods I like?

51) How many keys are on your key ring?

depends on which key ring! I have four of them. The one with the most keys has 6 the one with the least has 3.

52) How many years at your current job? i guess taking care of my husband and all the cats is a job so --- 8 years? 9 years?

53) Favorite day of week? thursday

54) How many jobs have you had since graduating high school?

Dunno. It would depress me more to count. (keeping Vic's answer here!)

55) How many towns have you lived in? Well, let's see...Erie, PA, North East, PA, State College, PA - Dallas, TX, Lewisville, TX, Fort Worth, TX - Tampa, FL, Brandon, FL & Sumter, SC. I think that about covers it. So the grand total is 9.

56) Do you make friends easily ?

yes, i'm pretty out going and find it easy to meet knew people.

57) How many people will you send this too? as many as I can get to come here and read it.

58) How many will respond? only the shadow knows!

59) Jeans or dress pants?

Jeans, always.

60) Wasn't this fun?

Okay..well, if you say so...

________________________________________

The Case of the Disappearing Needle!

2009-02-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

It was a calm Sunday evening as the Johnson's sat, in their living room, watching old I Spy shows. Bonnie decided to not waste the time just watching and got out some sewing. After the needle ran out of thread she stuck it in the top of the spool and put down the article of clothing she had been sewing. When she reached for the needle to rethread it she was shocked to find it missing! What had happened to the needle? She knew she had stuck it in the spool, but she had been forgetting things lately so perhaps she had stuck it in her shirt. No, it wasn't there! Maybe it had fallen to the floor, but after much searching with a flashlight and even sweeping up all around the area there was nothing to be found. The needle had disappeared. She knew she was getting older, but couldn't be getting that feeble minded. At long last the hunt ended and Bonnie decided to use another needle. She got one out and as she began to spin the thread around her hand she heard a clicking from inside the spool! Could it be? No! no way! She shook the spool and heard it again. The unmistakeable sound of a needle clicking in the middle of the spool. She removed the paper from the top of the spool of thread and there it lay innocent as could be. Yes, it tried a daring escape in it's disappearing act, but the ever vigilant Bonnie Zephyr was on the case and there was no escape.

Monday Music Mambo - a few days late :-)

2009-02-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing any of these lately and figured I'd get started again.

Monday, February 9
Monday Music Mambo

Hi everyone! Today is Weather Day. Give me . . .

A song about rain - Percy's Song by Arlo Guthrie

A song about snow - Snowbird by Anne Murray

A song about sun - Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

A song about heat - Summer in the City by the Lovin' Spoonful

The Day The Muzak Died!

2009-02-11T10:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, folks, today the company that provides that annoying muzak background noise in stores and elevators filed for Chapter 11! The only problem is it really won't stop. At least for now....

Muzak, which is majority owned by private equity fund ABRY Partners LLC, said it has sufficient means to support the business during the chapter 11 process.

We can only hope!

A Family Affair

2009-02-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

I have to say yesterday's superbowl was one of the more exciting games I've seen in a long time! The Steelers won in the final seconds! I have to say I wasn't real proud of their behaviour on the field though. I understand it's a tough game, but when you start beating up the players, on the sidelines, you are just showing how out of control you are and it makes the team look bad. At one point we needed a miracle so I stood up and started chanting interception/touchdown! and dang if it didn't happen! James Harrison, a linebacker for the steelers, made the interception and then ran 100 yards!!!!! for the touchdown. That was the longest scoring play in superbowl history. And then in the final 35 seconds Roethlisbberger threw a pass to Holmes who then made the game winning touchdown.

But the most fun was my sister Linda and I kept texting each other during the game and my mom and I kept calling each other. We were all working together to get the mojo going to get the Steelers their 6th superbowl win.

Super bowl Sunday

2009-01-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the superbowl and we'll be eating our wings and watching the game. And then what? Football withdrawal is already setting in after the overdose, during the bowl games, over Christmas. But at least we knew we had the superbowl coming up. After this game it's total withdrawal! Cold turkey! well, no more cold turkey since we didn't have turkey at Christmas - well you know what I mean. I know we get through it every year convincing ourselves soon...soon...it will be football season again. Somehow we survive, but I'm never sure how. What will we do with all that extra time? Oh well....I guess we'll just have to make sure we get a good dose tomorrow as we cheer the Steelers onto Victory and hope it holds us over until next season.

Mother and child reunion

2009-01-25T15:41:00.001-08:00

We have a feral cat, Little Friend, whom we had spayed after she had a litter of kittens. We adopted two of them and she comes every day to visit with them. The picture is of her with her son, Tiny Friend, who is now 3 years old but still looks forward to his daily visits with his mommy.

A Big Day!!!!

2009-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, today Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th resident of the white house. And it was one of the most unpresidential inaugurations I've seen and boring to boot, so I'm going to let others who know how to flourish things up with pretty words and make things sound better than they were write about that event. I am going to write about an even bigger event!!!!! We had a snow day!!!! Yep, it actually snowed here today and the school opening was delayed two hours. Since Keith only had an 8 a.m. class today, with his 11 a.m. cancelled due to the inaugeration, that meant we had a snow day off!!

The funny thing is, when I talked with my mom yesterday she told me she was going to send us snow. I called her today to let her know when she makes a promise she keeps it! We only had an inch but that was enough to shut things down around here. Well, it's all melted now, but it was fun to say we had a snow day here. Glad I got the pics when I did even though it was still dark outside when I took them.

Another thing my mother told me, during the campaigns, was if Obama got elected I better start believing in god because America will need all the prayers it can get. Well, I haven't gone that far and she laughed when I mentioned that during our phone call.

I will say one thing - there is a difference between hope and faith. Hope is empty. I hope I'll pass my test (not quite sure), I hope you get better (not quite sure), I hope I can get this done (not sure I can). And hope is what Obama offers. Gee, I hope we can do all this stuff. Faith is believing it will be done and while I hope Obama will do good I don't have a lot of faith in him. Not yet.

And on a more personal side. Is Michelle pregnant? As my husband said she's either pregnant or ate too much at all the dinners and such they attended. I'm betting it's a baby. Another wait and see event.

IT SNOWED IN SUMTER, SC!!!!!!!!!!

Love Seat

2009-01-13T05:10:00.001-08:00

Now I know why it's called a love seat.

New Year Resolves

2009-01-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

I had decided a long time ago not to make new years resolutions because for me they turn into new years dissolutions (is that a word?) But this year I decided to make some different ones and see what happens.

1. I resolve to do something nice for someone at least once a week. Hopefully this will have a domino effect and we'll have millions of people doing random acts of kindness every day. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world to live in?

2. I will have at least one big yard sale this year and get rid of a lot of clutter in the house.

3. I will keep the house clean! I have given up thinking I can do anything with the clutter, but that doesn't mean it can't be neat stacks of clutter.

4. I will smile more and refuse to let the turkeys get me down.

5. I will make to do lists and keep working away until every job on the list is done.

6. I will break everyone of these resolutions before the year is through!

First post for 2009

2009-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

In 2007 I only posted 43 missives. In 2008 thanks to the election year (and what a year it was ) I managed to get in 122 posts. My goal for this year is to post at least once a week, so I figured I better get started since the first week is almost over. We had a nice quiet Christmas and New Years. Watched the ball come down with the Times Square folks and what fun to see Hillary and Bill Clinton push the plunger to get the ball moving. I think they will always be two of my favorite political people.

And of course, even with the new year politics haven't disappointed and left us bored. Good old Blagojevich has kept things real interesting. As one of my favorite mystery writers, Sarah Paretsky, says in Chicago an honest politician is one who continues to be bought off. And now his pick for a senator to replace Barach Hussein Obama (and it's okay to use his middle name now as he's insisting it be used during his innaugeration) has been given a big NO from the senate. It was obvious what good old blagbag was doing. He figured put in a black man, any black man would do, and they would have to seat him or risk being called racists because he would be the only black man in the senate. The fact the guy had no credentials to present to the senate has no bearing on the vote. And of course, he's going to bring suit against congress. I don't think this race thing will ever go away. As long as someone thinks they deserve a seat in the govt just because they are black or white or red or yellow we will always have some unhappy people. I'm glad the senate wasn't afraid to stick to reality here and not seat him based on his skin color.

And on another note but similar circumstances what's with this Caroline Kennedy thinking she can take over Hillary Clinton's senate seat because she's a Kennedy! Excuse me! She has no experience except for the name. To think you should get a seat in the senate because you're a woman and a Kenedy is just as ludicrous as the Burris situation. Of course, she does have $100,000 to buy that seat that will go into the democratic coffers next election IF she gets the senate seat. Hmmm...I wonder if she's originally from Chicago.

Oh well, I didn't mean for this to turn into a political post but that's what came out. Happy New Year! and may the gods and goddesses have mercy on us all!

Down 21.5 pounds!

2008-12-28T11:54:00.000-08:00

My husband and I have been changing our eating habits to a healthier way of eating. And counting calories! eating less and moving more is the only real way to lose weight. He has lost 21 pounds and I've lost 21.5. Of course, I thought I'd blown it over Christmas and yes, the day after I was up two pounds. But this morning I checked again...hoping beyond all hope it was just a temporary gain...and lo and behold! I was right back down where I was before Christmas. Whew!! I didn't blow it! We've been doing this since September and while the weight is coming off slowly it is coming off and that's what matters. We are enjoying the new way of eating and both have more energy as a plus, so we will stick with this and no more going back to the old way of eating too much of the good stuff! We still have our snacks but they are in moderation. Anyway, wishing everyone a happy new year and hopefully a healthy one!

Christmas is a cold cookie

2008-12-23T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Christmas package, from my sister Victoria, arrived today. We've been getting packages for the past couple weeks and the gifts have been very nice. And we sent out our share of packages. We've sent and received cards and still I didn't feel like Christmas. The spirit was missing. When Vic's package arrived we opened it and inside, with the gifts, was a tin of homemade cookies. We each ate one while opening the other gifts and later, while doing dishes, for the first time since the season began I found myself singing christmas carols and feeling maybe...just maybe...a bit like it really was christmas. I contemplated what made Vic's package bring the spirit of Christmas with it and then I realized what it was....

When we were kids my mom always baked a lot over the christmas holiday and stored the cookies, pies, etc in the 'cold room.' This was a room off the kitchen that for some reason didn't get heat, so in the winter it was like an ice box! Thus, we dubbed it the cold room. Of course, we always snuck in and stole cookies and those cold cookies were the best ever!

Even here in SC it gets cold this time of year, so when we opened the cookies and ate that first one they were cold. And that triggered that magical feeling of christmas that we got, long ago, as we 'stole' and ate those cold cookies over the christmas holiday.

Merry Christmas to all and may you all find that cold cookie that makes Christmas special for you.

How to open resealable bags!

2008-12-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

I don't know if any of you have had my experience with these resealable bags and the frustration of actually getting them to work, but if you have I came up with a method that works!

First grip where it says tear here. Pull. When it doesn't tear try the other side of the tear here strip. When that doesn't work get a pair of scissors and cut right on the tear here line.

Try to pull the sides apart to get to the cheese, sausage, whatever. When it's still tightly sealed and you've stopped swearing cut a little lower. Closer to the little resealable strip.

When it still won't open and cussing has ceased cut below the resealable strip and remove the product.

Go to your kitchen drawer and remove a ziplock baggie. Place product in baggie and zip closed.

Or if you want to avoid all the frustration and swearing skip the the last two steps!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?

2008-12-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

Alll the gifts are bought, wrapped and the pkgs. mailed off. The last of my Christmas cards were mailed yesterday. And still I don't feel like Christmas this year. We exchanged St. Nicholas day gifts with our friend Anne, who also teaches math at Morris. We gave her a special coffee found only at Brick Street Coffee house that she loves, but never has time to get over and buy. And of course some dark chocolates to go along with the really strong coffee. She gave us a crate of oranges and pears. Both Keith and myself are working hard at taking off some extra pounds. As of this morning I'm down 19 pounds. He weighs at the heart center so we won't know until tuesday or the next tuesday how much more he's down but it was 16 pounds at the end of October. I was down 15 and since he had to move his belt to the last loop yesterday I know he's down much more.

Even the stores here haven't really gone all out for Christmas this year. With the economy in a slump and sales way down I guess they can't afford the extras either. The shelves are set up with Christmas gifts but no extra store trimmings and very little Christmas music. What is playing is the slow sad stuff that makes you feel more like crying than celebrating. Those houses who have decorated only add to the down side. Seeing Santa in his red suit and reindeer with a sleigh sitting on brown grass just doesn't make it. Very few houses have put up lights this year.

So for all the presents mailed and exchanged, the cards mailed and those received, I am not beginning to feel a lot like Chrstmas. I know Christmas is supposed to be in your heart not in your surroundings, but growing up in the cold north and associating Christmas with cold, snow, and stores decorated to the hilt and joyful Christmas music playing on every corner and people smiling and saying Merry Christmas as they pass....well, you get none of that here in the south and it really really doesn't feel like anything special here.

The good part is after Monday my husbands Christmas vacation starts so at least we'll get to sleep in for a couple weeks

What happened to Saturday?

2008-12-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

I know we had it. I got up, did some online stuff, fed us and the cats, did the dishes, paid some bills, watched some football and suddenly the day was over! I'm going to make Sunday last just a bit longer!

December already!!!!!!!

2008-12-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

Where did the year go? How do we slow down time so I have time for all the things I need to do. Well, one way is I'll be spending less time on the computer and more time doing those things I want and need to do. This week it'll be getting Christmas presents wrapped, packaged and shipped off so my family will have their gifts for Christmas.

Also, Keith changed doctors so that means more trips getting tests, etc. as this doctor wants to do his own diagnosis and not rely on the other doctors inputs and tests. Yep, when you are consistently kept waiting three, four hours or more for a doctors appt. you showed up on time for it's time to find a new doctor. And the audacity of it all is the doctor we left had the nerve to send a letter saying Keith had missed appts! Ah no, we were there, the doctor missed the appts. After sitting for three hours or more we would leave and reschedule. It's not our fault the doctor over extended himself and was taking on more than he could handle. The new doctor ad assured us that doesn't happen in his office. The first visit was great. We were in quickly and the doctor was very efficient in getting a good history and actually listened. We didn't feel we were getting the bums rush because he was in a hurry to get something else done. The last doctor, after making us wait all those hours, would only spend 3 minutes tops with us and always seemed ready to run out the door. So, this is going to be a better match.

And next week is finals week which means a switch in schedule for Keith and me making runs to the printers to get copies of tests and stuff made for him.

So, it's going to be a busy couple weeks so don't worry if you don't see me online for a few days here and there.

Happy Holidays!

Please rate my newest poem

2008-11-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

Rate this Poem @ GotPoetry.com

I'm trying to get folks to come in and read and rate some of my poetry at this site. This is my most recent and am hoping to get some reads and ratings on it. thank you for taking the time.

A positive outcome of the Barack Obama election

2008-11-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, I found something positive about the election of Barack Obama.

Every year the Friends of the Library hold an annual sale to raise funds for library projects. One of the more obvious things I noticed is that, in spite of the population being almost split 50% white and 50% black here in Sumter, there were rarely any black people at the book sale.

One of the problems with the education here is that black people consider learning to be a white person’s responsibility. If a black student shows any initiative to learn they are mocked by their fellow black students and told they are trying to act white.

This year that has all changed. Every day there are more and more black faces in the crowd and often there are as many black people as white. I attribute this to the election of Barack Obama. His election has given them the freedom to learn, the desire to learn, the knowledge that knowledge is power and to get any place in life they have to read and learn and get educated. We always have a great African American section and since some of are fiction those books sell. But this year the black people are buying the books on the history of black America and this excites me. It excites me to talk with them and recommend books and in the exchange they also learn that being white doesn’t mean being a racist. We have talked, laughed, and they will thank me – sometimes with a tone of surprise in their voices – but always we come away with a new respect for each other. One woman looked in surprise, as she was going through the books on the African American table, and I asked if she had read a couple books and told her I had loved them. The look on her face told it all. She realized in that moment that white people were just as interested in learning about the black experience.

So, even though I still have issues with Barack Obama as president and still don’t have a lot of confidence he can pull it off without disaster, I will give him credit that he has given hope to the black community that they can rise above themselves, but that in doing so they must take responsibility, get an education, and not blame others for their lot in life. He has shown you can be whatever you want if you study hard, learn, and take responsibility for your own life.

Also, on another note it gives me great pleasure to see he is considering Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. That could be the smartest move he will make as president.

Smart Cat!!

2008-11-13T05:28:00.001-08:00

Our cat, Bug, has a lot of issues with congestion. It doesn't take much to set him off and when he gets sick he comes and lays by my pillow to let me know. At his worst he keeps me awake snorting and snuffling and wheezing in my ear. He does this because he knows it's is I who will get his medicine and give it to him to help relieve the congestion. Also, when he is really bad, as he was tuesday night, I'll pet him and groom him to give him comfort until he falls asleep. This, of course, takes away from my sleep! Well, last night he was having a good night. He still slept by my pillow, but with no obvious snorts and snuffles and wheezes. The medications are finally working. But, he really enjoyed the middle of the night grooming sessions, so last night when I rolled over he got in my face and started pushing on my hand. I told him to go back to sleep, so what does he do? He looks right at me and starts trying to snort and snuffle so I'll feel sorry for him and pet and groom him! He did this twice during the night and when he realized it wasn't going to work sighed and went back to sleep. He is just too smart! What a faker!

Friends of the Library Book Sale

2008-11-10T08:51:00.000-08:00

Well, for those who thought I fell off the face of the earth I am still here. Still kicking! Just had an extremely busy week. On a sad note my friend Cyndi's brother died suddenly and she had to return home to WI, so I've been making a trip twice a day to feed and love her cats for her.

And the Friends of the Library book sale also started this week and prior to the opening I was spending a good part of my days helping set up the books. Unpacking boxes and setting the books on the appropriate tables and even sorting some boxes that hadn't been sorted prior to bringing them to the Sumter Mall for the sale. It was hard work but fun at the same time. My father always said never volunteer but this was too much fun to not volunteer my time.

The sale was held Fri, Sat, and Sun and will reopen again this coming weekend. So for anyone interested the sale will open Friday the 14th from 4 PM - 8:30 PM and I'll be there between 6:30 and 8:30 PM to hand out bags and help you anyway I can.
Then it will open saturday the 15th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday the 16th from 1:30 to 5 p.m. and remember that's bag o'books day! You get all the books you can get into a bag for $4 and if you're a good packer you can get a really good deal. Believe me I know! I'm an expert at it and I'll be there to fill as many bags as I can!

I worked the floor yesterday handing out bags and talking with people about books and had a lot of fun. There was one young girl, maybe 14 or so, who had a bag so full it was about to burst so I asked if she would like a second bag. She smiled and giggled and said, 'no thank you, I'm only allowed to fill one bag." She had the biggest smile when I said and you're doing a darn good job filling it.

Then there was a young teen age boy who when I asked if he needed a bag said, "yes, thank you, ma'm." I said, "ouch! am I that old?" He laughed and after we got his books in the bag he said, "thank you." very deliberately and smiled making a point of leaving off the ma'm.

I talked to one woman who had never read Tom Sawyer! Never read Louisa Mae Alcott! Never read Jane Eyre! Her friend couldn't believe it either so they headed for the classics section.

By the end, after being on my feet for almost 3 hours, I was trying to get kids in strollers to get out and let me get in and ride.

So, stop by, buy some books, visit for awhile, and remember it's all for a good cause. Support your library and enrich your mind!

It's finally over - my voting experience and other stuff

2008-11-05T08:44:00.001-08:00

Well, America is still a democracy and in a democracy majority rules and the majority chose the zero (no experience, clueless) person over a real American hero. But, we must accept their decision and remind them to be careful what they ask for they just might get it. And the future Resident Obama might want to remember it was democracy that got him there, not socialism.

Yesterday I stood in line for 2 1/2 hours to cast my vote. My hip hurt! My knees hurt! I had the intelligence to take my can along with me and I leaned on it most of the time to relieve the pressure and the pain. But, this was a historic election regardless of which way it went. We would either elect the oldest president ever and the first female VP, or we would elect the first no experience necessary mullato to the post. But it was my experience in line that was most impressive and most personal for me.

Two young black women were talking and I got in the conversation with them. I have never been one to be shy about jumping in and giving my opinion. We had a great conversation and it came out my husband taught at Morris College. One of the young women said, "get out of here! what's his name?" I told her Dr. Johnson. She said, "OMG! he's my teacher!" And she went on to rave about him. She is an older student and specifically requested his classes because she had asked other math majors, which of the teachers were the best, and his name kept coming up. She told me the reason his classes are so big is because everyone wants to get his classes. She related a story of how just a couple days before he had spent a couple hours with her helping her figure out how she could stay in class and still pass, while dealing with some personal issues. I won't go into those but it was those issues that got me into the conversation that led to this one. This young woman couldn't say enough good things about how wonderful he is as a teacher. How much he cares about his students and how they feel they can go to him about anything and know he will try to help. She did relate a funny story I hadn't heard yet and he had to laugh and say yes, it was true when I asked him. My husband loves halloween and is a big fan of the Halloween movies, so he gave 3 extra credit points to anyone who came to class and had the halloweeen movie theme on their cell phone. And that's another reason they like him. He brings fun into the classroom, but also takes the time to really teach. So, I wanted to pass that along here and say how proud that made me feel. I've always known he was a good teacher and the students liked him, but that was the first time I had heard a lot more than Hey Mrs. Johnson, I just stopped by to see my favorite teacher when will he be back?, when I'm sitting in his office.

And here's an upsetting voting happening. One of the other teachers, at the college, has a brother in Philadelphia, PA. He told her when he went to vote a large group of black Panthers were blocking the way for white voters and wouldn't let them in to vote. He is old and there was no one there to help the white voters get past them, so he didn't vote. The funny thing is he was going to vote for Obama! Interesting how they were so racist that because they were voting for Obama because he's part black, they presumed the whites were just as racist as them. Interesting.

So, now we move forward and resident elect Obama will be sworn in this coming January. I hope I'm wrong about him, but my gut tells me I'm not. We can only wait and see.

I have always been proud of my country and one election does not make me any less proud or any more proud. It is still my America. Still my country! and I will do whatever I can to save her and keep our freedoms and keep America the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Another Obamanation!

2008-11-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

While visiting PA Obama made promises to reopen the coal mines that had closed, he would rebuild the coal industry and create jobs for the coal miners in PA! Yes sir! He was going to help the coal industry get back in business because coal was a natural resource already here and it would make us less dependent on foreign oil! But, earlier this year in CA he promised them he would close down the coal industry by bankrupting them! Just listen here!

and here's The gift that keeps on giving, Joe Biden, telling a citizen no coal plants in America!

So, PA, OH, and VA I hope you had the news turned on this morning, because that had to come as big shock to you. This is why it's important to have connections throughout the states and across racial lines so you know what each candidate is telling people in other states. My sister, in PA, told me what he had said and she said she knew he was lying then, but sadly there were those who believed him. Hopefully now they will realize he speaks with forked tongue.

Do we need clean coal You betcha! Is bankrupting the coal industry the way to do it? I don't think so!

John McCain on SNL

2008-11-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

What a hoot! This guy is not only smart, but funny! You have to see this clip.

Is There Blog Life After the Election?

2008-11-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

I have to admit this has been the most fun I've had blogging in a long time. How super of the dems to give us this totally unqualified, clueless (I didn't know my reverand was a racist, I didn't know my friends were terrorists and the latest and the best! I didn't know my aunt was here illegally and should be dealt with according to the law) and naive candidate to run against a totally qualified, yet not blameless, republican candidate who has served his country since he was 17 and sincerely wants to get America back for the people and away from big government. Yet, it may be we get this "other one" for president and believe me it will choke our military to have to call him commander in chief! OMG! what an insult to our great men and women in uniform if that should actually happen. But I truly don't think it will. If early voting in Florida is any indication (on the news yesterday they gave some figures from exit polling and it's 49% McCain and 45% Obama). So far it's been black and elderly voters - the youth vote has not made it's voice heard. Also, the pundits are reminding us the polls that show Obama so far ahead are polls of all Americans (not just register and likely voters). They explained there are three types of polls - the all Americans gives Obama a huge margin. The registered voters cuts it down quite a bit, but the likely voters gives him only a 2 point lead. So, it's not over yet. Obama may have written his inaugural speech, picked his cabinet and measured for new drapes, but I think he better sit back and take stock so there won't be too much of a shock when McCain wins on tuesday night.

But after tuesday - oh my! what will we fill our blogs with when we have not candidates to build up or put down? What will we write about when all the hoopla dies down and America gets back to being America. With McCain/Palin in office that is what will happen.

And did you see the crowd at the McCain rally in Ohio yesterday? I've seen blogs that say he's lucky to get 1,000 people or 10,000 people and I wondered where they got their numbers because I've seen some of his rallies and Palin's rallies and they are packed! There must have been over 200,000 to 300,000 people at this one. And most wearing Joe tshirts and caps! It was exciting to watch and hear him speak. He's become a hero to the average 'joe' with his backing Joe the Plumber while the Obama camp was laughing at him and trying to disgrace him for daring to ask a real question of Obama and catching him off guard with his spread the wealth remark.

Have you noticed that when anyone dares show him for his true self they are smeared and humiliated? Now that's the kind of leader we need! One who can't take criticism without having to get a payback. One who only wants people who totally agree with him or they will be kicked off his plane. Did you all hear about that one? Three reporters were kicked off the Obama campaign jet because their papers printed editorials in favor of McCain or pointed out a flaw in Obama.

Anyway, It's John McCain all the way! He has already proven to be a real American who cares more about his country than his own well being. He has an economic plan that will get us back on our feet and not push us further into a recession. He has a tax plan that will benefit everyone, not just the ones he feels should benefit. He will not take your hard earned dollars and 'spread the wealth' to those who don't work as hard and just want hand outs. He will not tax us into the poor house while spending money on pork barrel projects. He will not take us out of Iraq hanging our heads in defeat, but will lead us to victory! He will lead us to victory in Afghanistan as well. He is a president for all the people! He is what America needs right now. Obama said if he doesn't win this one he'll go back to the senate and run again in four years. That sounds very good to me!

So don't forget tuesday to get out and vote and cast your vote for the president for America! Vote McCain/Palin and save our great country!

Is there blog life after the election? I guess we'll find out!

My Smart Ass Husband and other things

2008-10-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

To explain this post I must first digress. My husband and I were both born and raised in Erie, PA. In 1898 Eckerd's Drugs opened it's first store there. When Keith moved south he was surprised to find Eckerd's because he thought it was just an Erie, PA business. Well, about a year ago Rite-Aide bought out Eckerd's, but during this time my husband has had physical issues that prevented him from being able to walk around that much. Well, the other day we had to stop there and I asked did he want to go in and he decided he would try it. When we walked in he had no idea where the items we needed were so he just stopped in the middle of the store. Two managers were at the photo counter and one asked, "Can I help you find something?" And my husband, straight faced and quick witted responded, "yes, I'm looking for Eckerd's". Well, the guys had a sense of humor and got the joke and said, "this is it, but it's not Eckerd's anymore." Which led into a conversation between he and my husband about the beginning's of Eckerd's in our home town...so I went off to get our items. I think I should have left him in the car!

The Friends of the Library book sale is starting on the 7th of November. I have the times on my flyer and I'll post them when I get my flyer at the computer. I've been spending parts of my mornings sorting and stacking books on tables. Yesterday I did religion and today sports. I can tell you if anyone is looking for any of the Soup for the soul books we got them! OMG! I said if I saw one more of those books I would scream! So today while sorting the unsorted paper backs into categories I found two more! NO, I didn't scream but I did laugh!

There are a lot of hunting, fishing, golf, football and baseball books on the sports table.

And of course I have to throw a little bit of political stuff in here. This morning on the news the pundits were talking about that tape that the LA Times is refusing to release because it will look very very bad for Obama and show what he really is and the media isn't allowed to do that. But they did predict that the tape would be released on November 5th and a lot of other stuff that is now being hidden from the public about Obama. And the public is going to be angry and want to know why they weren't given this information before November 4th. And they also said the media will start releasing all the stuff McCain has done for the country and the public is going to want to know why they built up Obama and tried to destroy this man who is a true hero just to get Obama in the white house. Should be interesting. So the press knows they are hiding dirty little secrets about Obama and suppressing all the great things McCain has done. It was good to hear them finally admit it even if it won't change how they are reporting the news. When McCain wins, and he will, the press will start telling the truth.

So, that's it for the catch up posts for anyone interested in what we've been doing with our lives lately.

And Obama sinks lower and lower....

2008-10-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama and another terrorist connection:
This was on the news this morning so I had to check it out to make sure, but sure enough the L.A. Times is refusing to release a video tape showing Obama at a function with another known terrorist, who is now a college professor (makes me wonder why we let these people teach our children and what are they teaching them?), Rashid Kahlidi. Here is paragraph from the article I found and then a link to the entire article, which holds a link to the original L.A. Times article.

In the article -- based on the videotape obtained by the Times -- Wallsten said Obama addressed an audience during a 2003 farewell dinner for Khalidi, who was Obama's colleague at the University of Chicago, before his departure for Columbia University in New York. Obama said his many talks with Khalidi and his wife Mona stood as "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases."
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/28/la-times-refuses-release-tape-obama-praising-controversial-activist/

Ayers/Obama connection. Farakan/Obama connection and now Khalidi/Obama connection. Oh, and they all live in the same neighborhood. Hmmmm...makes on wonder doesn't it?

Barack Obama's campaign accepting illegal donations:
Also, on the news this morning was back up for my statements he was fraudulently accepting donations and many from terrorist countries. A man, I wish I could remember his name, did research by having people in his office call and make donations to both campaigns. On the McCain campaign they were only allowed to make one donation on a credit card and it had to be verified that the card was in the name and address of the person making the donation. On the Obama site they were able to make multiple donations on the same card using fake names and addresses and it was never verified. As long as the donation is under $150 they don't have to show the list of donors, and this is how Obama is fraudulently getting all those millions that he claims each month in donations. And that brings up another point. He and John McCain made an agreement to accept only public funding for their presidential campaigns and I heard Obama say yes, he would do that and not take private donations. So, McCain did as he said he would and lo and behold! Obama said, well, ha ha I lied. I'm accepting private donations.
http://lesliecarbone.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-campaign-accepting-illegal.html

Sarah Palin hung in effigy and no criminal charges have been brought against the ones who did it.In California a couple of young men hung Sarah Palin in effigy and refuse to take it down. It is hung from their house and they're calling it art. The town officials are trying to find a law to get them to remove it. Now had this been Barack Obama they hung in effigy can you imagine the outcry and the press it would get and you know what? It would be called a hate crime and they'd have to take it down. A double standard once again!
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/15303

Obama's civil rights attorney's get criminal attorneys banned from this election process. I can't find a link to this one yet but will keep looking. I heard this on CNN and Fox yesterday that Barack Obama's civil rights lawyers have gotten criminal lawyers banned from the voting sites this year. It was pointed out the criminal lawyers (attorneys) are there to watch for and stop fraudulent voting. Hmmmm...why would the Obama camp want to keep them away? Makes one wonder.

A judge in Ohio has ruled homeless people can use a park bench as an address and vote! This is not a joke! Which means they could list their address and fake name under many benches in many precincts and vote as many times as they can. http://www.redcounty.com/sarasota/2008/10/judge-rules-ohio-homeless-vote/

Free Jimmy Buffet concert tickets to those signing up at early voting tables for Obama. Jimmy Buffett plans a free concert Sunday in Tampa to urge people to vote for Democrat Barack Obama for president. The "Last Chance for Change'' rally and concert is happening two days before the election at the outdoor Ford Amphitheater.

People can get two free tickets by visiting any of the early voting information tables the Obama campaign has set up in the Tampa Bay area. Show time is 3 p.m.

Gee, and I thought buying and paying for votes was illegal! Can you imagine if the McCain camp tried to get away with something like this! OMG! all hell would break loose in the press. But of course we have different standards for Obama than the rest of the candidates.
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/33462294.html

Obama again changes who will be taxed! When Barack Obama first atarted campaigning his tax planned called for taxing the rich and not the middle class (so he said) and people believed him. Then suddenly it was people making $250,000 or more and NOW it's $150,000 or more. So, I ask where will it end and who does he really plan on taxing. Let's face it folks. All of us! and tax heavily to pay for all the programs he has promised to get votes. There are a lot of angry people out there over this one!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117834/posts

So there you have it. Obama exposed. I can't believe I once held a high opinion of this man and kept hoping for a Clinton/Obama ticket. I can't believe I once even wanted him in the VP chair of the white house. I have listened, I have learned, and as most of you know I changed my mind awhile back, vasillated between the two candidates for awhile, and then had to go with my concious and my love for my country and back McCain. These recent transgressions only fortify my belief that I have made the right choice for Ameria.

Barack Obama and The Emperors New Clothes

2008-10-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

When I was a child my mother used to read fairy tales to us and one of those was called The Emperors New Clothes. The synopsis of that story is this:

An emperor of a prosperous city who cares more about clothes than military pursuits or entertainment hires two swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they tell him, is invisible to anyone who was either stupid or unfit for his position. The Emperor cannot see the (non-existent) cloth, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime. The Emperor then goes on a procession through the capital showing off his new "clothes". During the course of the procession, a small child cries out, "But he has nothing on!" The crowd realizes the child is telling the truth. The Emperor, however, holds his head high and continues the procession.

In this election year we are reliving this fairy tale in the form of a candidate named Barack Obama. So, here is my modern day fairytale.
In the land of the United States of America they were holding a very important presidential election. There are two parties called the Democrats and the Republicans. The democrats decided to back a young, junior senator with no experience and some not so good ideas, to be their candidate. The public was told that only the most intelligent people would understand his message and only the ignorant would not vote for him. Not wanting to appear ignorant a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon.

Every time someone showed proof this man was a racist, a terrorist, a sexist, and just not qualified they were hushed up for fear someone might hear and believe them. When it was pointed out he spent 20 years in a church, where the pastor preached hatred of white people, those who noticed and cried foul were called racists. When it was pointed out he either snubbed, dissed or called female reporters hon or sweetie it was brushed aside and hushed up. After all, the truly intelligent people, who would have blasted the republican candidate for this type of action, were willing to overlook this in their candidate.

During his time as senator he wrote no important bills and voted present on some very important issues rather than take a side. So, his lack of experience was covered up and of course, only the truly intelligent people could see into the future and know his lack of experience would mean nothing – well, after all, that is what he had to offer – nothing.

During his time as a lawyer he represented some not very nice men, one of whom actually bombed a building in this country and many years later said he wished he had done more. He didn’t regret the lives lost. This junior senator helped this bad man get funding and even bought a house next door so they could be neighbors. Somehow, the junior senator got the house at less than half the value, but if anyone mentions this they are called a racist, a fear monger, etc. After all, the most intelligent people could see this meant nothing and it didn’t matter if he associated with terrorists. That didn’t ‘necessarily’ make him one.

So, now this inexperienced man is running against the republican candidate, who is a true hero, has served his country, and has been tested. This man is also not perfect, but he has a heart that loves this country and he has never been associated with any of the bad people like the other candidate.
Even the liberal left wing media keeps telling everyone that the educated people are voting for Barack Obama and not wanting to appear undeducated they will not let any of the negative press about him get to the public. If it does they squelch it as quickly as they can and find any small problem with John McCain or Sarah Palin, the republican VP candiate, to talk about so they can turn the attention away from the bad man the democrats are running and the media is shoving down our throats.

Many people are afraid to say they aren’t voting for him because if they say they are voting for McCain there are called a racist and stupid. So they pretend they are for this Obama man knowing a secret they hold deep in their hearts. Once in that election booth where no one can scream at them and call them names and try to intimidate them they can pull that lever for John McCain and say – Barack Obama is nothing at all.

Confused the cat!

2008-10-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

A break from the election to share a funny cat story. We have one room of the house that is separated from the rest of the house by a door. This was a car port turned into a room so we are able to shut the cats upstairs (a whole three steps) when we are leaving and then are able to come and go without the cats running outside. So, the other day Bug is sleeping in one of the cat carriers I have down here and rather than wake him I carried him up, in the carrier and deposited it in the space between the living room and my reading area. Later we were in the living room when Bug finally woke up and walked out of the carrier. The look on his face was priceless. He actually looked around like did I wake up in the right place or am I still sleeping? He turned around and went back into the carrier! A few minutes later he came back out and was fine, but the look of total confusion on his face when he first exited the carrier was so funny! I guess I didn't realize how deeply he had been sleeping that he wasn't even aware I had moved him and the carrier.

The Best of the Worst - what a choice!

2008-10-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

These days I find myself wishing that politicians would have to take an oath similar to the doctors hippocratic oath. The second portion of this oath is to do no harm. It seems politicians take a similar oath but it is more like the hypocritic oath. Say one thing and do another, lie and not care how much harm it does others as long as it gets them elected.

So, for the first time in my voting history I find myself faced with a dilemna. I am scared for my country. Both parties, for some strange reason, have given us the worst possible candidate they could. Is this some sort of moral test for voters? So, what do we have to choose from. A democrat who lies with every word out of his mouth and a republican who has to spend more time defending his record with the current administration than getting his own message out. Obama has run the most negative ads and then accuses the republican campaign of running a negative campaign. Obama's policies scare the living shit out of me! If I wanted to live in a socialist republic I would be living in the Soviet Union. I like our country as a democracy and democracy works. Unfortunately, just like the Soviet Union, we also have our corrupt in the govt. and it is they who have ruined things for us. So now we are asked to choose between the lesser of two evils.

It is, in my honest and most humble opinion, John McCain who will do less harm. Notice, I didn't say do no harm, but less harm. Under a McCain administration we will have our problems, but they will be 1/10the the problems and set backs we will have under an Obama administration. I fear for my country. I fear for democracy. So, I am asking people to open their ears and their minds and listen to what each candidate is saying. John McCain, for all his problems, loves this country and truly wants to turn things around and make good changes while saving our democratic society. Obama wants to turn things around and make changes while destroying our democratic society and turning the good old US of A into a socialist republic. Use your vote wisely. Save our country. Save democracy. Vote McCain and then do everything you can to preserve the United States of America as the United States and not the Socialist States of America. Good night and good luck.

How to get your car insurance for almost nothing!

2008-10-23T05:30:00.001-07:00

How to get your auto insurance for almost nothing!
With the economy in a slump I decided to try to find ways we can all save money. I kept seeing ads, for car insurance companies promising to lower your rates by a certain percentages, so came up with this to save money on car insurance.

Say you pay $500 a year for auto insurance. Well, online there is a place called cheap insurance that will save you 70% off your insurance rates. So that saves you $350 and brings your annual payments to $150.00. Once you get that policy go to Geico who promises to save 15% in 15 minutes. That saves $22.50 and brings your insurance to $128.50 per year. Progressive promises to save you up to 40% on your current auto policy! WOW! this is getting good. So once you get your Geico policy go to Progressive and that saves you another $50.60 off your policy. Your annual rate is now $77.90. So, we've come from $500.00 a month to $77.90! But wait! There's more! State Farm says they can save you 30% on your current rate. That would take another $23.37 off your auto policy rate and make your yearly payment $54.53! If you opt for a $1000.00 deductible that saves another 40% of $21.82 with brings the premium to $32.71 per year!

Grade curving Obama style

2008-10-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

My husband is a college professor and while he was grading tests this week decided he would grade the Obama way. He would take a percentage from the grade of those who got A's and B's and add it to the grades of those who got D's and F's. That way they could share the wealth and everyone would get C's. After all what makes the students, who studied and worked hard and showed up for office hours for extra help, think they deserve a better grade than those who just coasted through to get that C or even those who did nothing and if having problems didn't bother to come to his many office hours for help? Why should the harder working industrious students get better grades and thus a better paying job when they graduate? So, Obama style grade curving is the only way to make sure every student gets the same and no one gets a better grade (i.e. makes more money) than the other.

Military Strongly supporting McCain as president

2008-10-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

The Good News and the Bad News Trial-Heat Election Model Predicts 52.7 McCain Victory »

The Army Times Poll on Presidential Elections: Bye-bye Bama
Posted on October 18, 2008

Army Times Poll on Presidential Race
Source: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/081003_ep_2pp.pdf
(this shows the pie breakdowns - a visual).

Hat tip to Mike Thayer

Interesting Poll from our guys and gals serving… I’m glad to know our men and women in uniform know what’s right.
In case you missed this week’s issue of the Army Times here are the results of the Army Times’ poll of Military personnel re: the election (in percent):

*********McCain---Obama

Overall----68 --------23

Army-------68 --------23

Navy-------69 --------24

Air Force--67 --------24

Marines ---75 --------18

Retirees---72 --------20

White Non-Hispanic
-------------76 --------17

Hispanic---63 -------27

Black/African-American
-------------12 --------79

Enlisted---67 --------24

Officers---70 --------22

Follow this link to read the entire article and following comments from both sides.

HUH? What did you say Joe?

2008-10-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

Hmmmmmmm....Joe Biden guaranteed us that if Obama is elected we will have a world crisis within the first 6 months, and also that Obama might not make the right decisions so we should stand by him anyway. Okay? Is he saying Obama isn't ready the world knows it so they will strike while we are down? I'm sorry, but this is not what I want in a president. I don't want one the world feels needs tested but one who has been tested. He is telling us we will have an international crisis if Obama is elected. Is he telling us it's not a good idea to elect an inexperienced candidate as president. Here is a link to the audio clip and below is the speech as I could find it on the net.

October 20th, 2008 10:36 AM Eastern
Biden: If Elected, The World Will Test Obama With A Crisis
by Aaron Bruns
SEATTLE, WA — Joe Biden says he’s certain that if Barack Obama is elected president, there will be an international crisis to test his strength within the first 6 months of his presidency.

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.” he told a fundraising crowd in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday. “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“He’s gonna have to make some really tough - I don’t know what the decision’s gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s gonna happen.”

The Delaware Senator made similar remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser the day before. “We’re going to face a major international challenge. Because they’re going to want to test him, just like they did young John Kennedy. They’re going to want to test him. And they’re going to find out this guy’s got steel in his spine,” Biden said. He told the crowd to continue to stand by Obama and know they made the right choice even when the going gets tough.

The Democratic VP nominee has talked about the difficult environment the next president, no matter who he is, will step into — calling it the toughest since the Great Depression — but never before suggested that Obama in particular would be tested because of who he is.

The RNC and the McCain campaign both jumped on the remarks - with the McCain campaign claiming Biden guaranteed an international crisis in the event of an Obama election. South Carolina Senator and top McCain adviser Lindsey Graham already used the remark against the Obama campaign while introducing the Arizona Senator this morning.

In response, Biden spokesman David Wade says “Sen. Biden was making it clear that history has shown Presidents face challenges starting on day one, and with our nation fighting two wars and 21st century threats abroad, we know that we need steady leadership in tumultuous times, not the erratic lurching and stubborn ideology of John McCain.”

and another

At a fund-raiser Sunday night in Seattle, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden predicted that if Obama is elected, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," who authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba three months after his inauguration in 1961, then faced the Cuban missile crisis the following year.

"Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy," Biden continued, according to press accounts. "As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it's going to happen. . . . And he's going to need help."

In similar remarks at another event the same night, Biden quickly added that those who test Obama will quickly find out he has "a spine of steel."

Some food for thought here folks. Be sure to chew thoroughly.

All of PA isn't crazy!

2008-10-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

I was getting worried about my home state. Yes, I know, PA is a democratic state but after the insults hurled at PA by it's candidate I wondered why they were still so gung ho to elect him. So I went searching and found this. It's good to know others are more concerned about the country and the well being of it's people than electing Obama simply because he's...well... uh.... democrat.

October 7, 2008
Democratic group backing McCain opens office in Scranton
Topics: Political News and commentaries

Lynn Forester de Rothschild began supporting McCain back in September, but this is the first time I've heard that Jamie Brazil is serving as National Director of Citizens for McCain/McCain Palin. And now the group is opening an office in Scranton PA with the help of Lady Rothschild:

SCRANTON - A major supporter of Hillary Clinton and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee, on Monday said the Democratic Party has nominated "the worst candidate" while Republicans have nominated the best.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild helped open the Democrats for McCain headquarters on Main Avenue in West Scranton. About 30 supporters turned out to welcome de Rothschild and speak out for the Republican ticket.

"What it came down to was that I decided I love my country more than my party, de Rothschild said, explaining her support of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin. I'm really worried. I do not want (Obama) in the White House."

De Rothschild, 54, said she sees Northeast Pennsylvania - specifically Luzerne and Lackawanna counties - as the key to winning Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes. And, she said, whoever wins Pennsylvania will likely become the next president.

"Barack Obama has never had the mandate of Democrats," she said. "And Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi ignored the 18 million people that voted for Hillary Clinton. They can't be surprised at the 5 million to 7 million Clinton supporters who are now supporting McCain."

One organization - "PUMA, which stands for Party Unity My Ass " - has more than 5 million members across the country, she said. Jamie Brazil, a longtime friend of the Clintons and the Rodham family, is serving as national director of Citizens for McCain. Brazil accompanied de Rothschild on her Scranton visit. (emphasis mine)

Way to go NBC!!!

2008-10-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

So, it's the Cleveland Browns vs the Washington Redskins. It's the last two minutes of the game and the score is 11 Browns - 14 Redskins. The Browns have the ball and need a field goal to tie and take the game into overtime or a touchdown to win. The teams are lined up, the snap is made, the quarterback has the ball and NBC in their infinite wisdom posts a lottery ticker across the top of the screen. Not just one of those little ones they run across the bottom, which by the way, was going with scores from other games, but a HUGE green ticker that covered the top of the screen, part of the field and some of the players! I'm like WTF!!!! Thank goodness the game was on another channel and Keith new this and changed to that channel, which did not have a stupid ticker over part of the field!!! The Browns didn't make their field goal and lost, but what was NBC thinking? With two minutes to go and a game that close you don't cover up the field with a stupid lottery ticker!!!!! Some of us actually watch the game! Okay...deep breath! sigh...

Doug Stephan - unbelievable!

2008-10-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

AT 6 a.m. Good Day with Doug Stephan is on the radio on station 1240 AM. Since there's been a lot of talk about white's, who aren't for Obama being racist, his show broadcast the actual interview with black New Yorkers. During the interviews the interviewer asked what they thought of certain policies of Obama and used policies of McCains. They asked if they were okay with his pro life stance and they said, oh yes! that was why they were voting for him. They asked other questions using McCain's policy such as and you agree with him that we should stay in Iraq until the war ends and not have a time line for withdrawal. Again they said yes, that was another reason why they were voting for Obama. The clincher though was when they were asked if they agreed with Obama's choice of Palin as his running mate and they all agreed Palin was a great choice for Obama. HUH???

Okay, yes, I do know a lot of white people who are voting for McCain, but we discuss issues and we at least know what McCain's are versus Obama's and who each has as their running mate.

I will make no further comment... I will let the interview answers speak for themselves as to who is voting the issues and who is voting race. Not that there aren't whites who won't vote for Obama because he is bi-racial (half black and half white), but it swings both way folks! And those interviews speak volumes!

Now that was a debate!

2008-10-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

Finally a real debate worth staying up to watch! And regardless of what the polls are saying John McCain won this one hands down. While he came on as strong and assertive, (oh yes the dems call it whining and attacking), Obama was just as boring and rhetorical as the other two debates (oh yes, the dems call it controlled.) The most powerful line of the night was when John McCain had had enough of Obama making it sound as if it were Bush on that podium instead of him and he turned to Obama and said, "I am not George Bush. If you wanted to run against Bush you should have run four years ago." Slam! Dunk!

Obama kept pushing the negative ad bit, but I had just watched the news that morning where it was pointed out that if you go to fact check you will find Obama ran way more negative ads than McCain. Something like 150 to 8. This is from fact check regarding the debate remarks about negative ads.

It was almost true, for one recent week. Obama was referring to a report by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin that concluded that “nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign’s advertisements were negative” during the week of Sept. 28 through Oct. 4. During the same week, 34 percent of the Obama campaign’s ads were negative. The Obama campaign was found to have outspent the McCain campaign in nearly all of the competitive states, in some cases by a margin of more than 3-to-1.

McCain’s ads, however, have not been deemed 100 percent negative in other weeks. In fact, in the week after the Republican National Convention, 77 percent of Obama’s ads were negative, according to the advertising project, while 56 percent of McCain’s were negative. So, when the Obama camp is touting that McCain is running the most negative campaign ever, they better check their facts first.

I was glad to see the topic of Ayers brought up and that Obama did not explain it clearly yet. And according to fact check he also lied about his connection with Acorn.

Yes, there were also some misstatements on the McCain side and one was about the real winner last night Joe the Plummer! What a guy! McCain said he was facing higher taxes under Obama's tax plan, but he won't be unless his business makes more than $250,000 a year. Joe the plummers reply was that McCain had it right and what he heard from Obama was that after years of working his ass off to be able to afford this business he was going to be taxed out of it and his hard earned income would be distributed amongst those who don't work hard to like him. And yes, that's exactly what he said. In Zephyrbird's opinion small businesses should be encouraged to grow, be enabled to hire more people, and keep the economy flowing.

Many of my small business owner friends here are ready to cut back on Nov. 5 if Obama is elected because they have studied his tax plan and they are going to get hurt badly! Instead of hiring new employees they will be laying off and in some cases closing up. They see no hope under the Obama tax plan. We already distribute the wealth from the working class to the non working class through welfare, food stamps, etc. Now he wants to socialize everything and it isnt' right, it isn't fair. Do more, as John McCain says, to keep businesses in the states rather than make it impossible for them to make a living here. Taxing people even more when the economy is sinking is just plain dumb! Let's just tax us out of jobs so we all have to go on welfare!

Anyway...I digress from the debate...so while Joe the Plummer was the hot topic and we love ya Joe! John McCain was the clear winner! Keep fighting John! We're fighting behind you!

Do I wish John McCain had said more about why Sarah Palin could step in as president? You bet I do! There was so much more he could have said and for the life of me I don't know why he let that chance slip by. Speaking of Sarah Palin...

...if you don't know about the tshirts at the Obama rally that John McCain was talking about here's the scoop. Tshirts are being worn, at the Obama rallies, that say Sarah Palin is a CUNT. McCain stated he found those tshirts offensive and asked Obama to repudiate the use of them and Obama did not.

How to lie with statistics or how to skew the polls

2008-10-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks back I received and email from the dialoguepolitics group regarding a PBS run Sarah Palin poll. They were asking all the democrats to go in and vote no that she is not qualified. For some reason they felt this would make it true. They did manage to bring her yes leads to a tie of 49% yes and 49% no, but did not manage to make it an overwhelming majority did not find her qualified.

At that point I was going to do a blog on why polls don't work, but thought if I did I would get comments that it was just sour grapes, etc, since I am a McCain/Palin supporter. My husband teaches statistics and while I can't explain it as well as he can it comes down to how you ask the question, of whom you ask the question, and sometimes where you ask the question. You can form a question in such a way that you can manipulate the answer. Like - have you stopped beating your wife? So,in the meantime....

...the AFA countered by running a poll on whether Barack Obama is qualified. The poll at this point stands at 12,848 yes votes, 263,336 no votes and 2,521 not sure votes. And so now we get this email from dialoguepolitics stating the following.

The problem with both polls is that they allow the same person with the same or different emails to vote more than once (I voted twice on each just to find out, and it seemed as though I could have continued), so neither has any real validity, other than as a propaganda tool.

When I went to the AFA poll, 93,000+ had voted that Obama was not qualified, and some 4,000+ felt that he was (I forget the not sure vote).

Plus, and this applies to both polls, what, exactly does "qualified" mean. My guess is that people on both sides are voting whether they want the candidate in question, qualifications or lack thereof aside."

So I want to thank them for making my point about polls. They aren't reliable, they aren't true, and they can be skewed by who is doing the polling. Please keep this in mind with future polls and don't be so quick to believe it just because someone at a polling place says it's true. Thanks dialoguepolitics for making this point for me. I agree the polls are rarely if ever accurate due to the many ways of skewing the responses.

On Football and Chess

2008-10-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

You're probably asking yourself what does football have in common with chess? Well, at this point nothing. But! I, Zephyrbird, have decided that it would be better for the football players and the game to use a chess move. It came to mind yesterday when my Tampa Bay Bucs were slaughtering the Carolina Panthers. Go Bucs!! In the last quarter it was 27 - 3 with only a few minutes to go. This meant the Panthers would have to score three touch downs and three two point conversions in those few minutes to just tie the game. It just wasn't going to happen.

So here comes the chess move. In chess when you look at the board and you realize there is no way to win you lay your king down and resign. So, my thought is, when a team is in the position the Panthers were in yesterday why not just go lay their quarterback down in the field and resign the game? That makes sense to me! ZephyrBird speaks!

Birds of a feather

2008-10-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

I am very proud of John McCain for stepping up and taking the high road in the Obama terrorist connection and trying to still the mob of violence that is breaking out at the rallies. He made some positive statements one of which we don't have to be afraid if Obama is elected. On this I disagree.

As much as the democrats want to hush up and try to make us believe there is no connection between Obama and terrorists such as William Ayers there is a connection and a big one. He and Obama were friends until it became clear Obama was going to run for government office and needed to clean up his slate, so another "friend" he put on the back burner for the sake of moving up in the governement. Obama and Ayers served on two non profit boards together in the 1990's and Ayers funded Obama's campaign. Yes, Obama states by the time he met him he was a 'respected' education reformer and he hasn't spoken with him since 2005. Well, I have past friends I haven't communicated with in years either, but the associations were there and I would have hard time denying them. Apparently Obama doesn't.

As much as the democrats want to cover up the Obama/Rezko connection there is one and a big one. Here is a quote from ABC news online.

In sharp contrast to his tough talk about ethics reform in government, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., approached a well-known Illinois political fixer under active federal investigation, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, for "advice" as he sought to find a way to buy a house shortly after being elected to the United States Senate.

The parcel included an adjacent lot which Obama told the Chicago Tribune he could not afford because "it was already a stretch to buy the house."

On the same day Obama closed on his house, Rezko's wife bought the adjacent empty lot, meeting the condition of the seller who wanted to sell both properties at the same time.

Rezko had been widely reported to be under investigation by the U.S. attorney and the FBI at the time Obama contacted him and has since been indicted on corruption charges by a federal grand jury in a case that prosecutors say involves bribes, kickbacks and "efforts to illegally obtain millions of dollars."

This week, a federal judge in Chicago ordered the Rezko trial to begin Feb. 25.

Obama maintains his relationship with Rezko was "above board and legal" but has admitted bad judgment, calling his decision to involve Rezko "a bone-headed mistake." (this is my favorite line. Do we really want a president who uses such horrible judgement in picking his friends and associates or was it really bad judgement and this is just a convenient out. he wanted something, rezko had what he needed, he got what he needed, and now whoops! it was bad judgement.)

Rezko's behind-the-scenes connection in the Obama house deal became public as Rezko revealed personal financial details as he sought to post bail.

While Rezko's wife paid the full asking price for the land, Obama paid $300,000 under the asking price for the house. The house sold for $1,650,000 and the price Rezko's wife paid for the land was $625,000.

Tony Rezko refuses to talk about his connection with Obama which could mean one of two things. One there really is none or two there is much to tell but he wants his guy in the white house.

So ZephryBird speaks out again with what some will call a negative Obama post and tell me to post only positive things about my candidate etc etc etc. Well, the truth is out there folks. Take this post as you will but please consider what you are doing. I am only posting what is public knowledge but knowledge a lot seem to want to turn a blind eye to in their zealousness to get Obama elected.

I have remained silent long enough trying to placate those who will censor me, but I can no longer keep silent. While I don't agree with the mob mentality of the crowds at the McCain/Palin rallies I do understand where the anger is coming from and it's rightous anger and about time we got angry. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

McCain Supporters, do we really need to stoop to this?

2008-10-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Just because I am for McCain does not mean I want to receive a lot of propoganda about Obama. The truth is one thing, but I have to admit I went oh come on! when I got this following clip in my email today. It made me go in search of the real clip so will post both. The title was Obama Oops! admits he's a muslim. Please listen to the entire clip as what happened is obvious. They were discussing the use of him being associated with the muslim faith and the term muslim was used a few times, so when he said, yes, it's true John McCain did not use my muslim faith... it was a slip of the tongue. Please! anyone who hasn't done that please stand up. Like I may be talking about my ex husband Ralph and then call my current husband Keith by Ralph's name. OMG!!! I guess that means I wish he was Ralph... well, I just wanted to let everyone know this McCain supporter does not need lies about Obama to make me not vote for him. Anyway, this is a good example of how people from both sides are using sound bites to argue their side.

Clip number one: the sound bite.

The entire interview - please be fair and go here.

LOL...here we go again!

2008-10-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I was wrong in telling McCain there would be new issues thrown at him last night, so maybe the cards were wrong in predicting a change of address for Obama, too. From the part I watched, last night, it was not a town hall forum! It was Tom Brokaw doing what Tom Brokaw does...make it as boring as possible. He was supposed to have had thousands of questions from which to choose, so why did he choose to ask the same tired old questions that have been asked and answered and asked and lied about and asked and distorted already! We taped it because we have to get up early so only watched part, but I'm even wondering if it's worth our time to watch the rest of it. Same old same old. Or as some say, different day same shit, or in the case of these two same old bullshit. Nothing new was said, nothing new learned, and I have a feeling most of the people watching fell asleep in their easy chair or couch.

Now onto the polls. Yesterday Obama was 8 points ahead and the media was already crowning him president. In todays daily poll summary McCain has closed the gap royally! Obama is now at 48% and McCain at 45%. So, what happened? They are saying it is simply a correction after a time when Obama had a considerable gain in a short time. They are implying that McCain is not gaining support, nor Obama losing support which I find interesting, because when Obama goes ahead it's all about momentum and how the tide is turning his way with the voters and everyone is turning towards him for leadership, blah, blah, blah. But when McCain makes a push in the polls it's just a correction and not a show of the tide turning towards him. You gotta love the press!!! They are now saying Obama will win because his supporters will turn out to vote and the McCain supporters will stay home. Hmmmmm.... first they predict the winner before the fat lady sings and now they're trying to discourage McCain voters from getting out there. So, I encourage all of you to show them how wrong they are! Get out and vote! We may be old but dang nabbit we still have a lot of spark left in us!