Free Health Care

Free? Really?

My friend and I were discussing "free health care" tonight on the phone, actually we were sorta yelling back and forth at times, I think someone just saw the movie Sicko or something. Anyway, we both disagree on it. She thinks universal health care could be a good thing, and I think it would most likely prove to be a disaster. And hey, I have $800.00 in medical bills sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to be paid, free health care sounds good right about now, HOWEVER, I know that it really would not be that simple.

For one thing, it most certainly would not be free for my family, we would be paying a lion share of taxes for it. Secondly, I don't want the same people who brought us such great institutions as the DMV in charge of my health care. Third, I've experienced socialized medicine for 10 years of my adult life, and while it's great for immunizations and pap smears and things, when something really goes wrong with your health it is completely hit or miss. I'll take my chances on a good old competitive for profit market any day of the week.

I'm sorry that some people don't have health care, but in reality I don't think it is the poor who are not covered. No, most of them are covered by state run medicaid and such. Every state is different, but I would wager the great majority of states have something to help out the poor. It is the middle class folks who can't afford health care, particularly the lower middle class. Those people who are right on the edge, they can't qualify for any "programs" and they can't actually afford health insurance and keep the lights and heat going.

There is no perfect system available. I hate having to pay so much out of pocket when we already pay $240/month for our insurance premium. That being said, I would much rather have insurance companies compete for business than be at the mercy of some government bureaucrat. It is folly to compare the U.S. to countries like Sweden and their socialized medicine programs, for one we've got about 240 million more people in this country than they do, nevermind the fact that our population is growing everyday as people cross our borders.

Let's say we entertain Michael Moore and the Democrats fantasies about universal socialized medicine, I would really like to know how the hell that's going to be covered financially. I can guarantee you that my family will be paying more than $240/month in taxes to cover the costs of such a system.

People hate the rich, they think they are spoiled and living the decadent life on the backs of the poor. Not everyone got rich that way. Some people used their backs. My husband is working his balls off in the freezing cold under the threat of thousands of pounds of machinery falling on his head, or having the place blow up from one little spark, and he's making good money at it. Good money that some bureaucrat will look at on paper and decide should be given to some fat breeder cow who decided to have 5 illegitimate children on the system, and decide that he should give more of his hard earned dollars to pay other people's way in life.

Not every unsuccessful person is just a hard luck case you know, or unfairly disadvantaged, some are not doing well in life because they spend too much time drinking and drugging to become productive members of society. They could not be sober long enough to pass a drug test to get a better job, and they most certainly would not spend a Wyoming winter working outside in the cold on a dirty old drilling rig. That's the hard facts.

You reap what you sow. Why farmer Bob would think he is entitled to a portion of farmer Jim's crops after Bob spent the whole summer down at the fishing hole drinking whiskey, while Jim was up every day at the crack of dawn shovelling shit, and doing back breaking work is beyond me, but the fact is Bob is only entitled to what he has earned, otherwise, Bob can go eat shit all winter it's as simple as that. Luckily for Bob, there are others around who will come to his defense and tell Jim at the threat of gun point he WILL give Bob some of his crop, or Jim and his family will be put into ruin and have their property taken from them and sold to the highest bidder. Oh but they didn't need to do that, Jim probably would have given some to Bob out of sympathy because he certainly would not want to see his neighbor starve even if he is a lazy fool.

That wasn't enough though, you see, there are many more Bob's around, people that Jim has never even seen, met, or heard of, and some people decided that since Jim worked so hard and had such a bountiful harvest, he should help even more people. They decide that he will give a certain percentage of his harvest to those less fortunate than he was. Of course Jim can't imagine how he came to be considered as so much more fortunate than everyone else, when all he ever did was work hard and ask for little. In fact, all he had when he left home at the age of 18 was youth and a few pairs of underwear, and maybe a couple of outfits. He didn't even have a car, or any household possessions at all. Just the clothes on his back. The rest he made for himself by showing up sober and doing what was asked of him.

Jim really doesn't mind helping people out who are down on their luck. He gives to charity, and does want to help people. He doesn't want them to starve, or go without. He just wants to have something left over to leave for his own children. He has worked hard to see to it that his kids have an inheritance, or at least a little piece of property to live on. Over the years Jim sees more and more people stepping up with a hand out to receive that which they are not entitled to. He is amazed at their sense of entitlement over his wealth. When he protests the increasing demands on the fruits of his labors he is called selfish, and greedy, and accused of making his wealth by standing on the backs of others, when all he wants to do is keep what is rightfully his.

No one remembers the kid he was when he left home with nothing. All they see is what he has now, and they think he is privileged, that he has somehow been given more advantages than others, that he hasn't EARNED what he has. Jim doesn't understand all of this, he is only of average intelligence, he just thought he was doing what a man was supposed to do. He never went to college, he just went to work. It doesn't matter the circumstances though, people only see that he has more than they do, and have decided it's not fair.

That's how it is with socialized medicine, only worse, people's lives are at stake when the government pinches and pinches as much as they can get out of the programs, and the people are left with dilapidated facilities and poorly trained staff. All of the Dr.'s who were making big bucks have left the profession because they found out they can make a lot more as lawyers and ceo's than they can on the government stipend they get for their labors. It only makes sense that most people are not going to want to spend almost 10 years of their lives in school to make socialized medicine wages.

Once we determine free health care is a right, then it is not long before it is decided that anyone demanding high wage to work in the medical profession is just being greedy, why should they ask for so much when it is a right of people to receive their services. If you think the government is going to meet the current pay these people are making now think again. Medicaid pays cents on the dollar what the health insurances pay. That is why it is often difficult to find really good doctors who accept medicaid as payment when they could fill their busy practices with insurance patients.

The government has not proven itself to be a good steward of our tax dollars. I see no reason to think this would change once they are granted the power over our massive healthcare system. We are just numbers to them. Numbers without any meaning or value. Well, we'll see what's presented to us in the future. I think all of the politicians know it won't work, but the Democrats keep offering it knowing it will get them into office, and they can just blame the mean heartless Republicans for the dismal failure at getting these things implemented. Clinton had 8 years, health care for all was something he and his wife touted in the beginning, it never happened.

We'll see what comes.

A Topic I've Been Avoiding

But I Would Rather Do This Than Housework.

I've been sort of avoiding the topic of politics lately because it grows tiresome. I have been paying attention and all, I just haven't been talking about it. I'm still as opinionated as ever, however, I no longer feel the need to engage people of extreme viewpoints anymore. I just nod and half listen anymore when they start on their stuff. It's better that way. I'm not going to change their minds, and I figure if I don't listen too hard I might not lose much more respect for them than I already have.

Something has been nagging at me for years now, I don't talk much about it because it just doesn't make sense. I've never been able to understand this nearly universal and irrational hatred of Pres. Bush. I just don't get it. I happen to like the man enough. I like him much better than I do John McCaine. I just don't understand the Bush derangement syndrome. I don't know who coined that term, but it's about the most accurate description I have heard of this phenomena yet, so I'm going with it.

I think he seems like a stand up guy. In fact, my only complaint about him is that he has not been more verbally forceful against his critics, but given the many people I hear talk about how much they hate him, I guess that would be impossible. I don't like Hillary or Obama's political views at all, but I can't muster the hatred for them that I see and hear people spouting about Bush. These same people when I do ask them why they hate him so much usually say, "He's an idiot!" Really? I don't think so, in fact, some of these same name callers admittedly can't even begin to articulate the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, and yet, they know Bush is an idiot, because, "listen to him talk, he's stupid!" they say.

President Bush is going to go down as the biggest and most convenient scapegoat in history. Everything and anything from Katrina, to nosebleeds is blamed on Bush, and Bush alone, and will be for years to come. When discussions of the economy arise, "it will all be better when Bush leaves office!" is what I hear out of these people. I really don't think it's Bush's fault people are defaulting on their mortgages left and right, but I guess that is a convenient excuse. You know it was Bush's fault those people didn't get the hell out when the massive storm of the century was bearing down on them.

When the economy tanks under our new liberal leaders overreaching regulation, and new social programs, it will be Bush's fault. "We inherited this poor economy from Bush!" they will say. In all fairness, that's what was said about Clinton, that Bush inherited his poor economy. It's a trend, and honestly, I think most people are too stupid to understand how it all works anyway, so it sounds good in a campaign commercial. Hell, I'm too stupid to understand our complex economy, I can't offer any wisdom there. I don't know why the heck things are like they are.

I sometimes wonder given the sheer numbers of people I disagree with on political issues, am I the one that's stupid? Maybe I've got it all wrong. I don't even agree with Republicans on McCain. How did he come to be our nominee he's nothing like what I wanted.

Someone asked me the other day, "Who do you think will win, not who do you plan to vote for, but who do you think will win?" Without hesitation I said, "Obama". But I added the caveat that is if he can overcome this scandal with his extremist pastor who he claimed as his mentor. That situation will not bode well for Obama. His glory days are over, he will have to get his claws out to overcome that. He seemed quite an untouchable candidate up until those clips of his pastor's maniacal ranting and ravings came out. The U.S. of KKK A. is going to stick. People will have lost trust of Obama now. However, his charisma is quite high, and he may be able to just move on right past all of it.

There is something about Obama, he has a very charming factor about him. Even I listen to him and think, wow, he seems like such a nice guy. Of course, I cannot agree with his politics, but I can see the draw. People like him and trust him. Anybody who doesn't see him as a contender is being seriously naive. If Obama wins the nomination, I think he will win the Presidency. Team Clinton thus far has not succeeded in bringing out very much dirt on the guy, if they can't summon the sludge needed to bring him down, nobody can.

Then again, it would not be in the Democrats best interest to throw too much mud against each other, and it is obvious Hillary has had a tight rope to walk with that. At some point they will be facing off with McCain, and it would not pay in the long run to ruin any Dem's chance of winning the ultimate power. I like to watch them slug it out though, it's nice knowing the Republicans are decided, even if I don't agree with the choice.

That's where I'm at with it right now. We'll just see what happens.

Cops Called

Pomeranian Puppy Threatened With Arrest For Crimes Against Old People.

These days you can tell when I've got something to do that I don't really want to do, that's about the time that I will suddenly be overcome with the urge to update the ole bloggymajiggy. My personal motivations are not really important though, what matters is I am here now, and ready to talk bad about my neighbors.

Why just the other day I was telling someone, wow, the mean neighbors have been away since before Christmas, it's so nice not to be constantly under their watchful eye, and scrutiny. I must have spoke too soon because about 20 minutes later, it seemed like, they pulled up in their driveway, and the staring immediately commenced.

It only took a few days for all of the tension to build up again. It's my dogs you see. They HATE my dogs. And my dogs hate just about everyone, unless they come through the front door, then the furry beasts will try to lick them to death, and even have the nerve to jump completely uninvited on every visitor's lap.

So here's what happened, and I'm going to state right up front that I was pretty much at fault here, but I still don't like those people. They are not nice people. In my own defense though, these people have driven me to it. They are obviously retired and have nothing better to do than stare across the street at my dogs all the live long day. We are very aware of this and are constantly on guard whenever we let our dogs outside because one little bark, or series of barks is just TOO much, and our neighbors will view us with scorn.

We have really tried to make sure we don't let the dogs out during prime barking hours such as when thousands of children are walking to and from school. This has cut down the barking. Basically, my dogs don't really bark unless they SEE something to bark at, like people, or other dogs walking by, although I think the little one, the puppy, has a thing for barking at buses and big trucks.

Anyway, I'm very careful during the day as we do get a lot of foot traffic by our fence. It's in and out, in and out all darn day. My back door is wearing out from so much in and out, but I can't just leave them out or Miss Thing will call the authorities on us the second their barking goes unchecked. Fine. As soon as we hear them bark we call them in, even if we are in the middle of something, say sitting on the pot.

At night I have been a lot more relaxed about them going outside because there are not as many things for them to bark at going on. Pumpkin the baby pom pom loves to be out at night. He has that thick coat and being out in the brisk cold seems refreshing for him. I call him and call him, and he just continues to wander around the yard avoiding coming inside. He's generally quiet, so I leave him be, and sometimes I forget he is out there, and when I remember I run to the door, and he comes running all fluffy, frisky and energized from the cold.

Well the other night I forgot Pumpkin was out, I had tried to call him in, but he wasn't ready to come in. Sure, I could have bothered to find socks and shoes and a coat and gone out to get him, but he seemed fine, and I figured he wouldn't make too much noise with the two big dogs inside. I worry sometimes about leaving him out because the little rogue has figured out how to slip out of the fence and has been known to run up the street on at least two occasions. We keep "fixing" the problem, and he hasn't go out for quite a while.

He was so quiet I forgot he was outside. But around 11:30 pm officer friendly showed up at my door. I saw her walk by our front windows, and I thought, "Oh crap, who's in trouble?" because with our families you sometimes just assume they are coming about one of our relatives. I jumped up and went to the door, and she said, "You need to get your little dog he's out and barking and disturbing the neighbors" My first thought was, oh crap, he got out of the yard and is running amok in the neighborhood, so I started to go outside, but she corrected me, and informed me, "He's in the back yard, you need to get him in or I will have to give you a ticket for noise something or other." I said, "yes, I'll get him in."

But then I did something you are never supposed to do with modern law enforcement. I sort of argued with her, I wasn't rude, I just offered my side of the story. I'm lucky I wasn't tased for my insolence. Anyway, she informed me that he's been barking for two hours STRAIGHT, which I immediately gaffed off as ridiculous. He's never barked for two hours straight at anything. Then she said, "well it's late, and he's barking, are you going to get him in or not?" I said, "yes, I'm going to get him in, but I find it funny that I could not hear his barking all this time." She said, "well, I could hear him barking at me when I pulled up to your house."

Wow, a dog barking at a strange car pulling up to it's house, how very strange. Anyway, there really was no sense in arguing it, he was out, someone called the police and that's that. At least she didn't give me a ticket. I tried to explain to her that my neighbors are constantly scrutinizing our dogs every move, but she didn't care. Overall she acted like she was really put out to even be standing on my doorstep. We ended our "conversation" and I went to get the little puff ball inside. End of story.

After I let him in, I noticed that my t.v. was rather loud. Perhaps that is why I did not hear him barking outside, or I might possibly be going hard of hearing. Anyway, it was our mistake, and we won't make it again. It completely slipped my mind how late it was, we now have a strict rule that the dogs can't go out after 10pm. I'm sure the whole thing did nothing but raise the hate directed towards us from the retirees across the street.

There are dogs all around us, I hear them barking all the time. The other day I woke up from a leisurely afternoon nap to dogs barking their heads off. I looked around and saw my fat beasts were all snoring softly beside me. I know it wasn't my dogs, but who is to say they won't get blamed for it. I honestly believe that every time a dog barks in this neighborhood mine get the blame for it because they are the most visible.

My neighbor's behind me have 4 dogs! They bark at my dogs through the fence, although to hear her tell it, it's my dogs that MAKE her dogs bark. Now the neighbors behind us are friendly towards us, and they know what we've been going through with those people across the street, but she blamed my dogs for hers barking...and said, "your dogs bark at mine at the fence, and now I have to leave my dogs inside all day..." Umm, your dogs bark at mine was my response.

Anyway, I hate all this discontent. I really do try to keep the neighbors happy, but there comes a point when you just can't make some people happy. There comes a point when people are just harrassing for the hell of it, because they can.

I did find out that the retiree couple don't own that home, in fact, they only live here during our warmer months for the most part. That explains all the peace we had while they were gone. The good news is, as renters they are likely to move at some point.

Since the "incident" we have really been on our toes even more than we already were, but somehow I don't think anything we ever do will be enough to appease those people. It's a wonder I haven't stopped trying at all. Oh well, just another day in the neighborhood.

The Game Is On

Not actually.

Hrmph, it seems Miss Priss has taken offense to the idea that I might post less than decent pictures of people here at this little whole in the wall! I may be a broad, but I'm not a dumb broad, I know darn good and well that acts such as those CAN be reciprocated, therefore, you all will never be treated to pictures of my little brother wearing his pink footie pajamas on Christmas morning, or him riding his new bike naked.

I know there has got to be a ton of pictures out there that would easily classify as blackmail material, or at the very least be considered totally humiliating. This in itself prevents me from EVER running for public office, not that I would but hey, you never know. Mind you they are nothing provocative, they are just really really dumb.

Let me tell you this sister girl, threatening to bring out the mullet pictures from the 80's is virtually considered an act of aggression, it was NOT called a mullet back then, it was called a "bi-level" haircut, and YOU HAD ONE TOO! We all did.

BTW, ending your post with "sleep well you old farting broad" really cracked me up. Good one.

Bad Mexican Food

All You Get Is Gas.

We went to a Mexican food restaurant tonight. We had heard this place had new owners, and it was supposed to be a lot better than it used to be. We heard wrong. We spent $50.00 on what my friend accurately described as "slop" and the service was awful to boot, our waitress was slightly passive aggressive, and completely unavailable. Anyway, maybe it was just a bad night. The food was absolutely drowned with red sauce though, and it wasn't even good sauce.

My friend, our two daughters, and I left the restaurant and headed to a furniture warehouse to look around, it was only at most a 20 minute drive from the restaurant, and by the time we got there our stomachs were boiling like mad.

We went to the bathroom and each took our own stall, and of course our daughter's had to start making really loud fart noises by blowing on their arms. Which actually got us all laughing because even at our age, fart noises are funny, especially as loud as they echo in a public restroom. Some people never grow up. I admit I did a couple on my arm, but only cause I was trying to hide the real noises I was making. Lovely.

We had a laugh and went to look around, and of course my friend met a salesman and quickly discovered they had a mutual acquaintance that they pretty much both despise. She does that. She's a hairstylist, so 90% of her day is spent gossiping. It's pretty much drama central down there sometimes. Some people just show up and sit and chat for a while. We have affectionately termed them "hanger outers" they are the sort of people who sometimes will come everyday for weeks, they are so comfortable that they answer phones, and know all of the clients by name.

I refuse to be a hanger outer because I have a job, but I do get in on conversations when I get my hair done, other than that, I don't show my face around there, even though I don't actually have an exciting life, and I could if I wanted to.

Anyway, after much debate we decided not to actually buy anything, which is what we usually do when we go to the furniture store. It just seemed easier than the mall, yet gave us something to do on a Tuesday night. My gosh, this is exhilarating isn't it?

After we went there, we went to another furniture store up the road. We got there 5 minutes before they closed. Now most people would just turn around and leave seeing that 5 minutes isn't much time to browse a gigantic furniture store, but no, not us, we just got out of the car and sprinted for the door. We literally saw the whole store in 5 minutes, and it was a huge store, we even took a few moments to lounge on the waterbeds, and discuss the new types of mattresses they have nowadays with a rather cute salesman.

My friend is convinced that everyone thinks we're lesbians. I don't know why she always thinks this, but she always has to say something like, "my HUSBAND and I used to have this exact same model of waterbed when we first got married" as if the guy thinks we're out looking for beds together for US to share. I know this because she outright told me, "he might have thought we were lesbians looking for a new bed". She's been this way ever since she got a complex about Subaru's.

Her man decided when she was shopping for a new car that she should get a nice sturdy Subaru. Somewhere in the course of all of that she realized that Subaru's are just gay ass cars. No offense to subaru owner's, but seriously, they are popular amongst the gays. It really hit home when he gave her an ad about Subaru's on sale, and the ad happened to be printed on the back of the local leftist rag which is such a totally gay paper. Really, it is completely gay, lots of gay advertising and stuff, man seeking man type things.

Anyway, she started getting really worried that he was going to push her to buy a subaru, she had to start re-examining what in her life made her feel gay when she thought about owning one. Thankfully, he did not push the issue, and she ended up not even getting a new car afterall, and truthfully, I think she was relieved, but I think there is still a small part of her that never shook the whole lesbian thing, and now she worries people think we're gay for each other all the time.

After that last place we went on home. She's going to kill me when she reads this post. Not really, I know she's totally going to crack up.

That's good for now I think. Back later. =)

10000 Miles

And I'm Still Alive.

And I'm glad about that. We did the birthday party thing today at the Skating Rink as was requested. I've realized something, there won't be too many more birthdays like this, so I let her have her party pretty much how she wanted it. It was quite a success. The skating rink did all of the work, they had it all planned out, all we did was show up, and have a good time, and the fee was not outrageous at all + she got a brand new pair of skates out of the deal. Not roller blades much to her dismay, but I assured her she could have just as much fun on regular skates.

Gosh I must have skated 10000 miles as a child. We used to put on our skates and go to the school near our house, it had very smooth pavement, and we could get high speed as we skated around and around the building. We went everywhere in skates. We would skate a mile away from home, and skate back when we were done. I used to hate when I was going just fast enough where when I hit a rock of a large enough size it would send me sailing and stumbling to regain my balance. Most of the time I did manage not to fall and get all scraped up, sometimes...I didn't.

We would develop skating routines and perform them in my neighbor's driveway. She was our age, and she skated all the time too. She had really really old skates with metal wheels!! Ours had the rubber wheels. She didn't care that hers were metal at all, she skated just fine on them. We used to skate to Loverboy! and The Cars.

There was a park about a mile away from our house, we would go there in our skates and spend a whole day just skating the many sidewalk pathways, and we would really get to going good on the tennis courts there. I don't think we even carried shoes with us.

It was a big deal to get a new pair of skates, I remember all I wanted was a new pair of skates. They cost about $20 at K-Mart, they had a whole wall at the back of the store by the snack bar that was filled with wonderful skates. Of course, I did get a pair eventually. I don't remember when or how, might have been a birthday present or something.

I remember those times with a sigh. My daughter has never been allowed to run as freely as we did when we were children. It really makes me mad when I hear people complaining about how children are so fat nowadays. They always say it like the children are flawed and lazy because their parents have sat them in front of televisions since the day they were born, and now all these spoiled children do is eat and play video games.

You know what? It's not the kids or the parent's fault.

I'll tell you who I blame for our fat children, it's all of these freaking perverts out there who have had their fill of all of the porn and filth available in the world, and whose minds are so corrupted and distorted that they are always looking for more to satiate themselves. Those who are so mental that they turn their attention to children and all of the stories out there about kids being kidnapped and tortured and murdered by these evil bastards.

There is hardly a parent with any lick of sense who is willing to let their kids out to run and play. I know very few parent's who are willing to gamble with their own children. Hell, I get nervous when my daughter asks if she can walk the dogs around the block, and I usually say no.

Don't tell me that I should not worry about these things, that they are not as common as the media would have us think, one such event is too much for any parent's peace of mind. Just a few years ago some girls my daughter's exact age were yanked in a van and raped by some sicko right here in our neighborhood. They were simply walking home from school.

The only people who complain about children being fat and how they sit in front of the t.v. when they should be outside playing are people who don't have children. I bet you anything. The parents know the risks, we understand them. We won't take them.

Don't tell me that I should then go do all of these things with my daughter. It's not the same. What I'm talking about is a freedom that I knew as a child that children of today have never experienced, and probably won't ever experience. Maybe I'm wrong, that's happened many times, but I just can't see it. Our children know no other way. I skated miles and miles away from home, and back again. Don't even get me started on our 10 mile bike rides we used to take. We were 13 years old, the same age as my daughter now, there is NO way I would allow her to do that.

Realistically most parents can't be available to go on the sorts of adventures we went on as children. They would ruin it for the kids if they even began to try. As kids, we left the house, the screen door slammed behind us and we went where the wind took us. I don't know many adults who could keep up with that pace.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking today when I saw my daughter put on those super cool new skates. We were amazed at how little time the kids even bothered to skate, they were too into the games and the cotton candy. They had games and cotton candy when I was a kid, but we were too busy going around that same circle over and over too notice those much. When we got tired, we would go play PacMan for a few minutes until the pocket change wore out, and then we'd be back on the floor again skating to our favorite songs.

The kids just don't seem to get that joy from it. It was sort of strange. One other thing, when I was a kid the place was full of children, and few adults. Today I could hardly see the kids for all of the adults standing around. Watching close I suppose. I understand.

My House Is a Mess

And I Need Some Sunshine.

Predictably my house is a mess. I'm off today and have a ton of things to get done. I like the house all nice and sparkling clean when hubby gets home, this is usually accomplished about half the time, but I keep trying. I'm just not a good housewife, and that's why I'm not one. When I was younger, I lived to clean the house, and pick up other people's things, but lately, I just can't muster the interest in it. So much disrespect of my efforts has led me to basically give up and I think seasonal depression has added to the problem.

Maybe it's not seasonal depression, but it sure does sound like a good excuse for my slovenly ways. I do miss sunshine, well actually, we've had some of that, but it's just a tad too crisp for me still. I need some warmth, the kind that comes from being outside on a beautiful spring day surrounded by green. Green is such a lovely color. I can barely stand to look at the ugly brown deadness that surrounds me any longer. Dead lawns are so darn ugly. I yearn for spring deep down in my soul. I can't stand this dry, dusty climate much longer.

So that's what's on the agenda today: Get my ducks in a row. Last week was stressful, I had a lot of stupid mundane tasks demanded of me. A lot of pending crap that needed done. I felt resentful about it. I needed to do some stuff with our taxes and the printer decided to gorge itself on paper, and is no longer able to function. !!! This really made me angry as I had gone out of my way to get the black ink it was screaming for, at almost $30, and it printed about a fourth of what I needed then crapped out on me.

I'm look over at it now with the paper feed light still blinking from 5 days ago, and I seethe. There is a piece of paper tangled up so deep within the thing, I can't think of a single instrument I could use to remove it, although a sledge hammer has come to mind more than once. Blasted thing.

So now I wait for hubby to come home and fix the problem. The reason I have decided to unload this burden on him is I have a nagging suspicion that he has a brand new printer boxed up somewhere in that hell hole we call a "garage", and that he will come riding in on his white steed and get it out and hook it all up for me. Either that or he will summon some manly tool that will delicately remove the tangled paper, and the printer of my loathing will miraculously work again, and I will no longer hate the thing.

And if all else fails, I'm buying a new one, and it's going to have a scanner too because I secretly want to scan old photos of people and post them on this blog. I've got some good ones too!

So there it is. Now, I've got to get a move on, this house isn't going to clean itself.

Guess What

Guess Who?

Guess who will be turning 13 in the near future? I'm really excited about this. That's right, I'm about to become the mom of a teen ager! Hehe. Well, I think it's exciting, but she's still very much my baby girl. I think we are going to have a lot of fun. People always say, "Oh just wait until your kid reaches this age..." but I'm not really dreading it. I'm happy about it. I have no reason to believe she is going to be a terror. I've known lots of teen agers who were nothing like the hairy sweaty werewolf in disguise monsters I've heard them described as. Besides, I think she knows I would kick her butt if she got too far out of line.

Oh boy.

I've Missed You

Dear Blog...

I know I've been the worst sort of blogger, you know, the kind that doesn't actually blog. I think I ran out of steam a while back, and couldn't gather the focus I needed to put anything down. BUT, I haven't given up completely. Anyway, I don't have some goal to meet here, it's just an outlet I enjoy. I love reading other people's blogs, and at the very least I do that as often as possible. Other people are so much more interesting anyway.

Today I will revisit and update some topics that I've been discussing here over the last few months. This might be incredibly boring, but you know what they say, art mimics life. Whatever! I guess I'm saying my life is boring, let's just say, it is pretty stable, and not all that exciting which can be a good thing.

1. I gave up homeschooling. I know, I know, I'm disappointed in me too, but I think I waited too long and just could not get her into it as much as I would have liked. I decided to put her back in school in January, and honestly, we are both so much happier. Everything is going to be all right. It was a big decision, but overall I think things are much better, the time we did spend with it has helped rebuild her confidence in herself, and I think she is doing so much better. The kid was miserable with homeschooling, she really wanted to be around other kids. Of course we let her have friends over and things, but it just wasn't enough.

2. My snotty neighbors who hate my dogs have been out of town for a couple of months now, since before Christmas. I imagine they are overseas since she is from Germany, I don't really care though, I'm just glad they aren't around to scorn us, and stare all the time. It's been kinda nice not having them around. We really need to get a privacy fence put up, I'm a complete idiot about these kinds of things, and my husband does not see it as important, so I don't know when that will happen. I can't really afford to have someone else do the work, so I guess I will wait until someone feels like helping with it.

3. Our family is still feeling the loss of my uncle passing in November. We miss him so much. Sometimes I think about it and say to myself, "I can't believe he's gone", but I know he is. It's been really hard for his wife. He was only 54. He really was a special person. I did not realize how many people's lives he touched. So many people were there. He was a police officer in a small town, he worked his way up to Captain of the department. Several people said that he helped them turn away from trouble and straighten up their lives. He did that just by offering advice and kind words. It all surprised me because he was such a private person, and yet so many people felt they knew him so well.

Everyone in town knew where he lived. I always thought that he should worry, that perhaps some criminal would try to bother him at home, but no one did. My dad said, "even the bad guys liked him" and it wasn't because he gave them a pass, it was because he had a way of talking people out of being idiots. In fact, he was known as a great negotiator, and could talk a crazy person out of jumping off the courthouse. There was a calmness about him even though he had his own demons. Anyway, a lot of people miss him.

4. Now that the kiddo is in school again, I've been really trying to decide what to do with all of this free time I have. I know I've got plenty of chores around the house to do, but that's not the point, I can do that stuff any time. I've practically been obsessing about what I should do. Should I go back to school? I only stopped going because I wanted to give her a shot at homeschool. Should I just give up my wild fantasies about being some powersuit wearing careerwoman and just go back to work full-time and make as much money as I can. I wouldn't make bad money working full-time, but I wouldn't be very useful the rest of the time because I'd be running hither and thither all the time and being tired from getting my ass physically kicked at work.

I mentioned going back to work full-time to my husband, and he sorta frowned. I think he likes me being off more when he is home. I hesitate because I don't want to give up that time with him. Right now I work in a trade, i.e. I went to a tradeschool to learn this. I could go to another tradeschool and learn other things that compliment what I'm doing here, and then go back to full-time next year or so. That's the other option. My work has been very slow right now, and that has made me feel insecure with the field I am in. I think it has a lot to do with the economy, and that people will start indulging more once they start feeling more secure again.

You know when people start feeling tight with money, the first thing that goes is the five dollar cup of coffee, essentially what I do is equivalent to that, although not the same thing of course, I'm not a barista, I'm just making a comparison. I've got a lot of decisions to make about that situation.

If I was to do what I really want to do, that would mean going back to college again. I did that, and it was very frustrating working, mothering, wifing, and schooling, but I was doing quite well in my classes. I really got annoyed with my philosophy instructor who used the opportunity to teach us as head game time. I guess 18 year olds have more time for that type of thing, they have a little more time on their side to repeat a course if necessary. I'm 37, I had no trouble with the material, I was good on that, it's just he kept screwing with our heads so much I couldn't take it. I ended up dropping the course and losing the money I paid for it.

The courses droned on and on, taking 16 weeks to complete. As a part-time student, taking one or two courses that pace was way too slow for me. I got the feeling I would never get done with school. I think that has to do with the age thing. I need to find a program that is faster paced than that, I did find one, it costs 4 times the amount of money as the public institutions. I couldn't afford it.

Money is an issue in this equation as well. I have to come up with tuition and books, and with my work being so slow, we've had to tighten up quite a bit. Even if I was to quit my job and throw myself into school, I don't think we could afford that. We need that bit I am bringing in to stay in balance financially. There are always new tires, or something that's needed. With him commuting the way he does, working out of state, we just can't run paycheck to paycheck the way we could if he was driving 10 miles to work at home, but the money he makes is so good it is worth it to drive that far.

We could move, but none of us wants to do that. I've offered many times to move up there, but he doesn't want to. We probably should move, but we've bought a house here, and the market is not good to sell it, we don't have enough equity in it yet, and renting the house out at the price of our mortgage is unlikely. Houses rent around here for about $900, our mortgage is $1100. And moving would mean having our daughter change school again. Neither of us wants her to have to do that. And it would mean leaving my job, and the possibility that my income wouldn't be as easily replaced up there.

But you know what, it may sound like it, but I am not all worried about all of this. I know the answer will appear in time. I'm just thinking about things, eventually the mystery will unravel and I will know what to do.

5. In case any one was wondering the puppy is getting to be a big boy. He's naughty a lot of the time, and sweet all the time. I just had to yell at him to get out of the cat box, he was actually standing in there digging around for a morsel. The cats are sitting on a table staring down at him like he is some alien life force. They pretty much hate him. He is small enough to get under my bed which is their favorite hiding place. He has been a lot of fun, and he really knows how to charm, and beg.

This post is too long. I'm ending it here. Have a wonderful day.

One Day

At The Wal-Mart Store.

I finally managed to get my sister out to the store, she hates going places with big crowds, but never the less I somehow conned her into going to the wal-mart with me. Mind you, it never fails that we end up there on Friday evening and when we get into the parking lot one of us always says, "Where the heck did all of these people come from?!?" Of course, Friday's being a popular pay day among many employers pretty much guarantees that all of creation will be out trying to get something decent for dinner, a new pillow, or some shampoo.

So there we were walking past the bra/underwear/lingerie/pajama section, and it being close to Valentine's Day and all there were several fancy little lingerie numbers strategically placed as to remind women that they need to get some new fancy underwears. I pointed one out, and predictably suggested that my sister not forget to get her new dealy do, and then I said, "Hey, remember when mom bought that really skanky lingerie at K-Mart, and how shocked we were, but we had to pretend like we didn't see it?"

My sister laughed really hard because she remembered the piece, it was a red baby doll type thing with lots and lots of fringes, mom just picked it up all non-chalant and put it in the basket, and gave us a "I dare you to make one comment out of line" look.

Remembering the moment vividly my sister said, "I can't believe mom bought that!" And without thinking anything of it I said, "yeah, she had a whole bunch of different lingerie and see through night gowns, garter belts, crotchless panties, all sorts of stuff!"

My sister says, "how do you know that?" I said, "Well I used to try it all on when mom and dad weren't home." My sister died laughing. I mean, she snorted. Then I realized that perhaps some kids don't try on their mother's lingerie, I assumed she had done the same thing, but no, I was wrong. We had a good laugh about.

Oddly enough I've never really been into lingerie type stuff as an adult. When we got married, I received a few things that would make a hooker blush as wedding gifts. I remember one night a couple of years after we were married I dug some of it out when hubby and I were sitting around, and started modelling it, and I know this sounds sad, but we laughed our butts off about it. I mean he and I really cracked up. I guess we're not mature enough to handle lingerie or something. I think I gave it to Goodwill.

Thankfully I don't know if mom ever wore that stuff, and it has been almost 30 years since I was a little brat snooping around my mom's room, so I don't know if she even still has any of it. I do know my mom had a much better figure for wearing that type of stuff than I ever have, so I guess they probably had some good times with it. I don't EVEN want to go there.

Fred! Fred! He's Our Man...

Rudy! Rudy! He's Our Man...

Gah! Man, bummer about Fred. I was going to vote for him. Oh well, if I had to vote today, I would vote for Rudy. Because, I just like him. I was originally pulling for Rudy until I fell in love with the smooth talking Fred. Fred just said things right, things I agreed with, and the media virtually ignored him a lot of the time, and well let's face it, he did not run an interesting campaign at all, even though he was very good in the debates.

In the primary, I'm voting my conscience, or as close to it as possible, that means I won't vote for McCain. I just don't like his ways. He is the last person I would vote for. Ok, Romney, so far has not moved me one iota, although I like him substantially more than I do McCain. If it comes down to McCain/Romney ticket, I think I will hurl toe nails.

As nasty as things are getting between Hillary, and Obama, and I have to admit it is almost as enjoyable to watch as any other reality t.v. show where snotty remarks and pot shots are common place, a Hillary/Obama ticket doesn't seem likely at this point. And, has anyone ever considered what would happen if Hillary chose her hubby as V.P.? Hehe. I don't even know if that is allowed, but would be interesting.

It would be nice if all the states held their primaries, or caucuses or what ever on the same day. It is pretty discouraging to watch candidates drop out after losing in one state before the rest of the country even has a chance to vote for them.

Oh well. That's all the time I can spend on this right now. Regardless, there is still plenty of speculating, calculating and assuming to go around without my little scribblings here.

I'm Bad

I Know It.

It is terrible how lazy I am about posting. What can you truly expect from someone who won't even shovel their driveway when it snows? Huh? I mean really. Well, the ironic thing about that post is after I wrote it, the next day on the news they were talking about how the city was actually ticketing people who do not shovel the snow off the sidewalks in front of their houses. I mean for goodness sakes. The report stated that over 300 people had been ticketed, and that police were doing their best to get as many violators as possible. They went on to add that if people didn't do it, then the city sends someone to do it, and the owner of the property is fined/ie charged to pay for the "service".

I imagined 75 year old widows out there shovelling the snow in front of their homes in 18 degree weather to avoid being ticketed. I mean really for goodness sakes. Granted I'm no 75 year old widow and therefore do not deserve any sympathy in this plight, but still.

It snows here for goodness sakes, but people act silly about it. Seriously, as soon as a flake falls the stores are completely cleaned out of bread, milk, and cheese. I'm no better, I too feel an overriding urge to get out there and stock up on groceries when it snows. I think it is a herd instinct or something.

Well, that's about all I've got for now. Sad I know, but I'll be back eventually. :)

Bleh

Bleh Bleh Bleh.

I'm sick. I wrote a whole post, and without even thinking deleted it, or maybe it got saved as a draft, hmm, I should check that, but I don't care, the post was blah anyway.

I'm over my moody Fall blah's, and have been in such a better mood since the new year started, all except for being sick right now. Last night I took some type of syrup that should have made me tired, but made me jittery, and I could not sleep, so I got up and went down and sat on the couch where I fell asleep immediately and slept fine, I just couldn't sleep in my bed for some reason. My legs were restless, but would calm down when I went to sleep on the couch.

Overall it was a lousy night of sleep. It feels like there is a sock stuck up the left side of my nose. It is quite uncomfortable. Nothing feels good, it's like being hungry, but nothing satisfies, or being tired, but unable to sleep. Overall I'm restless, but tired and head achy. It sucks.

I think I had at least 10 people expose me to this junk before my immunity finally gave in and dropped long enough for me to catch it. People, stay home when you are sick for goodness sakes. So, thank you everyone who would not stay home and rest when you were sick.

Ah well, such is life. I've been avoiding my mom and sister as both have lowered immune systems and I don't want to infect them with anything. I hope it works.

I can't wait to breath out of my nose again. That will be nice. For 2 solid days my left nostral has been stuffed up, and completely closed off. It is starting to drive me nuts I think. The headache that goes with this thing is not so fun. Nothing seems to help much medicine wise, I hope I don't end up needing anti-biotics, I don't feel like going to the Dr.

AND, I am scheduled to work tomorrow. I don't know if I will call in or not yet. I will see how I feel this afternoon. Right now the last thing I want to do is touch anyone, what with my complaining about people going out when they are sick, it seems sort of hypocritical of me.

I rarely call in, so it's not like I will be frowned upon for doing so. I only do it when I absolutely have to. I don't work with papers, so I can't go in an cough on my papers, since I work with people I have to be a bit more considerate of them. The rate this thing is moving, I could see myself being out the whole weekend, and that's just not cool. Gawd I hate being sick.

There now, isn't this a wonderful inspiring post if you ever did see one? Wow. I can't believe I am going to post this.

A Few Things

Just Have to Talk About These Things.

First, I've wondered this for quite some time, why is it as soon as it snows people feel this overwhelming compulsion to get out there and shovel for 6 hours just to clear off driveways and side walks? I don't understand it. The other day my neighbor did just that, he shovelled and even got out his four wheeler with a scoop attached to the front of it, and cleared sidewalks, and the snotty fat German lady's driveway across the street, and I noticed he did not do ours, but did other people's, but whatever. I did not expect him to, but it did sort of make me wonder if he hated us too. Hehe. Anyway, he was out there literally all day messing around with that snow, and shovelling like mad.

When it is 18 degrees outside, the last thing I want to do is go out there and shovel snow. I did it the other day though, I vainly took that red shovel and got out there and cleared as much as I could before I froze to death. Did it help? No. Our driveway is so huge it would take me forever to get it cleared.

As I shovelled I noticed others around the neighborhood laboring over this snow. Old men out there shovelling and shovelling away, and I thought, criminy, why do old people go out and shovel the snow, people drop dead of heart attacks in their driveways trying to move mountains of this stuff, for goodness sakes the first few sunny days are going to melt most if not all of it away anyway. It seems silly to me. It really does. I've heard people say, "well if someone comes along and slips on the sidewalk, they can sue you." Well shit, let 'em try then. I hate shovelling snow, and I have a darn good reason for it, I did it for 6 hours straight one day.

Yep, my friend and I when we were about oh, 20 years old, we needed some extra cash, and honestly, who doesn't at that age, so we decided to head to this day laborer place, and see if we could get a job cleaning motel rooms for the day or something, which is what she had heard they would send us to do. Well, the day we chose to take this little adventure, it snowed, and when we got to the place, the only work they had to offer was for people to go out to various businesses and shovel snow. When our time came we stepped up to the counter, and the man sitting there looked at us and practically busted out laughing in our faces.

He said, "I don't have anything for you two, it's just snow shovelling today" well, we got our little feminist egos in a bunch and said, "We can shovel snow just as good as any man!" He smirked and said "fine, go see so and so, at X Apartment complex and work for him, but I have to tell you, he's going to be really mad at me for sending him a couple of girls!" Ha! "Well, we'll show him!" We said, and we were off.

On the way to the apartment complex we decided we would do our very best, and "prove" something to those bastards. When we found the old man running the place, he and his younger assistant laughed and said, "I can't believe he sent us a couple of girls" he seemed rather disappointed, but we assured him we would do a good job. The apartment complex was enormous, and our task was to shovel all the stairways, and sidewalks around them, they worked on the sidewalks connecting everything. Each building had 4 sets of stairways going up 3 flights or so, and I swear there were 2o buildings. We shovelled and shovelled, and after about 3 or 4 hours the old man said, "go take a 30 minute lunch break" I'm sure he might have thought we would not come back, but we did. I don't think it crossed our mind not to go back and finish the job.

All told the job was supposed to take 8 hours, but we finished it in 6, and I'm not lying, the old man said, "you two girls did better than any man they have ever sent out here to work, no one ever got this done in 6 hours before." We headed back to the day labor place to gloat in the man's face. Sure enough when we arrived he said, "Hey, they were very impressed with you two girls." We got our wages, which stupidly enough was for 6 hours rather than 8. We kicked ourselves for finishing too fast, but were still pleased that "we showed them". After that we went home and died.

Well, it felt like we died. My arms and shoulders were so sore, I could not lift them. I think I slept for 12 hours straight after that. We never went back to the day laborer place again. It was not worth it one single bit. I think we made about 25 dollars for that work. Totally not worth it. To this day, I hate shovelling snow with a passion. Hate it. That's why I have a 4 wheel drive, I just drive right out of the driveway right over it. I know it's not good to leave it on the concrete for a long time, but I just don't care. Because I use my arms and shoulders so much in my job, I honestly don't have it in me to shovel snow and stuff like I used to. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.

I'm sure some people might be absolutely appalled at my idea, and I know it is quite rebellious of me, and perhaps even makes me a bad citizen in some eyes, but really, I think if someone wants the sidewalk shovelled, then they have no right to expect me to provide the free labor to do it for them. I don't own the sidewalk afterall, and if I DID own it, shouldn't I have the right to choose NOT to shovel it, or to even allow people to walk on it if I were such inclined? This whole argument comes from the guilt my father instilled in me as a child, every time it snowed he had that driveway and sidewalk cleared ASAP, I even helped with that many many times, and would do so without even being asked. I never once stopped to think, why are we doing this? We just did it.

Well my parent's driveway was sloped, so if the snow were allowed to freeze up and turn to ice, it made it extremely difficult to get into the driveway, so that makes sense from a practical standpoint. My driveway on the other hand is 3 times the size of my parent's and it is not sloped in the least, but quite flat, and shaded so snow and ice stay there forever, or at least until we get enough sunny and warm days to melt it off.

I'm tired, coming down with something, this post went no where, but I'll go ahead and put it up anyway. More later.

Goodness

Found at CuteOverload of course. This guy's narration cracks me up.

For Hubby

He Lives This.




Found at CuteOverload where else?

The New Year

Reflection.

I know I'm not alone when it comes to this time of year, many people spend time reflecting on the year that has passed, and supposing what sort of things they can accomplish with a brand spankin' new year at their feet. This is a time when I think of all the possibilities, all of the things we can do. Sure, we could do this on any day of the year, but the coming new year is a good reminder for people like me who tend to procrastinate about everything.

I suppose I could start with not procrastinating so much, but we all know that is not practical, or ever going to happen. So let's just mark that right off the list. I think the biggest thing to accomplish this year would be to get our finances under control. We have become very lax on our spending, and we have bought things on credit which is a big no no in my opinion. Definitely going to tighten up the budget this year, and pay some things off.

Among other things, I would like to do some projects around the house. I really want to get a privacy fence installed in the back yard. When the weather is warmer, I can leave the dogs out more often during the day when I am at work.

I have a vision in my mind of our upstairs bathroom, I want to take out the funky 80's cabinet that the sink sits on and replace the sink with something more classic, and ageless, and less bulky. In doing so, I suspect that I will also want to replace the linoleum, and perhaps even the stupid toilet that has to be flushed 3 times to get rid of one little turd.

The tile in the tub/shower is some funky 70's stuff, but overall it is in good condition, I just don't care too much for the robin's egg blue color, but I see no need to replace it. It really just needs fresh grout and caulking. The point of tile is that it lasts darn near forever, styles and fads shouldn't necessarily be a good reason to replace it if it is not damaged. All that and a coat of paint would make it a much nicer place to umm, use. Oh, and I would like to put glass shower doors in, instead of having a nasty shower curtain.

Sounds pretty reasonable huh? Well, it will probably cost a lot, and did I mention we've let our finances go to the birds? But I will deal with that issue soon.

The other thing I would like to do, and I know it won't happen this year, or probably in the next few years, is get rid of this awful berber carpet, and put in either wood floors, which I don't care so much for, or nice new carpet. I just don't like wood floors, but I guess people do, and what I really want to do is sell this house in a few years and I think wood floors are more popular now than carpet. I would also like to tile the kitchen floor, well, really my husband and I would both love to tear the whole thing up and start over, but that's not practical.

One thing at a time here. I'm getting carried away.

We're still working on homeschooling, and making slow progress. I know we are doing the right thing, it just isn't always easy. We will continue with that and eventually I am hoping she will be able to work more independently with some of it, but we're not at that point yet. I would like to work more, and go back to full-time, but I just can't right now.

I truly cannot wait for warmer weather. When it is cold all of the time, I don't like to be outside at all. I really love something about each season, but lately I've been more drawn to the warmer seasons because I have really started to love working outside in the yard. When it comes to shovelling snow, or pulling weeds, I'll take weed pulling any day. Of course when it is 100 degrees on my back porch, I will be longing for snow flurries.

Honestly, I can't wait to see if my roses come back in all of their glory this spring, and I'm really wondering how my mums will do. I am hoping the trees we planted start to look a little less like twigs, and a lot more like trees. I planted them last year, now I just have to wait and see if it was a success.

Oh sure, I need to lose weight and quit smoking and cussing. I'm thinking of these things too, but I don't really want to talk about them. We'll just see.

Did You Have a Merry Christmas?

Ours Was Good.

This time of year when many people are taking more time off, are trying to get out of the office a little earlier, and are taking trips away from home to visit with loved ones, I am usually doing just the opposite, I am working more, I am spending less time at home, and there is no way I could get time off to go anywhere. Luckily most everyone is right here close by so that really helps. It is this time of year when try as I might, I have to fight really hard not to get too moody and blue. The truth is, getting Christmas off where I work is not an easy task, and so for the last 3 years in a row, I have worked that day.

I would be lying if I did not say this bothered me quite a lot. It does. In fact, it has completely affected the way my family, and I celebrate the holidays. I usually don't get any of the major 3 holidays off, that means no Thanksgiving, no Christmas Eve, or day, and no New Year's Eve, or day. This year I got Thanksgiving off, it was nice, but it went too fast, and we were all a bit more reserved as we are still feeling grief over losing my uncle such a short time ago.

As Christmas approached, I found myself feeling more and more resentful about working the day. I rationalized with myself, went over all of the arguments as to why I must not let it get to me. I reasoned that it is just a date, the spirit of things is what really matters. I told myself, I must do this, it is part of my job, and I like my job the rest of the year, so overall it is worth it. I convinced myself that we could do things a little before, or a little after, and that it will be just fine. All of those reasoned arguments meant nothing because I honestly resented the fact that I have to work the holidays.

I resented other's getting the holidays off to spend with their friends and families drinking eggnog and eating homemade breads and cookies while listening to Christmas carols, and laughing together while reliving old memories, and seeing the lights and the magic of Christmas reflected in the children's eyes. I missed that our little family did not all get up together on Christmas morning and sit in the living room in our pajamas while our daughter opened up her bounty of gifts, and then head over to my parent's house to spend the rest of the day.

I truly felt bad that I did not get a lot of Christmas shopping done, and was not able to get all of the gifts on my list because I just ran out of time, and/or money before the day rolled around. It was quite upsetting to me that I didn't get around to doing any baking, or making special things to eat without guilt this time of year.

The sad reality is, I spent most of this holiday season feeling shafted, annoyed, and disappointed. I know that is not how it is supposed to be. After feeling like that when the day actually rolled around, I was no longer upset about it, I just didn't care anymore. I had already given our daughter all of her gifts. Everything was done, all that was left was for me to go to work, and by that time, I went and it was like any other day, in fact, I even quite enjoyed working that day because everyone I worked with was extra special nice, and we all brought in little goodies to share so it was good.

The really ironic thing was, I got into it with my manager the day before Christmas Eve because they extended my schedule, and I went into her office and said, "Hey, I'm working Christmas Eve, and day, I don't think it is fair to extend my time here even more than that, isn't there any other way to do this?" We actually had plans to meet people for dinner right after I got off work, so I was a bit put out. Well, she snapped back at me, and we didn't have a pleasant exchange. I am usually not so outspoken with management, but I was really feeling emotional about it all. Later that night I felt bad for approaching her that way, and decided I would apologize.

The next day I went to her office and said, "I am really sorry for snapping at you, it is just this time of year, and working the holidays, and honestly, if you had just asked and said, "We really need you to do this for us," and shown some empathy about it, I would not have been so upset. She apologized for coming across as cold, and admitted to me that she has developed a tough skin because she has to hear it all the time about people working on the holidays, and that she wanted to be home with her family too. We had a good talk about it all, and I realized I was being a big baby about it all. I admitted that I had not really put myself in her shoes, and was only thinking of myself, and suddenly after that, I felt so much better about working that day.

It turns out business was going to be slower than projected on Christmas day, so on Christmas eve she said she was going to take volunteers of people to work on Christmas day first, and then she would decide who would get to be off out of who didn't volunteer to work. Believe it or not, after all of my fussing, and complaining, I went ahead and volunteered to work afterall. I realized that I didn't have any plans on Christmas day anyway because we had already given our daughter her gifts, and we would most likely just go over to my parent's house and eat when I got off work as originally planned.

And you know, I felt strangely good about doing that. One of my co-workers is a single mom with two children under 4, and she really wanted to be home with them, she was so excited that she was going to be off afterall, she said she wasn't going to tell anyone, but just surprise them when she didn't go to work. There were others who I am sure were extremely grateful that they got that call on Christmas Eve telling them they were off the next day.

So, all in all, it worked out fine. We ate with my parents when I got off, and it was a good day, and I think I have finally overcome that hurdle of resentment about working the holidays, which is a good thing because it is part of my job, and I have to accept it. Christmas is a happy and joyous time, that's what it should be about. I think it is hard for some people to put on a happy face and act festive when they don't truly feel that, and there are many reasons they might not. I've been a grinch the past few years because I couldn't do things my way, but I am hoping I have truly let all of that go. I know how to do it now I think.

Anyway, hope you had a good one, and had many reasons to be Merry. Let's all have a Happy New Year, huh?

I'm Still Here

Just Getting By.

I know, I am always apologizing for not blogging regularly. With Christmas and all, I have just not been in the mood to blog. I checked my email today and found that I had a drive-by comment from some major weirdo, so I had to go an delete it, it was quite nasty, and gross. Damn you Google. Please stop sending these strange people here. I wish there was a way to keep from getting referrals from random internet searches, without having to make my blog completely private, although the thought has crossed my mind.

I really don't care about traffic, and I don't get much anyway, but the fact that the very few I do get are still peppered with oddballs is quite disturbing really. The only way I can avoid that is to close up shop and move on which I have considered doing, but for some reason whenever I suggest this my friends and family members say, "Oh don't do that, we love your blog" which is quite funny really because they NEVER read it. I know this because I will ask them, did you see that picture I posted, or something, and they always say "no'' which makes me think, why the heck are they encouraging me when they don't visit it anyway?

In turn, I have to ask the question of myself, why do this at all? I don't know why either, and I am certainly not in the mood to get all profound about such nonsense anyway. There is one thing though I find peculiar and that is, I don't talk about anything that really matters most of the time because it is too personal, or would be a betrayal of someone else's privacy, so most of what is put down here is nothing more than fluff. It does seem sort of like a silly way to spend my free time when I get right down to it, but I guess I still enjoy this medium, so I will continue with it for the time being.

Well, I took down one of the posts that seems to get the most hits from weirdos, so hopefully that will help. Hey, I've still got a lot of holiday baking to do, I never got a chance to make Cherry Nut Bread, Pizzelles, or some of the other things I had planned, and I really wanted to do that. I bought all of the stuff, so now I have no choice, I have got to use the stuff or it will sit in my cabinets until next Christmas.

The bananas are finally ripe enough to make Banana Nut Bread, I made some yesterday, the recipe said it would make one loaf, well I followed that and made one huge loaf that rose a good inch out of the pan, and I was very disappointed to find that the middle of the thing did not cook at all, but the outside was very well done, so I don't know. I am going to try again today, but use two loaf pans instead of one. I think that will bring better results. We shall see.

In any event, I am still here, and I hope you are too. Hugs.

Miss Priss and The High Horse She Rode In On

You can bet your butt it wasn't a mini-van.

I don't think I have ever mentioned this before, but the reason I chose "that broad" as my handle, was because when I was growing up my sister always used to say, "Oh gosh, you're such a broad!" Well, I guess with all of my burping, farting, cussing and giggling she might think that. There was that time I went on an all fruit diet and discovered the joys of flatulence. Actually, it was my best friend and I, we both went on some fad diet where all you eat is fruit, and were overcome with superhuman amounts of gas. It was just too much. I remember walking up the stairs and stopping every other stair when one of us passed gas, and the laughing that ensued. Cut us some slack, we were 13 and therefore unable to resist laughing like hyenas at such noises.

Now, my sister on the other hand, she was and still is in many ways my complete opposite. When she was a little girl, our great aunt dubbed her "Prissy" because, well, she was, and always has been to some extent. She did not laugh at farts, and probably still doesn't. She never found the idea of someone accidentally letting one go with the shift of a leg hilarious, and frankly we firmly believed for quite some time that she didn't actually fart, EVER. Of course this myth was dispelled one night a few years ago at my mom's house when lo and behold Miss Priss let one rip at the kitchen table no less while we were playing cards one night, of course she didn't mean too, it was just all those years of holding it in, I'm sure.

My mom said what we were all thinking, "She hasn't done that since 8th grade!" and of course we all got to laughing, including Miss Priss, and that caused her to finally let loose a torrent of toots whistles and blows which made us all howl with laughter. You just have to know her. Now none of this means that Miss Priss doesn't have a sense of humor, she does, and she can get me to giggling like no one else can, and that is mostly because we share a mother, and therefore have many memories of the antics of our deviant mother.

I'm sure it is not nice to say ones mother is a deviant, and that might not be the exact word, but it is close. My mom might have the rest of the world fooled with all of her innocent pie baking, but we know better. Oh she's honest, upstanding, a good citizen, and absolutely one of the most generous people I've ever known, but there is a side to her that only we her family know, it is actually her strength, and an attitude she carries that has got her through some of the most dire circumstances. You just don't mess with her that's all I'm saying. She will jack a person up if they hurt one of hers. Anyway, it is hard to explain, and all I'm doing is making her sound like a psycho which is not the case at all, as I was saying, she's an absolutely kind person, a kind person who does whatever the hell she pleases.

The reason I brought all of this up is because I wanted to mention that my sister, Miss Priss has a blog. She finally got a blog. I waited a while to see if she put more than two posts up, and she has, so I will direct your attention there. She's a lot like me without all of the gaseous noises, and trucker talk. Check it out.