Politics

I haven't posted much lately and I have not been political when I did post.  It was a really bad political season and it seemed to go on forever.  It should be over today, but I don't think it is. Not by a long shot.

I did the one thing I said I would never do.  I voted for Hilary Clinton.  I absolutely can not stand her and there is very little that she stood for that I agreed with.  But I dislike and distrust Trump even more.

I was surprised when he won and not surprised at the same time.  I'm not quite sure where to go from here, I guess we'll have to figure that out as we go along.

OK So it's Tuesday

And I don't really have a lot to talk about, but I am going to try to get back into the blogging thing!

I don't want to upset Froggy, after all!  :)

I was looking back over some of the stuff I posted in the past.  This year has not been very busy at all, especially compared to last year.  The last 3 or 4 years, we were dealing with Bill's job/hell-on-Earth situation and then last year had a lot of car/Otter/Otter's roommate/Otter's multiple moves happening.  But this year has been fairly calm.  Which is a Very Good Thing.

The Presidential election is in a very short few weeks.  I will be so glad when it's over!  It's one of the dirtiest I can recall.  I'm not impressed with either of them.  I'm not normally quiet about who I vote for, but this year I may be.  It's just not a good choice, either way!

I like this one:

And this one:

But I think I have a better choice:

Maggie Moo & Babbicat!  (Babbiecat is J's cat).

Just a Few Random Thoughts

I've been cutting up habeneros to put in the freezer, so my allergy symptoms are temporarily gone!  I used latex gloves, cut carefully, removed the gloves carefully and then scrubbed my hands with soap and hot water.  I've learned from watching Bill that there are never enough or too many safeguards with habeneros!

 

I've been having allergy symptoms today, and I think it's the wonderful mountain cedar making it's presence known.  Hate the stuff.  Almost as bad is the sneaky cinnamon scented pine cones that most stores seem to stock and seem to put by the register and/or entrance so that I can't escape them.

 

Looks like winter is going to show up towards the end of the week.  Possibly as soon as Thursday but maybe not until Friday evening.  We probably won't get anything bad, but it's going to depend on the temperature when the rain starts.  Bill brought in a bunch of firewood while ago, we'll probably have the fireplace going most of Saturday.  Which means that the dogs will be overjoyed, they stake out their nap spots pretty much immediately upon Bill starting a fire.

 

The 50th Anniversary of the JFK assassination is coming up this week.  Obviously, it's been in the news and will be for a few more days.  I think the actual day is Friday.  I was around when it happened, but I wasn't quite two years old yet and so I have no memory of the event.  But it was sort of the background to the childhood of everyone who was young at the time, we all just sort of grew up knowing about it.  No matter a person's opinion of a particular President, murder is never the answer.  There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and some of them are pretty wild.  I personally have never felt that the "lone gunman" theory works or that Oswald was the actual killer - although I do think he thought he was and he did fire his gun.  My money would be on organized c r i m e, but that's just my opinion - and Bill's, by the way.  But the point is that it was still a life taken.  I think that people tend to forget that fact, among all the mania that accompanies anything connected with him.  I may have more to discuss on this subject at a later date.  (The spacing on c r i m e is so that it's not searchable, some things always show up on a search no matter how many safeguards are in place and I want to be private.)

 

Along with allergy issues, I've been fighting a case of RedHead Anemia.  I'm increasing my protein and iron.  We had homemade sloppy joes tonight, I made it with ground beef.  I changed it up slightly, I added chopped celery and cut up a banana pepper to add to it, then we also topped it off with parmesan cheese.  It was pretty good, although I'm not sure I used enough chili powder in it.  Not that Bill objected!  It's one of his favorite "easy meals."

 

Is it Friday yet?  It's only Tuesday!  This has been a long week and it's still not even half-way over.

Read a Banned Book

We do.  We own as any of them as we can.  Censorship is never right.

 

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

 

There may be (and are) books that I don't necessarily agree with.  But no one, no one, has the right to tell me (or anyone else) that I/they can't read it.  That is up to me.  ME.  And to each of you.  Make your own decisions, don't let anyone take away your freedom of choice.

 

The nazi's burned the books they didn't agree with.  Eventually, they burned the people they didn't like as well.  There is a connection, although it seems like most people miss that - possibly on purpose, or they prefer to be ostriches about things and not deal with reality.

 

This is one soapbox we won't ever get off of.

Our New Favorite Book! (and other stuff, too)

This has now become our favorite book:

 

Way to Go, Ted!

Here's a few pictures of things that have been going on lately.  Captions are underneath the picture they describe.

A few weeks back, before Bill's surgery, he found something he knew we'd find interesting when he was mowing the lawn.  He brought it in for us.  It's obviously something left behind when the occupant outgrew it, most likely a grass or garter snake.

What looks like a leg is actually a piece of grass that was stuck to the skin.

The textures are really neat, the scales are in such a pretty pattern.  We tossed it back out in the yard when we got through looking at it, Maggie Moo & Frasier were very interested in it and I think they rolled on it a few times.

I don't think I got these posted before, but they may be a rerun.  These are the support for the trellises.

This is the one right outside of our bedroom window.

 

This was taken today, a certain little beagle was looking for Rose of Sharon blooms.  To eat.  Both dogs love them, but we try to keep them away from them.  I have heard that they are poisonous for dogs, but they don't seem to have suffered any ill effects.  They don't eat too many, but they would like to!

Sorry this is sideways!  This is the new rain barrel and also visible is one of the three completed trellises.

Bill made a stand for the barrel, it's upright.  The other one is horizontal and Bill had to install a spigot in it but this one came with one already.

Again, sorry it's sideways.  I can't get it rotated.  The top lid screws on and off.  It's a flat piece of plastic, Bill drilled a series of holes in it and then placed a piece of window-ish (metal) screen on top of it.  The outer ring isn't attached to the top piece, it sits on top of it and holds it down when it (the ring) screws on.  By doing it this way, it has a screen to keep leaves & crud out of it.  The rain gutter isn't actually attached, but it is just barely above the now holey lid.

This is the spigot.  The barrel sits on a stand that is tall enough to get my watering can underneath it and is far enough towards the front of the stand so that a hose can be attached easily.  It's not shown, but the stand is on bricks that are on sand and is level.  We are supposed to get a good rain this weekend, hopefully the forecaster got it right this time!

 

There was one other picture I wanted to post, but it's on my phone and even though I've downloaded the software I can't figure out how to upload it.  Last night, Otter saw something really cool on the front porch side wall up near the top.  It was a bat!  It was hanging out close to the porch light, which was on at the time.  It was a smart bat, it apparently figured out where all the bugs were collecting and then it had it's own all-a-bat-can-eat-buffet!  It was gone this morning, but there was a considerable amount of bat droppings on the front porch and I'm kind of thinking that it might have had a few friends join it for dinner.  We hope it comes back.

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to go buy more mosquito dunks.  If I'm feeling better, that is.  I gave in to my sore throat and called in today - Bill more or less told me I had to but I would have anyway.  I sound better this evening, but I'm still not feeling 100%.  I made very hot chili for dinner tonight, it did help a bit.

 

Also, we're pretty sure that the State Fair is going to happen without us this year.  Otter has to work both days this weekend, the store actually has it's soft opening this Sunday and then the Grand Opening is probably next weekend and she'll probably have to work both days.  We've gone the last two years, so I'm not too upset if we have to miss it.

Allergy Slugs

I have allergies.  I feel like a slug - lazy and hardly able to move.  Not cold & slimy, however - just draggy and sluggish.  And it's going to be that way for a while.  It's very windy, which only makes it worse.  I was out in the back yard just now, the construction behind us frequently means trash blown into our yard and there was a lot today.  I picked it up, but there will be more soon.  I am so tempted to take our own trash over to the closest house being built and dump it in front of the construction workers - and tell them that I was just returning the favor!  However, the ones working out there today probably wouldn't understand me as I don't really think that English was their first language and I've forgotten most of the not-very-extensive Spanish I used to know.

Is it too much to hope for that it will be winter again soon?  And that we'll have a really cold one?  Because that is what it's going to take to get rid of all the allergins in the air.

Otter's aren't as bad, which is a good thing.  She still has them, it's just that mine are worse.  Today, anyway.  Billyboy is even showing signs, which is a B.A.D. thing as he's the least allergic person I know.

Anyway.  On to other things.

Saw this bumper sticker on a car at Wallyworld this morning.  I happen to like this one, the original one it's based on is stupidstupidstupid.  But this one?  It's great:

(Probably comes as no surprise that we are very much a 2nd Amendment believing family.)

Otter's working today, she was hoping to have today off because her D & D group hasn't been able to get together for several weeks now.  They generally play on Sundays, but they haven't all been able to get together for 3 or 4 weeks.  She was off last Sunday but she spent the day with her (new) boyfriend and he's not actually part of the D & D group.  I don't think that they were even trying to get together to play last Sunday anyway, seems like she said someone else was out of town or something.  But she's hoping to be off next Sunday.  At least she is off next Saturday, she had to work yesterday.  Her days are staggered this week.  She has to be in at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow - that means that she has to be up at 4:30, eat breakfast and be out the door by 5:30.  A.M.  She doesn't have early days too often at least.  She loves the job, by the way.

Something Random to Think About

(I didn't write this, but it does reflect our opinions).

Lazy Guns:

Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my Stevens 320 right in the doorway. I set 6 shells right next to it.　 Noticing it had no legs of its' own, I even placed it in my wheelchair to help it get around. I then left it alone and went about my business.


While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street mowed the yard, a girl walked her dog down the street, and quite a few cars stopped at the stop sign right in front of our house. After about an hour, I checked on the gun.

It was still sitting there in the wheelchair, right where I had left it. It hadn't rolled itself outside. It certainly hadn't killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so. In fact, it hadn't even loaded itself.

Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong, and it's the misuse of guns by PEOPLE that kills people, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world.

Alright, well I'm off to check on my spoons. I hear they're making people fat.

Tired Monday

It's been what I refer to as a "teenager day" because I've had to deal with the Teenager all day long!  I don't mind, but it's tiring at times to keep up with a 97-year old teenager!  Especially when said 97-year old can run circles around people one-third his age.  :)

Anyway.  It's time for another Frasier update.  He's great.  He's crazy like he used to be and he's acting like a puppy again.  Even more today than yesterday.  He's back to being his normal, super-affectionate self.  We're still using the tranquilizers, but I'm thinking that something this week we'll try a night without them and see if it works.  They make him drowsy and sometimes he goes to sleep pretty quickly, but he's not staying asleep all night because of them.  He's been quiet, however and I'm hoping it stays that way.  Bill stayed up later than I did last night, he was watching an intelligent movie about a two-headed shark on the Sci-Fi channel (!!) and he said that Frasier was still awake when he came to bed.  So, we're encouraged.  We're not there yet, though.

Bill's working a b(oring)oard meeting tonight.  Otter and I had a couple of errands which included a used book store that we've been trying to get to for a few weeks now.  We finally got there today.  I found one of the two Maeve Binchy books I've been looking for, the older of the two and the one that I thought would be harder to find.  I'm still looking for one more to have the complete collection of her work.  Anyway, we didn't get home until right at sunset thanks to the stupid time change.  We had several household chores to attend to and now we're just going to spend the rest of the evening (it's about 7:15) in front of the tv.  I don't expect Bill to be late tonight, but who knows - the School Board likes to hear itself talk.

Remember this?  A Shaking Experience  It's been a year today and the news has been all about it.  It was an unusual occurance, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  But at least it's a break from the constant election coverage!

We'll be really glad when the election is over.  Although it will still be a few days before the constant coverage is through - we'll have to listen to the "I Won Isn't it Wonderful/I Lost Isn't it Unfair" for a while yet.  But we're nearly through.  I have not been very political lately.  I figure that there's no reason, everybody already knows where we stand on the issues!

I guess that's it for tonight.  Back to my crochet and playing with my doggy!

Beans & Cornbread

& puppies too!

Otter had to sneak up on him, but we finally got a picture of Frasier!  He was probably about to have a nap, she was standing in the hallway just where she could see into the living room and he was actually still for this.

This is what he did next!  It's what he usually does when he sees the camera, don't know why.

But he came right back when I said the word "hug" and he was happy about it.  He usually turns his head so that his head is behind mine, and he leans into me when he gets a hug.  He really seems to like to be hugged.

Can't forget about Maggie Moo!  She was right there when she saw that Frasier was getting attention, but she needed her own affection.  She has allergies, which causes her eyes to water and that's what you see on her face.  She gets regular face washings, which she does NOT like one bit!

The title refers to tonight's dinner.  I made a huge pot of pinto beans on Sunday.  We've been eating them since then and there are several containers in the freezer for Willieboy's lunches.  Tonight, I made rice and we also had a smoked sausage link in the fridge that we'd had for a while.  We don't eat a lot of stuff like sausage.  I cut the sausage up, stirred it into the beans and stuck it in the microwave.  When the rice was ready, I poured it into the beans/sausage and we had it with chopped onion, a little cheese and in Bill's case cut up jalepenos on top.  He also added picante sauce.  We still had some cornbread left, so we had that with it.  It was actually pretty good, not exactly red beans and rice but it was still pretty good.  And very filling.

I voted this morning.  I forgot to look to see what number I was, but there were three people leaving just as I got there and it was just a couple of minutes after the polls opened so I'm thinking I was probably around number 4.  There were two phone calls today, as opposed to what seemed like hundreds in the last several days.  Not that it's ever been any secret, but my candidates are all (and always) pro-life:

Psalm 139 (NIV and permission granted by the Author)*

1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

*Author does not mean earthly publisher, either.  Just in case anybody was wondering.