Friends From Long Ago and Far Away

...So, of course, in honour of their visit, I had to take a picture of them with a tree growing out of their heads!

How Do They Sleep at Night?

Tea Party Patriots Attack Family Who Lost Daughter and Grandchild

Bear in mind, as one always has to, that these so-called "patriots" have nothing to do with grass roots, or any other kind of roots. The whole "tea party" concept is funded by money from corporate donors. Insurance companies and the like.

I wonder how much money the "protesters" were paid to stand up there and heckle the family that lost its loved ones...souls come cheap in this economy.

A group called the Chicago Tea Party Patriots publicly heckled a grieving family and suggested that the couple fabricated their tragic story.

A local Tea Party organizer falsely claimed that the couple had made up the story and tried to justify the town hall behavior, according to the Southtown Star.

Catherina Wojtowicz, of Chicago's Mount Greenwood community, an organizer for a Tea Party splinter group, Chicago Tea Party Patriots, falsely claimed that the Houghs fabricated their story. In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who "go from event to event and (cry) the same story." [...]


The audience, Wojtowicz later explained, was exasperated by stories of isolated tragedies that cloud debate over the health care bill itself.

I think that last bears repeating.

The audience, Wojtowicz later explained, was exasperated by stories of isolated tragedies that cloud debate over the health care bill itself.

This was not a spontaneous outburst of "exasperation." This was an organized attack. The reason for the debate is the passage of a Bill designed to prevent such tragedies from happening. If that family's loss were, indeed, an "isolated" tragedy, there would be far less need for reform in the first place!

The insurance conglomerates would very much like us all to forget the individual cases...the hundreds of thousands; even millions of them, that add up to a crushing need for reform in health care.

Some services need to be provided in another way than to make a profit for fat cats. Health care is one of them. If that opinion makes me a pinko commie liberal, then so be it.

Oh, Crap

I am not the grammar police. I am not the grammar police. I'm not. I resigned when Brendan graduated from high school. But just occasionally, an error that usually skates right by me will drive me up the wall.

Such as, "9 AM in the morning." Think about that for a minute. Do you even know what "AM" actually means? "AM" stands for "Ante Meridian," or (in other words) "before noon." There is really no more redundant phrase spoken than "9 AM in the morning." When you say that, you are saying "Nine in the morning in the morning." Where is that bangs-head-on-brick-wall icon when you need it?

Normally, I couldn't care less...oops. Let's look at that phrase, too. "I COULDN'T care less." Meaning, "my capacity for caring about (whatever it is) is at its lowest ebb." If you say, "I COULD care less," it means that it is possible for you to...well...care less. If you COULD care less, then you obviously care more than the person who COULDN'T care less.

May Santa stuff your stockings with grammar textbooks!

Thanksgiving 2009

A huge "THANK YOU" to all my family and friends who have helped me get through the past two awful years!

...Uphill Both Ways...

I do hate to turn into one of those old women (like my very own mother) who love to regale people with stories of how deprived they were as children...I do. Sometimes. There are times, however, when I revel in it.

Last night, as I shut of the central heat and crawled into my bed with its memory foam mattress pad, multiple squishy pillows, electric blanket with a "preheat" setting and down comforter, I couldn't help but think back.

We had no central heat. The house I lived in in high school had a huge and ugly oil heater that dominated the dining room. It did manage to leak some heat into the living room, but the rest of the house was on its own. The kitchen had a small two-burner wood stove, as well as a "modern" cook stove. We had a small portable oil heater that we schlepped between rooms. There was no heat left running in that house at night. None. The first thing to do in the morning was to light the portable heater and the wood stove.

If it was really frigid, I was allowed a hot water bottle at night, which warmed the area of my feet. I had several blankets, a spring mattress that had to be at least 20 years old, and a bedspread. One pillow, and a thin and sorry one it was, too.

At some point, my parents bought a couple of electric blankets for themselves. Not for me, though. The electric blankets were sort of a reward for having got old. I saw the lack as punishment for being...well...me. Not for being young, but just because I was an unworthy individual. Somehow, Mom and Dad thought that it would be decadent for me to have one. I was constantly reminded that I had my youth to keep me warm.

I have to say that, at about 4'11" and around 90 lbs, there wasn't a lot of me to generate heat.

Of course, when they were young, they had to break the ice on the water pitcher to wash their faces in the morning. I didn't know how soft my life was, without that experience!

Well, to this very day, I associate cold with poverty and misery. Reading "The Little Match Girl" will still make me cry.

So here's today's list of things for which I am truly thankful:

~warmth at the touch of a switch
~a memory-foam mattress pad
~an electric blanket
~a down comforter
~fluffy pillows

...and permission to read in bed.

Note to Self

It is not a good idea to forget you have the top down when yelling at other drivers. Especially when driving down Parmer Lane, and coming up on an old piece of junk going 40 in a 60 zone. Particularly when what comes out of your mouth is something to the effect of, "Can't you pedal that piece of shit any faster than that?" It is even worse when the driver of said piece of shit has his windows rolled down.

And, it is even worse than that when there's a bicyclist right there in the bike lane.

Oops.

One Hundred Years Ago

THE YEAR 1909

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1909.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 :

************ ********* *********

The average life expectancy was 47years.

Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles
of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.

The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health'

( Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

Plus one more sad thought; 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909.

A Misty Moisty Morning

This is the Blanco River near Wimberly, where I went with Lou, Kaye, and Mrs Thing a few weeks ago. We were driving along a narrow road that eked out a precarious existence between the river and a steep hill.