Tuesday, November 30, 2004
We, The Common Folk, Need Attention.
We did such a great thing—fighting for Iraq’s freedom. You don’t believe it? Just wait until the elections in January. That will prove we were right.
But now we read of a continuing campaign of threats, intimidation, and murder by insurgents design to spread fear into the public in Iraq. Talk of delaying the election. I have said it before and I will say it again, “They don’t want our form of government.” We need to get out of the business of these countries and take care of our own!
What do I mean? Very close to my home I have two members of my family who are teachers with degrees in Elementary or Secondary Education. Both are unemployed after five or six years in college and six years out. I’ve read we need teachers desperately and yet the next story says that school districts are cutting teacher positions. Then they say that we need to use students who have not yet obtained their degrees because there is a shortage. Either there is bullshit being spread or people mismanaging money somewhere.
Also what about the people who need a job that will at least allow them to feed and house their families, but they don’t have the higher education? Our President has said we will have jobs for people with higher educations, but there are two problems there: One, how does this educated person pay their bills, feed their families, and just survive until that great job becomes available? Problem two is what happens to the people who do not have the ability to learn to earn that higher education. The President said “go to school,” but he didn’t say who would pay for it or where the money would come from for survival while they are doing this.
So it is about three weeks to Christmas and the people around me are in trouble—I suspect each of you have people in trouble too—and you and I need this Nation to stop playing savior for others and take a hard look at saving our own. No more claims of “Well people don’t want to work at menial jobs.” Pay a decent wage and no job is menial. If you, as employers, can’t afford it then this nation had better get off its pompous ass and create some work or provide some assistance to allow you to create it. I know that the bottom line is profit, but dammit if you have the average person struggling and nobody buying then those profits will start to dry up.
So I’ll say that I wish there was going to be a Happy Holidays, but I highly doubt that for some people in a nation with a leadership so busy trying to show the world how to live that they can’t look down from their pedestal to see the problems that the “common folks” at home have.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Just Call Me Hilde!
Picture this a scarecrow in a field with the fannel shirt and baggy jeans hanging on him. Or a little kid in his older brothers’s snow suit! Well this was how my chairs with their new $9. covers looked on Thanksgiving morning. I had worried when I bought them that they would be too small. But no, the opposite turned out to be the visual condition. Everyone was very careful at dinner not to step on them or pull the chair out and rip them. But this was going to have to be corrected and before Christmas Eve.
Today I washed them in hot water to see if they would shrink!. Nope I guess that just because they are not expensive doesn’t necessarily mean they are of poor quality! So on to step two of my plan!
How to do it? Why like Hilde on Trading Spaces. Turn them inside out, place them on the chair, and start pinning! Oh wow what a kick! I never thought I could alter something like that or that it would be so darn easy!
But as you can see I did it and I’m proud as punch!
Friday, November 26, 2004
Thanksgiving!
What a day this Thanksgiving has been. Starting with Wednesday night when the snow came down. By Thursday morning it was (pardon the old family expression) asshole deep to a big, tall Indian!
This flag hasn’t flown in snow in three or so years!
Maybe there will be no worry about a white Christmas this year.
Well we had the whole ‘famn damily ‘ ( as my Mother used to say ) for dinner yesterday. The trip to Illinois for Wes and family got cancelled due to first car trouble and then the electricity in home went out. by the time the car was fixed and the lights back on it was too late to go. Les and family were already up since Wednesday night and Cindy and Dave came up in the afternoon. The turkey was moist, the ham delicious (thanks Wes and Deb), the food was plentiful and the bellies got full!
In the afternoon the the youngsters took the sleds out in the yard. Then after the grandaughters helped Aunt Cindy dry dishes they were out sliding again until dusk.
Dakota and Uncle Dave
Courtney and Jasmine
Jasmine, Dakota, and Uncle Dave. Of course Uncle Dave was most important because he gave everyone a ‘headstart push’. A great time was had by all! Hope your’s was great too!
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Over The River And--
What is this? Thankgiving like in the old days!
I found this a delightful sight tonight especially since I didn’t have to go anywhere! Enjoy the meal, the company, and the memories that will come to visit as you gather tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Preparing For The Feast And the Company!
Yesterday was spent making a vegetable broth to add to the mixture for brining the turkey. I also made some Sherry Spiced Cashews. We got the rest of the shopping for the dinner out of the way except for an extra package of strawaberries for topping the waffles the next morning. I woke up this morning so lame that my first thought was make coffee and the second was climb into a hot shower to try to rinse the pain away. It did help alot but I’m going to have to find something besides Motrin to take the place of the Vioxx I quit.
Tonight one of my ‘GrandDogs’ came to stay with me over the holiday. Her family is headed for Illinois in the morning and she doesn’t travel well. Her name is Zimby for short. She and Molly haven’t come face to face yet so there is still fun to be had this evening! Molly sleeps on the foot of my bed and Zimby when she stayed with me two years ago slept on the foot of my bed also. It is going to get awful crowded before this four days are up!
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Turkeys
“Man, Momma must think I’m dumb, I know that ain’t a real bird!”
Yes I know you know, but it was fun trying to compare which of you looked the meanest!
Yes it is Thanksgiving time again. The flag is up outside with the cornucopia on it and the wreath of fall flowers is hanging on the entry door. The paper turkey is sitting on the top of the downstairs computer desk, and the cardboard cutouts of the indians and pilgrims are thumbtacked to the wall. Not as many decorations as Halloween, but enough to remind me it is cooking time because it doesn’t look like Jay is going to be seeing for awhile. But there is one decoration that Dakota made me a long time ago that will be making an appearance again this year.
Each year I haul it out and wonder how many other Mommas or Grandmas have a turkey as fine as this!
Finished another project and will start another tomorrow morning. It seems like I might get them done if I keep pushing myself. After Christmas I will sit around and wonder what to do with my hands! Well it is about 11:30 pm and my poor old addled brain says give it up for tonight so, good night!
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Three More Down!
It has been a few days since we visited but this is part of the reason--
Yes here are three more projects done with four or five to go. This was my first experience with chenille and I’m pretty happy with the outcome.
I must confess the Wednesday was get rid of the guilt day. I have been knitting and out buying more supplies so the house cleaning was beginning to slide. Now the Hubby can’t see yet and the floors weren’t sticky so I could have gone a little longer but--! So I was up at 7:30am mopping bathroom, utility, and kitchen floors quietly so I wouldn’t wake Jay. (No I won’t show you another picture--you have to take my word for it!)
Hope your Thanksgiving plans are on target. We are moving right along on ours! We have two of our three children and their families coming for diiner. Our eldest is taking his family to the Chicago area to visit with my daughter-in-law’s sister. Do you have any special things planned?
Well I have a pattern to scan before bed so I’ll say Good Night!
Monday, November 15, 2004
Till The Shivers Disappeared!
Mrs. DoF ‘s comment on the previous post triggered a memory long forgotten.
As children I and my three brothers were raised in a farming area. We didn’t farm ourselves but our home was situated between two farms. We had a two story house that was heated by a coal stove in the livingroom. Heat went upstairs through vents in the downstairs ceilings. No pipes to direct the heat.
When we got up for school in the winter it was not unusual to see four shivering children huddled around the stove trying to dress and get warm at the same time. Returning home at night our hands and faces were cold and ugly red. Our feet were wet because we waded in the deep snow over the top of our boots. It was a sight to see the four of us, noses runing, tears falling, and jumping up and down in front of the stove.
Bath time was almost as much of a trial. My Mother warm the water on the kitchen stove and poured it into a round wash tub on the kitchen floor. She also used one of those round, metal, electric doughnuts that you plug into the outlet to heat water to warm up the tub water as it cooled. If you were little the tub was great to use. But for us older kids it was a test. You could sit down in it but your feet and legs hung out over the outside of the tub. This made it difficult to wash said parts without getting water all over the floor. With each child the water got a little dirtier because fresh water for each of us was out of the question.
But as I remember those days it was a good time to be alive. You didn’t need to lock your doors. You could play tag in the evening, running the fields, hiding from each other with no fear of being harmed. In the winter when the snow fell we would trudge over to Gebert’s back field and slide down the hill onto the frozen creek. Then we would hurry back home to take our places in front of the old coal stove until the shivers disappeared!
Sunday, November 14, 2004
A Slow Payoff!
It has been one year and three days since natural gas was installed in our home. All we heard was,"You will regret it”! Natural gas prices are going up! $ 8000. dollars to bring it in is unheard of! You will need conversions on your furnace and range. You need to buy a new water heater.
Yes all that expense was a little hard to take last year but guess what! We have not had one Consumers Engery bill (combined electric and gas) to even come near what we paid for the propane/electric bills in the previous year.
Are we happy? You can bet your life we are! Make no mistake, at our age, it pays to plan ahead!
Friday, November 12, 2004
Being Held Prisoner In a Bag of Yarn!
Haven’t left the house since Tuesday morning. I completed one of the chinelle projects and a matching flower. Started chinelle project # 2. Jay has been suggesting a project for Richard, our friend. Then maybe I could make something for the boys. Also he thought that he could use something homemade also. At this rate I won’t get out until the twelth day of never. Maybe I could teach him the basic stitches and he could help!! Naw Never Happen!!
Of course I have to wonder how much longer I will be able to do this before the hands curl up. So far so good. The only problem so far has been the ankles and knees and I have had that for a long time. I sometimes hobble around like Grandpa McCoy but hey at least I can hobble!!
Jay’s vision is trying to clear but it isn’t happening very quickly. He tries to cook breakfast and I let him. To step in would do more damage to his progress than it is worth. It is better just to clean up after him. Of course I compliment him with ‘ great job for a blind man’!
It is time to start planning the Thanksgiving dinner. We have the turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin and apple pies, and ice cream.. I guess the shopping list is just salad ingredients, because we want them fresh, the stuffing fixings, cranberries, and of course eggnog for the Evil One. So we are pretty well under control!
Question: Why is it every time when posting I type the word better for pretty and don’t realize it until I reread the passage? Is there a Freudian thing ? Or just a brain fart!!