So what did I do?  Move 12 yards of dirt to start a garden.  A rather ambishious feat since we’ve never grown anything in our lives.  It’s in 3 seperate plots and totals about 360 square feet.

We must be nuts.  Or love veggies.

Guess our summer 09 will be spent weeding!

Everywhere I look are closings, layoffs and sliding account values.  It looks dismal.  But this is no time to get mired in the funk.  We’ve got to keep our heads up and pushing forward.  If you listen to the prognosticators of doom your enegy will be sapped.  Leaving you no energy for what has to be done.

Instead I, for one, will focus on what’s good and positive.  Look for possibilty and progress not what I can’t do but what I can.

That’s how my year is going to go.

How about yours?

http://adage.com/article?article_id=133457

I love how things slow down when it snows.  The world goes quiet.  The fireplaces roar to life.  Coffee pots are cranked up to maximum capacity.  And, in our house, at least, cocooning!  Long days reading.  Scoot chairs closer to the fire, wrap up, and watch the world go by.

I’m exhausted.  Time for a nap.

We are terribly sad today to look over at her kitchen window and know she is gone.  Together we had revived an old tradition she had had with her longtime neighbor, Sam, whose house we now occupy, of looking for each other through our windows and waving hello.  If we forgot to raise our bedroom shade, the next time she saw us she’d ask if we were OK.  She was just like that–thoughtful.  Sweet.  The Grandmother we had been without for too long.

She was grace.  And class.  And pride.

Mary was of that generation where you wore nice clothes to run errands.  She delighted in her daily walks.  And her geramiums.  And her tomatoes.  We introduced her to pesto.  She brought us slices of pie from the church bake sale.   We had a beer together at our favorite watering hole.  A sweet, symbiotic relationship–the way neighbors used to be.  And I miss her already. 

Even our cat, Charles, had a special relationship with Mary.  He wanted to live at her house.  So often he would go over and sit at her door and meow, wanting to be let in.  And he did sneak in one day.  But more often than not, Mary would see him and come sit on the porch steps to give him his required attention.  She thought he was a girl, but Charles didn’t seem to mind.

This summer, when we painted our picket fence, Mary insisted on helping.  I had been threatening to start for a week and she looked for me out the window several days in a row.  When she saw the supplies come out of the garage, she was out the door–paintbrush in hand.  She confided later that she was happy to see me rent the power sprayer to do the second coat.  Some of us just take longer to come to solutions–she knew it all along.

Doing a favor for Mary, was like pulling teeth.  We’d head to the grocery store and call to see if she needed anything and she’d say no.  Then the next day we’d spy her coming in the door with a shopping bag.  Gradually, we wore her down and she’d let us pick up the occasional item.  That insistence on doing for herself kept her going.  Gave her something to look forward to.  And kept us in awe.

We will miss her greatly.

But I have to say I did not leave happy, up, or smiling; or any other emotion other than confused.  Wondering why I had spent the money.

This film, for me, falls into that category of movies that have a way of purposely insulting you by making you feel left out if you re not crazy for their genius or you don’t get the nebulous vignettes they’re stringing together.  I would have to mention films such as “Eagle Vs. Shark” in the same sentence.

Perhaps I don’t want to get it if it means sitting through 2 hours of non-sequiters waiting and wondering if something is going to happen.  I still want to be entertained.  Sure, I want to be challenged and caused to question and not force-fed everything.  But if I wanted to watch a group of people get drunk and sit around laughing at seemingly inside jokes that the audience isn’t allowed in on, I’d hang out at the local college dorm on Friday nights.

I loved Vera Drake.  At least it took me somewhere.  I empathized with her.  Felt her pain.  Saw her good.  Poppy (Happy Go Lucky) just eventually annoyed me.  Her life and times were apathetically, superficially and pointlessly giddy often reaching for nowhere.  A feeling I found unsettling.

I don’t consider myself an unsophisitcated dud or movie moron.  Hard to grasp character studies fascinate me.  You can call me a lover of sap, but I’ll take any mainstream canned film that Hollywood puts out over Happy Go Lucky.  At least I know I’m being pandered to–and I’m ok with that.

It was positively wonderful to breathe in the fresh pine air.  Walking with my wife and our “doghter” I couldn’t have been happier.  We liked it so much we made 2 loops! 

Today I am thankful for sunny days in the middle of a Pacific northwest winter, a long happy marriage, the health and energy to take the walk and time to enjoy it.

Up to Upstate NY.  Weather has been beautiful until today.  Chilly, windy and rain…all freaking day. Picked apples 2 different days.  Leaf peeping and generally just hanging with T’s fam.  They are great.

Thursday we head below the Mason Dixon line to NC to see Bro, Kev.  From there to Wilmington, NC (YAY beach time!  Although the weather is going to be f#@king awful.  Then to Nags Head to stay at the world famous Cavalier Motel.  Give a shout out to the memory of Nana and Granddaddy.
Up to VA early Tuesday to see my family.

More later….

After 2 pretty major surgeries in a month, I have been laid pretty low.

For starters:  Emergency appendectomy while traveling in Montana-  2 days in the hospital post-op.   But a big shout out to our friends Chris, Patty, Jack and Molly-dog for allowing us to turn what was to be a 1 day stop over into a 6 day extended recovery.

After getting home, 2 weeks later I proceeded to a scheduled double hernia surgery.  WOW.  That’s a lot of freaking pain.

Now 2 weeks post-op from THAT surgery–I’m on the mend but not able to walk more than about a 1/2 mile. 

We leave next week for a 3 week swing on the East coast visiting family and friends from New York to North Cakalaky.

So I hope to have some great stories to regale you with when I return.  Until then, be well!

We are NOT a Christian nation.  This is NOT a theocracy, despite the efforts of Bush stacking the Supreme Court, favoring faith based organizations and eroding the constitution.

I have nothing against faith.  I think it’s a wonderful thing.  I think churches and other faith based organizations do great, worthy and needed work.  But a little thing called the separation of church and state is more important to me.  We should ALL be free to worship as we please.  Christians, Buddhists Muslims, Dorks, Geeks, Freaks.  That’s what freedom is about. 

The founding fathers were fleeing religious persecution.  To see such a huge number of American’s now reaching for some idealized view of America that includes their particular (Christian) religious views right next to the laws of our land is not just troublesome–it’s downright scary.

Since when did being a Christian become such an important qualification for being President?  Go back and listen to old speeches of Kennedy, Roosevelt, and other great leaders.  They did not feel a need to spout their religious views at every turn.  They sometimes ended speeches with “God Bless America” but that was not a foregone conclusion.  Today if a politician doesn’t profess rabid faith, they are not qualified.  And God forbid (pun intended) they don’t say God Bless America at the end of a speech or worse, wear a flag pin!

How did we get to this ridiculous place?  It’s silly.  Let’s keep our wits about us.  Let’s think critically.  Here’s an idea, let’s think for ourselves instead of waiting for what the pundits and media tell us to think.

I am patriotic.  I am spiritual.  Don’t deride me because I don’t think like you do.  It’s what makes the world go ’round.  It’s what’s made this a great country.  We can’t let that go.

For one, Virginia may yet go blue, along with Ohio and Florida.  For sure Nevada and Colorado will go blue.  Missouri may even go.  Could be quite a landslide.  I am glad to see the United Rednecks of America lose. 

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/whos-ahead/key-states/map.html

As Americans, we need intelligence in the White House.  It’s time for brilliance.  We need leadership to get us out of this mess.  Not bullshit.  Or should I say moose shit.

Time to go back to Alaska, Gov. Palin.  Bow out.  Give up.  America will love you for it.

If, by some strange coincidence, McCain and Palin win, I am for sure immigrating to Canada.

http://palinbingo.com/

Have we not seen enough of this man’s temper to know he would not make a good leader.

Referring to his Asian captures as “gooks”.  Joking about “Bombing Iran”.  Refusing to meet with our Allies (Spain) and in fact, rather than get caught in an error, insisted that we would not speak with them unless they agreed with us.  Insisting that the only good war is one that goes on indefinitely, until we can claim “victory”.  How grossly irresponsible with people’s lives.

Somehow, because McCain has been to lots of places, he’s more experienced in foreign policy.  Kind of like Palin’s ability to see Russia from her house makes her an international expert.

McCain voiced again and again that Obama just did not understand–all the while, Obama was right there running circles around McCain on every issued from Pakistan to Russia.  McCain apparently has so little respect for Obama that he never once looked him in the eye!  THAT’S reaching across party lines to build consensus!  Way to go, John.

I suspect that as this presidential race wears on, McCain will get even more desperate and grasp at whatever straws he can.

I suspect that he, GWB, Rove and Cheney are in talks right now to cook up a little terrorist scare before the election.

McCain is a windbag.  A blowhard.  An angry, out-of-touch, old-school politician who doesn’t give a damn about the American people. 

Hoping for a landslide on Nov 4th.

http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/content/acceptancespeechnd?source=feature_nom