HE WASN'T RIGHT...IN THE HEAD

Braveheart was on the USA network tonight and after the first segment I realized that if I was gonna watch it for the 500th time, I might as well watch my DVD instead of suffering through all the commercials. However...I REALLY want one of those dulcolax beach blankets.So I plugged it in...not the dulcolax, the DVD.
Anyway...I love this movie. And my favorite character is the Irishman, you know, the one who talks to the almighty. It's his island, after all.
Thats my favorite scene, when he comes into camp and volunteers along with that shitheel that he ends up killing to cover the back of william. My absolute favorite part is when seamus calls him a madman and he replies " Well, I guess I've come to the right place then" and the scots look at each other and realize the irishmans right.
Yeah...that's it.

Just another tricky day
It appears that the curse of the call center has moved on to someone else since Saturday was a relatively good day. Today was slow and I got cut early, but worked a half-day so my check shouldn't show too much of a hit. What made this a tricky day was discovering the state of the bank balance. About $200 short of where it needed to be prior to the first of the month. Damn, here I thought we were being so careful, but somehow things slipped away from us again. That damned Visa check card makes it too easy to forgot to log a transaction or two or three and when things are tight, that spells disaster. Besides, it's a little unnerving thinking that every single thing I buy is recorded in some database. Maybe keeping cash in a coffee can isn't such a bad idea after all.

@#$%*&!
Whatever is in charge of the big picture of life has apparently decided to send me all the shit calls at work for the last two days. I suppose this could be punishment for whining about my potential earning power earlier, but the more logical side of my brain says its just the luck of the draw. Whatever the reason, I was very close to a meltdown at about 3:30 this afternoon. Somehow I made it until my 4 pm clock out time and then burst into tears as soon as I got in my car. Although I guess "burst" isn't the right term since only about 4 tears ran down my cheeks, but that's more of a burst than I usually do. Not that there's anything wrong with a good sob, it's just that I tend to save those for more private moments and the parking lot at work is a far cry from private. It doesn't help that tomorrow will most definitely be worse than today since we are extremely short-staffed. Someone just might find me crouched under my desk at work mid-day tomorrow babbling incoherently. Or maybe the hell that has decided to visit itself upon me will go victimize some other poor call center employee and I'll have a breezy day brainlessly stepping folks through the Internet Connection Wizard. Like I said, it's the luck of the draw and I suppose I should count myself lucky that I've survived almost seven months of it since the majority of people that were hired at the same time and went through training with me are long gone. Now on a good day, with thoughts of compensation aside, I really do love my job. Well, at least for the first six hours or so (I haven't got my tolerance level much past that yet.) But on a bad day you might as well be pushing bamboo under my fingernails. And I suppose every job is like that to some extent, but this one seems so much more challenging than others I've had. It's one of the least responsible jobs I've ever done, yet it generates highest stress level I've experienced to date. Go figure.

But enough about work. I played a game with myself last night while trying to go to sleep during a maelstrom of worry about finances. I wondered just what I would buy tomorrow if I was suddenly rich that night. Mind you, this is not any consideration of long term planning, just what I might run out and buy the next day. The top item on the list was... underwear. Yep, I have apparently missed just how important comfortable and well-fitting underwear was to my perception of what constitutes the "good life". So I've decided that next payday, budget be damned, I'm buying myself a pair of my favorite over-priced panties.

Reality
I just learned today what I can expect to earn at my current employer after two years, provided I've managed to get promoted to a level 2 technician during that time. The pay is less per hour than what I made fresh out of high school back in 1979. It put a bit of a damper on my thoughts to work towards that promotion until I remembered it meant $200 more a month than what I'm making now. So while I might be poorer than I was in 1980, I'd still be richer than I was in 2005. And that's a good thing.

THERE WAS THIS FORUM IN WASHINGTON YESTERDAY

Made up of journalists...left leaning journalists, speaking out on the cancellation of the news in this country. More specifically, why we hear wall to wall nonsense about runaway brides and whether or not jacko is more than a nickname ( if you follow my lead ). Or even more mundane bullshit about other celebrities like Paris Hilton...if you want the scoop on her, may I suggest the South Park episode that nails her to the wall
better than any news channel could ever dream. Why?
Because Paris and her ilk, in my opinion, are cartoons and by virtue of this, can only be exposed by other cartoons...like South Park, before you think I'm crazy...they get skewed by cartoonists so accurately because they are not news. They are celebrities, objects of entertainment best dealt with by people involved in the entertainment business. Like the guys at southpark, who have a much broader brush to expose shill shuckster drunken sluts like Paris (seriously...watch the episode ) .
Unless it was me that knocked up Brittany, I could give a shit what extra dancer/rapper type has been tagging her as far as the news is concerned. If he kills her in a jealous rage over Justin whats-his-name, that's borderline news.
That surfer girl that got her armed ripped off by a shark last year? That's not news...that's the chance you take occupying the same water that has creatures capable of ripping your arm off living in it.
That guy that cut off his own arm after getting lost and falling victim to a boulder? Nope...not news. That's just what happens when you hike alone in a dangerous area.
And while we are being beaten over the head by these stories, the real news passes by.
The torture of prisoners at gitmo and abu-whatever. The desecration of the KO-ran (which, by some twist of fate is surfacing again ) . The Downing street memo. In other words, the truth about whats going on in the world while we are inundated by stories about Paula Abdul fucking some contestant on american idol and how exactly did Oprah lose all that weight is being ignored or glossed over or buried in back channels.
If the media wants to focus on entertainment, fine...I like a train wreck just like the other guy, to hear the shit on celebrities is fun and vouyeristic. I enjoyed watching Paris suck that guys dick...it was funny, plus she doesn't know the first thing about giving head judging from the video. You'd think that someone like her could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch...but no...I've seen people at oktoberfest eat corn on the cob more erotically than Paris blew that guy...seriously. And furthermore, why do we judge celebrity on the ability to publisize sex acts? Thanks Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee...oh, and yeah, Brett Micheals. These two bitches have made a killing off of being lowlife sluts in a political environment that frowns on this kind of behavior and even legislates to censor high school cheerleaders. Explain that one...please.
There's entertainment and then there's news.This shit is entertainment, or in the loosest of definitions "social commentary".
Back to the forum.
Al Franken kicked things off, and while I respect his politics, he is an entertainer first and foremost. I don't doubt his sincerity, but I have a problem with the routine. He used a line in his statements that I heard him use on his radio show on air america not a week earlier and ( I think ) more than once. He likened the number of WMD saddam had up to the start of the war to how many he had...which was none. It got laughs on the show and it got laughs at the forum. Was he shooting for laughs or trying to make a point? I think he was trying to make a point, but his detractors would surely say otherwise.
To Al I would say that's entertainment...why not say " Saddam did not have any WMD's and our government lied to us" ... simple and to the point, no funny needed here.
It's really simple...This is news defined, something I learned in high school journalism...WHO...WHAT...WHERE and WHY.
Another Airamerica person spoke...Randy Rhodes...she was eloquent and heartfelt about establishing standards for what is news, one of the most interesting things she said was that according to a recent poll about free press in the world , the US was 29th...29th!!! The biggest exporter of democracy and freedom in the world ranks 29th in regard to free speech.
There's a simple explaination for this...the biggest exporter of democracy and freedom in the world is lying to it's own people and everyone else.
And it's becoming clear.

I'm trying to stay awake past my normal bedtime not because I'm off work tomorrow and could possibly sleep in a bit, but because I'm watering the weeds out front and the sprinkler needs to run for a while longer. Since they are weeds, they require much less water than a conventional lawn, but I can't ignore them completely. If they should die and the ground go bare then the clay soil will turn into an impenetrable brick where nothing will grow for the next 5 years. I know this because that was the state of one section of our backyard when I moved in over 10 years ago. We called it the mud pit and bought hay bales every time we had a party so folks wouldn't end up with muddy or dusty feet. Eventually the hay tuned to compost and weeds actually started to grow, but it took about 5 years and even now there are still bare spots. By watering at night I am breaking one of the "gardening rules" for this area which is that you should NEVER water at night. But these are weeds and I figure they are capable of standing up to the slugs, snails, pill bugs and fungal diseases that night watering encourages. The veggies post more of a dilemma since I don't want them to have to deal with such things, but I am also not supposed to water in the afternoon either. I'm not sure why, maybe because of the heat. All these gardening rules confuse me. And it doesn't really matter what the rules are because I HAVE to water at some point in the late afternoon or early evening, rules or no rules. On a hunch, I've been taking my cue from the flowering tobacco plants. I wait until the blooms are open and then I water. I don't know what their cue is to open, but it seems to be tied more to air temperature than sunlight or maybe it's some combination of both. So far it seems to be working provided you don't count the one pot of green beans. And my mom suggested that maybe those were just planted during the wrong phase of the moon. Her father swore by it and this was a man who not only fed a family of ten from the home garden, but who was also not apt to blindly believe in superstition. So while there's no scientific proof, I figure it can't hurt to pay a little more attention to the moon phases in the future. Besides, I'll be following a family tradition.

Yesterday I had a long string of rude, angry and/or obnoxious callers and by the end of the day I was damn tired of being nice to people. That feeling didn't change any after a night's sleep so I had to keep my fingers crossed that I could maintain a pleasant and helpful phone voice on the phones today. I think I pulled it off. It helped that I got sent home a couple of hours early which, while bad for the paycheck, was very good for my mood. We are going out to dinner tonight with some friends (they are buying.) We haven't been out to eat in ages or for that matter, spent an evening visiting with friends so it will be a welcome change. And who knows, I might even skip the housework tomorrow and spend my day off, well, taking a day off.

BW and Rob have convinced me to give the sickly green beans a bit more time so that's turned into a wait and see situation. The squash is doing the best of all the plants but only producing male flowers right now so I have no little squash yet to watch. We will harvest our first cherry tomato soon (probably tomorrow,) but have had no new blooms now for weeks. This means there's only a handful of tomatoes on the plants, but heck, even just a few makes me feel like a success. I found another big pot laying around that I can use to plant cucumbers and even found some old partial bags of soil so the only money I need to spend is on seed. That's good news since we are still flat broke. The beet seedlings are not very happy due to the record heat we've had this week, but things are cooling down a bit so maybe there's hope. It's all a grand experiment so what ever happens is fine with me.


Happy squash 

DID I SAY SOON? I MEANT NOW.

Prisella Owen...the latest judge brought up for consideration by bunnypants is from Texas. She is a champion of corporations. To quote many detractors of this corporate bitch, she has never met a corporation she didn't like. She has sided with corps and big business despite juries finding for the plaintiffs, overturning judgements and fucking the everyman. She is up for consideration, and if confirmed, will serve for life on the 9th circuit court of appeals...that's a lifetime of dicking us around, taking advantage of the new bankruptcy rules to help big business. But more importanly than that, SHE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE LAW. I'm sure you have all heard about the airlines that have given penshioners the big fuck around hiding behind this new legislation regarding bankruptcy...people who have put in to a "privatized" system now have dick ( social security...read into this SOCIAL SECURITY) because the companies they worked for have taken advantage of a law the bushites have put in place that took their FUTURE away from them.
This is the latest fuck around from Bush and his minions...Please vote them out as parasites in 2006 and make his lame duck years even more lame, perhaps to force an impeachment or a resignation in shame.
Approval ratings are the lowest for these assholes than they have been in years (33%) 33!!!that sucks. Let's take them down. Vote them down...vote them out.
I'm not the most astute political pundit out there and I don't pretend to be, but I know when shit stinks, and this is a giant pile of stinky STINKY shit.
You know it and they know it...numbers don't lie.
Don't let Bushco fuck us anymore than they already have.

AM I THE HANDY MAN OR WHAT?

Several months ago,Sullivan (our spaz black dog) knocked our digital camera off my keyboard tray with a spectacular display of no sense of area and broke the little latch that holds the battery door closed that gives life to said camera. We tried the duct tape repair with decided mixed results...it didn't work. So I did surgery this weekend. Not having the funds to get it repaired by a "qualified professional" (who would have undoubtedly said "you need a new camera") I looked at the situation like a mercenary and figured if I drilled a hole between the body of the camera and the "door" to the battery chamber and shoved something in the hole, it might work.I had nothing to lose.
I used a "teeny-tiny" high speed bit and ever so carefully drilled through the body into the battery cover, just so far. Then I inserted a finishing nail, then I sheared the nail down to the right length...and presto! The camera is back in action, minus the ton of duct tape and resultant duct tape spooge.
SAVE! As Ann's garden pictures testify...there is nothing you can't do with a drill and some determination.
Within reason of course.
Dumb luck? Jack of all trades realized? Or lucky move with the right amount of vodka? You decide.
And, no...I did not do the cabbage patch dance.
Political/social ranting to resume soon....

Sick vs healthy 

You couldn't really tell from my previous picture just how bad off those green bean plants were so I moved the pot for a little comparison. We had some very heavy rains in between the plantings so they may have root rot. Either way, they are toast since I'm going to dig them up, modify the pot for better drainage and plant something else. It's the wrong time of the year for more green beans so I'll have to go with something else. Maybe cucumbers.

Sickly Green Beens 

I don't think these guys are going to make it. The second batch planted a week or so later is doing great and the plants are twice the size. Same soil, same size pot, same package of seeds. Go figure.

I had a good laugh today

Store Wars

Musica
Rob was trying to tune his guitar tonight without the benefit of a tuner and not having much luck. I decided to give it a try and was hit by a flood of memories. You see, I frustrated more than one piano teacher as a child because they thought I had "perfect pitch". Except that I could never name the notes. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get notes to have names in my head. I could name the written notes on the piano score and the keys on the keyboard, but I could not name the sounds. I could tell you if a note was in tune or not, but could never say if it was a C or a G or an F#. They could play a record for me and I could play it back on the piano with the correct notes in the correct key, but I couldn't say off the top of my head while listening to the record, "That's in the key of C". Therefore, it was always decided that I didn't have "perfect pitch". So when I tuned Rob's guitar tonight I figured I could, at best, get things close since it's been thirty years since I messed with any of that "perfect pitch" stuff and to boot, I'm barely a bass player and definately not a guitar player. After I was done, it sounded right and Rob was able to play it just fine, but I couldn't help but wonder just how accurate I was. I drug out an electronic keyboard and scratched in my memory for the names of the notes of the open strings on the guitar and tested them against the keyboard. It turned out my tuning was absolutely perfect. Apparently even though I can't name that note, I can still tune it off the top of my head, from memory.

I NEVER REALIZED

That I was such a studly looking guy. I took a cue from our buddy Special K and went to the virtual model website...and in addition to her looking pretty damn hot, she's right! I do feel better. Just imagine my virtual model covered with tattoos. And, uh, well, somewhat thinner.



If you could add a bit of a gut...OK...a moderate gut to this it would be me...virtually. Oh, and those pecs...whiskey tits that look like pecs.

SO...WHERE'S THAT JIHAD YOU PROMISED US?

You know...that retracted Newsweek story that prompted a bunch of clerics in Afghanistan to threaten us with an ass whooping. They said three days...it's been four. So what's up you cleric mofos? I'm a cleric too, in D&D gaming that is. I've been idle for 20 plus years because I got over it. What's your excuse? Did the Newsweek retraction change your minds? Where's your constitution? If I remember correctly, I have 22 constitution points and 48 hit points. Plus I have a dire wolf. So bring it on. Jihad me asshats.
make believe is fun, isn't it?
Or could it be you have been duped as well?
I've got news for you...we've all been duped. Regardless of how many flags you and yours have burned or the number of korans that have been flushed.
When you get right down to the body counts, none of that shit really matters.
Does it?

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

If you've been following the comments to my posts about dear Mr. Galloway you will have noticed that the consensus ( of two, but I imagine lots of other folks feel this way as well ) is he may well have done some less than above board stuff, but his fervent assault on this issue was right on the money. I agree with this wholeheartedly, it's just a shame that his words come to light under the circumstances that they have. But then again, maybe not. Until the inquiry, I had never heard of him. And probably much of america hadn't. So maybe this scrutiny was the backfire we needed to hear what he had to say.
I believe he opened a door ( with his foot ) for mainstream media in this country, not identifying the problem ( because we all know what the problem is, and anybody who will deny it should be locked up or killed...did I really say that? I meant sent immediately to a re education camp or forcefully sterilized ) but giving us permission to talk about the maggots in the fruit bowl.
And people have been talking. You see and hear it in little ways. Today, I caught a bit of a show on court TV where they were arguing about this filibuster thing, and the GOP groupie was spewing the usual party line about them and the host of the show show told her to stop lying. This wasn't the dem guest refuting the bullshit, this was the host.
Now I know the truth is out there and has been for a long time, but this is mainstream media calling bullshit on the powers that be.
It's like waking up from a bad dream, little bits of reality filter in until you realize it was a bad dream.
I hope we continue to gain momentum.
But lets get back to Galloway for a minute, or rather the notion that he can be guilty of improprieties, but this time he told the truth, so in this instance he is vindicated.
There's an old adage that even a broken clock is right twice a day. And I can think of no other that describes todays politicians ( regardless of party ) more aptly. There are no clean politicians, there have never been clean politicians, ever. They are all players, and always have been. Just like us regular folk, they have skeletons in the closet too, only the skeletons they carry around have the potential to do more damage than that time you told your wife you quit smoking and your evening walks with the dog included a pass by that rock where you hid a pack of marlboros and a lighter.
That being said, there's a difference between a nick from shaving and a dagger to the heart. Bushco has been and is a dagger to the heart of this country. A dagger that everyone ignores...sure, we can feel it digging in, but until now it has never been acknowledged in such a plain in your face way. It appears that maybe...maybe Bushco is losing it's lock on the mainstream media.
And it's about fucking time. I'm all about flawed heros...I loved Eastwood in Unforgiven.
I'm waiting still, just a bit more hopeful.

STRONG MEDICINE

George Galloway handed the hats to a senate inquiry commitee yesterday regarding the food for oil dealio and our involvement in Iraq in general. The following are excerpts from that commitee that I stole from subversity, who got it somewhere else. It's powerful stuff, and I saw it live, and I was riveted by his words.

George Galloway, a maverick kicked out of the British Labour Party for his fervent opposition to the Iraq war and for personal attacks on Prime Minister Tony Blair, used the opportunity to criticize the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Before the hearing started, Galloway dismissed the panel as a "neo-con ... pro-war, Republican lynch mob."

Galloway bluntly confronted the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and challenged the attorney to back up claims the British MP profited handsomely from the now defunct program. Some of his harshest remarks concerned Coleman's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that ousted President

"Now I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," Galloway said.
Galloway accused Coleman of sullying his reputation and falsely asserting that he gave money to Saddam. "You call that justice?" he asked, adding later: "This is utterly preposterous."
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives -- 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies," he said.
The British MP told reporters later he felt Coleman had failed in his cross-examination. "He's not much of a lyncher," he said.

Speaking the Truth To Power

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction."

"I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda."

"I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001."

"I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning."

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies."

British MP George Galloway
Senate Testimony
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

That's some serious shit...I was as impressed by what he said and how he said it...he sounded like Sean Connory. I emailed our friend BW who lives in the UK and inquired about Mr. Galloway. In addition to confirming the power of a scots accent and agreeing with the overall notion that he kicked our senate commitee square in the nuts, BW revealed some sketchy stuff that would suggest he's not what he appears to be. Another UK blogger that lives in Galloways district has some disconcerting things to say about him, go check it out.
On the face of it, Galloway is speaking the truth, a truth that I agree with and a truth that we as americans needed to hear. And we heard it on CNN live yesterday and in endless replays on the other networks as well. Air America radio was all over it today. It got more coverage than I thought it would since it was decidedly calling bullshit on bushco in a more pointed and public way than I've heard...ever.
To come out swinging this hard you have to be beyond reproach. I just hope that when it all washes out he is that and can't be discredited by bushco.
Otherwise, it means dick.
BUT...if he is legit, this could be the first serious ( mule fucking republicans notwithstanding ) blow to the bullshit.
My fingers are crossed for Mr. Galloway.
And the world.

MORE LIES

It would appear that this whole quran desecration thing is a crock...And while I heard this news the morning after my initial indignant post about it, i decided to wait awhile before posting about it again. Newsweek has retracted the story, everyone is in an uproar over it. 15 people are still dead (at least) and the pot has been effectively stirred in Afghanistan.
Cue camera three! split frame focus on opposing parties...stat! Come on everyone! It's Afghi's turn in the spotlight...North Korea is next.
Do they really think we're that stupid?
YES.
Propaganda.
More lies.

LIFE IN THREE PARTS...OK , MAYBE FOUR

PART ONE

I thought maintenance guys were dummies. We are in the middle of a slowdown where I work, so the week is shorter hours wise. Being in the union I could drag off this job and sign the books and go somewhere else, but I don't want to. I like where I am, and I want to stay there. I just don't know if we can suffer through financially. Plus, as I've mentioned before, journeyman electricians are notorious for treating apprentices like shit. I can handle playing and teasing, but if you shit on me, I'm sorry, I'm gonna shit on you. I've been around too long to be demeaned. So, the option is non union full time employment. My social worker days are long over, mostly because I don't have the heart for it anymore and partly because (and more practically) no one would hire me looking like I do...so, it's maintenance work for me.
I applied at an apartment complex today who advertised a preference for people with pool experience. My pool experience was the first thing out of my mouth..."I can clean your pools, I can maintain and repair your equipment, and I was a parts manager so I know what to get when it breaks and know how to find it". They were impressed. Then they gave me the packet.
The one with the 100 item test. TEST!!!!AUGHHHHH! I hate tests. I did ok with the plumbing and electrical sections, I managed the carpentry and appliance repair sections. I completely tanked on the HVAC section. I can change a filter on a air conditioner, but beyond that I'm Corky from Life goes on. We'll see what happens.

PART TWO

Side jobs are a definite possibility. I went to my corner store and spoke with the owner about doing some minor electrical repair for him on the side. He immediately said I need my side lights repaired - you can start there. They are getting bulbs and will call me. He owns several stores in Austin, so this could develop into something sweet.

PART THREE

I want to live in TVLand. For some stupid reason, I watched an episode of Highway to heaven with Micheal Landon as the angel. This particular episode dealt with trying to integrate an amerasian child into the family...you see, dad was "lonely" and "afraid" while he was in the Nam, and stilled his apprehension and fear by tagging one of the locals. They had a lovely girl child who lived a life of hatred and derision until mamasan shipped her off to america, where she was met with the american version of hatred and derision. The son's best friend from next door father was killed in Nam by a "gook", so he is naturally full of hate, his mom congratulates the new mother on getting a maid asking "has she figured out american vacuums yet"? There is much conflict. Finally, Jonathan (landon) and his sidekick (Victor French ) solve the problem with guidance from god. They also paint the new parents house by some "coincidence" and are present to intervene and set things right. It appears that the neighbor boys dad was killed while helping "his adopted children" in Saigon...and those children were...you guessed it, those amerasian orphans that our american soldiers populated the countryside with while they were dealing with their "fear" and "apprehension" by searching for some "peace". The gook hating bigots are magically transformed and this transformation coincides with the girls birthday. Sweet.
All kidding aside, and scraping off the unbelievable amount of cheese, I had to give the writers props for clumsily tackling an important issue of the day with such honesty (albiet schlocky as hell, and with Micheal Landon as the impetus of change ). This was pretty ballsy for TV circa 1977, and I was a little impressed.
That a generational problem could be resolved in an hour was somehow appealing to me and a reminder of how fucking naive we were 30 years ago. It was almost refreshing to remember a time when understanding was so simple.
And then I switched over to CNN where some guy named Galloway from England was dressing down an inquiry committee about this mess in the middle east. He rocked. He spoke the simple truth ( in my mind ) and the assholes on the inquiry committee ( also in my opinion ) were at a bit of a loss.
This one won't be solved in an hour. Where's Landon and French when you need them?

PART FOUR

I have some Hummel figurines from the late 50's and early 60's...any takers? Yeah, I thought not.

That ain't no way to raise babies
That's something I heard on an episode of COPS the other night from an officer that was talking to a women who was raising her children in a house with no natural gas or electricity. Mind you, there were other things wrong with this situation that probably warranted the statement as a whole, but it really pissed me off that he made the statement specifically in regards to having no electricity or natural gas service. Rob and I had a spirited discussion over this other night where he reminded me that I'm probably one of the few of my generation who ever actually spent time living quite comfortably in a house that didn't have indoor plumbing, gas or electricity. And he reminded me that the cop was at least one generation beyond mine and had probably never conceived of such a thing as even being possible, that you could actually raise children without electricity and gas. It appears that yesterday's luxuries are today's necessities and kids born today will probably think that life can't possibly exist without cellphones and cable TV. We've all been hoodwinked into an increasingly expensive standard of living that some of us can no longer achieve. And we've been, to some extent, forced to swallow it hook line and sinker. There's no way I could survive where I live without paying for city water service. I can't drill a well in my backyard and even if I could, the water would be undrinkable from pollution. So I'm stuck with city water, though I could probably get by without the electricity. But I also have to cough up $250/month for property taxes that pay for, well I'm not sure what all, but the biggest chunk goes to schools even I have no children attending them. But if I don't pay it, I'll lose my house. Think about it, $250/month just to keep your hands on land and a house you already own. Maybe it's just me, but that's seems really wrong. And then there's the whole issue of mandatory car insurance. We pay $120/month for this because we have bad credit thanks to being laid off a couple of times over the last few years. I fail to see the connection between bad credit and car accidents since I've not had an accident or ticket in well over 20 years, but the insurance companies disagree and charge us through the nose for something we are required to have BY LAW if we want to drive a vehicle. I'd just as soon ditch the vehicle if I had adequate public transportation in this town, but despite paying 1% sales tax plus a fee to ride the bus, it still doesn't go where I need to go 90% of the time. Now there are city things that raise our expenses some, but it's not much cheaper to move to the country. There's still the property tax issue and those taxes are not that much cheaper out of town. You definitely have to have a car and you'll spend more money on gas going into town to work and to buy necessities so I see no big advantage over moving out to the country except that I could have a cow. Maybe it's just a childhood fantasy, but I've had fresh churned butter before (churned it myself numerous times) and it was so worth the effort. But other than that, there's not many advantages to moving out of town, at least around here where any plot of land within driving distance of your job costs just as much as your in-city plot. I figure we just have to make the best of it where we sit and trim expenses where we can until we sell the house, buy an RV and start making our living as campground hosts.