Will anyone vote for me?

I put a photo in the San Diego newspaper photo contest. There are submissions better than mine, but mine has a bird sticking out his tongue and that's pretty good. Anyhoo. I would sure like to get bumped up to page one of the animals category just so at least I'm on page one. Will any of my readers vote?

Being honest, you'll have to register and I know it's a pain because you want to just point and click and be done. But they have to have some way to ensure one person doesn't vote 80 times - one person, one vote. If I beg, would it help?

The link to my bird and the place to vote is:

http://socalphotocontest.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1007005184&search=278__283__288__293

I'm in the Animals/Pet category and you can see #1 is a puppy and a lady's manicure. She has 220 votes. Yikes. Go figure. But People's Choice Award is only one of the awards offered. In mid-September actual judges will judge the photos and there will be more than one prize. The topic is Southern California Faces and Places.

Thaaanks to anybody who votes. I've never put a photo in a contest before. I feel kinda sheephish asking for votes. Please vote! I'm sure I can collect about five votes from my blog readers. I feel it in my boooones!

She walks with the robins

The weather got cool this evening. There were hardly any grasshoppers and the crickets' singing filled the air. I can understand why the Native Americans consider Bear's Lodge a sacred place. I could hear the wind blowing through the trees and up to the tower. Gorgeous place.

The sun was still shining when I got to the prairie dog town. I walked the trail around the circumference of the town and on the side by the river, Belle Fouche, these four young robins bounced along the trail in front of me. And they didn't fly off when I caught up with them. When I would take a few steps they would take a few hops. It was so cute. We took turns walking that way for what seemed like a long time. They must have wanted to eat the tasty morsels of bugs in the grass because they would disappear into the tall grass for a second and then reappear. Maybe they thought I was the fifth bird behind them and that I was just a really big one!

In any case, me and my camera (poor grammar, I know) were at one with the birds for a little awhile tonight. What an experience.

Hair

I found instructions for making an Amish style hairdo.  I started out with two braids.  

The top of the braids are a little different than usual.  You start a braid and then make it a strand to start another braid.  You do that three times.  It leaves you loop holes to pull the ends of the braid through.

  

And this is the final.  I've done it three times and the other two times I did it the Amish way and it looked just so-so.  Today I fiddled with the braids and crossed them over (like the beginning of the Amish instructions by MusicLady), but then I did my own thing.  I took the elastics off the end of my braids, tucked them in best I could, and put in two small bobby pins.  'Tis real comfy and when I take it out the braid waves are nice.

Stop, Drop, and Roll

I go out walking every evening.  There was more sun than usual tonight.  I guess because the days are getting shorter.

There are millions of these grasshoppers in the grass.  Normally, I'd freak, but they jump away from you, not on you.  One day I forgot to put on tennis shoes and I walked on the street into the park with flip flops on.  It gave me the heebie jeebies and I never forget to change shoes now.  

Last night I did a silent scream.  One of the grasshoppers jumped onto my neck!  Eeek!  Luckily, luckily he bounced right off, but if he'd stuck on me or had gone down my top I'd have screamed.  That's why I titled this "Stop, Drop, and Roll."  Thing is, that's for when you catch on fire.  I wasn't on fire, and I wouldn't want to throw myself down on the ground with the rest of the grasshoppers either!

I don't want to see this photo with a macro lens.

AAAaagh!

Double AAAAAUUUUGGH!

The only way I can get comments back is to revert to an old template from TWO YEARS AGO. Eeeek. It feels a little crowded in here after having a big, wide, stretched out, pure white blog.

My followers are missing. Oh nooooo.

And when I upgrade the template, comments won't show even though comments are definitely enabled. Oh dear.

Plant closure just announced

Our boy will lose his job in March. News of the plant closure is reverberating throughout the California Bay Area as I type this. Four thousand, five hundred employees work at the plant itself, and an estimated 30,000 men and women work for companies in the state that are subcontractors providing materials such as glass and tires, etcetera, etcetera.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-plant28-2009aug28,0,4907237.story

It's not only the end of a fantastic job for our son, but the end of auto manufacturing in the state of California. NUMMI is the last of its kind in California.

Once upon a time Chrysler, Toyota, GM, and Ford all had plants in California. The high cost of doing business in California, plus having the labor union is a heavy load for any company to bear. Toyota has never closed up a plant in the history of the world. This is a first.

I will always think highly of Toyota. We drive a Ford truck, but I'd buy Toyota in a heartbeat. They've done their level best.

omg

Is there any more hackneyed, trite, overused acronym than OMG? Is there? I always read it as "Oh my gosh," but I think more frequently the commonly accepted phrase is "Oh my God." Hey, has anyone heard not to take the Lord's name in vain? Do people even comprehend the power that God has? I think not because if they did they would not bandy His name about as if they were saying "awesome" or "no way" or "yippee."

I grew up in a godless household. We were taught to be good but it didn't have anything to do with Jehovah. We never went to church. We didn't have a Bible in the house. Nobody prayed. On the contrary, we were trying to do astral projection. And even so, from the time I was in elementary school we clearly knew not to say, "Oh my God." It wasn't allowed. It just wasn't. What happened to the world?

Today, practically three inches high on the front page of Drudge I see the headline of the day, OMB:OMG. Ugh. I am so weary of OMG.

Ted Kennedy died. There's a guy who made a life on the Kennedy money and name and nothing much else. All I can think of when I think of him is Chappequiddick and Mary Jo Kopechne. How does a guy like that get voted to the Senate.

I can hardly stand Rush Limbaugh. He always talks about himself. But Monday he had the funniest audio clip making fun of the Your Life, Your Choices guide for end of life decisions that the Obama administration wants disseminated to veterans. The Bush administration suspended its use because end of life decisions belong to individuals and families only. Government has no business sticking its nose into something so personal as death and dying. The sound file is at http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/New/yourlife.asx :)

And who's going to want to work for the CIA if there's a probe and someone is prosecuted? Obama is setting a terrible, terrible precedent by following through on an investigation. Every administration after this one can always find something to investigate from the previous administration. You have to move forward. Presidents should stick together on some things no matter what. Move forward.

I got a new top

I like my new top a whole bunch. It's cotton and made in India. Hopefully it washes well. I bought it at Gorpman's which is a store that is only in the mid-western states. I think they carry a fine selection of clothing and the prices are reasonable. My sister was telling me to hand wash it or buy these strips at Wal-Mart that suck color out of the wash so colors that bleed into the water won't discolor other articles of clothing, but I told her it's gotta go in the plain old washer at the public laundromat with all the other clothes and survive or die. She got exasperated with me.

Dusk today.

Rushmore

Here's Rushmore. It looks faraway because I used my wide lens, but last time we were here I used my other lens. A lot of my previous pics are archived in in July 2007. I have 16 photos there that I shot last time we were at Devils Tower KOA. That year I saw a badger! A badger is a highly rare sighting. Strangely, I realize I never posted a photo of Mount Rushmore on my blog. That's odd.

The presidents from left to right are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (a redhead in real life), Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.


Here's the buck I've been hoping to see again. Would you believe he saw me first and ran away when he was only about 20 feet from me, but he was below a small ridge where the grass is waist high so I never saw him till he was fully running away and he was in the trees already. Doggone it! This photo I had to crop. If I can get just a leetle bit closer he will be 2010 calendar material! He's even shyer than the female does though.


My yet unfulfilled goal is the catch a photo of a horse running. These horses are grazing in the pasture next to us in the late afternoon. Took this one with my telephoto lens on the long end. I thought my 28mm to 135mm would do the better job so I ran home and changed lenses and carried my whole lens backback with me to be sure I could change quick if I needed. Well, of all the pony photos I took, the one with the first lens turned out nicest. Live and learn.


I shall now start boiling a chicken for dinner. I'm making chicken soup tonight. I looked at a lot of fancy chicken photos last night and got very hungry. Haha!

Peeking doe

A doe peeping at me.

I reread yesterday's post. I don't think I write about our son as well as my mom talks about him. I like to hear her when she talks about him. And once, our son said to me that he likes to hear Granny talk, especially when it's about him. It struck me, because as a child I remember liking to hear my mom talk, chat with family, and I always liked when her conversation turned to me and she talked about me too. Seeing, or hearing of myself, through my mom's eyes, was different. I was me, but kind of better. More interesting. I have to think about this some more.

Bumblebee

Bees are very fast. I needed my shutter to close half a second sooner. Someday I would like a macro lens. A macro lens is for up close small things. It magnifies. I'd like to do flowers - dramatic sort of flowers. Someday. I don't know if it actually magnifies, but the photos sure look detailed. I like seeing water droplets on flower petals. And I like close ups of stamens.

Tomorrow we're driving to see Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, and Roosevelt. Where are we going? It's two hours from here. Guess!

He's a blur

Perfectly out of focus
EASTERN KINGBIRD
Tyrannus tyrannus

Ah! Better.

I feel like I'm rich. Like that feeling when you walk out of the library with an armful of new books? Only I feel rich because my husband extended our stay here until the first of September!

Our son has the gavorka. He didn't get it from me and he didn't get it from my husband. He just has it. It's God given.

He's been helping out the campground owner here I guess. My husband went in to pay for more days and they gave us three days for free. At a KOA campground, that's a lot. I don't know how we got this child.

And the owner found out our son has a leather care business and evidently the owner's dad is a leather craftsman. He's going to give our son some tips and tricks and says he has some saddles our son can do for $28.00 each. Our boy, he's not afraid of work. It's just the way God wired him up. He's been like this since he was a tot. He used to like watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" on tv and I'd use one of their lines and tell our son to be sure to make himself useful. Hehe. He really does too. He makes himself useful.

Husband and he were at the John Deere store yesterday. He's started a new hobby - cap collecting. They gave our son a free hat and a free keychain. It's the gavorka again. Well, there was a guy there who said my husband was sure buying our son a lot of stuff. He said it in a way that my husband could tell he thought the boy was being spoiled. But my husband told him up straight up, he wasn't paying for the goods. Our son was spending his own money from what he earned from his shoe shine business. That's a fact. And the fella looked at our son a little different after that.

I didn't see a porcupine or a raccoon today. I saw a young buck though. He was too far for a calendar picture, but I could see his new, velvety antlers. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for him!

Another week!

We get to stay an extra week! Oh boy! We intended to leave on the 26th, but we get to stay longer. We didn't realize that Labor Day is September 7th. Seems kind of late, but it is the first Monday of the month. We don't want to get back to New Mexico before Labor Day or we'll have to work. Don't tell our ranger we said that. Haha! It's just that today was over 100 degrees down there and we don't wanna work outside in that hot weather. We usually direct traffic because the lines get so long.

On to photos. Partly, I have trouble selecting a photo so I don't post one, but I went through a couple sets and just made a pick. My hope is that I may see a porcupine or a raccoon this year. They come out at dusk and the light is not the best at that time. Last time we were here I saw one of each, but my porcupine pic looked scary instead of cute and my raccoon was too far away. I didn't have my telephoto lens back then.

Do the eyes ever get tired of looking at a fawn? I don't think so. This one walked quite close to me as I knelt down watching him. He's in the yard of a restaurant. They come in the evening to graze on the green grass.


His mama wasn't too sure about him walking in my direction. She stayed by the back fence.


I have eight billion photos of prairie dogs. I love 'em so much. They can be kinda gross. They can be carnivorous you know. The nursing mothers will cannibalize other babies. That'll give you nightmares. But mostly they eat grass and blossoms and such. These two are "kissing." It's a greeting that they use with one another. I saw two fights today but didn't catch them in time. I got one jump/yip but he was turned sideways from me. I was at the prairie dog town two hours today trying to catch a jump/yip. I turn to the right and one to my left will do it. I turn to the left and one on my right will do it. Or, I can't find him through my viewfinder so I lift my head for a moment to check where he is, and that's when he jump/yips. Lil' rascals. We're too late in the year to see babies. They're all grown already. And fat. My goodness they're little fatties.

They're kind of nuzzling each other. They're very social little creatures.

My skirt stunk

Well, finished my purple skirt tonight except for the hem. It sure looks different on the tall, skinny model on the pattern front. The waist made me look like a short, stout, chubby-kins. I looked like I should be in front of the stove cooking some spaetzel. Before I put in the waist elastic it looked so promising on the hanger. Funny thing is, I look fine in tiered skirts. I love tiered skirts and they have elastic waist. Yet apparently flared godet inserts with elastic at waist do not suit me. Who knew.

IN the trash it goes! With sincere discontent.

Aha! Here I am.

We made it through the concrete jungle.

We passed Wyoming state line on Friday and made Devils Tower on Saturday. Devils Tower National Monument is at the tippy northeast corner of the state of Wyoming. The drive was okay. We had excellent driving weather, cool and cloudy, but some rain. Part of one day we had a head wind (bad for fuel mileage) and part of another day we had a tail wind (good for fuel mileage).

You have to go through some urban areas to get to Wyoming; for instance, Denver. Denver be pretty big.



Of note, some peeps may have heard of Mile High Stadium in downtown Denver. We drove by it.





Went through Denver at 1:00pm and that's a good time. Never drive through at rush hour. We did it once and we were sorry. It might not have been Denver, but some big city, we didn't time it right. We always check our big city drive through time now. You'll only do that once. We were lucky here in that the traffic was almost at a standstill going in the other direction. You can see the cars are close and not moving much. Glad we didn't need to take the off ramp here either. The traffic is at a dead stop on the overpass.



Now here's north of Denver, and this is what I'm talkin' about, baby. This is where I've been yearnin' to be.



We went through the town of Douglas which is hosting the state fair. Would have loved to stop, but wouldn't you know it. We have reservations at Devils Tower. They have the town all decorated up and the place was sparkling clean.



Wal-Mart in my town is plain, but Wal-Mart in Gillette, Wyoming, has buffalos on the front of it. Pretty spiff, huh?



We have to fuel up again. I'm fast. I can run to the trailer and make lunch for three in the time it takes my husband to fuel up the truck. What caught my eye is the Taco John's across the street. Couple three years ago we went to a Taco John's. I ordered a taco or something and can you believe it. It came with tater tots. Tater Tots! My mom used to feed us tater tots when I was twelve years old. They're in the freezer section of the supermarket. Tater Tots definitely ain't Mexican. We never went to Taco John's again, but I threw such a fit about the food that every time we see one my husband asks me if I want to stop there. He does it just to annoy me.



We saw very big coal plant that was generating electricity. Imagine a person standing next to it and you might get an idea how massive this thing is.



We're at Devils Tower now and walked around the base of it and we went to the Visitor's Center. Our son bought me a cool bookmark there. I love it. Today I'm making chicken soup and I'm getting my sewing machine out right after I post this. I took photos yesterday. I got a fawn running and rock climbers climbing the tower and prairie dogs in the prairie dog town. The weather is mild and cool. Two years ago it was boiling hot in the 100s every single day. We overheard people in Wal-Mart talking about miserable hot it was only a few days ago. This weather is wonderful, may be unusual for this time of year but I'm not sure, and I wonder it it'll heat up again. I think I'm in heaven! Wyoming is as gorgeous as it was when we were here last time in 2007.

Sweet driving days

Obama said that it's not UPS or Fed-Ex having problems. It's the United States Post Office that's having problems. Well yeah! UPS and Fed-Ex are privately run. That's what we're sayin'. The government runs the post office. Obama stuck his foot in his mouth there.

I slept really well last night. I think I know why. Brushing the horses for an hour. I think it did me good. Cool, huh.

This picture is a Golden Eagle - a young one, I think.

Tomorrow we'll be in Wyoming, but not quite to Devils Tower! We drove 6.5 hours and we're at the tippy northeast end of New Mexico. It's higher here and cooler and hillier, but still arid. Beautiful.

I didn't sew because after dinner I was sleepyish.

A triptych

I got to spend as much time as I wanted with the horses. I brushed this one for such a long time that I felt calm and comfortable by him. I started taking his picture. Lots of his picture. He didn't mind. I saw his ears perk up at the sound of the shutter release at first. His name is Tiger which does not do him justice. I don't think he seems like a Tiger. His tail is short because where he came from other horses chewed his tail. How mean. I gather it can be a problem for horses. I should have photographed his tail. On the other hand, it wasn't an especially pretty tail. On the other hand, I didn't touch up the photos at all, so it would have fit the theme of realness very well. Lastly, truth is, I was afraid to walk behind him, so I didn't think to snap his tail till now. I would like to shoot him again with my DSLR. I used my little camera today. I've seen some awesome horse body photography. I saw one once that made the horse's back look long and gorgeous like a valley and hills. I saw one once of a horse in morning fog, in profile atop a ridge, reared up on his hind legs. The photographer was in the right place at the right time and won first prize for it. Lovely, it was. Still in my mind.

Tomorrow we're off to Wyoming. Praise the Lord for Wyoming and that we can go. I will be seeing the prairie dogs!

Terrible news I got today. My online friend, a young woman in NM, got C. Diff again. She found my blog in July and emailed me. We talked back and forth. I got better, then she got better. We were glad. But 11 days after she finished the med she fell ill again. She saw the doctor today. I am so sad for her. It's like a blow to my chest. I looked on the calendar and I got well on July 8th. It seems so long ago now. Perhaps I should collect the healing verses from the Bible that helped me and send them to her. She's real down. She's real blue, but trying not to be pessimistic. It's hard. It's a hard trial having your health taken no matter what age, but especially when you're young.

Fish fry

We're goin' to a fish fry at the ranch today. I'm making brownies to share. Mmmm, they smell so good. I cut them smaller than usual so more people will get a piece. I hate being awake all night long though. After we some home from these things I'm sleepless in Seattle. Too much brightness and straight, fast, colors in my mind. No sound. Even my usual ruminations are wiped out. Superseded. The next day is not pleasant. I'd think I'd be able to control it by now. I've tried to embrace it, ignore it, analyze it, go with it, drink it away (well, one shot of whiskey), dismiss it. Meh, same all the time since I was 16. One thing for sure, I'm not having a shot (o' whiskey) to try to sleep. I've had no alcohol for four months and I'm keeping it that way. The devil can kiss my ass. That's what Martin Luther said when he had a beer. I'm having no beer, I never liked beer anyway, and am using the same sentiment. When I say it, my husband looks at me like I said a four letter word. I'm not quite sure why not drinking is a good character trait, but I can see that it might be damaging to my witness. Not because I abuse it, but others do. I think that's it? Anyhoo, in my discipleship I sense a rightness in letting go of the alcohol. For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 50: 7

I have five of eight godets done. It's pronounced go-DEBT, as in go-DET. I've been pronouncing it wrong. At least I never said it to anyone who knows how to pronounce it. That would have been embarrassing. Once I went to the store and asked for joe-joe-bah oil. And once I went to the store and asked for grahs-grain ribbon. I destroy the English language.

We did Ogden Nash poems today. Our son liked Nash's writings best of all. We finished reading some of Lewis Carroll's writing and Edward Lear (limericks) last week.

My friend has entered her pups into a contest and you can vote once a day for them. If you want to help them win will you please go to:

The Four Little Munchkins

The little munchkins really want to win! Thanks!

I'm optimistic

I cut the pieces out. You see four pattern pieces and each one has four fabric pieces cut out. This pattern is easy. I've sewn in one godet - seven more to go. The point is a little tricky, but the first one turned out well. I hope it wasn't a fluke. If it turns out, I think a second one would be ultra cute if the godets are a contrasting fabric.

But you wanna see a killer diller cute skirt? This one she calls her rainbow patchwork skirt and it has 520 squares at the hemline! Now that's what sweet dreams are made of. -->

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=23be45dbb34b775015fb5f68b8b71da5&topic=259659.0

I'm sewing

I have purple cotton and I cut out the pieces today. I'm making a skirt with godets. It'll be a lot of sewing, but easy, straight sewing. My trailie is too little for me to lay out the fabric so I took it to the conference room. They let me lay it out on the floor there! Those rangers are so nice. I love park rangers.

He said

This morning when I took lunch to my husband he called me his little dumpling. It made my day.

We went for a family drive in the evening. Our son's friends went to the movies in Cruces but our son doesn't care for movies. (He'll only watch mostly old ones, classics, except the Stooges aren't classic are they?) His other friend was gone to a birthday party. We had to think of something to do with just us. We decided we needed to go on a drive - to get in shape for going to Wyoming on Thursday. Haha!

Then we saw a place in the lake where a lot of white cranes were feeding. They were so pretty.

Oh dear

Typo, typo, typo alert! I meant "He who permits evil commits evil." Not "He who commits evil permits evil" Oh dear. But you know what I meant right? Right. :)

Smooth

I like the song "Smooth" by Santana. I'm going to buy it. I saw on YouTube, a girl belly dancing to it and she's a doll. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNeTKUGIK_I I belly dance to non-Middle Eastern music and it's refreshing to see someone else do it. Suddenly I'm not so weird! She has a great smile and beautiful hips. I think I found two skirts I like at dahlal.com.

We opened the front door today after watching the movie The Black Stallion, and burnt orange light flooded the trailer. Oh it was gorgeous. Earlier, we had rain and thunder and lightning so we decided to make brownies and watch a movie. We put blankets over the windows to make it dark inside. When the movie was over we opened up and it was like entering The Wizard of Oz. Whew. You don't get many days like that. Never had a single such day in all my 46 years in Southern California. In one direction, fiery orange clouds; in the other direction dark gray, in between the two, a rainbow! The heavens declare the glory of God.

For school we talked about the saying "He who commits evil permits evil." The following is from our text. Henry A. Overstreet said that this is what makes for the haunting sense of guilt in our culture. Many a member of the dominant group will earnestly aver that he never intended that Negroes should be insulted and maltreated: that his heart is sore and ashamed when he reads of the defiling of the Jewish synagogues by hoodlums. He did not intend these things, but he created the social sanction for these things.

And we discussed that the current health care reform permits federal funds to be used to abort Americans who are as yet unborn. Should we stand silent and say and do nothing, or should we be active and say and do something. If so, what.

I'm reading Ronald Reagan's autobiography. It's full of information about Ronnie! Of course!

He used the term "veiled socialism," referring to the programs FDR started, and contends that handouts destroy the human spirit. He said FDR's son told him that FDR never intended for the government programs to become permanent. He meant to help those in need during the Depression, but that once a bureaucracy is born it never goes away. Reagan is a tither. Was a tither. He gave the Lord 10% since he was a little boy. His mama taught him about faith. The other day Glenn Beck said that one of our presidents, forget which one, was talking to the Russian leader Khrushchev and our prez was boasting about capitalism. Khrushchev laughed and said that when socialism comes it creeps in slowly. Those aren't his exact words, but that's the idea. Made me think. It's helping me form my thoughts.

The brownies turned out super good! Lately, I'm hooked on the brownies.

Clean

Today I cleaned the bathroom mirror and the bathroom sinks. I cleaned 'em and they're clean. They look clean. We had to have the trailer repair man come inside and so I didn't want him to see spittle and toothpaste on the mirror and dirt ringing the sinks.

My husband said we should have the trailer repair guy over a lot more often. Why I oughta.

Hi

I don't own a tv so I can't watch the Keith Olbermann show. I admit, the first time you signed me up to the Huffington Post I smiled. I thought it was mildly funny in a mischievous way, but it's not funny if you keep doing it.

So if you don't go away and leave me alone I'll put forth the effort to track you. I can access the IP address of every visitor to this blog. If one of the sites will share with me the originating IP address of the individual who signed me up and it matches an IP addy of anyone who visits here, I will contact the internet service provider and complain. They'll have your IP address and your billing address. The Internet is anonymous, but not that anonymous.

I'm against health care reform because our nation hasn't got the means to pay for it. There are other reasons, but that's the big one. I'm not against it for all time but the way it's looking right now in 2009, I'm fully against it. I'm against cap and trade environmental policy. I think it should be called cap and tax. And where are all the jobs Obama promised with the passage of the $787 billion dollar stimulus package? There's no possible way to count how many jobs have or haven't been created and it sure hasn't been the millions he promised. I don't want to see taxes raised. Taxes on the wealthiest one percent of Americans is already 40% of gross income and in 1987 that number was 27%. Do you know that the tax revolt of the original Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a protest against a three cent tax? I'm against taking from the wealthy and redistributing it to the poor because I believe what you work for is what you get. When I was poor and on welfare I had Medi-CAL coverage. I worked full time the whole time I was on welfare and paid most of my income for my baby to be in daycare. It was hard. I got handouts from a food bank. You do what you have to do when you got nuthin', but you don't expect to be taken care of by the government. Our poorest poor are still better off than the poor in other countries. Name another country where you find obese poor people. Can't.

I'm a red-blooded American. The real deal. I started with nothing like a lot of people have. My mom and dad started with nothing. My kids are Republicans and my grandbaby is a future Republican. My daughter-in-law grew up in Tijuana which ain't pretty, and she works hard and is putting herself through college. That's the fabric of the America I know. I believe in self-reliance, family, faith, small government, and that the colonists and Founders of the United States of America who wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights said what they meant and meant what they said. Ronald Reagan said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

I agree!

I've got the huevos to say what I think and if you don't like it, don't read it. Go away. The people voted in Obama and the people are getting what they asked for. Who cares what the Republicans think. They haven't got enough votes to change anything anyway, so what do you care what I blog? But I didn't vote for Barry aka Barack Hussein Obama and I don't support him or the Democratic Congress. I don't know how it turned out that McCain ever got to the Republican nomination either, but oh well.

And when I send emails, I always sign my name so people know who it's from. Some of our friends like Obama still, but they don't send me anonymous email. Sheesh. Get a life.

Sunday

Whenever our son comes home and I'm here by myself, he's taking to shouting through the crack of the door, "SURROUND THE PLACE, CHARLIE!" Where in the world did he get that from!