Our Forefathers

I thought you all needed a good laugh today.

Disappointed

Yes, I am a little disappointed that no one chose to comment on the video in my previous post.

It is what I have been preaching all along.  This country was born out of Christianity.  I don't care how many other religions there are or how many of those infiltrate this country, the fact of the matter is, I do not like when someone comes to these hallowed shores and wants to take our freedoms away from us.  And I mean those of us who were not only born here but have ancestors that came to this country a long time ago.

My great, great, great, great, great grandfather came to this country circa 1750.  I am directly related to him on my father's side.  He came from Germany and had ten children.  To this day I can safely say that I practice the same religion he brought with him to America.

I get very angry when so many people want to change things in this country.  There is a thing called being politically correct.  I am so sick and tired of hearing that phrase not to mention the fact that it is worn out and useless.  All I want is for the people of this country who can boast a background like me to get off their broad behinds and do something instead of talking about it.

Wake up and smell the coffee for heavens' sake.  Stop buckling under to bullies.  

Case in point:  we have a neighbor who moved near our property many years ago.  He moved here from New York.  He brought with him certain ideas that he was going to change things in the neighborhood.  He caused quite a ruckus between us and our township leaders.  I am of the old adage that, we were here first.  How dare he come into our neighborhood and stir things up against us?  And that is exactly what people who come to this country from another country do...not all of them, mind you, just a certain few.  Well, maybe more than a few.  It just irritates me and I don't understand one thing.  If things weren't so great from where they came, why do they come here and try to make things the same way they were where they came from?

I am climbing down off my soapbox now.  But I hope I gave you something to think about.

Christianity & America ~ Let's Get Back To The Basics

It's That Time Again

I am guessing it costs a lot to send a child back to school these days.  When I went to school almost everything was supplied by the school.  I do remember my parents having to pay for my school pictures.  

In my early years of school I am fairly certain that I really loved to go to school.  One of the reasons was that I had (and still do) a love affair with pens, pencils, crayons, paper etc.  To this day I have quite the collection of pens at any given time.  I love to write.  Before I even went to school I would find books in the attic and scribble in them.  Maybe that's why I went on to be top student in my shorthand class.  I can still take shorthand to this day.

And I loved to read.  Still do.  I am a chain reader.  As soon as I am finished with a book, I always have another one waiting to be read.  I never had trouble with most subjects, never had to really study.  I hated math and anything to do with numbers so that was the only class that gave me trouble.  My specialties were spelling, reading, and English.  As far as I was concerned anything else was just rubbish.

Now I am heavily into history.  In school it was just another pesky subject.  Like Home Economics, or Home Ec.  How I hated that class.  I would have preferred to take shop with my brother who was two years ahead of me in school.  Science was another subject I didn't like.  

I was in the high school band.  We marched in parades and we also played at junior varsity basketball games.  To this day I detest basketball.  Those games back then were so boring to me.  They scarred me for life. 

The main point of this post today is that once I graduated I never looked back.  Yes, most subjects came easy to me, but I actually did not like school.  I did not like being penned up all day having to move from one room to another like a rat in a maze.  

I don't remember graduation day.  I am sure I was elated the day had finally come.  And I swore I would never go back to any kind of school ever again.  But I did.  It was off campus where I attended law classes.    A few years later I went to another campus to learn how to drive tractor-trailer.  I loved learning and driving and passed my tests with flying colors but I never got a job driving truck.  Just the fact that I took the course and passed was enough to satisfy me.  That is what I told myself when no one would hire myself and another girl when we made the rounds looking for a job.  

Thinking about all these things and actually writing about them brings back a lot of memories.  And looking back at what I accomplished with my life, well, I wouldn't change a thing.   Or maybe I would...

Oh, Dear

That has become one of my sayings as of late and I have no idea where I picked it up.

Thursday evening before my husband went to bed he set his alarm for early in the morning.  He had an auction he wanted to go to which is something he does at least once a week.  I figured I would have much of the day to myself and that I could get a lot of work done around the house.  Those are the times when I feel I can throw things out.  Otherwise, with him underfoot, he questions what I am throwing out.  Uh...maybe it's because we haven't used it in over a year, or maybe because I am tired of cleaning around it, or maybe it's just because I feel like throwing something out.

At any rate, when I get up the first thing I do is come down the hall and go into the bathroom to get to the laundry room which is where I feed the cats.  After they are taken care of I then go out to the kitchen where I get the food ready to feed the cats outside.  

My husband has to sleep in a separate bed because of his knee, so he chose to sleep in the family room where the big screen TV is which I always thought was a wise decision.  I sleep in the bedroom with the door closed so the cats cannot come in and wake me up long before I am ready to wake up.  As I was puttering around in the kitchen I saw that my husband was lying on top of his bed.  After making sure he was breathing (yes, I do that a lot) I decided to question him once he arose.  Which was well over an hour later.

It seems he did get up when his alarm went off, got dressed, and drove to where the auction was.  Only to find out it wasn't until 4:00 in the afternoon.  So he went to the diner and had breakfast, then came back home and went back to bed.  I damn near laughed my butt off over that one.  He has some nerve making fun of me when I do stupid things, doesn't he?  At least I own up to my errors.



 

This Is So Much Better

Yes, it is so much better when one does the right thing in the right place.  I don't know where my  head was when I posted using the wrong browser.  I really should know better.  

I saw a sign the other day while on our way to the grocery store.  It read:

YOU THINK HEALTH CARE IS EXPENSIVE NOW, WAIT TILL IT'S FREE

And I thought to myself, well that is precisely the wording I have been trying to form in my mind but was too angry to make it work.  I hate what this country is coming to and also what it has become.  I am not going to pussyfoot around...I am neither Democrat or Republican so I can say what I am going to say without feeling one bit guilty.  I do not like our current leader.  I pray to God he does not get elected again.  He has hidden so much from the American public and I have always felt he came riding in on the back of a wagon and sold the people snake oil convincing them it was good for them. 

I am a Christian first and foremost.  This country was founded on Christian beliefs and principles and has been guided by such until 2008.  Now it just seems as if we are going to hell in a hand basket.  Hopefully that can be stopped.

People are nasty to one another, they are killing for no reason whatsoever, the younger generation is mostly disrespectful to anyone older than they are, the schools are not teaching manners or anything else that really matters.  I shudder to think what this country will be like in another 50 years, especially if it keeps on the path it is now.  

I read and re-read this post a couple times and each time I sat here thinking whether I should hit the publish button or not.  There are many more things I would love to add to this, but I need to bite my tongue.  I do not mean to offend anyone as this is my opinion and everyone has a right to their opinions.  

 

OK, I Know What I DId Wrong

Stupid me.  I was in the wrong browser.  Blogger does not like when I do things in Internet Explorer.  I have no idea why.  It prefers that I use Firefox, and I post so little that I forget that little fact.  Sheesh!

Now that I am in the right browser, everything is as it should be.  So for now, I am going to go look for those brain cells I lost... 

This Is Crazy

I wanted to write something and post it but to tell the truth I am at a loss of just what the heck is going on with this new template and other things that used to be available. It used to be that there were pictures all in a row and all I had to do was click on them and take it from there. Now all of those are gone but when I put my cursor where they should be it just shows a word instead of a picture. And when I take the cursor away all I see is...nothing! Once I pull a picture out of my album, if I keep it in compose mode it only shows half of the first photo and none of the rest. So I had to put this in HTML mode. This really sucks. I am beginning to not like this anymore. It is such a deterrent and I am wondering why the heck they have done this weird thing to those of us who were told our template needed to be upgraded. I don't remember doing anything wrong to deserve this. Oh well...I just have to make the best of a bad, and sad, situation. That is at least until I get fed up with it and quit altogether. Moving on: I have slept two nights on my new foam topper. The first night I had such anticipation of having a good night's sleep that actually it was quite the opposite. I guess I was expecting too much and it took me hours till I finally fell asleep. And then all I did was toss and turn. Funny what the mind can do to a person. The next night was better. That was last night. I am hoping now that each night does indeed get better and soon I will have restful sleep every night. My husband and I had errands to do today. One of them was paying school taxes. Ugh. That is never an easy pill to swallow. We now have nine months until we have to pay our taxes next spring which are county and township taxes. I don't mind those; but these school taxes we pay in this district are enough to choke a horse. And they will be worse next year since we were recently reassessed by the county and they jacked our assessment higher than a kite. That means all of our taxes will go higher yet next year. It makes me just want to set up a teepee somewhere in the boondocks where no one can find us with their idiotic taxes. There, I am glad I got that off my chest.

Why The Change?

There are those of you who have come to this blog that are shocked to see the huge change from what it was.  I know...so am I.  So let me explain just exactly what happened.

I wanted to change the background picture of Dale Jr. as I felt it needed a more current one.  For the past few weeks I had been tucking away those I felt would be a good fit.  Yesterday I had some time to sort of play around since I was home alone.  So I played around. 

To change the background photo I had to first take it from my personal album and put it into my Photobucket album because that was the only way I could get the IMG info for the template.  I have not been savvy enough to figure out any other way and what worked for me is what I used every time.  I try not to look for trouble when it comes to computers.

For some reason I could not get the new picture to work.  The IMG info I copied to drop into the template (while deleting the old IMG info) just would not behave.  Parts of it stuck out of the margin and each time I fixed it, it would just revert to sticking out again.  After a few times, and especially after losing the original photo, I just gave up.

It was then that I saw the orange bar that stated I needed to upgrade my template, so I clicked on that.  But only after sitting here arguing with myself as to whether I should or shouldn't click on it.  Once I did that, there was no turning back.  I found what I liked best from all the choices and what you see is what I chose...for now. 

Of course I'm not happy with it.  But I will get used to it.  All my info on the right side, including the adoption animations of my four cats and the wolf we support in Denali, are gone.  Not my choice.  My counter is gone but I can figure that out elsewhere.  I don't get that much traffic anyway so it's not a big deal anymore.

I am getting used to the new look.  It does uplift me when I click on it.  It's very refreshing and clean, so I guess I am satisfied with it till it bores me and I want to change it again.

I hope you like the new look...let me know either way, I have big shoulders.

A Day Alone

I don't get many days alone but when I do I try to take advantage of them and get a lot of work done.  During the summer husband goes to an auction every other week.  Sometimes it is three weeks in between and I look forward to my "day off."

What I mean by that is some days off I don't do a lick and just laze around and play on the computer or do light things that amuse me.  Other days off I get a lot of work done in the house.  Today is an in-between day.  I accomplished getting a lot of paperwork done and a few other lighter things.  Nothing heavy is on the agenda.

My memory foam mattress topper arrived this morning.  It is currently spread out on the floor and recovering from the tightly wound state it arrived in.  I cannot wait to sleep on it.  I have a three-inch topper on the bed now but it has long seen its better days and I am hoping it is the cause of my back pain escalating over the past few months.  The new topper is four inches thick.  Hopefully by Saturday night I will be sleeping on it.  And hopefully my back pain will subside somewhat.  I don't expect the pain to go away all together but the soreness I now have every morning is getting a little old.

Three years ago I had X-rays done on my lower back and it was determined I have degenerative disc disease...that is when I realized my trips to the chiropractor would not be doing me any favors so I stopped going.  Prior to having those X-rays done, I used to have lower back pain on a daily basis but not as bad as it is now.  It has only gotten worse within the past three months, so I really  am hoping the foam topper will work to my advantage.  Otherwise, I am at a loss as to what to do.  I suppose I will just take it one day at a time as usual.

On another note, three of my cats are celebrating their birthdays.  Yesterday, the 8th, Junior and Dakota were 6 years old.  Today is Punkin's third birthday.  Eli will be a year old next month on the fourth.  We don't do anything special for them, although we did get a certificate from our local pet store for a toy for one of them.  They all play with all the toys we have so it doesn't matter that four cats are only getting one toy.  They really don't know the difference.

I am quite glad for the moment that the weather has tamed down somewhat.  Instead of knocking at the 100's or baking in the 90's, we are having mid-80 temps.  We just survived Heat Wave #6 and I pray there will not be a #7 but those meteorologists like to drive me insane so I will be on the lookout for that #7.  What really bothers me the most is the thunderstorms that come with high heat.  Especially the ones that have high wind velocities and/or hail.  Lightning makes me insane, too.  Thunder is not so bad, other than the fact that lightning usually follows it.

Now I can get back to my "light duty" day.
 

Heat Wave #6

Here we go again.  

When I go outside to feed the cats in the morning and again in the early evening, by the time I am finished doing everything that needs to be done, the sweat pours down my face.  And all I can think of is getting back inside to the air conditioning.  It's such a wonderful feeling.

And it's fair to say that I will be staying home through the weekend.  On days like this, it's where I am the happiest.  And on most other days too.  And how do I entertain myself when I stay at home?  Besides the normal housework ?  This week and next I will be watching as much of the Olympics that I can.  But this weekend, Friday through Sunday, I tune in to NASCAR.  The boys are racing at our home track in Pocono, PA, this weekend.  Not one of my favorite tracks, but it's racing.

To take away from some of the boredom that the TV analysts throw at us during a race, I listen to it on the radio while watching it on TV.  The guys on the radio make the race so much more colorful and exciting.  Recently my AM/FM headset has been acting wonky and there has been quite a bit of static.  And the darn thing works better in some parts of the house than the other, but you know that it would not work when I am in my recliner.  Plus, I have to hold my head a certain way for it to work best.  I had a difficult time replacing it, but I did find one at R*dio Sh*ck and it was on sale $15 less than the regular price.  That was a nice surprise.

And speaking of the Olympics...congratulations to the five American gymnasts for their gold medal.  Also, congrats to Gabby Douglas for her individual all-around gold medal in gymnastics.  And who can forget what Michael Phelps has done over the past eight years.  Incredible.  Will anyone ever do better as far as winning more medals than Michael?  It's possible, but I doubt I will see it in my lifetime.

I have looked forward to the games, including the Winter games, ever since I can remember and it seems as fast as they get started, that's how fast they fly by and soon we are watching the closing ceremonies.  So I watch as much as I can.  What can I say?  I'm a sports nut.  Except basketball...don't even get me started on that sport.  In high school I had to endure the basketball games because I was in the band and we were required to be there to play.  And of course we can't forget March Madness.  Yes, it drives me mad when basketball takes over the channel I watch most shows on, which is CBS.  I wish they would broadcast those games on a sports channel where they belong.