My Life as a Low Attention Voter. . .

It was so nice taking a vacation from the news broadcasts last week that I decided to do it again. (reference: Sunday Morning Muse, July 13, 2008.)

-

So here is another week of my life as a "low attention voter." This is what "filtered" into this busy brain of mine.... just by random chance, as I went along this week:

-

Barack Obama went to Iraq and still thinks we can get out of there but I don't know if he really meant 16 months. 2010?

-

Barack Obama was in Germany as part of his overseas tour and McCain was in Germantown, Ohio eating Bratwurst. I don't know why.

-

McCain still mentions Czechoslovakia, but it doesn't exist anymore. You'd think he would get it right by now, because this happened before. Someone should tell him.

-

McCain met with the Dalai Lama. But the Dalai won't endorse him. Oh well.... maybe in the next life.
-

No one is picking VP's yet.

-

Arnold doesn't want drilling off of Calli-fornya.

-

Gas prices are going down... a tiny bit.

-

I don't really care about the Olympics, but I understand the smog in China is dreadful and they are trying to do something about it. Weird stuff..... seeding clouds? What is that anyway?

It sounds like something out of the X-files.

-

I heard the X-files movie sucks, and that's too bad. I liked the show a lot when it was on Television.

--

Well, you are up to date, but only if you happen to be a low attention voter this week too!

Marilyn Said. . .

Ever notice that what the hell is always the right decision?
--Marilyn Monroe

Groundhog Part 3-- Another One Bites the Dust

I know picking this song for the occasion of the last groundhog's death is trite as Hell... but I don't care.It's hard to find happy songs about death. Neighbor Al is using the former Mother of all Groundhogs(in this yard, anyway)for fertilizer in the garden. Poetic Justice.

I'm Your Man

Imagine Whirled Peace

No better way to cool off than eating my new favorite ice cream....

-

Caramel and sweet cream ice creams...swirled with fudge Peace signs and Toffee Cookie pieces!

-

Yum...

-

Give Peace a Chance.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Doing anything different these days to cut costs? I read this today. It talks about how people are buying more fuel efficient cars... cutting back on groceries.. fixing shoes even.... instead of buying new ones, etc.

-

As I sit and think about it.... my big change is that I say NO to myself a lot more. You see, I've got it easy. I answer to no one, so if I want to buy something I buy it. I want a new computer. But... I never did spend my "stimulus" check on it as planned. I'm sure there will be a tipping point... like when this computer scares me enough with it's slowness.... or gets a virus or something.... and I'll have to open the wallet. But... not just yet.

-

I tried to "eat off the land," a bit. It's not working out. I picked lettuce from the garden.... blueberries, and greenbeans. The timing is all wrong for a really great salad. The celery didn't come up.... and peppers are still weeks away from being ready. How did people eat a decent salad way back when? So I bought peppers. And borrowed some carrots. It's a start. Spent three dollars on my favorite salad dressing. :(

I've also tried to "live off the pantry" a bit more. There's always a forgotten box of rice or can of soup to eat. Frozen veges are always in my freezer, thoughI should put dates on them. I remember these old friends of mine had a world war two era top-lift-type freezer in their basement. They were quick to use the stuff frozen on top.... but to DIG TO THE BOTTOM just didn't happen. When they finally cleaned out the thing... I believe they found elderberries from like 1983.

One other thing I did was take over 90 dollars in coins to the Coin Machine thing at the grocery store. What a ripoff.... they take like 8.9 cents on a dollar for a "fee." So I was out 8 bucks! I justified it by not having to count it all myself. I'm worth 8 bucks. Easy. And I now have over 80 dollars that was previously on my closet floor in a bag, in my pocket.

The Sunday Morning Muse, July 20, 2008

This is one of those rainy days. Nice rumbling thunderstorms.... a breeze through the window screens. I don't feel like I have to "do" anything.
-
Why is it that society puts so much pressure on people..... (expecially kids) to "DO SOMETHING" all the time?

Haiku:

Give yourself a gift.
Don't DO anything right now.
Just let it all go.

---------------------------

Frigging Ground Hog, Part 2

I gotta hand it to Sweet Pea. She’s a good watch cat. I was in the bathroom drying my hair and she jumped up on the toilet seat and started to meow at me. Usually she is just after some attention, or wants to go outside, so I ignored her at first. Then she got this look. This urgent look. And meowed harder. I know it sounds odd, but if you are a cat lover, your radar goes up and you wonder what is in that little head of hers.
-
I picked her up off the toilet seat and set her on the floor and she looked up at me and immediately started walking toward the living room. I followed. Usually at the livingroom there is a choice. Either hang a left to the kitchen…. FOOD… or a right to the front door…. OUT.
-
The cat went straight…… Wha…? to the diningroom window overlooking the garden.
-
Then turned and meowed at me. COME SEE…. she was saying.
-
I went to the window…and there she was. That mother of all groundhogs from the Mexican standoff. RIGHT NEXT TO MY GARDEN. Al the neighbor, who also has a garden at stake, has killed three so far this year between our two yards. The babies. But this one is the prize he can’t get for some reason. The one that wouldn't back down from me on the path. The scary one.
-
I flew outside… grabbed the garden hose, turned it full blast and starting blasting from the top step. BIG MISTAKE. I have a cheap 10 dollar Walmart hose with a hole in it…and with the intense water pressure I have.. the damn thing got away from me…. and with the hole, now much bigger…. spraying at me from two angles! MOTHER. I got soaked! And started yelling at the frigging thing out of frustration..... and it took off.
-
I HATE THIS FRIGGING GROUNDHOG. Now it is gone. Back in the hole. Cat watching from the window.

-

And now I’m drying my hair…. again.

A Whole Nother Way of Talking

I've been outside a lot lately so the blog posts have dropped off a bit. Chatting with my neighbor, Al, (the neighborhood groundhog killer) made me laugh today. After a long, hot day outside, he went inside to wrinch off. (no... that's not a typo... wrinch.) This is the same neighbor who said that my mom probably sprang her wrist. "It's worse to sprang your wrist than it is to break it," he says. I agree.... I sprang my ankle falling off a dance floor long ago... It's a Western PA thing. He went on to tell me that his friend Abie went to the "Choir-practor" for his bad back.

-

There is something so "home" about all this. It's how people talk here. The Pittsburghese site does include wrinch as a verb, but I haven't found sprang yet. Glancing over the list I found I could relate to so many of them. How many times were we told as kids to get out of the dirt because our good clothes would get "roont?"

-

I still think Gall-avant is a word. I just haven't spelled it right. "Don't go gall-avantin' all over God's Creation. I want you home by dark," I'd hear all the time. It means to just ride around for no good reason. I do a lot less gall-avantin' now that gas is four bucks a gallon.

If we stayed close to home we were usually told to watch out for the jaggerbushes when we picked blackberries. I've just assumed everyone everywhere has jaggerbushes. If we did get scratched... every mom had "mecuro-chrome" to put on it.

And there were plenty of Studda-bubbas around back then. The word is derivative of a Polish name for "Old Woman." (Stara Baba) It congers up images of grandmothers in babooshkas with long house dresses and sensible shoes, 'worshing' porches, or hanging clothes on the line. Most of them had a "fridge-adaire" in the house, and grew "tuhmaytuhs" in the back yard.

And .... for as many times Mom said "your gonna drive me to Dixmont," (translation: You are making me crazy) it never happened. Dixmont was a state mental hospital. It's closed now, so these days she just says "you are going to drive me to an early grave."

Keep Good Company- Queen

I went looking for Queen's Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon,(so suitable to my mood today)when I found Good Company instead. Love This. Just do. Such a creative effort.


I flourished in my humble trade, my reputation grew, the work devoured my waking hours and when my time was through...reward of all my efforts--my own limited company.