I received the first part of this in a forwarded email a few days ago. I’ve put my thoughts about gun control on this blog before, but I’ll do it again, just because – well, just because. I’ll say again, I’m not against RESPONSIBLE gun ownership and use. I’ve owned guns and used guns and had and still have family who hunt. (Although my father was a pioneer in hunting with a bow and arrow, and was the first person known to shoot a deer with those since the time of the Indians, back in the late 1950’s-but I digress, as usual).
What I am against is the urging ‘contact your congressman’ and sending half-assed things like this out to people who will do just that without having all the information – and I’m really against making it one particular person’s ‘fault’ because the guy you wanted didn’t get elected. And I’m not getting any more political than that because I hate politics.
Anyway, for what it’s worth to you personally, here’s what someone sent to me (a person I never knew was concerned with guns) and what I said about it. For what it’s worth, Here’s What I Think:
The email I received:
Time to ring your Congressman's phones off the hook. This is like revoking the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. And it opens your homes to direct government invasion without a warrant or any reason at all.
D
Subject: H E R E I T C O M E S !!!
GET THIS OUT!
HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009
Please send this to everybody on your list... this is Obama guncontrol by secrecy.
________________________________________
Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into the House.
This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009.
We just learned yesterday about this on the Peter Boyles radio program.
Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because it is flying under the radar.
To find out about this - go to any government website and type in HR 45 or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009. You will get all the information.
Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm - any rifle with a clip or ANY pistol unless:
.It is registered
.You are fingerprinted
.You supply a current Driver's License
.You supply your Social Security #
.You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of their choosing
.Each update - change or ownership through private or public sale must be reported and costs $25
- Failure to do so you automatically lose the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail.
.There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any child under 18.
The Government would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable for up to 5 yrs. in prison.
If you think this is a joke - go to the website and take your pick of many options to read this..
http://www.opencong ress.org/ bill/111- h45/text
It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. Pass the wordalong.
FAILURE TO DO SO AT YOUR PERIL!
Any hunters in your family - pass this along.
Peter Boyles is on this and having guests. Listen to him on KHOW 630 a.m. in the morning.
He suggests the best way to fight this is to tell all your friends about it and "spring into action".
Also he suggests we all join a pro-gun group like the Colorado Rifle Association, hunting associations, gun clubs and especially the NRA..
This is just a "termite" approach to complete confiscation of guns and disarming of our society to the point we have no defense - chip away a little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone realizes it.
This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not.
The Second Amendment... .America's original homeland security
My response:
Sorry, but: Virginia Tech last year - 30+ shot and killed if I remember right? Two weeks ago in Binghamton, NY - 13 shot and killed. Two days ago in Schenectady, NY - 2 shot and killed. Last week in Albany, NY - shooter sentenced to life in prison for 3 shot and killed last summer. Alabama about a month ago, what was that, 7 shot and killed or was it more. A pre-teen boy at a gun show in Westfield, MA - shot and killed himself looking at a gun. Two or three or more families, children and all in the past couple of months - shot and killed, murder/suicides.
I am for as much legislation as it takes. This is not forbidding people to have guns, and if it saves one person from being shot and killed, I cannot argue with it.
I have read the provisions below several times and I don't see where it takes away your right to own a gun. Anyone wanting a gun for LEGAL - like hunting - purposes should have no problem with this.
I also went to the website allegedly quoted, wondering who Blair Holt is, and why this is 'Obama gun control by secrecy' and found this:
on the afternoon of May 10, 2007, Blair Holt, a junior at Julian High School in Chicago, was killed on a public bus riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting.
So it appears that Blair Holt is yet another person shot and killed.
The bill was introduced January 9, 2009 - before Obama was inaugurated.
And what is so secret about this? It is obviously out there where anyone interested can see it, read it, and form their own conclusions. Looks pretty straightforward to me. The government wants to put stronger gun controls into effect. Maybe I'm not getting it, but all the parts I read (and I admit I didn't read it thoroughly, just skimmed through) made sense. Background check on who buys a gun - that's pretty much 'DUH' to me. Registering guns, when so many are used to shoot and kill people - another 'DUH'. Reporting a gun stolen within 72 hours - well, wouldn't you want someone who stole something from you caught? Only can help. Wouldn't you want to feel that your gun wasn't being used to shoot and kill someone?
I don't have guns any more, but I have. I don't hunt but come from a family who did. None of us would have had a problem with this legislation. Especially if it meant it might keep even one person from being shot and killed.
Sorry, folks, can't sign up for this one. And I would take the chance of pissing people off to say that maybe you should just read the proposed legislation for yourselves, without having Peter Boyles, whoever he is, in your ear, and without trying to make it a political thing against Obama. Just read the words and then think how much of an inconvenience you would be willing to put up with if it prevented one person from being shot and killed.
Nope, I don't mind if you disagree with me and tell me you do.
Barbara
PS: so far not one of the people has responded, and I did ‘reply all’ the response.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Anniversaries of tragedies
Yesterday and today are anniversaries of tragedies in our country.
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing
April 20, 1999: Columbine High School shootings
The Oklahoma City bombings were, I just hear on the radio, the largest act of ‘homegrown’ terrorism ever in this country.
The Columbine shootings were (I think) the largest number of victims up to that time, in such an incident.
Please, take a moment to remember the events, the victims, the effect on those involved and on the rest of the country.
Offer up the kind of prayer you use to ask that it not happen again.
What was the result of either of those tragedies? Much heartbreak. Many headlines, then and each year after. What were the perpetrators trying to prove? What gave them so much hatred, so little concern, that they felt their cause would be bettered, their acts justified, by slaughtering so many innocent people? We will never know, no matter how much evidence is found to their state of mind at the time.
I can almost understand wanting to strike out at someone who has directly caused you harm. I cannot understand striking out at those who have nothing to do with you. I doubt anyone ever will. I also doubt that these are the last of this kind of event – well, we know it was not the last of the school shootings, those continue.
I was just thinking about our ‘civilized’ times. In the early days of our country, our wilderness frontiers, and those who settled them. In the ‘wild west’, shootouts were common. Indian raids (by and on the Native Americans) were common. There are stories of atrocities, and we can smugly say, well, that was the ‘old days’, those things don’t happen now. Really? Read the news. Are we more civilized? I think not, judging by headlines every day. If anything, there is more senseless violence, and an equal, if not less, concern for life.
Are the ‘gang-bangers protecting their turf’ that much different that the settlers and Indians fighting for land? That’s a whole ‘nother discussion.
Just to quickly play the ‘where I was when I heard’ game: you know, I don’t even remember about Oklahoma City for sure, but it seems like I was home, and heard on the news, just as most of the rest of the country.
Columbine I remember distinctly. I was doing a solo trip to California, and, as I often did at this time of year, making hiring calls for the theatre from truck stops and rest areas across the country. I had fueled in the Pilot in Amarillo, Texas, and went inside to grab supper and call some girls from Hudson to be in a children’s theatre show. The mother I reached sounded a little distraught, and apologized for it, saying she was watching the news about a lot of kids being shot at a school, and that she just couldn’t get it out of her mind. I went to the always on tv area, and joined a group watching the stories, and then kept hearing them across the country – and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
In 2000 or so, I took my grandson with me in the truck. We were supposed to go Memphis, Tennessee and back, but that load fell through, and my dispatcher took it on herself to ‘get that boy to California’. She found a load, and we went west. I tried to find some places to stop to show him special sights, one was the Meteor Crater in Arizona, another was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.
We had a personally conducted tour of that. I stopped outside the city to ask directions and if I could get a ‘big truck’ there; after being assured I could, I missed a turn somehow, there was construction and I think the street I was told to take was closed off. Anyway, it was pouring rain, and I wasn’t sure where to go, and noticed a building up the street ahead of us with a lot of police cars parked around it. Thinking it was a ‘cop shop’, I parked and we went in, and asked what the best way to get to the memorial was. Turns out it was a place that prepped cars for the police department, and they were quite surprised to see us come in. After having debates about the best way for us to get there with the truck, one of the men said ‘I’m not doing anything, come on’, and drove us there, drove around the site so we could see the fence where people were still leaving memorial signs, gifts and more, then he parked, pointed out the highlights, and waited while we walked around. It is a magnificent site and I recommend going if you ever can. We got back in his car dripping wet and very impressed. He told us personal stories of where he was when it happened and of a friend who worked in a nearby building who could not go back to work there afterwards. Stephen still remembers that as the thing that impressed him the most on the entire trip.
Say a prayer to whoever you believe in that other pre-teen boys don’t have to see other memorials of such events to be impressed by. And another for the victims, and another for those contemplating such acts that they find another way.
Then hug those close to you.
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing
April 20, 1999: Columbine High School shootings
The Oklahoma City bombings were, I just hear on the radio, the largest act of ‘homegrown’ terrorism ever in this country.
The Columbine shootings were (I think) the largest number of victims up to that time, in such an incident.
Please, take a moment to remember the events, the victims, the effect on those involved and on the rest of the country.
Offer up the kind of prayer you use to ask that it not happen again.
What was the result of either of those tragedies? Much heartbreak. Many headlines, then and each year after. What were the perpetrators trying to prove? What gave them so much hatred, so little concern, that they felt their cause would be bettered, their acts justified, by slaughtering so many innocent people? We will never know, no matter how much evidence is found to their state of mind at the time.
I can almost understand wanting to strike out at someone who has directly caused you harm. I cannot understand striking out at those who have nothing to do with you. I doubt anyone ever will. I also doubt that these are the last of this kind of event – well, we know it was not the last of the school shootings, those continue.
I was just thinking about our ‘civilized’ times. In the early days of our country, our wilderness frontiers, and those who settled them. In the ‘wild west’, shootouts were common. Indian raids (by and on the Native Americans) were common. There are stories of atrocities, and we can smugly say, well, that was the ‘old days’, those things don’t happen now. Really? Read the news. Are we more civilized? I think not, judging by headlines every day. If anything, there is more senseless violence, and an equal, if not less, concern for life.
Are the ‘gang-bangers protecting their turf’ that much different that the settlers and Indians fighting for land? That’s a whole ‘nother discussion.
Just to quickly play the ‘where I was when I heard’ game: you know, I don’t even remember about Oklahoma City for sure, but it seems like I was home, and heard on the news, just as most of the rest of the country.
Columbine I remember distinctly. I was doing a solo trip to California, and, as I often did at this time of year, making hiring calls for the theatre from truck stops and rest areas across the country. I had fueled in the Pilot in Amarillo, Texas, and went inside to grab supper and call some girls from Hudson to be in a children’s theatre show. The mother I reached sounded a little distraught, and apologized for it, saying she was watching the news about a lot of kids being shot at a school, and that she just couldn’t get it out of her mind. I went to the always on tv area, and joined a group watching the stories, and then kept hearing them across the country – and I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
In 2000 or so, I took my grandson with me in the truck. We were supposed to go Memphis, Tennessee and back, but that load fell through, and my dispatcher took it on herself to ‘get that boy to California’. She found a load, and we went west. I tried to find some places to stop to show him special sights, one was the Meteor Crater in Arizona, another was the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.
We had a personally conducted tour of that. I stopped outside the city to ask directions and if I could get a ‘big truck’ there; after being assured I could, I missed a turn somehow, there was construction and I think the street I was told to take was closed off. Anyway, it was pouring rain, and I wasn’t sure where to go, and noticed a building up the street ahead of us with a lot of police cars parked around it. Thinking it was a ‘cop shop’, I parked and we went in, and asked what the best way to get to the memorial was. Turns out it was a place that prepped cars for the police department, and they were quite surprised to see us come in. After having debates about the best way for us to get there with the truck, one of the men said ‘I’m not doing anything, come on’, and drove us there, drove around the site so we could see the fence where people were still leaving memorial signs, gifts and more, then he parked, pointed out the highlights, and waited while we walked around. It is a magnificent site and I recommend going if you ever can. We got back in his car dripping wet and very impressed. He told us personal stories of where he was when it happened and of a friend who worked in a nearby building who could not go back to work there afterwards. Stephen still remembers that as the thing that impressed him the most on the entire trip.
Say a prayer to whoever you believe in that other pre-teen boys don’t have to see other memorials of such events to be impressed by. And another for the victims, and another for those contemplating such acts that they find another way.
Then hug those close to you.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Emails that will bring a miracle
Just got one of those that we all are blessed (or plagued, depending on your mood at the time) with – “if the water is moving you will receive a miracle” – yeah, right.
Here’s what the person who sent it to me had to say, and what I sent back to him:
BUT I STILL DO NOT BELIEVE THAT A PICTURE CAN BRING A MIRACLE !!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT "THEY" SAY !!!! AND THE WATER DOES MOVE !!
The water is moving - but I'm with you - all these things that come through saying they will bring good or bad luck or miracles or money or whatever - hmm, nope, don't think so. The everyday miracle is in the fact that someone cares enough to use that as a way to contact you, say they are thinking of you, think that you would enjoy something that brought them pleasure. That's the miracle of friendship, a blessing that we have.
Does anyone know anyone who really did experience a miracle, receive money, have something they wished for come true from forwarding an email? I mean really KNOW someone, or have it happen to themselves? Not the friend of a friend of the next door neighbor two houses down and across the street from the hairdresser’s cousin’s brother-in-law that it somebody told them it really did happen to?
If so, please tell me.
Meanwhile, the miracles are all around. The miracle of the friend who sent this to me - I have never met him in person, but we have been friends since sometime early in 2002, through the electronic miracle of the internet. And through him I have made two other friends, same way. One I even got to meet in person, and I am still holding hope that I meet the others.
The miracle of spring, the awakening of the new season.
The miracle that my friend Andrew sent, that his father is slowly recovering from terrible complications after a somewhat routine operation.
The miracle that I can call open heart surgery somewhat routine – which nowadays it is. And., of course, the miracles of the countless lives that have been saved and enriched through it.
Miracles are all around – had one happen to our family this past week, the birth of Ethan, my 3rd great-grandchild and second great-grandson. He’s a cutie, and Megan and Josh will be great parents. Heather, mom of Madeline and Richard, the first two greats, is showing a bit of a miracle herself, as we didn’t think she was the best candidate for motherhood and she’s doing a pretty good job with them. Go figure.
Who knows, maybe because the water was moving in the email in question, I will experience a miracle and get the rest of my tech people hired, and the house cleaned, and the bathtub caulked and the yard raked and flowers planted. All before oh, maybe September? Who knows. As Tevye said ‘It was a miracle!’
Here’s what the person who sent it to me had to say, and what I sent back to him:
BUT I STILL DO NOT BELIEVE THAT A PICTURE CAN BRING A MIRACLE !!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT "THEY" SAY !!!! AND THE WATER DOES MOVE !!
The water is moving - but I'm with you - all these things that come through saying they will bring good or bad luck or miracles or money or whatever - hmm, nope, don't think so. The everyday miracle is in the fact that someone cares enough to use that as a way to contact you, say they are thinking of you, think that you would enjoy something that brought them pleasure. That's the miracle of friendship, a blessing that we have.
Does anyone know anyone who really did experience a miracle, receive money, have something they wished for come true from forwarding an email? I mean really KNOW someone, or have it happen to themselves? Not the friend of a friend of the next door neighbor two houses down and across the street from the hairdresser’s cousin’s brother-in-law that it somebody told them it really did happen to?
If so, please tell me.
Meanwhile, the miracles are all around. The miracle of the friend who sent this to me - I have never met him in person, but we have been friends since sometime early in 2002, through the electronic miracle of the internet. And through him I have made two other friends, same way. One I even got to meet in person, and I am still holding hope that I meet the others.
The miracle of spring, the awakening of the new season.
The miracle that my friend Andrew sent, that his father is slowly recovering from terrible complications after a somewhat routine operation.
The miracle that I can call open heart surgery somewhat routine – which nowadays it is. And., of course, the miracles of the countless lives that have been saved and enriched through it.
Miracles are all around – had one happen to our family this past week, the birth of Ethan, my 3rd great-grandchild and second great-grandson. He’s a cutie, and Megan and Josh will be great parents. Heather, mom of Madeline and Richard, the first two greats, is showing a bit of a miracle herself, as we didn’t think she was the best candidate for motherhood and she’s doing a pretty good job with them. Go figure.
Who knows, maybe because the water was moving in the email in question, I will experience a miracle and get the rest of my tech people hired, and the house cleaned, and the bathtub caulked and the yard raked and flowers planted. All before oh, maybe September? Who knows. As Tevye said ‘It was a miracle!’
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
About public bathrooms
I was reading someone’s blog the other day and she had one posting chastizing the person who had been in the ladies room stall before her, who apparently was a ‘squatter’ with bad aim. Now to you men, this might not mean anything, but to us women, it’s significant. We’ve all followed one – the person who won’t let their lily white skin touch the seat, but who has no problem leaving their dribbles for the next one in the stall. Grrrrrrrrr! May their 2-year-old never become toilet trained and be stricken with projectile diarrhea – in public.
I think one of the biggest water wasters in the world are the automatic flush toilets. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I usually wipe the seat, and put either the provided paper seat cover or toilet paper down before I sit (isn’t that just TMI, though?). Trouble is, with the automatic flushers, about the time I get the paper down, the toilet decides I’ve been standing there long enough and flushes. Which sucks the paper down the drain and sprays water on the seat, so I have to start all over again. Why women take longer than men in the rest room, to say nothing of the fact that we have to get all undone, while they just have to step up . . . oh, never mind.
Speaking of the paper seat covers, I’ve noticed that although more and more places have them, the one type of place that doesn’t is hospitals and other medical facilities. Do they know something we don’t, like these really don’t help prevent you from getting cooties off the seat, or are they just too cheap? Seems like a place where people are sick would be a place to have things to prevent the spread of. . . . but what do I know.
How about the automatic sinks? Either water is still running long after you have washed, rinsed, dried and left the room, or there’s barely enough water metered out to dampen your palms. Plus, usually I have to hit at least two of them to get one to give me any water.
And the automatic hand dryers, now aren’t they a treat. Although I have run into a few here and there that will blow the polish off your nails, most of them are ridiculously slow and ineffective. And you go into the ladies room – anywhere from say six to a dozen stalls, maybe four to six sinks – and one automatic hand dryer. Really? Obviously designed by a man.
Bathroom stall layout? How many have you been in that you have to fold yourself around the toilet paper holder to get to the seat? Or you sit down and have one side resting against the holders for the used unmentionables. Once again, set up by a man.
Speaking of bathrooms - - when I was driving, I said there were three things to never pass up: the chance to take a shower, the chance to brush your teeth and the chance to go to the bathroom. That third one has become more pertinent as I am getting older. But when I was in the truck, where your options of where to stop for anything are dictated by there being a large enough space to get something 8 ½’ by 13 ½’ by about 65’ that folds in the middle, it was something to always be considered and sometimes thought out ahead of time. And it seemed like any time I was sleeping and woke up needing a rest area, by the time I got up and into the cab, we had just gone past one. I still say it is the only time I get penis envy, when I have to tinkle in a place with no facilities.
Some of the facilities I met on the road were – let’s say interesting. For one thing, it continues to amaze me the number of women who do not understand the basics of indoor plumbing – you leave it in the bowl, push the handle and it goes away. Yeah, it’s that pushing the handle thing that some of them have trouble with, I guess. Next stall, please!
Bathrooms and rest areas I have met include one in the middle of Ohio that was pretty much an outhouse, with about three stalls, and those had walls that came about up to my shoulders. And the woman in the next stall was tall! Enough said. Then there was the one on I-10 in Arizona that was a little 2-holer that I always swore a rattlesnake would be waiting inside of some time for me – thankfully there never was.
Now that I have started camping, there are many campgrounds with marginal facilities at best. Many have the ‘vault’ toilets, that are ecologically sound, from what I understand, but that do test the ladylike sensibilities, of which thankfully I have few. These are a cross between indoor plumbing and an outhouse, a step below the one and step up from the other.
And I gotta say, places like Yellowstone and Yosemite, where there are ‘beware of bears’ signs all over, make you think about hiking to the little building in the middle of the night.
Then there’s port-a-potties. Everybody has a story about someone getting locked in one and it getting tipped over. At Camp Katrina I was the self-named ‘Port-A-Pottie Nazi’, trying to keep them clean and in useable condition for all. People were throwing trash, including soda cans (!) in them, until I put up a sign: “Please DO NOT throw trash into the tank. If they company gets pissed off and takes these away, we will have no place to piss in!”
My all-time favorite port-a-pottie story, though, is when I was delivering electrical material to a huge construction project in Dallas – I think it was a new sports stadium of some sort. I got there in the wee hours of the morning and of course had to wait hours to unload – this after being given wrong directions on how to get in to the place and almost getting stuck in some tiny streets in a questionable neighborhood – anyway, of course after a while I had to use one. There were two a little ways into the project from where I was parked, so I walked over, opened the door, and let me tell you, I don’t know how any of those men could possibly have driven a nail if that’s only how good they could aim. I’ve seen neater cow barns, with less – manure – spread around. I sure did squat that time, and held everything away from touching anything! And cleaned my shoes before I got back into the truck. Still waiting, I was watching what was going on in the site when one of those huge roof mounted cranes started swinging over towards my side of the project. It stopped, and the cables came down and someone attached them to – a pair of port-a-potties – and it lifted them up and swung them over to the other side of the construction. I was so amazed, I called the office because I had to tell someone – these two port-a-potties swinging from the cable, a couple of stories in the air. Hope they were empty.
I think one of the biggest water wasters in the world are the automatic flush toilets. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I usually wipe the seat, and put either the provided paper seat cover or toilet paper down before I sit (isn’t that just TMI, though?). Trouble is, with the automatic flushers, about the time I get the paper down, the toilet decides I’ve been standing there long enough and flushes. Which sucks the paper down the drain and sprays water on the seat, so I have to start all over again. Why women take longer than men in the rest room, to say nothing of the fact that we have to get all undone, while they just have to step up . . . oh, never mind.
Speaking of the paper seat covers, I’ve noticed that although more and more places have them, the one type of place that doesn’t is hospitals and other medical facilities. Do they know something we don’t, like these really don’t help prevent you from getting cooties off the seat, or are they just too cheap? Seems like a place where people are sick would be a place to have things to prevent the spread of. . . . but what do I know.
How about the automatic sinks? Either water is still running long after you have washed, rinsed, dried and left the room, or there’s barely enough water metered out to dampen your palms. Plus, usually I have to hit at least two of them to get one to give me any water.
And the automatic hand dryers, now aren’t they a treat. Although I have run into a few here and there that will blow the polish off your nails, most of them are ridiculously slow and ineffective. And you go into the ladies room – anywhere from say six to a dozen stalls, maybe four to six sinks – and one automatic hand dryer. Really? Obviously designed by a man.
Bathroom stall layout? How many have you been in that you have to fold yourself around the toilet paper holder to get to the seat? Or you sit down and have one side resting against the holders for the used unmentionables. Once again, set up by a man.
Speaking of bathrooms - - when I was driving, I said there were three things to never pass up: the chance to take a shower, the chance to brush your teeth and the chance to go to the bathroom. That third one has become more pertinent as I am getting older. But when I was in the truck, where your options of where to stop for anything are dictated by there being a large enough space to get something 8 ½’ by 13 ½’ by about 65’ that folds in the middle, it was something to always be considered and sometimes thought out ahead of time. And it seemed like any time I was sleeping and woke up needing a rest area, by the time I got up and into the cab, we had just gone past one. I still say it is the only time I get penis envy, when I have to tinkle in a place with no facilities.
Some of the facilities I met on the road were – let’s say interesting. For one thing, it continues to amaze me the number of women who do not understand the basics of indoor plumbing – you leave it in the bowl, push the handle and it goes away. Yeah, it’s that pushing the handle thing that some of them have trouble with, I guess. Next stall, please!
Bathrooms and rest areas I have met include one in the middle of Ohio that was pretty much an outhouse, with about three stalls, and those had walls that came about up to my shoulders. And the woman in the next stall was tall! Enough said. Then there was the one on I-10 in Arizona that was a little 2-holer that I always swore a rattlesnake would be waiting inside of some time for me – thankfully there never was.
Now that I have started camping, there are many campgrounds with marginal facilities at best. Many have the ‘vault’ toilets, that are ecologically sound, from what I understand, but that do test the ladylike sensibilities, of which thankfully I have few. These are a cross between indoor plumbing and an outhouse, a step below the one and step up from the other.
And I gotta say, places like Yellowstone and Yosemite, where there are ‘beware of bears’ signs all over, make you think about hiking to the little building in the middle of the night.
Then there’s port-a-potties. Everybody has a story about someone getting locked in one and it getting tipped over. At Camp Katrina I was the self-named ‘Port-A-Pottie Nazi’, trying to keep them clean and in useable condition for all. People were throwing trash, including soda cans (!) in them, until I put up a sign: “Please DO NOT throw trash into the tank. If they company gets pissed off and takes these away, we will have no place to piss in!”
My all-time favorite port-a-pottie story, though, is when I was delivering electrical material to a huge construction project in Dallas – I think it was a new sports stadium of some sort. I got there in the wee hours of the morning and of course had to wait hours to unload – this after being given wrong directions on how to get in to the place and almost getting stuck in some tiny streets in a questionable neighborhood – anyway, of course after a while I had to use one. There were two a little ways into the project from where I was parked, so I walked over, opened the door, and let me tell you, I don’t know how any of those men could possibly have driven a nail if that’s only how good they could aim. I’ve seen neater cow barns, with less – manure – spread around. I sure did squat that time, and held everything away from touching anything! And cleaned my shoes before I got back into the truck. Still waiting, I was watching what was going on in the site when one of those huge roof mounted cranes started swinging over towards my side of the project. It stopped, and the cables came down and someone attached them to – a pair of port-a-potties – and it lifted them up and swung them over to the other side of the construction. I was so amazed, I called the office because I had to tell someone – these two port-a-potties swinging from the cable, a couple of stories in the air. Hope they were empty.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The 2nd Amendment email
I got an email this morning from someone who sends me things from time to time – I have never met him in person, only through the internet, and he has been sending me stuff for probably a couple of years now, that he obviously gets in emails (I know this because every forward the item has gone through is still attached). I’m not sure how I got to be on his mailing list, except that he did send me some family history things he had come by that were interesting (another story) and I did talk with him back when that happened. Guess I got into his address book and stayed there.
Anyway, this email, which I tried to copy and paste and had no luck with the pictures which are the major part of it, was titled ‘The 2nd Amendment’ and was all about guns and having guns and is led off with a front on picture of a revolver, followed by supposed witticisms about having guns and then more pictures, one of a monkey shooting a pistol under the caption ‘Go Ahead, Punk, Make My Day’. The whole thing ended with
I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment!
If you are too, please forward.
Now, several questions went through my head when I opened this. First of course was why are you sending this to me and why don’t you clean the forwards off of it first. Then I glanced through it and asked again, why are you sending this to me. Because you have no idea what my stance on guns and gun control and the 2nd Amendment is. And my next question was are you kidding – you are actually sending this, something like this, right now, when I have just read about not only the shootings in Binghamton, NY, and then the police officers killed in Pittsburgh, but the latest tragedy, 5 children shot by their father in Tacoma, Washington. On top of all that tragedy, that senseless killing with guns, you are sending me this, not knowing how I feel about guns and gun control or even if maybe, God forbid, I lost someone in any of those events. Which of course led to the next question: ‘What is WRONG with you?’ That you are taking it upon yourself to presume that I agree with you, that I share your views, and that I won’t be disturbed by the content of this email.
I don’t even know this person enough to argue with him about all of this, but I did send the following to him:
“Yeah, and guns had nothing to do with 14 tragic deaths in Binghamton, 3 police officers dying in Pittsburgh and 5 children -CHILDREN - being shot in Tacoma, Washington. That's 22 senseless deaths in THREE DAYS. Not to mention that probably many more around the country, and ones in other countries (6 gay men shot in Iraq, for example - just gleaning facts from the morning headlines). I'm not against guns, I'm not against people hunting and having guns and in extreme circumstances using them to defend themselves. I am against the senseless killings that go on and on and on. With guns. I am for some method of better control, and no, I don't know what that is.”
Doesn’t he send back, ps of course still attached to the original questionable email: I side with you.
Really? Then what was your logic in sending the original message? Sigh. People. Sometimes I just don’t get them.
Meanwhile, each of these tragedies has a similar theme: the shooter lost their job. Plus in one the shooter was derided for not having good English – so he goes and shoots people at a place where they try to teach it – why? In another the shooter thought that Obama was going to take away his gun rights – has anyone heard anything about this, because I sure haven’t, although I don’t follow a lot of politics all that closely. Well, he’ll sure as hell get them take n away now. And the third, I can’t even comment on. You lost your job so you shoot your family – and he’s not the first to do so.
So, like I said, I am for some better method of control over who has guns and who has the right to senselessly slaughter innocent people because they have a problem. And, like I said, I don’t know the answer, don’t even begin to have a clue. But here’s what I think: somebody should get together and get one, because right now the right to bear arms isn’t doing such a great job at keeping us safe. And something needs to.
Anyway, this email, which I tried to copy and paste and had no luck with the pictures which are the major part of it, was titled ‘The 2nd Amendment’ and was all about guns and having guns and is led off with a front on picture of a revolver, followed by supposed witticisms about having guns and then more pictures, one of a monkey shooting a pistol under the caption ‘Go Ahead, Punk, Make My Day’. The whole thing ended with
I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment!
If you are too, please forward.
Now, several questions went through my head when I opened this. First of course was why are you sending this to me and why don’t you clean the forwards off of it first. Then I glanced through it and asked again, why are you sending this to me. Because you have no idea what my stance on guns and gun control and the 2nd Amendment is. And my next question was are you kidding – you are actually sending this, something like this, right now, when I have just read about not only the shootings in Binghamton, NY, and then the police officers killed in Pittsburgh, but the latest tragedy, 5 children shot by their father in Tacoma, Washington. On top of all that tragedy, that senseless killing with guns, you are sending me this, not knowing how I feel about guns and gun control or even if maybe, God forbid, I lost someone in any of those events. Which of course led to the next question: ‘What is WRONG with you?’ That you are taking it upon yourself to presume that I agree with you, that I share your views, and that I won’t be disturbed by the content of this email.
I don’t even know this person enough to argue with him about all of this, but I did send the following to him:
“Yeah, and guns had nothing to do with 14 tragic deaths in Binghamton, 3 police officers dying in Pittsburgh and 5 children -CHILDREN - being shot in Tacoma, Washington. That's 22 senseless deaths in THREE DAYS. Not to mention that probably many more around the country, and ones in other countries (6 gay men shot in Iraq, for example - just gleaning facts from the morning headlines). I'm not against guns, I'm not against people hunting and having guns and in extreme circumstances using them to defend themselves. I am against the senseless killings that go on and on and on. With guns. I am for some method of better control, and no, I don't know what that is.”
Doesn’t he send back, ps of course still attached to the original questionable email: I side with you.
Really? Then what was your logic in sending the original message? Sigh. People. Sometimes I just don’t get them.
Meanwhile, each of these tragedies has a similar theme: the shooter lost their job. Plus in one the shooter was derided for not having good English – so he goes and shoots people at a place where they try to teach it – why? In another the shooter thought that Obama was going to take away his gun rights – has anyone heard anything about this, because I sure haven’t, although I don’t follow a lot of politics all that closely. Well, he’ll sure as hell get them take n away now. And the third, I can’t even comment on. You lost your job so you shoot your family – and he’s not the first to do so.
So, like I said, I am for some better method of control over who has guns and who has the right to senselessly slaughter innocent people because they have a problem. And, like I said, I don’t know the answer, don’t even begin to have a clue. But here’s what I think: somebody should get together and get one, because right now the right to bear arms isn’t doing such a great job at keeping us safe. And something needs to.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Another New York City trip
Second trip to New York: not as many days as the first, but the days themselves are longer to make up for that. We start at 10 a.m. (after walking a few blocks from the hotel to arrive at the school where the auditions are held a little after 9 so we can sit around and talk and get our table set up and so on), go until 1 watching one person every minute and a half come on stage and either sing and do a monologue or do two monologues if they are not a singer. There’s an hour lunch break, and then Monica and Kelly went back to the auditorium while Lynne, Josh, Doug and I stayed in the room upstairs to do call-backs. Another hour break at 6, and the dance calls tarts at 7 for about 1 ½ hours, then more call-backs until about 10, and walk back to the hotel. The auditions are in 1 hour segments with a few minutes break between each. Some of them there were quite a few possible people, but some there were only one or two and by Saturday Monica and Kelly were down to sending only one or two people up and one session they didn’t call back any! Some of the kids have no business trying to be in this business. Monica blames it on the schools, the colleges taking their money for theatre studies. I guess that might be some of it, I think it is a combination of that and the kids themselves just not being realistic, or maybe getting pushed from other outside forces, parents or who knows what. I just know that there were some Simon would have a field day with on American Idol.
Saturday night we did quit a bit early and went out for food at our traditional place, The Paris, down by the Seaport. A great old building, and you can imagine the fishermen coming in for a draught after unloading their catch.
Sunday morning I walked over to the World Trade Center site, I went there last year and wanted to see if I could tell what the progress has been. There is some, buildings are started and up a few stories. There’s a church, St. Paul’s Chapel, across Broadway from the site, with old, old gravestones - from the 1700’s around it. There’s also a bell that was a gift to the U.S. from England after 9/11. I walked around the church yard a bit, and on the way out noticed a gravestone of a woman who ‘Joined the Lord’ on – September 11 – 1796. That was a little spooky. I also went back to the memorial that is on the side wall of the firehouse across Liberty Street from the site. The bronze mural is stunning, there is also a large poster with photos of the firemen lost; people have left bouquets of flowers, candles burning, notes and cards, words of encouragement. One figure on the mural is a fireman on his knees, with his hand reaching up, with two other firemen behind him, each with a hand on his shoulder. Someone has hung a rosary on his hand. That gave me shivers.
It’s a nice part of the city, way downtown. There are still some cobblestone streets, the streets are the narrow size they were back in the 1700 and 1800’s, some of the original buildings are still there. It’s slower and quieter than the more midtown areas, although probably not so much on a weekday when the Wall Streeters and all are around. There is a 9-11 memorial center, and a nice timeline of the day and afterwards on the terrace of the church, I think there was also something inside the church but I didn’t have time to look. Maybe I’ll take a trip down there and poke around sometime. When you get on one of the little side streets, walking on the cobblestones and seeing the old buildings it does take you back to another age.
And that was our second trip to NYC.
Saturday night we did quit a bit early and went out for food at our traditional place, The Paris, down by the Seaport. A great old building, and you can imagine the fishermen coming in for a draught after unloading their catch.
Sunday morning I walked over to the World Trade Center site, I went there last year and wanted to see if I could tell what the progress has been. There is some, buildings are started and up a few stories. There’s a church, St. Paul’s Chapel, across Broadway from the site, with old, old gravestones - from the 1700’s around it. There’s also a bell that was a gift to the U.S. from England after 9/11. I walked around the church yard a bit, and on the way out noticed a gravestone of a woman who ‘Joined the Lord’ on – September 11 – 1796. That was a little spooky. I also went back to the memorial that is on the side wall of the firehouse across Liberty Street from the site. The bronze mural is stunning, there is also a large poster with photos of the firemen lost; people have left bouquets of flowers, candles burning, notes and cards, words of encouragement. One figure on the mural is a fireman on his knees, with his hand reaching up, with two other firemen behind him, each with a hand on his shoulder. Someone has hung a rosary on his hand. That gave me shivers.
It’s a nice part of the city, way downtown. There are still some cobblestone streets, the streets are the narrow size they were back in the 1700 and 1800’s, some of the original buildings are still there. It’s slower and quieter than the more midtown areas, although probably not so much on a weekday when the Wall Streeters and all are around. There is a 9-11 memorial center, and a nice timeline of the day and afterwards on the terrace of the church, I think there was also something inside the church but I didn’t have time to look. Maybe I’ll take a trip down there and poke around sometime. When you get on one of the little side streets, walking on the cobblestones and seeing the old buildings it does take you back to another age.
And that was our second trip to NYC.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Old and new what I think
A TAX REBATE TO ‘STIMULATE THE ECONOMY’ 1/24/08
The government just keeps getting better and better. Several thoughts come right to mind on this, the first being that if they can afford to give everyone back money, doesn’t this mean that taxes are too high to begin with?
The next thought is what the hell good is $600 going to do-$1200 for a couple - yeah, right, that’ll make maybe one mortgage payment and what do they do for the next 11 months of the year?
Does everyone elected in Washington check their brains and common sense at the city limits? Seems like it, and judging from the looks of the ongoing campaigning it isn’t going to improve, at least not in my reading of the actions and comments of the ‘top’ Democratic candidates a their recent debate. I only watched a fraction of it, on the news, but that was enough to make me glad I hadn’t tried to watch it all. Going at each other like that - what are they, six years old on the playground fighting over whose ball it is. Get real, grow up and take a look at what you should be paying attention to, people! Why in the world would Americans want a leader who acts like that. What are you going to do in international situations, point fingers and go ‘neener, neener, neener’?
But I digress. We were talking about the tax rebate and the economy. We’re heading into a recession or worse. Is anyone else worried? There’s no leadership, nobody who will address the primary (IMHO) reason* for the inflation that is causing the recession.
* Oil. Plain and simple. America runs on oil (with apologies to Dunkin’ Donuts for their ad campaign). Not coffee, not empty promises, not tax rebates. Oil. America is dependent on our cars and our trucks. Americans in a large part of the country are dependent on oil to heat their homes. We love our plastic, which is made from - oil. We love our synthetic fabrics, which are made from - oil. We love our stuff, all of which has to be brought to us in trucks which use large amounts of diesel fuel, made from - oil. And that last, ladies and gentlemen, is a huge part of inflation. What do you have that didn’t travel to you in a truck? When that truck has to pay about $1.00 for each mile the wheels turn to bring it to you, who do you think pays? Not the seller, not the truck owner or driver. Eventually, you pay. More. More for your lumber to build homes, computers to write things like this, clothes made from synthetic or natural fibers, plastics and food. Plus, it costs the farmer more to grow the food because he puts fuel into his machinery to do it. It costs more for the factory to make the plastics and clothes and computers because they have to heat them with oil. And so on.
So, when oil prices go through the star-studded Middle-Eastern desert sky, Americans take it in the pocketbook.
The government, instead of puffing up their reputation with a miniscule term ‘solution’ needs to work on a long, long, long term one. Because it ain’t gonna get any better, Scooter, it’s just gonna get worse.
What is the solution? Hell if I know. But maybe if they paid more attention to what’s going on at home instead of a war that will never be won, more attention to really doing good by the people instead of what bad things their opponent may or may not have done when they were a teenager, more attention to what the average American needs are, the Grand Mysterious They could find a workable answer.
And we can help. Not buying gas for a single day - not gonna do it - because you’ll just buy it another day. But if you walk or car pool one day, now that will make a difference. Turn the furnace down a tad. Buy local grown products. Shop local and help out your neighbors. Do with less.
3/13/09:
The above never made it to the blog, although some parts of it did in another one. I’ll try to wrap it up, without getting into more political commentary.
So now one of the above mentioned finger pointers has been elected and sworn in and is implementing his plans. Are they helping? Too soon to tell. What’s the country gonna come to? Too soon to tell.
The oil prices did come down (yeah, right, gas got cheaper as I was coming back from my 7,500 mile vacation trip!), thank goodness. But with all the other crap, that one thing hasn’t meant a whole lot. Jobs being lost, business going under, people loosing homes, money (add me to that list, my ‘retirement’ investments are down by about half, not that I was ever gonna retire anyway but that’s another blog), people reacting in tragic ways.
All we can do is hope that things reverse or at least stop going down soon and that the new government’s ideas can help. And that the people have learned some thing from all of this, although I doubt it.
Above I mentioned oil as a main reason for the inflation. It is, but there are so many more. And one of them, as Pogo once said, is ‘we is met the enemy and he is us’. Yup, a lot of the general public is our own worst enemy. We want more of everything: at work more pay, more benefits – where do you think that comes from? DUH – not the company’s profits, nope, they give you more and start to charge more, so everybody has to pay more and then they want more, too, and up and up it goes. DUH.
And having to have more things. The biggest, newest, brightest, best of it all. And the big stores having to expand to try to take over the market – more, more, more. And now all of a sudden it’s less, less, less.
Where’s it gonna stop? Who knows, but we are in that recession we were worried about a year ago. Let’s hope somehow it gets stopped and soon. And again, let’s do our own little bits to help.
The government just keeps getting better and better. Several thoughts come right to mind on this, the first being that if they can afford to give everyone back money, doesn’t this mean that taxes are too high to begin with?
The next thought is what the hell good is $600 going to do-$1200 for a couple - yeah, right, that’ll make maybe one mortgage payment and what do they do for the next 11 months of the year?
Does everyone elected in Washington check their brains and common sense at the city limits? Seems like it, and judging from the looks of the ongoing campaigning it isn’t going to improve, at least not in my reading of the actions and comments of the ‘top’ Democratic candidates a their recent debate. I only watched a fraction of it, on the news, but that was enough to make me glad I hadn’t tried to watch it all. Going at each other like that - what are they, six years old on the playground fighting over whose ball it is. Get real, grow up and take a look at what you should be paying attention to, people! Why in the world would Americans want a leader who acts like that. What are you going to do in international situations, point fingers and go ‘neener, neener, neener’?
But I digress. We were talking about the tax rebate and the economy. We’re heading into a recession or worse. Is anyone else worried? There’s no leadership, nobody who will address the primary (IMHO) reason* for the inflation that is causing the recession.
* Oil. Plain and simple. America runs on oil (with apologies to Dunkin’ Donuts for their ad campaign). Not coffee, not empty promises, not tax rebates. Oil. America is dependent on our cars and our trucks. Americans in a large part of the country are dependent on oil to heat their homes. We love our plastic, which is made from - oil. We love our synthetic fabrics, which are made from - oil. We love our stuff, all of which has to be brought to us in trucks which use large amounts of diesel fuel, made from - oil. And that last, ladies and gentlemen, is a huge part of inflation. What do you have that didn’t travel to you in a truck? When that truck has to pay about $1.00 for each mile the wheels turn to bring it to you, who do you think pays? Not the seller, not the truck owner or driver. Eventually, you pay. More. More for your lumber to build homes, computers to write things like this, clothes made from synthetic or natural fibers, plastics and food. Plus, it costs the farmer more to grow the food because he puts fuel into his machinery to do it. It costs more for the factory to make the plastics and clothes and computers because they have to heat them with oil. And so on.
So, when oil prices go through the star-studded Middle-Eastern desert sky, Americans take it in the pocketbook.
The government, instead of puffing up their reputation with a miniscule term ‘solution’ needs to work on a long, long, long term one. Because it ain’t gonna get any better, Scooter, it’s just gonna get worse.
What is the solution? Hell if I know. But maybe if they paid more attention to what’s going on at home instead of a war that will never be won, more attention to really doing good by the people instead of what bad things their opponent may or may not have done when they were a teenager, more attention to what the average American needs are, the Grand Mysterious They could find a workable answer.
And we can help. Not buying gas for a single day - not gonna do it - because you’ll just buy it another day. But if you walk or car pool one day, now that will make a difference. Turn the furnace down a tad. Buy local grown products. Shop local and help out your neighbors. Do with less.
3/13/09:
The above never made it to the blog, although some parts of it did in another one. I’ll try to wrap it up, without getting into more political commentary.
So now one of the above mentioned finger pointers has been elected and sworn in and is implementing his plans. Are they helping? Too soon to tell. What’s the country gonna come to? Too soon to tell.
The oil prices did come down (yeah, right, gas got cheaper as I was coming back from my 7,500 mile vacation trip!), thank goodness. But with all the other crap, that one thing hasn’t meant a whole lot. Jobs being lost, business going under, people loosing homes, money (add me to that list, my ‘retirement’ investments are down by about half, not that I was ever gonna retire anyway but that’s another blog), people reacting in tragic ways.
All we can do is hope that things reverse or at least stop going down soon and that the new government’s ideas can help. And that the people have learned some thing from all of this, although I doubt it.
Above I mentioned oil as a main reason for the inflation. It is, but there are so many more. And one of them, as Pogo once said, is ‘we is met the enemy and he is us’. Yup, a lot of the general public is our own worst enemy. We want more of everything: at work more pay, more benefits – where do you think that comes from? DUH – not the company’s profits, nope, they give you more and start to charge more, so everybody has to pay more and then they want more, too, and up and up it goes. DUH.
And having to have more things. The biggest, newest, brightest, best of it all. And the big stores having to expand to try to take over the market – more, more, more. And now all of a sudden it’s less, less, less.
Where’s it gonna stop? Who knows, but we are in that recession we were worried about a year ago. Let’s hope somehow it gets stopped and soon. And again, let’s do our own little bits to help.
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