Sunday, August 30, 2009

Bede and I spent the day at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. It is a wonderful place. They have done a fantastic job. We were both very impressed with the Jungle exibit. It made us nostalgic for Panama. Many of the animals that roamed thru the neighborhood at Ft. Clayton were featured. Sloths, cootamundi, basaliks, howler monkeys...brought back many memories.
They also have an excellent night exibit, lots of animals in their nocturnal habitat.




Great aquarium with a walk thru tunnel under the water. Rays swam overhead with sharks and sea turtles.


We took a ride on the Skyfari...a ski lift thing that gave us a real birdseye view of the zoo. Although I did have a moment of concern when we stalled for a minute or two directly over the rhino area.

Great day.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

More about dads...

This is from Victoria Jackson. I remember her well from Saturday Night Live. She always played a ditsy blond. Obviously she is anything but ditsy. She is funny. She says, in her own way, what I have been saying for a long time. Fathers are important. Good fathers are VERY important. It's a sad, sad society we live in where people believe we can raise children well without the benefit of both a mother and father. Read on...







Cheetos (Poor People Need Fathers Not Government Programs)
by Victoria Jackson
I’m sitting in a waiting room. I’m waiting for my auditioning squad to execute me. I’m wearing my black and red plaid, $1400 St. John audition outfit. I’ve worn it to every audition for six years. It has a small hole in it. I hope they don’t notice. I have time to kill so I’m trying to crawl inside the head of a liberal.

The people auditioning me will all be liberals. Should I hide my recent, passionate Tea-Bagging activities, if the topic comes up? Why should they hate me? I only want the best for everyone. My beliefs in the Bible, and freedom and capitalism are only ideals that bless people. And, they worked real good from 1776 to 2008…with a hitch in the 60s where immorality, free love, the pill, drugs, divorce, and the breakup of the family started the thread of morality unraveling. You can’t have a great country without the spirit of The Ten Commandments hovering in the hearts of its citizens.

This execution squad has probably already labeled me. But, the labels, they are a’changing. Republicans have moved left. Liberals have moved left. I guess it’s The Second Law of Thermodynamics, “the world is in a state of entropy,” or decay, or left-moving. Now the word “radical” is in the mix. It’s a swirl of words that represent belief systems, or “world-views” as Chuck Colson put it in his book, “How Now Shall We Live?”

One must watch the news all day to keep up with the swiftly changing currents. Dennis Prager had the author of “Heaven and Earth” on his radio show today, and I sighed with relief. Finally, someone is addressing the global warming hoax with a real scientist. But, suddenly KGIL has canceled all of it’s conservative talk radio programs and replaced them with music. The hairs on my arms pop up. Has the Fairness Doctrine begun? And we didn’t even get to fight it?

I saw a real fat girl once, slowly walking down the middle of an empty street in a “poor” neighborhood. She was eating from a bag of Cheetos. I was in my car at a stop light, watching her. I thought maybe no one told her that Cheetos make you fat, or maybe her life is so sad that that bag of Cheetos is the highlight of her day. Sometimes, Cheetos is the highlight of my day. I said a little prayer for her. Then, she dropped the empty bag in the middle of the street.

My empathy dissipated.

Statistics confirm the fact that most “poor” people have no fathers. My father told me that Cheetos makes you fat. He also built a gym in our backyard. We lived in a very “poor” neighborhood. Our house cost $10,000 when he bought it in the 50’s. The neighborhood then got worse. All of our neighbors’ houses began to look dirty and have five broken cars and beer cans in their front yards. Our house was always immaculate and our front yard always had freshly mown grass. My father took us to church 3 times a week. He read the Bible out loud to Grandma and Grandpa every Sunday night, at Grandma’s house, because Grandpa was an agnostic and wouldn’t go to church. My father taught me how to read when I was 5, so that when I started first grade I was the best reader. I skipped second grade. My father played the piano every night and taught us show tunes, and how to harmonize. My father taught us how to water ski. My father was a gymnastics coach, so he taught me a “flip flop” and I was the only cheerleader who could do that. My father protected us. He bought a bee bee gun that looked like a real gun, to scare burglars away. We were robbed four times. He said, “I could never kill anyone.” My father made us feel safe. He gave us confidence and a history and a future.

That Cheetos girl probably doesn’t have a father. And, no amount of government assistance, housing, food stamps, free college, or ObamaCare can give her that. She needs a father.

Obama didn’t have a father. Maybe that’s why he sees the government as Daddy.

My auditioning/execution squad enters the room and all my thoughts start to swirl away. The only thought that remains is that I must tell the truth. I only want the best for everyone

Monday, August 24, 2009

Sweet Sounds of Summer

Just came in from the front porch. Listening to the sounds of this warm, humid, late August night. Everyone is out...crickets, frogs, cicadas, even a couple of birds up late. The wind is blowing the leaves into soft sighs and swishes. Easy tones from the wind chimes bring it all together. The cicadas came late this year. We usually notice their arrival in early August. One day you just are aware of this incredible noise. They fill the trees with their sound. We rarely see them, but we sure know they're here. It's one of those sounds that make me say..."SUMMER".
These are the sounds that call to mind Tennessee Williams and his stories of long hot sultry nights.

The nights used to include sounds from within. Babies crying, dishes being put away, music from the stereo. Soft voices murmuring from the porch swing, tinkling of glasses filled with cold lemonade.
Now the windows are all closed to keep in the conditioned air. People stay indoors to keep cool. I can remember my mother talking about sitting on her front porch when she was a kid. I sat on the front porch growing up. Lots of talk, lots of games, lots of fun summer nights.
It all comes back with the sounds of this warm ,humid, late August night.
Good memories, good times, good sounds.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Quit Facebook today.

Bede and I tried , mostly due to the fact that family seems to pass along info that way, and pictures. Bede never really was interested and rarely checked it out. I lurked occasionally, but never really participated. We began to realize that there was very little actual family info and just a few pics.

Can't stand all the little games and does anyone really care what food you are or if you were a tree would you be an oak or willow....I think Barbara Walters asked some movie star that many years ago...
John says" I'm making toast"... Susie says " really liked laying in the sun today"

AAAAGGGGHHHHH...Make toast, lay in the sun, do whatever you like, but why do people feel the need to tell the world about every mundane aspect of their lives...

(She says as she blogs about hating facebook) Just a little irony here, I'll admit!

All those applications are really just ploys to get your information and use it for their own profit...SPAM.
We got tired of Facebook "suggesting" we be friends with people just because they knew someone we knew. I don't know these people, I'll make my own friends, thank you very much.
If Facebook was so smart it would know that I don't really want to be friends with very many people. I like my semi isolation, always have. Even if I do really like you, I don't need to know what planet you would be, and I don't want to see your cartoon alter ego.
I know, I'm old and crabby...but it all seems just a little stupid and a too much like High School. So we're out. From what I understand we will never be actually deleted from Facebook, as they keep the info forever...

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Woke up this morning to the local news station reporting that cars have been vandalized at a social service agency. Get to work and find that 11 of our cars have been vandalized. All the drivers side windows have been broken out. We have 5-6 agency vans that we use for work and the rest were cars donated to us that we give to needy families. In fact all of the cars have been donated to us. Most of the vans we use for work are old, have over 100,000 miles on them. None of them have anything in them.
The police were called by a passing motorist about 1am last night and when the police arrived, the perp was sitting in one of the vans. He is now getting his own social services via the county jail. Don't know what he was looking for, but he got nothing except time in jail. Catholic Social Services will take a huge financial hit on this as our insurance is liability only for most of the vehicles. My boss is spending his day vacuuming glass out of the cars.

The local tv news station is here now doing a story.

Not sure how I feel about this now. I'm angry, sad, and disappointed. But also sorry for this guy. Don't know if he needed drugs or what the reason for the damage, but whatever it is, he's got serious problems.
It's hard to want to keep helping people when this kind of thing happens. Every day we come to work and deal with people who are needy. Some of them thru no fault of their own, but so many due to a series of poor choices. Some of these folks get angry if we cannot help them. Some feel very entitled to any and all assistance. This guy probably has nothing to do with any of our clients. It just life.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

BFF

Why am I suddenly receiving emails from David Axelrod and the Whitehouse?
If the whitehouse is not keeping email addresses of those who oppose the president's healthcare plan, why all of a sudden is Dave my new best friend?

It's not paranoia, just a question.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

You're Still the One


31 years ago today, I married my sweetheart. Still together, still in love.


You're still the one that makes me laugh
Still the one that's my better half
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one that makes me strong
Still the one I want to take along
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

Changing, our love is going gold
Even though we grow old, it grows new

You're still the one that I love to touch
Still the one and I can't get enough
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one who can scratch my itch
Still the one and I wouldn't switch
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You are still the one that makes me shout
Still the one that I dream about
We're still having fun, and you're still the one...
lyrics from:

"You're still the one:
Orleans

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Pelosi/Hoyer op-ed in Monday USATODAY calls townhall protesters 'un-American'... Developing...

Stay tuned for the rath of Jeanne if this turns out to be true.

How is it UNAmerican to want the best for your country?
How is it UNAmerican to exersice our freedom of speech?
How is it UNAmerican to do the same thing Liberals have been doing for years?
How dare they call me UNAmerican!!!
We have spent our lives in service to this country.
We love the USA.


I feel the heat...and it's not a hot flash !!!

Angels 911


Did you know we can dispatch our guardian angels to aid another?
If we know someone who is in great need or distress, or in danger of making a huge moral error, we can ask our guardian angel to go to that person and help his/her guardian angel.

Rock on ANGRY MOB !!!


Dick Durbin, the # 2 ranking Democrat in the Senate said today that he would be willing to modify the health care legislation. He would be okay with removing the "gov't. run public option".

So I guess the "angry mob" of retired and middle aged Americans actually does have a voice.

New Home Office

Spent most of today out on the front porch. It has been raining, lots of thunder and lightening. Sitting out here as I write this. Humid as all get out, but lovely just the same. Nothing feels like summer as much as a hot, humid ,rainy , lazy, Sunday in August, Nebraska day.




Friday, August 7, 2009

Gone Fishn'

The White House wants you all to report "fishy" emails regarding healthcare issues...
The following was released this week...

"These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov"





Now just listen to these two, are they serious? I should be totally offended. Instead I feel positive the left is floundering ( get it?...floundering...) Subversives are soooo funny...






IS SHE FOR REAL ? OR JUST REALLY CRAZY ?





This article is quite interesting...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/White-House-advises-Dems-on-apf-161198401.html?x=0


It is all so blatantly obvious. These same people who ranted, and screamed with hatred agaist the last president and EVERYTHING he did, now are having hissy fits that we dare to oppose this president. Freedom of speech is for all Americans. I am amazed at the reaction I am witnessing from the Democrats and the Whitehouse. I actually feel empowered. Evidently a bunch of well dressed middle aged folks who are showing up at meetings and rallys across the US are striking fear into the hearts of the administration. Rock on older dudes!!!!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

If you are concerned about the budget deficit, oppose health care changes and think the stimulus was a failure, the Democratic National Committee(DNC)thinks you are part of the "right wing extremist base." Those Americans who have peacefully protested against these changes are labeled an "angry mob." This ad may motivate patriotic Americans, who oppose the hard left turn Obama is taking our county on, to get even more involved.







Apparently Bede and I are part of the "MOB". He and I went to a rally protesting Obama's Health Care legislation on Monday on the capitol steps. Sen Tony Fulton spoke. We both felt it was time to stop sitting on the sidelines, stop hoping things would get better, stop talking about it. We decided it was time to walk the walk. We both feel that we need a voice in this debate, but to have a voice, you must be a voice. We must be present. We need to show up and be counted, be heard. For too long the liberals have been the loud ones, the ones who yell and hold up signs. We can play that game too.

But wait... They don't want anyone else to play. Sorry folks, the 1st amendment gives the right of free speech to all of us. Get used to it, we're just getting started.

Here are a couple of photos of the lunch time rally.