"Illegal Immigrants" on The Lake.

This morning about a dozen "Illegal Immigrants" landed on The Lake. I was sitting watching the peaceful scene, with the wonderful colors of another beautiful sunrise spreading across the gently rippled surface of The Lake. A group of about 15 Canada Geese were ambling around close to the water and nibbling on the green grass of our neighbor's lawn. All of a sudden there they were, 10 "Illegals", crashing noisily onto the surface of The Lake, disturbing its smooth surface and honking loudly. The geese that had been peacefully dining a moment earlier suddenly changed their slow walking to aggressive strutting, wagging their heads up and down and letting out loud whoops. All hell was breaking loose out in our Peaceable Kingdom. Another group of Canada Geese had landed in the water close to the first group. It was impossible to tell if the "natives" were upset at the arrival of the "illegals" or were welcoming them! Anyway after a while the commotion died down and peace and quiet returned to The Lake.
Meanwhile, up at the Humming bird feeder, things were heating up. Two Hummers - no, not the GM version - the avian kind - like to feed here, but not together, one will be feeding quietly all alone, (No sign of a humm, so I don't know where they get that name from. But I wouldn't mind betting that John Wisniewski knows.) when Hummer number two arrives and a fierce, high speed fight ensues. At least we assume it is a fight, they both fly off, doing battle? Soon one returns. We have never seen them feed together.
The huge Great Blue Herons appear from time to time - they MUST have been Pteradactyls in a previous life - and soar majestically up and then down until their 6 foot wings almost touch the water. We never cease to be amazed at the gracefull sight of these wonderful birds.

Nature paints a picture.

Yes, The Lake is an absolute picture. Especially at 5.30 am, I have tried to tell Julia, the love of my life, to get herself awake at least for long enough to see the effects of the sun over The Lake in the morning. But to no avail. (I like to tell her that she must be in practice for the Individual Sleeping Event at the next Olympic Games in London in 2012. She won the silver medal when she was Sleeping for the US last time she entered, but this time I think she is determined to win the gold!)
Anyway, that aside, the sun does its magic every morning as it colors The Lake and the trees around it in its palette of pastel paints. First a blanket of pink or blue and then usually working up to the golds. It all depends on the clouds and all the other variables, but it never dissapoints.
Kristen, The Frugal Girl, e-mailed me today, which reminded me to check out my refrigerator for anything that I missed. And sure enough there it was, a lone, nasty, black banana. But that was all, my chickens will love it, they don't turn up their noses (beaks) at anything. It all goes down, along with their feed, the weeds that I throw in, the lettuce from the garden that went to seed and everything else, and comes out the other end as beautiful tasty eggs. One of the many miracles of nature. So does that count as waste? No I don't think so either, in fact I can't remember the last time something went to waste. When you have chickens there is no such thing as waste.

A great deal of activity on The Lake

Last year the Carp spawning happened on June 8th. This year it happened today - May 22nd. Now does this mean something? Like Global Warming? Or maybe their spawning is tied to the moons phase?

Whatever, The Lake was boiling today with the sexual antics of hundreds of Carp. I kid you not, hundreds, There was considerable thrashing and churning of the waters as the Carp flailed about in the shallow waters at the edge of The Lake. Sometimes it appeared to be just two fish, but at other times there were three or even four or more whipping around in a frenzy. The splashing wasn't happening all the time, as I said there were literally hundreds of fish out there but most of them were just swimming around - looking for a mate? I could stand on our bulkhead and looking down, see them swimming by. Most were around 2 feet long but there were quite a few of 3 feet and a couple of times I saw fish that were at least 4 feet long!!

I wonder if they are in The Lake all the time, but we only see them during the spawning season, or do they come into The Lake at this time of the year to mate?

There is a lot more activity, mostly from the birds. The saga of the Cananda Geese and their Goslings continues as does the attacks on the Geese by the pair of Swans. Last year the attacks were all by the male Swan while the female was sitting on their nest. In vain, I would add, as the eggs had ben oiled by the Dept of the Environment to prevent their hatching. As the female Swan is now patroling The Lake with the male I assume that the Dept must have broken the eggs or removed them this year.

I have seen at various times lately the Buzzards, the Great Blue Herons, a Great White Heron, Egrets, Osprey, Cormorants and the mysterious little white bird that dives into the water from on high.

Three G's.

What are the three G's I hear you saying? God, Guns and Gays. Is it just me or are the Extremist Conservatives of the USA overly occupied with the three G's? It appears to me that their entire psyche is concerned with these things about which the rest of the world says, ho hum.

I say Grow Up America. The new British Prime minister - a Conservative, no less! - was asked how he felt about God, his reply, "I don't have a direct line." amused the British public as much as it amused me.

Guns, a dozen or so Brits are killed each year by guns, (As opposed to 50,000 or so in the US) The feeling there about guns? We are better off without them.

Gays - Yes, we have them.

That's it.

The recent election in the UK - six weeks of electioneering! Does that sound like heaven or not?

Compare that to here, where we have to suffer AT LEAST two years of political ads 24/7. I say at least, but in actual fact it is more like a permanent state of political advertising from the moment the election is over, every politician is concerned with one thing and one thing only - getting elected next time. Why? Most of them could make as much as their pitiful 200K to 300K a year or whatever they make as a Congressman or Senator, as a banker or lawyer or whatever it was they did on Main Street before they decided to annoy and rob us. I can only assume it is because they can make a lot more in other ways in their new capacity. A LOT more. As in millions more.

The longer I live here the more I am in favor of a fixed term for Congressmen and Senators. A one time term of six years sounds about right to me. Even the President is limited to two 4 year terms. Why should we allow these scoundrels to harrass and steal from us for an unlimited time?

Food waste

As usual in our household, there is no food waste. When you keep a few chickens nothing goes to waste! In fact, we waste so little ourselves that it is often hard to find any treats to give the chickens. Last night we had two couples over and we all had a good shrimp feast. No, there were no left-over shrimp! But there were a lot of shrimp shells and wouldn't you know it, chickens even like shrimp shells! So they were happy to feast on them, the scrapings off of the plates, beet skins and tops, plus a few other things like potato skins, carrot skins, bean ends, banana peels etc. They will reward us with some eggs.
There is very little that chickens won't eat, but one is anything citric, so the compost pile benefitted from the grapefruit skins, orange peels and such like.
When I mow the lawn, a pile of the clippings goes into the chicken run, the rest onto the compost.
Tuesday is recycle day and the recycle bin will go out at the curb, well filled with paper, plastic, glass and metal. Our trash can was emptied last Friday, it will go out again in about two weeks. Yes I put out one trash can about every 3 weeks, and it is usually less than half full - well it seems that almost everything is recyclable now, about the only thing going into our trash can now is the cats litter, debris from our vacuum and a few odds and ends like dirty paper towels. With no food waste, that doesn't go in there, even if we did not have chickens, any food scraps and byproducts (peelings etc) would either go onto the bird table or onto the compost pile.

Geese on The Lake

The Spring Season has arrived and with it the new broods of Cananda Geese. Julia saw the first batch of new babies a few days ago. The second batch showed up just one or two days later, and we have been enjoying them every day since.
Last night at "Bedtime" both of the families left our neighbors lawn and headed across the corner of The Lake to where their nests must be. We have not seen the nests but there is an empty lot or two along that part of The Lake's shoreline and that is where they must be, well hidden no doubt, as they have escaped the fox's attention. We see Mr Fox around here from time to time but somehow he has not bothered them, yet.
Anyway the families set off in single file, father first and then the babies - four in one tribe and five in the other - with the mothers as rearguard. Each clan was in a perfectly straight line. I imagined the mothers talking to their offspring like Marine Sergeant Majors, barking out their orders to keep the line straight, keep up speed, maintain a direction, pull in those wings and stick out that chest.
This morning we looked for their presence next door, but could see no sign of them. Then, at about 8.00am, there they were, ushering the little guys (and girls ) into the water for the short trip to the feeding grounds. Late risers. Our neighbor mows his lawn religiously every few days but with 13 hungry beaks "Mowing" it every day he may be able to slack off a bit now!
Their lawn slopes right down to the water, so it is an easy place for the birds to exit, whereas our waterfront is guarded by a bulkhead that prevents them from accessing our lawn, much to Julia's disappointment.
The weather has been even more unpredictable than usual, we had a temperature of 90 in March and now here we are in May with temperatures some nights in the 40's. Last night it went down to 51. Now, at almost 9.00am, it has only reached 60. I turned the heat off a couple of days ago, as it didn't seem like we would need it again, but here we are back to wearing sweaters and Julia is wrapped in a blanket in the evening while doing her crossword and watching TV. The usual Maryland weather, and the old adage - if you don't like the weather, wait for an hour and it will change, seems once again to reign.

Debt.

I have been hearing a lot of concern lately about the massive debt being built up by the Obama administration.
Thinking about this, here is my answer. I did not hear a lot of concern about the debt built up by the Bush administration - more than all the other Presidencies that had gone before him combined!! And this was after he had been handed the biggest surplus ever, in the history of the US!! By the Clinton administration.
George Bush then proceeded to not only give it away but put us further in debt than any other President, by far. He began by buying the Presidency. How? Well if you remember, Clinton had built up a big surplus, he then planned to have by 2010 zero debt!! And left in place a plan to do just that - we should have no National Debt by now if that plan had been followed.
Instead Bush started out by saying, "If you vote for me, I will give everyone $600.00". (How would you feel if I said, "Vote for me and I will give everyone $5,000.00" Do you think I would be voted in?) Well it JUST worked for Bush, even paying everyone $600.00 he barely scraped in. In fact I'm still not sure that he did! Then he proceeded to give tax cuts to all his rich buddies. As I have said before, if the rich got a 1.3 TRILLION dollar tax cut, where does that money come from? We still have to pay for everything. Well guess what, it comes from us - you and me - us poor suckers have to pay it. If the rich dudes don't pay it someone else does, and that someone is us poor folks.
Now Obama is trying to bail us out. And getting no help. Cutting taxes and giving everyone $600.00 checks is an easy way to be popular. Straightening out the idiots treatment of our economy is hard to do and still be everyones friend. Bush encouraged greed, theft, and criminal treatment of all of us by the big banks and wall street.
I am a big believer in taxing rich people. There is no way that what Tiger Woods does for example is worth 2,000 times what I do!! (He makes $100 million dollars a year, I don't even make $50,000) Is that right? Is one banker or wall street criminal worth $5 million or $50 million or even $500 million dollars? Yes, some make that much and even more! Some people might say, "Good luck to him, this is America, blaa bla blaa." But I don't think they realize that that $50 million dollars or $500 million dollars doesn't just come out of thin air. It comes from us! Yes that's right, it comes from you and me, straight out of your pocket. If he didn't have it, we would still have it. The spread of income is higher in the US than anywhere else. The difference between the richest and the poorest is bigger here than anywhere else in the world. In my opinion there is no way that these thieves should be making these ridiculous sums of money.
When I started work some of my bosses made TWICE as much money as I did! I hoped one day to reach such an elevated position! The average CEO 30 years ago made 30 times as much as their average employee. Today the average CEO makes 300 times as much as their average employee. Disgusting. I would change the tax laws dramatically if I had my way. It would still be possible to earn more than the next person by working harder or longer or smarter, but not to the ridiculous extent that we have now. Certainly by the time anyones income reaches a million dollars a year, and maybe earlier, they should be paying 98% tax on anything they earn over a million. There is no way that anyone deserves a private jet, a private yacht, a huge mansion, or several mansions, while there are people in this country that don't have enough to eat, can't afford to take their sick children to a doctor, don't have a home to live in, can't get a job, and so on.
Just my opinion. It's also my opinion that is not Socialism. Common sense maybe, but not Socialism. But if it is Socialism then Socialism is better than Capitalism - the kind of Capitalism that we have here now anyway. I think that Capitalism is the best system - the problem is the Capitalists! What we have here in America now are not true Capitalists. They are a bunch of greedy thieves and criminals.
It is also my opinion that true wealth comes from work. We get wealth from work, that is one reason America is so rich, because we have hard workers. When you dig things up and make stuff out of it like iron and aluminum and build cars and refrigerators and silverware and grow things to make clothing and food, you create wealth. Bankers, wall street types and others of that ilk, create nothing. They just take what others built. What they do has no worth at all.
Again, just my opinion.

Education.

I met a young couple yesterday, nothing unusual here you might say - except they had 7 children, the oldest of which appeared to be about 8 or 9 years old. Oh yes, and she was pregnant. "What do we have here?" I said to the father, and he said, "Gifts from God."
OK, moving on, I got to thinking, how can they possibly afford to raise 8 children? And that is always assuming they stop there! We had one child and stopped because we decided we could not afford to raise any more than that, and still give her the things we wanted to, including a good education.
Education, now here is where I have a problem with what I consider to be too many children. The couple live in the DC area where public school education costs $24,600 per year per child - including teachers pensions etc. (Incidentally the average Private School in the DC area costs $14,500 per year) Now, as many of you know figures fascinate me and I like playing with them. Lets start with 8 children times $24,600 - that is $196,800 PER YEAR! I think 13 years is the usual length of education. So, $196,600 times 13 equals $2,558,400.00. Now it is presumptuous of me to assume that they could not afford to pay that, however I am going to assume that. So if they cannot afford to pay it, who does? Well you and me of course! This offends me because I decided to not have more children because I could not afford them. But I have to pay for other peoples children. In this case at least $200,000 per year just in education costs!.And they won't even be contributing to those costs at all in taxes themselves. With 8 deductions plus two more for themselves I am pretty sure they won't be paying any taxes!
Don't get me wrong, I am all in favor of free education for all children, however there needs to be some responsibility on the part of some people. I think we can help with that responsibility - as they are obviously not able to help themselves - we can at least stop the granting of a taxable deduction for every child. How about as some kind of compromise here, that we give a deduction for the first child and then no more deductions? If you can afford children then you should at least be able to pay your taxes. It should be enough that we pay for the education of the children, why should we pay people to have more children? In other words if I decide that I can't afford more children why should I pay for someone else to have them? (In fact I would like to go even further than no deductions after the second child. How does this sound? One deduction for the first child, no deductions for the second child and then ADDITIONAL taxes for each extra child over two! After all if you can afford more children, you should at least be able to forgo tax deductions considering the huge additional tax burden that you are placing on everyone else.)
Oh yes and I DO like children! I also like chocolate, and you CAN have too much of a good thing, don't you think?

Common Sense Party.

Well, I've about had it with The Tea Party and The Coffee Party, I think it is about time I entered the arena with The Common Sense Party. What do you think?
I think that both "Sides" should have one common purpose - Good - they should be trying to do some good for People, good for the U.S., good for the World, good for the Environment, for our Children, our Neighbors, our Fellow Man. In other words they should live The Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Instead, all I see is politicians doing whatever they can for themselves, with no thought at all for the people they are supposed to be serving, the people they swore to serve, us.
We should all vote for a man or a woman, not a party. No consideration seems to be given to the person who is going to represent us, all anyone seems to care about is are they are a conservative or a liberal. If we were to forget parties and toeing the party line, our representatives could vote for what they think is right for us and the country, not what the party says they must vote for. A Coalition Party or a Common Sense Party. Forget the two party system, how about a one party system - the Peoples Party.
Do you think Obama will be able to correct 8 years of Bush excesses? Eight years of greed, criminals and thievery. I am beginning to doubt it. Things may be too far gone.
There is too much hate and hostility, if every representative was his own man or woman, it would delete a lot of the rivalry, opposition and resistance that take up all of their time now. Maybe they could devote some of their - excuse me OUR time - to their work. The work that WE pay them to do, which is to run the country efficiently for US. Instead of ruining the country for their own ends.
Anyone seen to be taking bribes should immediately be OUT. Right now lobbyists spend more than 1 million dollars a DAY on senators!!! Health Insurance Co's alone spend more than $1 million a DAY on lobbying for their companies. How can we compete with that? Obviously the Senators are going to represent the Health Insurance Companies, the Big Banks, Wall Street criminals etc, not us. They are going to go with the money - wouldn't you? Me to. Taking any money from anyone should be reason for immediate dismissal from working for us. Soon, we would have people there doing the job we put them there for and pay them for. People who want to do good. People like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and a few others who had the country in mind and not how much they could steal from us and their country.

101 Cormorants?

Well I have seen the movie 101 Dalmatians, but when I looked out of the window early this morning I thought for a minute that someone was making a new movie! I didn't actually count them but there must have been around 100 Cormorants on The Lake, they were coming in and landing continuously. I watched for a while as they swam and dived and depleted MY fish stocks! Let me see now 100 Cormorants eating, what, at least several fish a day. That's hundreds of fish. Well at least I don't have to worry that the 4 fish I take every 2 or 3 days is going to hurt anything. And then when I came out of the shower they had almost all gone. Had I woken up a little later I would not have even known that the crowds had been here. They seem to come and go at different times of the day but I have not seen such a large number this year. Last year it seemed there was a steady population of about 50 but they seemed to stay here on The Lake continuously for several weeks. This year sometimes I see just 2 or 3 and them none and then 40 or 50. And then today's huge number.
The Great Blue Herons continue with a steady population of 2 or 3, at least that is all I am seeing. Last year there were more, some days I counted 8 or 10, but this year we seem to have a greatly reduced number. It is quite amazing how different the bird population is from year to year. Julia has been observing a small number of Osprey fishing The Lake, she will suddenly say, "Look, there goes another fish flying over," as an Osprey flies over with another fish firmly grasped in its talons - heading for its dining table.
Well it is time to go to work.

Time for more unpopular stuff!

Back when Bill Clinton was our President he put forth the Deficit Reduction Bill, it gained NO Republican votes. But, it created 23 million jobs! And produced a balanced budget, the first in about a hundred years! (In fact it produced a surplus!!)

Now we have a new Health Care Bill, that will give health care to children with asthma, and leukaemia, and diabetes - Oh No! Now, if you get cancer, you can still get health insurance - Gasp! You can't be refused insurance because you are born with something wrong with you - Wow! If you get sick, you can't be dropped by by the Health Insurance Industry - What? How Un-American can you get? This is pure Socialism. This "ridiculous" bill gained NO Republican votes!

When John McCain was running for President he said "Country First", now he says after this 'awful bill' has been passed "No Co-operation Now". Does that sound to you like Country First? (Was there any co-operation before? I don't think so.)

I even hear that Texas is removing books from their schools that refer to Thomas Jefferson - apparently he backed separation of Church and State. Sounds like Socialism or Communism to me - I don't think - but apparently the Texas school board thinks it does!

Oh, and when is Rush Limbaugh leaving? Didn't he say "If the new Health Bill passes I'll leave the country."? (That could have got the extra swing votes to pass it!!!) It would have gained my vote anyway.

Taxes, all these extra taxes that I keep hearing about, I checked it out and it seems that 95% of Americans are paying LESS taxes than when Obama took office. The 5%who are paying more are the 5% of Americans who make over $250,000 a year. And that is only because the 1.3 Trillion dollar tax cut that Bush gave to the rich was allowed to run out. Now, when you cut 1.3 Trillion dollars in taxes to a group of people, correct me if I am wrong, but that money has to come from someone else, and the only someone else that I can see is everyone else. That would be the poor and the middle class. (you and me - I WAS middle class, now I am poor) And the way I saw it happen was to take away our savings (bank and wall street crashes) take away our home equity (housing crash) raise interest rates on credit cards etc and lower interest rates on savings (If you had any savings left) We lost a lifetime of savings over the last 5 years - around $800,000 - and the few hundred that we somehow managed to hide from the thieving banks and wall street criminals is drawing the princely sum of 1/10th of 1% interest. (Yes that's right one tenth of one percent) The way I see it, they havn't finished yet, they still see a few crumbs left and wont' be satisfied until they wrest every last nickel from us. To do that they have to get rid of the one guy who is standing in their way, or trying to. He won a round, they are not used to that. Now it is 'crosshairs' everywhere, even more invective vituperative talk, cursing, calls to arms and violence. The media is not helping, they bring every animosity and difference to the forefront, whipping up differences where ever they can. Soon our differences, that used to be comparatively minor - we were all the same country - and were better than every one else, and were proud to show every one else how it was done, may be our undoing. Minor differences, in lifestyle, and religion, were exagerated out of all recognition in other countries, such as Africa, by governments and media and resulted in revolutions, slaughters, genocides and purges. If we don't get the media's and political "parties", out of control, grip on us, I am afraid we may see these terrible things happen here. Hard as it is to believe, it could happen. Even a couple of years ago I could not imagine what is happening now, occuring here. It is frightening.

Spring on The Lake

Well spring is certainly 'springing' on The Lake. The birds are here in force. We have had Canada Geese here pretty much all winter it seems, the Swans are back and the male is busy as usual trying to clear The Lake of all danger to his forthcoming progeny. It is a full time job for him, he charges across The Lake in full fury, wings smashing against the water, honking loudly and literally running across the surface. A frightening sight indeed. It is a pretty scary sight and sound for me so I can only imagine how the ducks and geese feel. They take off, fly over him and land elsewhere on The Lake. So he has to start all over again. Very frustrating!
This morning we saw a fox, yes, just after 8.00 o'clock in the morning he (she?)trotted right across our backyard, down to the water, turned around and went across the neighbors yard where two geese were floating in the water. He ignored them, but they moved a little further out, then surprisingly they swam slowly after him, following him as he made his way along the shoreline. I can only think that they have a nest along there somewhere and were concerned about him finding it. He disappeared into the undergrowth and we wondered about a fox out in the daylight. I thought rabies, although he looked healthy and perky, Julia said maybe he has a family to feed. Who knows. Anyway it is very exciting here on The Lake in March. Today is forecast to be the first 70 degree day since last November, then tomorrow it is supposed to be 72 and 73 on Saturday! Wouldn't you know it, the guys just finished putting the stove and chimney in a few days ago. That is the reason for this awesome weather! I have kindling and wood stacked by the stove waiting for a cool evening, but, it looks like we may have to wait until next winter to enjoy it! The trees are all bursting out, including the potted dwarf fig that I put out onto the deck yesterday. The lawn is looking green, how appropriate as it was St. Patrick's Day yesterday, but Julia informs me that the green is all clover. (Again appropriate for St Patrick!) Whatever it is, it is green, I'll take whatever comes, no weed killers for us, having all grass is boring, the variety of weed flowers is much more exciting. And we don't want fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides washing into The Lake do we?
Global Warming seems to be back after a short hiatus! Whatever, I don't want to fight, we will see, what will be, will be. But we still want to try to reduce, lower, diminish or neutralize as much pollution as possible.
The weather today is perfect, just the right temperature and sunny. My neighbor Bill arrived at our house this afternoon in his "Boat", a pedal boat - the S.S. Poorman! We know how he feels, I think he is in the same situation as us, with his mortgage being somewhere around the same as his income! Our two mortgages are actually more than our total income! If we could only sell our old house (Now down to almost half the original asking price.) or our English Cottage which we put on the market a couple of weeks ago, we might be able to hold things together for a while. Even if we could just rent Dock Road things would not look so dire. But as they say, these things are sent to try us! We don't think we need any more trials though!
The snowstorms of the winter certainly changed our landscape, five feet of snow will do that! We had a nice hedge between our yard and our next door neighbor, but that is flat now. I spent a good part of today picking up fallen branches and have quite a pile. We only lost a few, mostly small, trees but a lot of the bigger trees have lost a large number of their branches. Over at Dock Road, (still not rented or sold), we also lost trees and branches, as well as a hedge, and the beautiful Camellia bush was heavily damaged by the snow. The greenhouse/solarium was sagging and I had to jack up the central support, an estimated 3 to 4 tons of snow on the roof had pushed the central support pole and its footer about 3 inches into the ground! I jacked it up, dug under it and poured more concrete on top of the old footer. It seems to be working so far.
The world has another mouth to feed. At 6.30 am this morning (10.30 am in the UK) my niece had another little girl. Our second Grand Niece. Her name is Molly India and she weighed in at 7lbs 13oz. Mother and daughter are doing well and are at home already.

BPA/BPH

I've been reading all this about BPH/BPA plastic bottles and got to thinking about our experience in raising our daughter who was born in 1971. Plastic bottles were available then, but we just didn't feel right about using them, common sense said that if plastic got hot maybe some of it would migrate into the bottle's contents! So we used glass bottles. Similarly, with the plastic and whatever they were made of diapers, who knew what was in them? So we used cotton diapers. When Julia was carrying, and breast feeding Sarah, she never used any drugs - by drugs I mean painkillers or anything - not even an aspirin! If she had a headache, she had a headache, that was it. She never took even one pill or one alcoholic drink the whole time. We put as many of our chemicals, cleaning materials, etc, as possible in the garage away from delicate little lungs. Microwave ovens were big then, but I wouldn't have one in the house with a baby. It was years before we used one, and I'm glad we didn't, I think they may be safer now, but there was a time when there was a scare about some of them leaking microwaves and working for the British Navy, as I had some years before, I knew what microwaves could do to you.
Over the years we gave baby Sarah as few medications as possible. I would rather she had a headache than dose it up with pills. Sure the headache would be gone a few hours after the pills were taken, but it was also gone in a few hours without the use of pills!! And who knows what those pills did? After all a headache is normal and natural, we all get them and they usually go away. The chemicals and drugs in the pills are not normal. Why put stuff into your body that has no business being there? (The drug companies spend BILLIONS convincing us that we cannot get by for even a day without their expensive concoctions. And we buy it, and them.)
Julia continued to work while pregnant, and continued to be vigilant about any danger to our new baby, so much so that when a pest company arrived to spray the offices of the company that she was worked for, she told her boss that they would have to do it overnight or at the weekend or she would have to leave. They, the pest company, and management, assured her that it was safe. But she left immediately. She was certainly vindicated there!
I guess my only point here is that a person's or a parent's common sense should be given free rein when something as precious as your child is concerned. If in doubt about something, err on the side of caution. If you have even the slightest doubt about whether something might not be right, don't do it. Nowadays, with the availability of the Internet, it is easier to check something out than it was 30 or 40 years ago, but it was worth the extra effort then and it is worth it now and always will be. Today there are thousands of new chemicals being introduced to our environment and our bodies every year, almost none of them are tested at all! Use your instincts! With so many new chemicals coming along it is harder and harder to avoid them - so we need to be be ever more vigilant.
Remember, if in doubt, don't. Or at least check it out thoroughly.

P.S. I just read that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) tests for 116 chemicals, but they estimate the number of chemicals out there that we are exposed to at 80,000 Yes, that number was eighty thousand! I would say we don't know the effects of by far the majority of the chemicals that we are exposed to every day, and the number of those chemicals increase every single day, and the new ones are not tested either. Incidentally we don't even know if the ones that have been tested are safe! We only know that they have been tested - not that they are safe!!
Enjoy your chemical soup.

Is it just me, or . .

. . . don't the Republicans have anything to say except "The Democrats are doing everything wrong." "The President is doing everything wrong." They don't seem to me to have any ideas of their own, the only thing I hear is how everyone else is doing things wrong. How about coming up with their own ideas? Maybe I shouldn't say this but didn't they have 8 years to do something, but didn't, unless you call giving tax cuts to the rich something and letting Capitalism run riot to the point of ruining not just us but the whole world.
And while I'm on it, why isn't our new President doing something with the banks? After the last lot let the banks take all our savings and IRA's and then said thank you by giving them a blank check, shouldn't he be putting some rules on those banks? Shouldn't anything that is "Too big to fail" be made smaller - so that we CAN let them fail if they try to rob us all and then hold us to ransom again?
As I have said too many times, Capitalism is the best system, or it would be if it weren't for the Capitalists! The bankers and wall street types aren't Capitalists they are just a greedy bunch of thieves and criminals hiding behind and using a wonderful system for their own ends. And that end is to take everyones money for themselves, its that simple, they don't care in the least if people lose their jobs, their savings or even if they ruin the entire country, as long as they can get ALL of the money. All of my money, all of your money, all of everyones money.

Snow, snow and more snow.

We have had so many snowfalls lately that I have forgotten exactly when they occurred. First we had about 6" on Saturday Jan 30th. I was doing a Home Show at the Baltimore Convention Center. The first day of the show was Friday the 29th, President Obama visited the city and the City Center was closed for several hours. On Saturday it started snowing here in Pasadena around 7.00 or 8.00 o'clock in the morning. I left for the Show at around 10am, by which time we had an inch or two of snow. It continued snowing pretty much all day long. So that was two days messed up as far as customers coming in was concerned. I booked into the Sheraton for Saturday night which was right next door but still required walking about 200 yards through the snowy and icy sidewalks. Driving home through the snow and more importantly back again in the morning was a very unattractive option! Sunday dawned bright and snowless, and we had a good showing and booked quite a few jobs and estimates.
On, I think it was Tuesday we had another snowfall, this time about 5 inches here in Pasadena.
Now it is Thursday. I went to Upper Marlboro and set up the booth for the show that was to be Fri, Sat, & Sun, February 5th, 6th & 7th. On the way home I was informed that the show had been cancelled. (Rescheduled to April 16th, 17th, & 18th). Cancelled because yet another snowstorm is due to start at about 10am on Friday and continue until 10pm Saturday. It is forecast to dump 1 1/2 to 2 feet of snow - some weather forecasters have even said we could get as much as 3 feet! There is also talk of 50 mph winds, which will make for blizzard conditions!
We are due to leave for England on Monday morning!
We shall see.

In accordance with my fascination with figures, records and such like I am going to quote some snow figures. So far this year - Feb 5th 2010 - we have had 36 inches of snow or twice the average annual snowfall for this area. In the last 5 winters we only beat the average once, and that was only by 1 inch - in 2005/2006. In 2002/2003 we had 58 inches. The record was 1995/1996 when we had 62.5 inches - that broke the previous all time record by almost a foot. The previous record of 51 inches had stood since 1899! If we get the predicted 18 to 24 inches today and tomorrow we will come close to breaking the record again - and there are still 2 months to go when we could get snow!

Banks.

If you think big business owns the Senate now, well wait a little while, with this new ruling from the Supreme Court, Corporations have been given 'open season' to bribe, bully and intimidate politicians even more than they ever have before. Any politician who does not 'toe the line' or seems like he might try to rein in any excesses of Big Business will be very quickly voted out and replaced with one who will do what they are told, and paid, to do. Big Banks and Investment Houses will very soon be back to business as usual - stealing our money, that's your money and my money, (If I had any left after this last round of theft.) If any senator had even the thought of regulating banks now, well forget it, they - the banks - have millions of dollars (Our dollars - they don't have any other dollars, only ours!) which they will spend with reckless abandon - after all it is not their money (Except in their minds) so they can spend as much of it as they want. If a politician tries to stand up to them can you even imagine the carnage? His history from the time he tried to steal a kiss from Becky in second grade, to the speeding ticket, to the golf trip or any other major or minor 'infraction' or flaw will be plastered all over the media at election time, 24/7. If there are no skeletons to find, well it is quite legal to make them up - all is fair in love, war and elections.
Banks now have them over a barrel. Oil companies, just try and deal with Global Warming, and you will hear how you are opposed to jobs. Don't upset Defense Contractors or you will be "Soft on Terror". Corporations have their way clear to reward co-operative politicians, whereas any that don't might as well be dead. Welcome to the politician from Detroit (As in Automobile Politician) or the Health Insurance Politician, or the Senator of Wall Street.
Already Corporations control most of our politicians and our way of life. What you don't think so? The US is the only civilized country that doesn't have health care for all it's citizens. Courtesy of Health Ins companies that make fortunes out of us, especially us who are not sick, if you are sick, or get sick, you are off their rolls! 50,000 Americans die every year because they can't get Health Insurance. Try telling that to ALL the other civilized counties in the world - they might not believe you. But it is going to get WORSE! Now EVERY politician is going to have to do as they are told by Health Ins Co's or they will be OUT! Lobbyists for the Health Ins Co's spend millions every DAY to keep the politicians in their pockets, soon it will be even worse.
Mark my words. They have always said that a lot of politicians are for sale, but now they will have no choice, they won't be able to fight against big corporations even if they want to.
Over and out.

Global Warming is baaack!

Awoke this morning to a 60 degree reading on the thermometer affixed to the outside of our bedroom window! Of course it is also raining like crazy, I am seeing forecasts of coastal flooding, flooded roads etc, they say we could get 3" of rain this morning. The wind is howling, stuff is blowing all over, there are waves on the pond more than a foot high - which is almost unheard of, it is so sheltered. We were going to take grandson Bradley and his girlfriend Andy to the Natural History Museum in Washington DC today but they seem to be reluctant to go. Strange, the adventurous spirit must have been bred out of these modern day Americans. Julia, who can barely walk, and I are all ready to set off on another "adventure" but our children want to stay inside in the warm and dry. Oh well, such is life. Maybe I'll make some bread while they text and e-mail each other and their friends all over the country. Cars and gas are going to be things of the past soon. I predict brain implants that will make it unnecessary to leave our chairs, houses will shrink to the size of large armchairs, even TVs will not be needed, programs will be received by our implanted brain chip.
Anyway, I don't think we are going to DC today.

Texting and phoning while driving.

This is a plea from a father and a grandfather for those of you who text and or use your phone while driving. You might do it every day for a year, or two years, or three, but I am sure you will agree that every once in a while you say to yourself WHOA! I almost missed that Stop Sign or that Red Light or Where did that car come from? or - - - add your own "Surprise". The thing is that sooner or later one of these Surprises will end badly - most likely for someone else, because of YOU, but possibly for you too. It might be a kid coming out from behind a parked car in your own neighborhood while you are distracted for a few seconds or even for one second. Hundreds, no thousands of times a year this happens to someone else. Sooner or later it will happen to you. How will you feel then? No, you are not a better driver than everyone else! As a matter of fact if you text or use your phone while you are driving you are a WORSE driver than everyone else - because you care about a text or a phone call more than someone else's life. Please don't text or phone while driving. Please for your sake and everyone else's sake. Please, for my sake and the sake of my children and grandchildren as well as your own. Thank you.

Rush Limbaugh And Pat Robertson.

I did a little research, it seems that Rush and Pat think we send too much aid to Haiti. As far as I can make out, aid to Haiti (Not counting the aid sent by the US government because of the recent earthquake - $100 Million, which is about $11 per person.) amounts to about $10 per person per year. Contrast this if you will with to aid to Israel which is about $10,000 per person per year! ($60 Billion per year for 6 million people.) I'd be in favor of aid to fill these two pieces of **** with concrete and put them in the deepest part of the ocean - I'll put up with the pollution problem that would cause.

Rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow!

That was the weather forecast that greeted me for tomorrow when I turned on the radio this morning. We shall see.
Well, we did get rain, sleet and freezing rain on our back from the Eastern Shore last night (Thursday) but so far no sign of snow.

Snow, Earthquake and Health Insurance.

What a combination!
This morning I awoke to another snow fall - all of 1/4 of an inch, so the snow shovel won't be needed, maybe a little salt on the steps.
Another earthquake in Haiti, this one was a 6.1 (as compared to the 7.0 they suffered last week) No further damage was reported, although they did say that there is so much damage from the first one that it would be hard to tell if there was more damage.
A Republican won Ted Kennedy's old seat in Massachusetts. Quite an upset! I'm afraid it means that everyone will have to stay real healthy as the Health Insurance Companies will once again be able to cancel anyone who has the temerity to get sick! Once again the US will be the only civilized country in the world that can't afford or doesn't want, to cover all it's people.
You all know my love for figures, I am going to play with some now. 750,000 families a year go bankrupt in the US over health care costs. Lets assume their creditors lose $100,000 from each bankruptcy, the total then is $75 billion a year or $750 billion over ten years (Which seems to be the preferred way of stating these things) That pays for the cost of Universal Health Care right there! But, we still have to give everyone the care - hospitals HAVE to treat anyone who presents themselves there! If they can't pay, they don't pay. Who does pay? The hospital, and therefore us! Us, in the form of higher costs. And the cost for someone to go to a hospital for care is much higher than if they went to a doctor, probably $1,000 at the hospital as opposed to $100 at the doctors. In addition to this we still have the Health Insurance Companies soaking us 30% of the premiums for "Administration Costs" (To my mind that means hundreds of bureaucrats figuring out ways to NOT pay for your treatment.) This compares to 3% to 4% Administration costs in countries that have Universal Health Care for their people. Countries like Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, Taiwan, Japan etc where the people seem perfectly happy with their care and where the cost of that care averages HALF of the cost in the US! Health Care costs per person in the US are $16,000 per year, in those other countries - $8,000. Also, in all other countries the care is non profit. Of course Doctors, nurses etc are paid, but there are not the obscene profits that the Health Care INDUSTRY in this country makes. For example, Health Ins CEO's making millions in bonuses because they managed to cut costs. (For cut costs read - "They didn't pay for your treatment. They cancelled people who got sick. They didn't take on anyone who was sick. They refused to pay for new treatments. They refused to pay for experimental treatments. They cut costs any way they could - at your expense, not at their expense, and were handsomely rewarded for it. At our expense.") I guess I have to stop. A proper Universal Health Insurance - paid for by everyone paying a % of his or her income would cost half of what we now pay. As evidenced by all the other countries that already have such a system. To repeat, a non-profit system as opposed to the for-profit system that we have here. In my mind at least, my health should not be for-profit. We should have some inalienable rights and I think that one of those should be a Health Care System that can't bankrupt me or refuse to treat me.
(Investors - if you have any money left, I suggest buying Health Ins stock quick, it will be soaring!)

TWO Golden Eagles.

Another cold day in heaven - that's what I call our Glorious little Eden on The Lake - but what is this I see out on the ice? Two Bald Eagles sitting on the edge of the ice,(The Lake is still not completely frozen over, there are still some open areas.) They seem to be facing off about something we can't see. Even using the binoculars all we can see are the two Eagles, they appear to be upset with each other so I can only assume that there is maybe a dead fish or something in the water. There is nothing on the ice or in their beaks or talons. I go to look for the bird book to confirm the sighting - Julia wondered if they were Ospreys - but was unable to find it and by the time I got back for another look they had both gone. Just one more exciting moment of life on The Lake.

Snow.

We awoke this morning to a new fall of snow. I'm not sure if it is the third or fourth fall this winter. The weather people called for 1 to 3 inches over night and they seem to have hit it on the head, it looks to be about 2 inches out there right now. It sure does look pretty, but as they say - looks can be deceiving! Soon it will look ugly, first when I get out there to shovel and then when I find I can't get the car to go up the hill! And then again as it gets all churned up and dirty looking. I get the feeling that this is going to be a long winter. Already the stock of bird seed is starting to get low. I guess like everything else we will have to start rationing bird seed too. A shame, our feathered friends give us so much pleasure, they are starting to depend on our hand outs and I hate to disappoint them. The squirrels arrive in force every day too and while I hate to deny them, if there was a way to reduce their take I think that I would, one squirrel can eat the seed supply for several birds. But I don't seem to have any way to keep them off. If you try to chase them they just look at you, but meanwhile every bird in the whole area has left.
I often wonder how the birds that depend on fish get on. With The Lake frozen solid, there is no way for them to fish, what do they do? I am still seeing the Great Blue Heron flying around, but how long can they survive wothout fish? Do they eat something else? Do they have caches of fish hidden away, like the squirrels do with nuts? No I didn't think so. But it is a mystery. If you know the answer please let me know.

Intelligence.

The Department of Counter Intelligence has been overwhelmed, or taken over by, the Department of Counter Stupidity.

Is it just me or . . .

. . . . are we crazy? A man gets on a plane bound for the US : -
He is on our list of terrorists, - red flag
he pays cash for his ticket, red flag
he buys a one way ticket, red flag
he has no luggage, red flag
he has no coat, (Going to Detroit in winter!) red flag
But, he is allowed on the plane!
Why do we have a TSA - Transport Security Administration? ANYONE could have said there is something wrong here. These people are supposedly trained to be looking for these things, just one of those should have raised a red flag and warranted a closer look.
Any one of those red flags that I raised should prompt anyone to say, politely, "Please step this way sir/ma'am." They would them politely, and firmly, be searched as necessary. From metal detectors and x-rays to drug and explosive detectors to pat downs and strip search. Start with the first less invasive searches and work your way up if necessary. If a search is refused, fine, you don't get on the plane.
It is unbelievable that it could happen, even with the terrorist, it seems to me, trying to be caught. Either that or he is the most idiotic, stupid person in the world. (But apparently not as stupid as all the TSA employees.) The only other thing he could have done to try to be caught would have been to say "I am a terrorist, I have a bomb, I am going to blow up this plane." Which it seems to me is pretty much what he did say. He must have been frustrated and amazed that no one tried to stop him.
I don't know what else to say, except that I am disgusted. Now they know they can get on any plane or go anywhere else they want at any time, as easy as walking into a 7-11 store and buying a gallon of milk.
And now I find out that the CIA knew a Nigerian was training in Yemen as a suicide bomber, and they even knew his name! What worries me now is if we can't find someone who leaves many, many clues what happens when we get a bomber who is fairly smart and doesn't leave a trail big enough for an idiot to follow? We would have absolutely no chance at all of catching him. We can't catch someone who we have been warned about repeatedly. I really think if we had been sent a letter naming him, giving his photo and telling us the airline and flight number, we still wouldn't have got him!!!! I'm serious. We almost had all that. Intelligence? It is scary to say the least!!!

Some favorite Christmases.'

Julia and I were reminiscing about some of our favorite Christmases' past. We both agreed that one of our most memorable Xmas' was the one we spent in French Polynesia on Bora Bora with our friends Penny & Jerry - which has to be one of the most beautiful group of Islands in the world. It was not exactly our usual Xmas weather! But definitely preferable to the usual mix of cold and rain or snow! On Xmas Eve we went to church on Bora Bora, the Church was packed with the natives in their very colorful clothes. They sang with such joyous happiness and gladness, not at all timorous or bashful, but instead loud and almost raucous. We were acknowleged and invited to join in, It was indeed a Christmas Eve to remember. Christmas Day we spent snorkeling and visiting a pearl farm, where I bought Julia a black pearl ring.
There have been other Christmas days spent in various parts of the world including Mexico and the Carribean. These locations are always nice because of the weather and as they were all on cruises, involved no cooking or other preparations on our part.
Of course there is nothing quite like a Christmas at home. I particularly remember waking up on Christmas mornings as a child and feeling the weight of the sack of presents laying on the bottom of the bed. The small window had been left open to allow Father Christmas to get in! I don't suppose in these days of I-Pod's, computers, digital camera's et al that the contents of our sacks would bring much excitement to today's kids, but they certainly did to us. It was a frenzied pair, my sister Mary and I, that tore into the pillow cases with with frantic curiosity. There were always dozens of items in there, my parents must have spent weeks preparing them. There were always nuts, an apple, an orange, wrapped sweets, and all kinds of odds and ends as well as some wrapped packets and some items unwrapped. Toy cars, dolls for Mary, books, pencils, pens, gloves, socks, every year was different, but the same - mases of things, we never knew what they would be. And then later would be the 'Big gift' or gifts, under the tree. Not as many as children get now, but usually there were several for each of us. I was always overwhelmed. One year I received a bicycle! True it was used, it had been Dad's for years, he rode it through the blackout during the war and to work for years after the war. But now it was mine and I was almost big enough to ride it! I cannot imagine that a boy nowadays who got the latest shiny new bicycle for Xmas could possibly be more excited than I was when I got that rusty old bike, lovingly washed, oiled and polished and fitted with a new seat than I was that Xmas day.

Little Things.

Little things, even tiny things. Alone they don't amount to much, not even to the proverbial "Hill of Beans." But together they can add up to something enormous.
Do one, or two, or ten, or twenty, or more, of these 'little things' and you will surprise yourself. It may be too late for me to achieve much at 68, (I hope to be 69 next year!) but I intend giving it a try. No, my child, and my grandchildren stand to gain the most from these 'little things'.
OK, OK, I can hear you saying, what are these little things? Well they are such small things that you may immediately dismiss them, but as I like to say, "They are better than nothing".
Lets put a few of these wee things down "on paper".
I just know that you have said to yourself - 'One day I am going to start exercising, I am going to go to the gym 3 times a week, - or maybe once. Or, I am going to run every day, or, or.' And you haven't have you? Well, neither did I. But, what I have done - and here is where that 'tiny thing' comes into play - when I park my car, I park it further away than I need to, which makes me walk maybe an extra 100 or 200 feet, - each way. When I visit the Doctors Office, or someone in hospital or go to the store, I take the stairs, both ways. I shovel the snow, maybe a little more of it than I need to, I rake the leaves, I dig the garden. Sure I could pay someone to rake the leaves, dig the garden , shovel the snow, but although I am not going to see my muscles rippling in a couple of weeks and my belly disappearing before my eyes, I can guarantee you that those things are happening, at least a little bit more than if I had done nothing.
Moving onto food, nothing huge is going to happen because I eat whole wheat bread instead of white bread. But if I also eat whole wheat pasta, less fast food, less red meat, less fat, less of everything. (Notice that I said LESS, not NONE, the immediate response of many people when a suggestion is made is to go to the extreme, "I'm not going to stop eating all the things I like, etc."), notice that I said LESS. In the same way if I eat MORE fruits, MORE vegetables, MORE fruit juices instead of sodas. In other words, more good stuff and less bad stuff, eventually there should be a difference. No, I am not going to be big and lean and strong tomorrow or next week, but I know that I'll be in better shape than if I had done nothing! And I did do almost nothing, almost, but not quite. I can hear some people saying "Fruits and Vegetables are expensive, I can't afford them." My answer to that is, don't forget you will be eating less of other items that are expensive too - red meat, fast food, snacks etc. And if you choose the fruits and vegetables that are in season, it won't be so bad. Sure if you buy the first strawberries of the season you pay a lot, but wait for a week or two and the price drops by a half. Cruise the grocery section of your favorite store or supermarket and you will find some fruits and vegetables cost less than others! To keep your costs down, buy the cheaper ones! What a novel idea! If you eat what is in season you can easily cut your produce bill in half, or more.
Money, If you save nothing, at the end of ten years you will have - nothing. Need I say more? Maybe I don't need to, but I think I will. Julia and I lived frugally, we tried to live below our means, saving as much as we could. Unfortunately we had a disaster happen in our lives and things did not work out as well as we had hoped. (Julia was badly injured in an accident, that changed our lives, and the lives of many others.) But we would have been even worse off if we had not already been in the habit of living below our means. That fact alone probably saved us from going bankrupt. Absent that fact, I think we would have been in a different place than we are now. Even without Julia's earning power - which was considerable, I was considering quitting my job and working on Julia's business when the accident happened - we still managed to travel the world and buy several houses. Of course the latest economic bust and the unfortunate meeting of a builder who took us for a lot of money finished our dream of an easy retirement. But again, if we had not lived below our means how much worse off would we have been?
The whole point of this story is that a lot of trivial things can add up to something big. If you could live on 10% less than you do now and put that 10% away, even with just a small interest rate, you would have at a minimum a years pay in the bank after just 8 years! And you can do better than that, when you get a raise, put that away, or at least some of it, a windfall, put that away, or at least some of it. Using my experience, I would have to say, diversify. We put almost all of our savings into property, at the time that seemed to be, "A sure thing", or as the saying went, "They aren't making any more land". Well as we now know, nothing is certain, or a sure thing. If I could go back, I would diversify more. Try to learn from my experience. Sure, buy property, but also some stocks - not one or two, spread it around - bonds, again spread it, I don't think you could go wrong with some gold. So 'diversify' seems to me to be the word.
Another "word" is Goals. A small word but a big concept. It's amazing what the human mind can do if it is set on the right path. Do you know about goals? If not it would be well worth your time to learn the theory. I will give you a quick example. You set a goal, if you do it right your brain will make sure that it is accomplished! Obviously the goal has to be possible, it is no good saying "I will walk to the Moon" , not possible. But, "I will lose weight", for example is possible. But not if that is all you say. To make it possible and to ensure that it will happen you have to make the goal one that you can do. For example, you have to be specific in all aspects. If you say "I will lose weight", but don't say how much, you can still be saying "I'll lose weight", 10 years from now! And saying, "It didn't work". If you say "I will lose 10 pounds" that is better but still not good enough, 10 years from now your goal is still to lose 10 pounds, you just haven't accomplished it! BUT, if you say ,"I will lose 10 pounds by July 15, 2010", all of a sudden something happens. You cannot fail. You write it down and put it where you can see it every day, in your wallet, on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator. Now there is no way you can fail, your body now KNOWS what it has to do, It has a goal. You will be amazed, your mind now takes over and sure enough by July 15th 2010 you will have lost 10 pounds. Notice that it is doable, if you weighed 200lbs and said you would lose 100lbs by July 15 2010, it ain't going to happen! It has to be possible, you have to specify the amount and the deadline. Try it, it's fun, if you don't need to lose weight, maybe you need to save some money for something, or you'd like to be able to run a mile in 5 minutes, or who knows - whatever you want to do, it is possible in small increments. Little tiny bits will add up to something big.
Have a great Christmas, and a wonderful New Year. Tell me about your goals, what you did in 2010, what you accomplished and will accomplish. (If you go for goals, you need short term, mid term and long term goals. What fun! Yes it really is.) Love from David.
P.S. I f you are interested, I wrote a short piece entitled "Half", it tells how to live on half, and how we did it. Just ask me and I'll e-mail it to you.

Second snowfall of the season.

And it is a "Doosy". We went to a party on the Eastern Shore last night. The forecast was for a heavy snowfall beginning between "11.0pm and 2.00am". The party was just over 50 miles from our home, so to be on the safe side we left the party to travel home at 10.00pm. At 10.02pm it started to snow! I kid you not! Traffic was more than I expected for that late but not too heavy, so we were able to keep up 50 to 55 mph most of the way. By the time we got close to home we were down to 30 mph but arrived safely at about 11.30pm.
This morning dawned white! Snow was about 8" deep already and the weather channel told us to expect an additional 8 to 12 inches by days end and another 4 to 6 inches by morning on Sunday. The total anticipated is 15 to 24 inches!
The cats asked to go out, but changed their minds when I opened the door for them! The chickens barged out as usual when I opened their little door, the snow flew as they fluttered around in the light fluffy white stuff, can you imagine what they thought as they went out into it? Within a couple of minutes they were back in their house.
It is coming up for 4.00 pm now and the little flakes continue to fall, we never did get any really big heavy flakes in this storm, just a steady, light to medium accumulation that seems to be about 18" deep now. I did some shovelling earlier to clear the steps and make access to the basement easier should we lose power and I needed to get the generator out.
Apart from that it has been a lazy day, I made a loaf of bread which turned out well. I am waiting now for a new trial - an Austrian Malt Loaf - we will see shortly if that was a sucess or not. Julia is making some mince pies, I hope there are enough, an old English saying says that you will have a happy month for every mince pie that you eat. I badly need to eat at least 12 this year!
Well, enjoy the weather as best as you can. I'm sure the kids will, us old'uns less so, but I try to enjoy everything as much as I can, I think you do that the more you realize there is going to be less and less to enjoy and share as we age.
On that note I think I should end today's Blog.

Global Warming.

Global Warming is a serious problem, but even more serious, in my opinion, is the intellectual dishonesty used in denying it. Global Warming deniers are of the same ilk as Holocaust deniers. The truth is obvious, the data overwhelming, but they continue to spread their lies. If we let these people influence our policy making we will pay a high price for our foolishness.

Follow up on the snow.

Well, although it snowed solidly from noon until 6.30pm, when we left to head over to Severna Park, there was no snow at all around our house. I am serious, it was just wet, even though the temperature had dropped to 38 degrees. No snow had laid at all. So off we went and after about 3 miles of driving through heavy snow we started to see a few places where it was starting to lay. By the time we had gone another 2 or 3 miles the snow was 1" to 2" deep! It continued to snow heavily with huge flakes hitting the windshield and covering areas of 6" diameter - with one flake! By the time we reached our destination I was begining to wish we had brought our PJ's as there was a solid 2" of snow over everything. Anyway we had a nice evening of eating the best Guacomali Dip ever and other snacks consisting of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, nuts and cheese, a great beer and chocolates. We exchanged Christmas gifts and played cards. It was the women's day today with Jane winning one game and Julia winning the other. The guys lost both games, one badly and the other resoundingly!
Soon it was time to leave and we ventured outside with trepidation, hoping not to find a skating rink. But all was well, the snow had stopped, everything was well covered with a blanket of snow, until we reached Fort Smallwood Rd, which is about 3 or 4 miles from our house and where we found only small patches of snow. On Bayside Beach Road, it was hard to find even a scrap of snow and by the time we got home there was once again no sign at all of any snow. Not even a fleck, nothing but wet ground.
This morning, our thermometer told us that it had gone down to 33 degrees last night. When I ventured out into the cold to get my Sunday paper there was definitely no sign of any snow. Amazing.

News from The Lake.

Last night we heard that we were in for the first snowfall of the season. The weather man said that we were to be the recipient of first, 1 to 2 inches, then 1 to 3 inches and finally 2 to 4 inches. The snow was going to start, "Before sunrise." on Saturday. My usual comment is "no way" and as usual this was my comment then. I awoke at sunrise to find that it was - raining - and the thermometer on our bedroom window informed me that it was 48 degrees! Didn't look like snow to me! But checking the Weather Channel I found that we were still expected to get snow but not until this afternoon and tonight.
Looking out at the dismal looking Lake and wet lawn I did not relish the thought of snow, especially as we were scheduled to visit dear friends Jane and Bill in Severna Park. Fortunately I think they have a spare bedroom and if that is already taken a camper sits outside their lovely home. So if snow does in fact arrive in force (Doubtful in my reckoning) and we get "snowed in" we will have a place to stay!
While thinking these dismal thoughts I observed through the rain two white "lumps" floating on The Lake. Looking through the binoculars they came into focus as the missing Swans. I watched them for a few minutes as they ignored the rain (Why would they care about rain?) and dunked their heads and necks repeatedly into the water, presumably looking for their breakfast. We hope that they are back for the winter. They were here all last winter and this summer but disappeared in the fall and winter, only appearing from time to time, usually for just a few days. While scanning the rest of The Lake I saw four Ducks in group near the middle. I have seen these Ducks several times but am not sure what they are. The bird book shows pictures of many Ducks, the closest to these seems to be the Bufflehead.
Well it is now midday and it has started sleeting. The temperature has dropped to 41 degrees. The weather channel is still calling for snow later today. In fact they have just said that there is snow in Georgia, Virginia, parts of Maryland and that sleet which has just started in our area is expected to change to snow later.
Meanwhile the birds are still enjoying The Lake and the Buffleheads, if that is indeed what they are, and the Swans have been joined by a few Diving Ducks and a couple of huge Seagulls. Now the sleet has already changed to full fledged Snow, big white flakes of driving snow. The wind goes from quite strong to low so the snow varies from falling at about 45 degrees to being almost horizontal. It is beginning to look as though our visit to Jane & Bill may have to be called off. If the snow continues at its present rate we may indeed see 2 to 4 inches by this evening and as we don't have a 4 wheel drive we may have to cancel rather than take an unnecessary risk. We will see.

Health Care.

I keep seeing on the TV, "Call your Congressman and tell him we can't afford a Health Care Bill." My question is, "Why can every civilized country in the world afford Health Care for it's citizens - except the wealthiest country in the world, the United States?" Can anyone answer that question for me? Canada, the UK, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, France and on and on, if these countries can afford to cover their citizens why can't we? One of the reasons I believe is that Health Care in this country is so expensive, on the average twice what it costs in all those other countries. The average American spends $16,000 a year on Health Care, the average citizen in all those other countries? $8,000. So my question now is, "Why does it cost more here than everywhere else?"
An investigation into how other countries do it would seem to be an easy, inexpensive way to get the best, least costly Health Care system implemented here. Simply choose the best one or combination and voila, there you have it! Easy.
But to repeat the question, why so expensive here? It seems to me there are several reasons, the main one is that Health Care here is, unlike any other civilized country in the world, for profit. Think about that - should your health be at the mercy of someone who wants to make a profit from it? Unless you are either in the business of making a profit from it or have an extremely low I.Q, the obvious answer should be a resounding NO. Making a profit from my agony? From the misfortune and pain of your loved one? Can you imagine what people looking back a hundred years from now will say? They will be as unbelieving as we are nowadays about very young children working in mines and mills or about . The Health Care Industry is spending $1.4 million A DAY lobbying Congress!! Hospitals and Doctors advertise - spending millions of our health care dollars on advertising costs! Again the only country in the world to do so. Ever noticed advertising for drugs on TV? Of course you have, and you are probably sick of it too (Pun intended!) You'll be even more sick when you realize that the cost of those ads is about half the cost of the drugs! How hard is that to swallow?
Many Doctors own their own X-Ray, Cat Scan and MRI machines. Now, if you were a Doctor and had those machines in the basement or down the road, along with the huge payments to make for them, don't you think that it might be "Necessary" to have at least one of those tests done? I get an MRI done on my brain every year at a cost of $1,500.00. If I lived in Japan that same MRI would cost $98.00. The administration costs in all the countries I mentioned earlier, are around 3% to 4%. The same costs in the US - about 25% to 30%. It costs money to keep hundreds of clerks and bureaucrats sitting at desks figuring out ways to deny coverage and cancel insurance on those who have the effrontery to get sick and need to use their insurance! After all every dollar they don't spend on your care, is another dollar on their bottom line. The difference in Administration cost alone is 25% of the cost of our health care right there that could be saved. Add in the cost of the profit, and the cost of the "administrators" who are paid tens of millions of dollars, the advertising costs for drugs etc - all things not needed to take care of those needing health care and you are getting close to what it costs those other countries to take care of their sick. The Doctors would be helped as well, because they would not have to spend so much of their time filling out the endless forms that the Health Insurance companies force them to use. More savings.
I know, I know, we have the best health care in the world and we don't want to settle for less. Well guess what, yes we do, and so do all those other countries too! At least that is what they all say! An investigation by PBS who sent doctors to examine the health care systems in those countries found that the care was comparable to here. "As good and in some cases better", is what one Doctor said!
The stories that you hear about the health care being substandard elsewhere are just that - stories. Stories spread by the For Profit Health Care Industry here - part of that $1.4 million per day they spend to promote their industry and run down and denigrate others so you will be scared and refuse to accept "Socialised medicine". Or any other label they can attach to highly successful systems accepted by millions of people.
A couple of figures here - on a list of the top 50 countries for life expectancy, the US is 50th! (That is bottom - not top!) For infant mortality we are 33rd. All European countries and a surprising number of countries that I have hardly heard of, are above the US! Even Cuba is way above the US in both categories! Sounds to me like "Socialised medicine" may not be so bad after all, does it? Most of the people interviewed in those other countries were very happy with their health care. In fact some said they would not want their health coverage "To be like the US", they actually said that! They did not see how they would be able to afford it! There were Doctors working in those countries that had worked in the US and who preferred working where they were now.
I just wanted to put a few facts out there. Doing my little bit to straighten out some mishapprehensions.
Lets talk about it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

May your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Food waste.

As usual, no waste this week, of course there never is in this household - nor I imagine in any household that keeps a few chickens!

No new food sources to report this week either. I almost hesitate to mention one "staple" of our chickens. Our kitchen sink has one of those fine strainers in place of the usual trap. It is very fine and catches every tiny piece of food that would otherwise have gone into the septic system. It is surprising just how many times it gets loaded up in the average day. I empty it into the "Chicken Crock" several times a day.

I am not one for washing my dishes etc before putting them into the dishwasher, in fact I think it is crazy to waste your time and water to wash your dishes twice! But, If there is the smallest amount of food or crumbs on the plate or in the pot I scrape it into the sink before consigning them to the Bosch. When I give a fish the final wash and remove any remaining scales or guts into the sink - into the crock they go. Cleaning the crumbs from the bread machine or the plate of sandwiches? Into the sink or the crock. It's surprising how it can add up over a day. The chickens don't mind if its mixed up. It's their "First coffee of the day", when I go out to open them early with the Crock in one hand and MY First Coffee of the Day in my other hand! They greet me like a long lost friend! No one is happier to see me every day than my chickens!

Food Waste Friday - dedicated to The Frugal Girl.

More news on my chickens, last week I told you how I now give them the water from anything we cook in water, like potatoes, beans, carrots, etc as well as any left over coffee or tea that was made with some milk. Now I have "The Fishing Report", as most of you know, we live on The Lake - a beautiful Lake of about 50 acres in Anne Arundel County. When I catch a nice fat white perch, which I do several times a week, I clean it and give the guts to the chickens. As I scale the fish I throw the scales back into The Lake - it all goes back into the Great Mother Earth! In other words, the scales dissolve into the water along with the fish heads etc and are made into more fish or crabs. When we have crabs I throw all the crab "trash" back into the water - after the chickens have had a go at it of course! Anyway, as I was throwing the guts to the chickens one day some scales that had stayed on the board went in - and they pecked them right up! So now not only do they get the guts they get the scales too! During the summer the fish heads of course go into the crab trap. But during the winter there are no crabs, so I have been throwing the heads into The Lake for whatever wants them. Now, when we have finished our fish dinner that we have about once or twice a week, the remains, in the form of bones, skin etc that we don't eat goes right to the chickens who treat it the same way I treat a chocolate bar - it is gone in approximately 2.8 seconds! But if I give them the raw head they turn their noses, excuse me - their beaks, up at it, just the same as I would. So now instead of throwing the heads into The Lake they get a quick boil and go into the chicken run. And very appreciative they are too. (The chickens, not the heads!)

Food waste

As most of you know by now we have virtually no food waste - because we have chickens! In the last few days I have found yet another "Food source" for our chickens. My wife called on her way home the other day and asked me to mash the potatoes she had cooked that day. I found them on the stove, got out the potato masher and was about to dump the water that they were in when I suddenly thought, ahaa, that water looks delicious, well it might to the chickens anyway! They do have to drink and the water that the potatoes were cooked in must have some of the "goodness" from the potatoes - so why not give it to them. I did and they loved it! Since then I give them the water that anything has been cooked in - beans, carrots, whatever, as well as any tea or coffee that didn't get drunk. I always use milk in my coffee or tea, so any leftover drink is welcomed by them. I even gave them some water from a couple of fish that I poached, they "voiced" their approval - by drinking it all down in about 3 minutes flat!

Waste not want not.

The Geese have returned.

I woke quite early yesterday - Sunday - and looking out at The Lake the first thing that I saw was the two big Swans flying across The Lake. As I watched them they turned and flew by again, and again, they seemed to be circling The Lake, looking for a suitable landing site? Which they soon found almost directly across from us. I got up and made my first cup of coffee, opened the chickens and fed the cats. As I stood on the deck watching the sun do its amazing thing with the sky and the water and the clouds right outside my house - people pay huge dollars to see this kind of thing on "The Big Screen", but here it was right in front of me "For Free". Well sort of free, Anne Arundel County has seen to it that it is not free! At almost a thousand dollars a month for taxes and insurance, it is far from free!
Anyway as I watched this show, here came the Canada Geese. Seventeen of them came gliding in and landed right in front of me. I took Julia her morning cup of tea and we watched them together, fascinated. A few more landed a little later on.
Today, Monday I returned from work and sat out on the deck again - can you believe we are halfway through November and still we are getting beautiful sunny days with temperatures in the 60's and even 70's? Yesterday it reached 72 and today 67 - enjoying the sun and the view of The Lake. The Canada Geese came sailing into view soon after we sat down and we counted the groups as they arrived. First were four ducks, then eight geese, then twelve more geese and finally another ten geese. Their numbers are building, but they seem to come and go, I wonder if the weather is confusing them.
The garden has still not had a frost so we are still picking produce, the last Zucchini's were picked a few days ago. I am still picking beans, peas, tomatoes, Swiss chard and lettuce. Not a lot mind you, but it is nice to have even a few fresh veg. We even had some raspberries last week! I'll keep on picking as long as it stays above freezing. When we get our first frost warning I'll pick all the tomatoes and beans that are still out there, the others will survive a light freeze and last a while longer.
The tomatoes I wrap in news paper and put in a box in a dark cool area. They will ripen all the way up to Christmas and maybe even longer. Just wrap each tomato in a separate piece of newspaper and place them carefully in layers in the dark, a set of drawers is ideal, otherwise a cardboard box works just as well. Every week unwrap each one enough to see if is ripe. If not put it back - carefully - and use the ripe ones. My experience is that very very few will go bad. the rest ripen gradually over a period of several weeks. Any that don't - fried green tomatoes!

Same question - different answers.

I was looking at some polling questions recently that really brought home to me how biased polls can be. All you have to do is ask the 'right' question to get the answer you want!
For example, as most of you know I am a Liberal (Dictionary definition- generous, tolerant of differing views, broadminded, not conventional, favoring reform and progress, open minded to ideas that challenge tradition, etc!) so as you can imagine I am in favor of trying to help to preserve the world - and its climate! I would also like to make jobs and work, by achieving a cleaner world, including it's water, air etc.

So, if I were to conduct a poll, my question might be:-
Should we make more jobs by competing in the race to end reliance on oil and coal, and work to produce clean energy?

Another person might say:-
Should we not attempt to get into making windmills, energy efficient cars and appliances and just rely on foreign manufacturers?

And yet another one - getting to be the most popular question of all:-
Do you believe the communist Obama administration, in league with Liberal Environmentalists, is trying to destroy our country with the myth of Global Warming?

So you see, we all frame the questions to get the answers we want. That is why polls get such varying answers. A poll conducted by CNN news will differ from one conducted by FOX news, one given by an environmental group will differ from one given by far right conservatives. What is the answer? I certainly don't know! Do you?

Obviously we are all biased, but how do those biases form? Are we programmed by our parents, our experiences as children, as teenagers, as adults, by our peers, by our exposure to nothing but one side - FOX news, CNN news? A life changing experience or tragedy, like a flood, a child with asthma, a religious awakening, a health ordeal? Who knows.

Having mentioned Health just there, here are a couple of points to emphasize how we are manipulated by polls or by statements that when repeated over and over become "true", even though if we spent just a few minutes thinking about them or researching them they are obviously blatantly untrue. Just as something advertised repeatedly on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines becomes "True", just by it's repetition, so do statements that if we engaged our brains for a few minutes it would be evident to us that they are untrue. I refer to such statements as, "Don't take away my health care." or "The death panels will kill off the old and sick." By repeating these silly things over and over people believe them and will defend them to the death, even though with few minutes of reflection by the average person they are obviously untrue. No such things may have ever been suggested by anyone, but by inventing them and then repeating them over and over, more and more people think that they have been proposed and are true. That is the power of suggestion, it doesn't matter how far out it is, if we want to, we will believe it. Believe me!

More "Fun" with figures.

I wonder how Americans would view the various wars we are in if we knew how much they cost us? How does this sound - if the US goes to war then Congress shall impose a "war tax", this tax would reflect the cost of the war. So, lets say the Iraq and Afghan war is costing the US $200,000,000,000 - 200 Billion dollars a year (I've seen most estimates going from $160 billion to $300 billion, so lets use $200Billion) - with about 100, 000, 000 - 100 million - families in the US that's $2,000 per family per year. Instead of taxing each family $2,000 it would have to be some kind of graduated tax, otherwise the people making say $1,000,000 a year or $30,000,000 a year would not notice it. As the average families income is probably around $50,000 a $2,000 tax on the average family would be about 4% of income. So someone making $20,000 a year would have fork out $800 a year or $16 a week , which would hurt I'm sure. Someone making $100,000 would pay $4,000 and someone making $1,000,000 would pay $40,000. This would have the effect of showing us how much our war is costing us in dollars, we already know what it is costing us in the lives and blood of our children. How do you suppose that would go down when we can see the dollars coming right out of our pockets?

Reflections . . .

. . . in The Lake. What a beautiful Autumn morning. I got up early because when I looked out of our bedroom windows at The Lake, a scene of almost etheral beauty met my eyes. The Lake was as calm as I have ever seen it in our year and a quarter here. There was a layer of very low cloud that was maybe 30 feet above The Lake to about 50 feet above The Lake, so it was like a long low misty ribbon stretching from the left side to the right side of The Lake. At the right side there was also a hillock of cloud. It was incredible. I got up quietly and taking my camera went out to get some pictures. The Lake was so still that after I had taken the pictures I literally could not tell which way was up! Except that a couple of the pictures had a floating log in them and of course although The Lake was reflecting the sky he sky was not reflecting The Lake, so I knew that the side with the logs was The Lake! There were no signs of any birds, just me and The Lake and the magical cloud - which soon dispersed. The cool early morning makes the water of The Lake very clear and I was able to see the bottom and even the fish easily. I grabbed a rod that I keep on the pier and with the addition of a nice fat worm was able to pull in a big curious Yellow Perch. He, yes it was a he, will make a nice addition to the three fish that I caught over the last couple of days, for our dinner tonight. Ah, what could be more perfect, a beautiful Lake, with beautiful fish, cooked by my beautiful wife. I think I may be in heaven.

The eleventh hour . . .

Today is the day that they lay the wreaths to honor the dead of the First World War. The war ended of course on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. "The War to End All Wars."! Don't we wish! On that happy note, I'll end this sad post.

Lake Update.

We looked out at The Lake yesterday and saw two birds diving out in the middle. After watching for a few minutes two more appeared. At first we thought that they were Cormorants, but Julia, who has better long distance vision than I do, wasn't sure. Out came the binoculars and sure enough, they were some kind of duck. They had crests and white faces, but as I was unable to find the bird book I could not look them up. If anyone has any ideas about them let us know. When I find the book, I'll post their ID here.
Later on as I was checking my fishing rods the two Swans came up to the pier, they have been only occasional visitors to The Lake lately. We are hoping that they will be here for the winter as they were last year.
Most of the leaves are off of the trees on the far side of The Lake, but the trees on this side still seem to have quite a few left. I wonder why that is? They are the same kind of trees.

I find this disgraceful

The world is trying to put together a 'fix' for the problem of Global Warming, most countries are making a serious effort to combat what is obviously, to any thinking person, a problem. More on that later. But meanwhile, the UK for example has committed itself to reducing its carbon output by 34% by 2020 -by the use of 1.7 million electric cars plus the support structure for them, new nuclear plants, 8,000 windmills and 4 new coal fired plants with carbon capture technology, among other things. Other countries, such as Japan and most European countries are moving towards reducing the output of their carbon and other pollutants. Now I come to what I find shameful, the US has not got together on what they are going to put forward at the conference in Copenhagen in a few weeks. Not one Republican will sit down and discuss what they are going to talk about at this conference! Not one! Not a single Republican! It is disgraceful, we should be leading the way on this problem, not least because we are the biggest polluter out there, by far. But mainly because we SHOULD be leading the world in this and in every other thing out there. Instead the Republicans are so intent on destroying "Their enemy", the Democrats, that they don't seem to care about anything else - including their own country. If we can't lead, as we have been doing for the last 100 years, we will have to get out of the way and let someone else lead. And I for one don't relish that one little bit! While we fight among ourselves - not even us really, it's the polititions who can't agree on anything, except how to rob us. They are not doing their jobs, and because they are not doing their jobs we all have to suffer. And boy are we suffering - and still they don't care! Meanwhile other countries are doing what we should be leading the world in doing - trying to fix the mess that we are getting our world into by working towards methods of producing clean enrgy.

The US is the reason there probably won't be an agreement in Copenhagen, they are the furthest away from making any concessions or agreements than anyone else.

Now for my little 'tickler' on lines 2 and 3 above - 'more on that later.' As I said, anyone with even a few brain cells left MUST realize that the world has a problem here. I realize that brain cells are in short supply, unlike carbon dioxide, perhaps because of an excess of drugs - legal as well as illegal - and bad food. I was in Switzerland recently and saw the Glaciers that I saw 53 years ago when I was there. Well, barely saw them, they are mostly gone, that alone is enough evidence for me, but we also have missing glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, and the US, the arctic ice sheet is the thinnest in hundreds of years, permafrost is melting in Russia and Alaska - people are losing their homes in Alaska as they sink into mud that used to be frozen ground. Sea levels are rising. There is more evidence of global warming than would fit onto a hundred Blogs; but we have idiots out there who refuse to see it, saying instead that it is a 'cycle that happens' every few thousand years. But this is happening hundreds of times faster than it has ever happened before! And we ARE putting HUGE amounts of carbon into the atmosphere - we are burning the oil and coal that took millions of years to make, in less than a century, plus burning the forests - that would absorb some of the CO2 if we left some there to do it.) The seas are absorbing a tremendous amount of carbon, but they too are reaching their limit as they become more and more acid - to a point that soon they may not be able to support life. Maybe that's why I can't seem to catch any fish lately!

What's that someone just said? We ARE leading the world - in poisoning our seas, our air, our water, ourselves and our children. And come to think of it our banks too, and as with the banks and wall street, it is all in the name of greed. As I have said before, capitalism is fine, it's great and would work just great, if only capitalists weren't so greedy.

Food waste

No food waste this week, (except for that tomato that burrowed down and hid beneath all the others and then went bad!) As with all our "Food waste" it went to the chickens and they didn't even seem to notice that it was bad, instead they fell on it as if it were piece of prime beef.

Eye Candy.

There are a lot of beautiful women and girls out there, they are Whitman's or Hershey's. But the real McCoy - the Ghiridelli or the Godiva or the Swiss or Belgian Chocolate if you will, is Julia. Whenever I see her beautiful face, even 47 years after I first saw it, it still makes my heart go pitter patter. Even when I tell her how beautiful she is and she scrunches up her nose & her eyes and makes her mouth & teeth look like a rabbit I still get excited; knowing that in a few seconds she will bring on that magical smile that goes right deep into my soul and makes my world Bright.

Kittens

A good home is needed for three little kittens. These three lovely little balls of fur and fun are only three or four weeks old and in need of homes. Is there anyone out there who can help? We took in one, there were four, but our old cat would not stand for any more competition for Julia's attention. He is already most put out by the newcomer. So, please, can anyone out there in Blog Land find a place in their hearts for these little guys and girls who will put lots and lots of love, fun, amusement and amazement into your lives?

A Narrow Escape.

Or if you prefer "A Near Miss." Julia and I visited dear friends Judy & Charlie yesterday. We had a delicious Chinese meal, a most enjoyable visit, and once again they graciously allowed me to win at cards. When we left, laden down with 'goodies' for the chickens and some of Charlie's DVD's for us to watch, we headed out into the dark night - the clocks went back an hour two nights ago - and only about a half mile from their Condo the road went into some dense woods. We were barely into the woods when we saw a shadow flash across the road some distance in front of us. A deer we both said in unison. Slow down said Julia. I did and about 5 seconds later another deer leapt across in front of us, as I said, only missing us by inches (Julia said "No, it was only by centimeters") Whatever, it was close! I could not help thinking that had I not slowed, and it was not by much as I had only just removed my foot from the accelerator a few seconds before, we would have been 5 or 10 feet further along and the deer would have jumped right into the side of our car. It was a narrow escape indeed. We don't realize how numerous the deer are around here. When we reached our own neighborhood and drove down Bayside Beach Road I instinctively slowed down again, remembering the stories about the large numbers of deer on that road. One neighbor even said she had hit or been hit by deer three times since moving here while driving on Bayside Beach Road.

Naming the new family pet.

Our neighbors from across the road knocked at our door about a week ago. As soon as I pulled the door open, even before it was more than a few inches ajar, I saw it. It was a small kitten cradled gently in Christine's hands. Thinking quickly, but futilely, I slammed the door and turned both locks securely. But it was not to be, "Who is it?" said the love of my life - Julia. And soon the kitten was in the hands of the bane of my life - Julia. The kitten, maybe two weeks old, was, it is true, cute. But, it was still a kitten, and as such would need nurturing, feeding in the middle of the night, expensive food, doctoring and toys. But even more importantly it would distract Julia from me. I would become 'second fiddle', actually 'third fiddle' - I am already second in line for her affections to our number one cat, Rascal.

But, as all our friends know, I can deny Julia nothing. So, we now have number two cat - xxxx - (No name).

The naming process continues, it has been more than a week now and no consensus has appeared. The ritual for selecting a new Pope's name is long, but surely not as long as this?

I led off with what I thought was an ideal, surely never before used name for a cat , Gordon Bennett, but Julia immediately vetoed it, with a brisk, "It's a female." So I quickly countered with, "OK, how about Mrs Gordon Bennett?" This did not even garner a reply, merely a scornful look.

Over the next few days a selection of insipid names was suggested, mostly by Julia. Names like Emma. I had a 'Certainty' I thought, with Riley - seeing as she was living the life of Riley, but this again was firmly turned down with an undeniable, "There was an obnoxious boy at Gibson Island School - Sarah's first school - named Riley." The search continues.