An amazing story about bad timing!

Our neighbors decided to take their grandson on a short break to Ocean City. Feeling a little nervous about taking her jewlery to Ocean City and having visions of seeing it washing away in the breakers but at the same time not wanting to leave it at home either, she decided to take it to the bank and put it in their safe deposit box. Her husband having recently had surgery after an horrendous injury suffered while playing Raquetball had lost weight, so his wedding ring was loose. He too decided this would be a good time to leave his ring behind.
So, on the way Downey Ocean, they stopped at their bank - M&T to deposit the valuables. (Have you ever thought what a ridiculous name that is for a bank? Empty Bank!)
Anyway, they deposited said valuables into their safety deposit box and headed off to OC relieved to know that their prized possesions were safe in the vault.
They awoke the next morning to big thunder and lightning storms. And news that their bank The Empty Bank had burned!
Can you imagine their frustration and horror? So Can I. Here they were stranded in Ocean City 150 miles away from home and their burned down bank.
Phone calls at 3.00am? produced an answering machine - of course. Their call was returned the next day and assurances made that their
"stuff" was probably OK as it was in the vault! And anyway it was insured for up to $5,000 !
Needless to say they did not have a good time.
To follow up, as of now, almost 2 weeks after the fire they have still not received a letter or any notification of the fire. If they had not seen the news story they still would not know about it. As they did see the story they have kept in touch by phone. There is still no access to their box as the building is considered dangerous. Good job they don't need their passports or anything else important.

My Cat.

It amazes me that my cat cannot understand that there is an invisible barrier between her and that moth outside of the window. She will frustrate herself for hours pawing, scratching and attacking the glass. On and on with no hope, and never learning. When the next moth appears she is at it again having learnt nothing from the futility of all her previous attempts.

And in a similar way I am amazed that Republicans and Democrats cannot understand that they and us and the country and indeed the whole world would be so much better off if they would co-operate with each other.

Such a simple concept.

But their simple minds just cannot grasp it.

So like Muffey they paw, scratch and attack each other, wasting their time and energy and our time and money in a futile attempt to - what?

When, by co-operating, they - well obviously not them as there is not an atom of brain power between the whole lot of them - but some of us could sit down, put the problems on a table, a very large table because there are a very large number of problems, almost all of which were created by those same politicians, and figure them out.

Hey we do have intelligent people who can figure out problems. We just put an SUV on Mars! We just found The Higgs-Bosun, one of the basic building blocks of the Universe. We know why the Sun "Comes up".

Even I know when my lawn needs mowing, the cat needs feeding and to slow down when I see a police car following me. And yet as intelligent as most Americans, British, and all human beings are, we allow ourselves to be ruled by the least intelligent, greediest, most selfish, most dishonest, lying theives in that Universe - the average Politician.

Of course it doesn't say much about us that we put up with them.

Just saying.

My Mother is 92 years old.

When I was talking to my mother the other day about poetry, one of her great loves, along with Shakespeare and other eminent authors, I happened to speak a quote - "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud." - a famous poem called "The Daffodil." by William Wordsworth that most of us read in school. My Mother, 92 years old remember, then proceeded to quote the whole 4 verses word for word. And I mean word for word, I had the book in front of me and she recited it word for word, not missing one word! Four verses.

I then asked her what she'd had for lunch - no more than one or two hours ago, she smiled at me and asked my father what she had had for lunch. He rolled off the meal along with all of the extras.

I could have asked her 5 minutes after she had eaten it and she would not have been able to tell me. But mention a line from Shakespeare's Tempest, or Hamlet and she would continue it without hesitating for as long as I wanted!

Go figure. The miracle and tragedy of the human mind.

My mother has forgotten more than most people ever learned. For most of her life, until a horrendous automobile accident changed her and everyones life aound her, she knew the answer to almost anything I or anyone else would ask her. I almost never knew her to not know the answer. She knew more than all of my friends and family put together.

Now she can still remember things from her schooldays with incredible accuracy, but she can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago.

A tragedy of the first order, whatever that is. And a loss to us and the world.

Energy idea.

Just an idle thought really. I have seen the "Ads" on TV for "Clean Coal", which of course I do not believe. I guess you can call anything, anything you want to call it - like "Dry Rain", "Fast Snails", or even "Clean Coal".

But, I also believe that we are being devastated financially by the amount of money we send abroad to buy oil, much of it to our enemies.
It seems to me that yes, coal is dirty, but surely so is oil? Maybe not AS dirty as coal, but at least part way there.

So, my suggestion is this. I hear that we have enough coal in this country to supply our energy needs for centuries. Why don't we work on producing that energy from coal as cleanly as possible? We may not be able to produce Clean Energy from Coal, but surely with our technology - going to the Moon and Mars etc - we can at least produce Cleaner Energy from Coal?

Let's just say that we manage to clean it up to where it is only twice as dirty as oil, I really have no idea if that is possible or not. I do know that Britain survived for hundreds of years using nothing but coal, and very dirty coal at that, and they are still around. We should be able to use "Scrubbers" or whatever to greatly reduce the pollution. This would give us a huge amount of money back in our pockets - not being sent abroad - that we could use to develop a clean energy, from Solar, Wind, Wave, Geo Thermal, Hydrogen etc - all produced in our own country, by our own people. Millions of jobs, here, in the US.

Also we all know that we waste a HUGE amount of energy in the US. One of the reasons for that is that in spite of its cost, energy is still cheap here. Why else would people leave their cars running when they are not even in them, heat their homes to 75 or 80 degrees in the winter and cool them to 65 to 70 degrees in the summer? And of course we were raised to be wasteful.

So the second step in becoming more energy independant would have to be to Use Less Energy. This would have the effect at the same time of producing less pollution. Cut your energy use by 20% - easy - and you reduce pollution by 20%.

But how do you get people to use less energy? I see people waiting by schools for their children, sitting inside of their big SUV's with the engine running! Even when it is not very hot or very cold. Why not instead shut off the engine and get out into the air - which would be less polluted and more breathable right away by having shut off their engines! The only way I can think of to reduce gas use would be to raise the price. Not a very palatable thought. How could it be made more palatable?

How about if the government explained that a $1 a gallon tax on gasoline would educe pollution which would save everyone money in pollution reduction costs and health costs and also reduce the amount of money being sent abroad which would also reduce everyones taxes elsewhere. The money collected could be put into a fast track clean energy development organization. There are hundreds of thousands of out of work NASA engineers and scientists who could work on it. These are people capable of putting men in Space and sending them to the Moon and Mars. I am sure that they could solve this problem. The rewards would be huge. Cheap, Clean, Domestically produced Energy, less pollution, cleaner air and water, healthier children and adults.

Another way to reduce energy produced from foreign oil without it necessarily costing us more would be to have a progressive price on electricity prices. I envision actually Reducing the price of electricity but then increasing it the more you use. This would strongly encourage people to use less electricity. Turn off lights, turn down the heat, turn up the A/C, install Solar etc.

It could be set up so that the total income to power companies was the same, but less power would be used because people would be encouraged to reduce wasteful use.

Here is a possible way to go. We use about 1,500 units of electric per month - a 1500 sq ft home with 2 people - at 10 cents per unit, price is $150/ month. Lets say we drop the price to 3 cents per unit for the first 100 units, then raise it by a penny a unit for each 100 extra units we use. So the second 100 units would be 4 cents per unit, the next 100 would be 5 cents per unit and so on. By the time I reached my 1500 units I would be paying 17 cents per unit for the last 100 units. This would actually make my bill EXACTLY $150 if I used the same 1500 units of electric.

BUT, obviously I would be using way less than I was before because every time I saved a unit I would be saving 17 cents instead of only 10 cents, so I would be busy saving as much as possible. (Well I would anyway. Maybe very rich people wouldn't, but that would be OK too because when they got to 4,000 units they'd be paying 43 cents a unit! Which would be subsidizing the rest of us!).

However this would not work out for the electric company as their income would drop substantially. We'd probably need to start at 5 or 6 cents a unit and go up from there. Or maybe start at 1 cent a unit and go up a penny every 50 units instead of every 100 units. So I would be at 30 cents a unit by the time we reached our 1500 unit figure. That would still be good, at an average of 15 cents a unit my bill would be $225 if I continued to use 1500 units, which of course I would not!!

If I were saving 30 cents a unit you had better believe that I would be saving every bit of electric that I possibly could. This would most likely give me a bill about the same as I was used to. But of course the country would be doing well because we would be importing considerably less less energy and putting considerably less pollution into our air and our water and our lungs.

And again we'd be sending less money abroad, have more jobs at home and have a cleaner environment. Who would object to that?

Redwoods.

My Grandson Bradley just spent two weeks in Nevada and California. He reports that he travelled the coast of California.

I am jealous. Route 1 up, and down, the coast of California has got to be one of my favorite roads in the whole world. If not my very favorite.

When he reported that he saw the Coastal Redwoods, I remembered.

It is difficult to describe seeing the Redwoods for the first time, or the second time, or even the third or more times. Just thinking about them now I want to go visit again. Yes it is time for a Redwoods fix.

Some people want a drug fix, I want a California coast road and Redwoods fix!

Seeing, standing next to and touching a Redwood is a very sobering experience. Knowing that that tree was there long before your grandparents and even their grandparents were born, and that it will still be there long after you and all of your grandchildren and their grandchildren are gone seriously humbles you.

In a way they are time travellers.

They are awe inspiring.

They are silence personified.

Their size and stature and color are unbelievable.

I love them.

Party or Country?

Let's see, Who could I possibly be thinking about? Partisanship ahead of Patriotism every time. Let me give you a couple more clues, if you need them! Extreme in the extreme, NO compromise, no attempt to comprehend the facts, scorns science. Got it yet? Of course you have.

There is NO attempt at compromise at all. Even George W Bush met with Ted Kennedy and met him halfway on education, And he met up with Harry Reid and Joe Biden to  fight AIDS, TB, Malaria and ignorance. Richard Lugar too!! And it happened. Not anymore. Richard Lugar was forced out because he was too ready to compromise. Too moderate. A big no no in todays Republican party.

Obama is ready to compromise, maybe too ready. He praises businessmen, and women, including Warren Buffet. He hosted Steve Job's widow. What do the Republicans do? They speak contemptuously of Liberals, of Unions, they call public schools factories, they mock community organisers, they demonize schools, Social Security and every other public enterprise including firefighters, police, libraries, family planning, health care, anything to help your neigbors ,you name it they hate it and would destroy it. They see compromise as evil.

But compromise is oil and is needed to keep the gears of progress turning. Without the oil of compromise we will seize up. The Republican Party seems to be determined that will happen.

What happened to the balance that we enjoyed for the last 100 years? Both parties could talk, they could discuss, come together, compromise, we were the same country, one people, we fought against tryanny and oppression together. Now the Republican Party and especially the Tea Party are determined to have no compromise, no discussions of any kind.
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We need to vote out these our way or no way "politicians", these politicians who even give politicians a bad name! A government of compromise is the way to go. Certainly it is way ahead of no government as the Republicans seem to prefer.

It's time for that test again.

Yes it has been 10 years since I had that test done. Ten happy carefree years. My doctor reminded me of this just last week and told me that it that time again. She gave me the doctors address and phone number and told me to call him and set it up.

Now surely she MUST know that I am not going to do that. Why would I? I imagine myself making the call to their office, "Hello this is Drs Mengele, Himmler and Eichman's office, can we help you?" Me, "Hello is that Dr Eichman? I'd like you to stick a tube the size of a large drainpipe up my rear end and then charge me a lot of money for doing it. Is that OK with you?"

Why don't they do it the smart way? "Dr Eichman will call you to set up an appointment." That would be a much better way. You know you should have it done and if he calls you, well you might as well set it up.

I can remember the last time. First they give you a five gallon jug of Atomic Laxative that tastes as though it was something dredged up out of my neighbors septic tank and tell you to drink it all down within 3 hours. They also tell you to stay close to home! Well after a short while "home" was my downstairs toilet. I had cleared any obstacles that were in the way of a fast trip to said toilet. I had set up a small TV in there along with disposable newspapers and magazines and a large economy sized roll of super absorbent Bounty. I covered the floor with a thick layer of old newspapers. Later I even taped papers to the walls to a height of about two feet. Even later I made that four feet.

Day dragged into night. Daytime arrived and I went to meet my tormentor. The deed was done.

Clean up time. Over the next week or so I cleaned up the bathroom. Over the following weeks I found more areas that needed cleaning, such as behind the toilet, the walls above four feet high, inside of closets. Finally somewhere around 6 months to a year later I glanced up at the ceiling! Surely not? How could that possibly be?

I am wondering if the next time I should rent a hotel room for the ordeal. It would need to be a hotel chain that I don't normally use. And I would need to use a false name.

What to do, what to do? The thought occupies my every waking moment. I can't work, I can't sleep. I try to think how the Doctor lives with it but it does not help.

Eventually it must be done. But not yet.

Don't shoot.

"Don't shoot please." I said to the young boy with his BB gun trained on a small bird. He stopped and looked at me. "Can we talk for a couple of minutes? " I said and he just sort of nodded.

You may not believe this but when I was your age we would wake up in the morning to the sounds of hundreds of birds. We called it The Dawn Chorus and sometimes we actually got annoyed at them, it could be so loud. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of different birds singing seemingly trying to outdo each other. There were Larks, Flycatchers, Chickadees, Wrens, Thrushes, Waxwings, Warblers, Finches, Blackbirds, Bluebirds, Tanagers, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Sparrows, Starlings, Swallows, Jays, Nuthatch, Robins, Hummingbirds, Cardinals, Buntings, Goldfinch, and a whole bunch more.

I cannot remember the last time that I saw many of these birds. Some may already be extinct, certainly they are all greatly reduced in number and range. Even the common sparrow of which there must have been millions or even billions has been declared almost extinct in parts of the United Kingdom and I can't recall seeing one for years here in the US.

Yours may be the last generation to see birds. I daresay some of the tougher more commom ones like the Grackles and Crows will survive for a while longer, but even you may not get to see many of the brightly colored small perching songbirds that I mentioned.

You may wonder where they have gone. No, they were not shot by small boys with BB guns. Most have been killed by insecticides that are produced by giant chemical companies.

When I was a child we had an "Insecticide" called birds. Birds ate insects, but not all of them, there is a balance in nature. Surely the birds are not intelligent enough to know that if they eat every last insect there will be nothing for breakfast tomorrow! But sometimes it seems that way.

Every once in a while there would be an outbreak of insects that even the birds could not keep up with. Nature balanced this situation too. When there was a plague of insects they would eat up all the food - and die. Of course that was not a satisfactory balance for farmers!

So the Chemical Companies came up with poisons to kill the insects. These were of course called Insecticides. They worked well. Unfortunately there were now many dead insects laying around on the ground and this was of course a bonanza for the birds. Instead of having to fly from plant to plant and hop from leaf to leaf to eat their meal of insects all they had to do was eat them up right off of the ground.

The manufacturers assured us that the insecticides were not toxic to humans, or pets, or birds, or fish, or you name it. And we believed them!! But of course they were. A bird cannot eat hundreds of dead insects that died by ingesting poison and not be affected. Some died right there and then, others were affected in other ways such as changing their ability to mate, changing their sex, reducing the number of their offspring and the offspring's viability. The eggs of some birds were so thin that they broke when the females sat on them. Other problems gradually reduced the numbers of birds. So of course with less birds to keep their numbers down insects proliferated.

This was a huge bonanza for the chemical companies who were now "Forced" to produce more insecticides.

Soon the insects became immune to the poisons. No problem. More and stronger insecticdes came out. Now they were not just used when insects were a problem they were used even before there was a problem - "Just in case", or "To prevent an outbreak from happening."

Before the advent of insecticides there was never a real problem with insects. Nature had natural balances. There were the birds. There were also "Good" insects that ate "Bad" insects and doubtless there were other natural controls. Yes sometimes there would be an outbreak that would very costly to farmers, but insecticides are costly too. If you have an insect problem every 10 years would it cost more than buying and applying insecticides for 10 years?

In my garden if I see a larger than usual number of insects like Japanese beetles or caterpillars I take a small can, put an inch or two of water in it and a few drops of cooking oil on top of the water (Not engine oil) then I walk around picking off the offeneding insects and dropping them into the can where they quickly drown. In my case I then give the insects to my chickens who greatly appreciate them but you could just drop them onto your bird table - you do have a table for feeding the birds right?

There are still some birds around, mostly Blackbirds, Grackles and Crows and there is still the occasional songbird to be seen. But not many.

So, the insecticides have killed off our bird population. The insecticdes, weedkillers and fertilizers that we put onto our lawns and garden wash into the rivers and then into the Bay where it kills our underwater grasses and our fish (Fish are highly susceptible to insecticides and weedkillers.)

I doubt if they are doing us any good either. Our children seem to suffer from an unusually large number of ailments that I don't remember when I was a kid such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, etc.

So to reiterate, they kill birds, fish and maybe even us, but they don't kill insects!!

How do insects overcome poisons? It is a simple matter of selection. Insects have very short life cycles. There can be several generations in a single season. This is what can happen. The poison is sprayed. A few insects don't die, maybe ones on the outside of the spray area get a smaller dose. Most die, some don't. The ones that survive mate. Some of their offspring are more resistant to the poison. Next spray cycle the same thing happens, a few of the more resistant insects survive. Next time even more. Only the ones that are resistant survive to breed, the others die. Each time the survivors are more and more resistant and there are more and more of them. Soon, very soon, it is time to use heavier doses to kill the insects. This also kills more birds - our natural "insecticide" and more fish and makes us and our children sicker.

But again of course that is fine with the Chemical Companies because they have armys of people producing more and stronger and more varied poisons. At higher prices and greater profits.

The American Consumer helps the Chemical companies out because they will only purchase "Perfect" fruits and vegtables, anything with a blemish is rejected. So the farmer is forced to use more and more poisons to be sure that there are NO apples, or beans, or squash with the slightest blemish on them or we won't buy them.

Consider my feelings on this - if an insect does not want to take a bite out of that apple or tomato why should I want to? Apparently the insect finds the fruit or vegetable unappetising, because it has been sprayed with poison, or all the insects that would bite it are dead from the poison. Now I am going to eat what the insect didn't or couldn't eat?

Just saying.

Anyway please don't shoot that bird.

21 TRILLION Dollars.

A new report out in Britain says that there is at least 21 Trillion dollars in tax havens around the world today. And probably more.
Twenty one Trillion dollars is a lot of money.
Here's one way of imagining it. If you had 21 Trillion dollars you could give $3,000 to every single one of the 7 Billion people in this world! That is every one of the 1.3 billion Chinese, every one of the 1 billion Indians, every one of the billions in Africa, the Americas and every other country in the world. $3,000 to every single one of them. And still have $3,000 left over for yourself.
Another way to look at it, you could give $70,000 to every single one of the 300 million in the US. So my daughter with her husband and 4 sons would receive 6 times $70,000, or $420,000.
From this it is apparent to me that the Very Rich are not using their immense fortunes to create jobs as we are constantly being told. Instead they are hoarding it, and hiding it, in tax havens. And if we cut their taxes even more, if that is possible, as 150 million Republicans want to do, they would not create more jobs, they would sock away even more money into tax havens.
For some very obscure reason this is perfectly OK with the majority of Republicans. Is this because they expect one day to be in a similar situation, with millions, or billions to hide from the tax man? Or because they think that it is fair for one percent of the population to own 50 % of its wealth? Do they really think that it is OK for the average person in the top 1% in income to pay on average 16% in tax while the other 99% pay an average 30 % tax? Or are they just plain stupid?

Rain.

We recently went to the UK for 3 weeks. While there it rained every day. Except the last day when it was 73 degrees - the warmest day of our visit. Even for the UK this was some kind of record.
The stories of the storms are too numerous to list, but a few are worth mentioning - like the storm that had over 100,000 lightning strikes. Like the heavy rains that produced landslides, washed railways and roads out and flooded towns and villages that had never been flooded before.
The TV showed scenes of houses half under water, cars completely under water, people swimming for their lives, people paddling around their neighborhoods in kayaks, canoes and boats.
While it did rain every day, except the last, it did not rain all day and we were able to visit with friends and relatives. There were days with sunny spells and even days with more sun than rain. But overall it was a pretty damp trip. We did have to cancel a visit to our friend Gill Coyne who lives in the beautiful Dartmoor National Park. We did not cancel because the main road to Devon was closed because of floods. It was, and for more than a week. Or even because of other roads on the way there closed by more floods and even landslides. No we had to cancel because of a bad knee, my left knee, which forced me to limp around with a cane, take lots of anti-inflamatory and pain killing drugs and visit the A&E (Accident and Emergency) Department of the local hospital - in the middle of the night. Other "exciting" episodes of our trip includeed taking my father to the hospital in an ambulance. The same hospital that I had gone to the previous day, after he fell and hit his head badly. I stayed with him until 4.00 am at which time they admitted him. We picked him up the next day. Meanwhile it would appear that because the UK had aquired the rights to all the worlds rainfall, the USA had fallen into its worst drought in 60 years. (I should maybe mention here that earlier in the year the UK was also in a bad drought and had a hosepipe ban in force. In the UK! The ban was not raised until the reservoirs were filled - which took 2 months of virtually continuous rain!) Two days after we left for our trip to England a massive storm hit the East Coast of the the US and more than 3 million homes in the Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland area were without power for up to 8 to 10 days. At the same time, wouldn't you know it, a heat wave struck and temperatures soared to over 100 degrees. No A/C and temperatures of as much as 105 and more! Our daughter's home was among the 3 million affected. In an unusual, and fortuitous, case our house did NOT lose power. (In any weather or accident situation our community is usually the first to lose electricity), so our daughter was able to come over and borrow our generator. Luckily they had a window A/C, which they installed in their bedroom window, so the whole family was able to spend cool nights together in one bedroom. During our 3 weeks of rain in the UK the Maryland weather managed to produce less than an inch of rainfall. So while the UK had it's wettest time ever, the US had it's driest period in 60 years. Go figure. We returned to a dry landscape with shriveled shrubs, dead flowers and window boxes and a brown lawn. That was Tuesday night. On Thursday night we had a big wind, lightning and rain storm at about 9 pm. The rain was so heavy that we could not even see the other side of The Lake and at times we could not see The Lake, which is less than 100 feet from our house. At about 11 pm we had another similar storm. The wind was lashing the trees about so badlly that I fully expected to lose a lot of them. In fact we only had a few branches down. The next morning I went out and checked buckets that are scattered around the property. We had received 4 1/4 inches of rain from the 2 storms! Friday dawned wet. It rained several times on Friday. But it was only minor - maybe a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in all. Today, Saturday, it is raining again. Checking the weather in the UK I see that it is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the 70's. Is the rain following us? Should we think about renting ourselves out to drought stricken areas?

The Snake on The Lake.

As you know my beautiful wife Julia and I live on The Most Beautiful Lake in the Whole Wide World. Well maybe. Certainly it is very beautiful.
Anyway, to facilitate exploring The Lake we have two kayaks and two paddle boats. A few days ago our neighbors Mike & Christine came over and asked if their daughter and her boyfriend could use the kayaks.
Of course we said yes, and the young couple climbed into the kayaks, without falling into the water, a not inconsiderable accomplishment. I myself usually fall in once out of every 2 or 3 times that I use a kayak! Once you are seated in the boat, no problem, getting in, without falling into the water, problem.
They set off. After 20 minutes or so they returned, and exited the kayaks, again without falling in. (We were standing by with cameras at the ready.)
Next they launched our "Racing Paddle Boat", after first remembering to put the twin drain plugs in place, were this couple not going to screw up at all?
Now, did I forget to mention that Holly's boyfriend is afraid of snakes? Apparently that may be an understatement, it seems he is absolutely, unnaturally, terrified of them. As an aside here, Holly is afraid, but not terrified, of spiders.
They climbed into the boat, which is quite stable, (and doubtless full of spiders.) it wobbles, but remains firmly upright, and they set off. When they were no more than 15 or 20 feet from the pier I spotted a small snake swimming through the water in the typical snake way - a sort of wriggling sinuous swimming motion.  Now I like snakes, unless they are actually biting me that is. This one was cute, maybe 18 inches long and not at all agressive looking, Certainly not what I would call a serpent. We see so little of wildlife in our day to day living nowadays that whenever I do see something, anything, in any way connected with nature, I feel compelled to draw everyone's attention.
I did so. Completely forgetting about Brians fear of vipers. To be fair to myself I had only just learned of this phobia mere minutes before, how could I be expected to keep such useless information in my already overloaded, and old, brain, about the foibles of strangers? I did what I usually do in such circumstances, I shouted out "Look a snake", at the same time pointing at the little creature. Maybe I should have said quietly "Hey look a cute, harmless,  non-poisonous little snake who is just swimming along doing no one any harm." but I didn't, I shouted "Look a snake."  From Brian's reaction you would have thought I had just screamed out "Watch out, a huge venemous Anaconda about 20 feet long, or maybe it's a Mamba, but whatever it is, it's chasing your boat, overtaking you at a rapid pace, and will shortly catch and eat you both.  Oh and did I mention that this Python will crush you first before it drags you down to it's underwater lair where it will devour you?"
Well as I said, from his reaction that is at least what he heard! His hand went to his chest. Heart attack? No problem I was trained in CPR. He started to stand up, the boat rocked. Surely he wan't planning on exiting the boat. That would mean entering the water, the water that contained his arch enemy, the villain, Snakeman. But he didn't, instead he thought better of it and sat down.
Everyone tried to calm him, with soothing pleas, explaining that IT was swimming in the opposite direction to them. That IT was small and harmless and couldn't hurt him. All designed to calm him down. Of course in his mind we were safe on dry land, while he was floating on a sea of venemous snakes, whose sole reason for being, was to get Brian.
Well I MIGHT have said something about it possibly being a Cottonmouth, one of America;s most poisonous snakes, but I didn't mean it. No I didn't.
Anyway, he evntually got himself under control with the help of Holly. It did occur to me after seeing the ministrations of Holly, that Brian might be putting the whole thing on! But I don't think so.
They paddled off. With Brian's head anxiously swivelling from side to side. One never knew when a Sea Monster would rise from the depths of The Lake. (Deepest point thought to be six feet, but mostly 3 to 4 feet.)
They returned safely in another 20 minutes or so. Brian departing the environs of The lake with obvious relief.
I later heard from Mike that Brian's story to his friends included a monstrous snake at least four feet long.
What are people thinking of when they exagerate things? I, of course, would never even dream of doing anything like that.

David.

A dissapointment, or not?

A dissapointment, or not? We will never know. Monty just found out that his brother Walter, is a girl!

How could this happen?

A brief Biography of Monty's life. He was born on the Eastern Shore to a wayward stray named Naomi after being found by friends wandering shamelessly around the neighborhood cohorting with any Tomcat that would have her. But they took her in anyway. Our friends thought she was a little sort of pudgy looking but it took their 18 year old son to point out that she was pregnant!

Anyway, Naomi susequently gave birth to 4 little balls of fur that were as cute as anything. Julia went to see them and the one who was later to be separated from his siblings and emigrate to our home on the Western Shore and be named Monty - after her first cat (Because she thinks this will be her last cat, and that would tidy things up nicely.) and also after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II, El Alamein, North Africa fame. Quite a reputation to live up to! But he is proving that he would have made an excellent Field Marshal had he had the chance!

Anyway the same friends who could not diagnose a pregnant cat it turns out could also not tell the difference between male and female cats! Thank God neither of them are doctors.

Meanwhile Monty has had his manhood taken away - which has not slowed him down at all.

I wonder if Walter is gay? There are two other unfortunate brothers/sisters, will their genders ever be known? Has their mother been fixed? Is the world flat? All questions for people far more intelligent than those who live on the Eastern Shore.

Just kidding.

June 6th D Day.

Well two days ago was June 6th, D-Day. I mentioned it to someone that day and they said "What is that?"!

No Comment.

It just so happened that our new cat Monty - how appropriate is THAT name for June 6th?! - was going to the vet for his own "D-Day"! We dropped him off at 8.00 am for his operation. He'd had nothing to eat or drink since 10.00pm the previous night, poor little guy.

Julia named him Monty because Monty had been her first cat and she figured that this Monty would be her last cat! And yes the first Monty WAS named after Field Marshall Montgomery of World War II fame.

We picked him up from the vets at 4.00pm. He was a little sleepy, but not as much as we expected. He was shall we say, subdued, until the next morning, at which time you would not have known anything had happened, although Julia swears that he doesn't "Talk" to her now!

Anyway, all seems to be pretty much back to normal now.

Today, Friday June 8th, was Graduation Day for our number four grandson Jonny. He recived The Presidents Award - for having a GPA over 3.5 and also another award which I am not sure about. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 80 degrees.

We just heard that this spring was the warmest since they started keeping records.

Miscellaneous.

Well it has finally got very hot, we were hoping to wait until June 1st before we finally broke down and turned on the A/C. But that was not to be. It reached 90 degrees plus over the weekend. We held out until Monday (May 28th) when we had visitors coming over, so we had to turn on the A/C. We have found 78 degrees to be a comfortable setting for us. It removes the humidity which is the major problem with the Maryland heat. Due to the even worse ecomomy, well as far as we are concerned anyway, we have turned our unit up to 80 degrees. This is not too bad, we dress very lightly and if someone comes to visit we turn it down to 78 which seems very comfortable. We turn it up to 80 at night. It has been cooler than that at night anyway. And if there is any kind of a breeze we turn the A/C off, or up to 85 so that it won't come on, and open the windows, which have screens, for a through draft.

News from The Lake is that we now have three Swans! This has happened before, but not for long as the male Swan has attacked the intruder and driven him (her?) off. This time however the three seem to have made a truce and are living a peaceful co-existance. Once again there is no sign of any offspring from the pair. I took one the paddle boats and one of the kayaks out a few weeks ago, along with a grandson to see if the Swan was on her nest, and she was. But I think they have given up on any hope of a young swan Cygnet. As usual I am sure that the DNR oiled the egg(s) again. Julia is very dissapointed as she would love to see some baby swans on The Lake, but I think she understands that it is not to be. They are non-native and do considerable harm to the environment, eating a lot of weed that the Bay simply has too little of already.

The 60th Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is to be held this week in London, so I am sure that we, along with millions of other ExPat Brits will be glued to their TV's. It should be interesting and enjoyable.

Gas prices in the area continue to drop. Today at the local Giant Supermarket it could be had for $3.38 a gallon.

A scam was attempted on us today. As I was preparing my second cup of coffe,e I noticed a FedEx truck out in the road. He drove off and I went out to see if he had made a delivery to us. He had. A large FedEx envelope was laying on the porch floor. It contained a check for $912.36 with instructions for me to be a Secret Shopper. I was told to cash the check at my bank, go to Walmart, spend $50.00, note a bunch of stuff like cleanliness, helpfulness etc. Take the $50.00 that I had spent and $150.00 for myself for my trouble and send the other $712.00 on to someone in Massachusetts. As I was not born yesterday, I realized that it was a scam. Even if there was such a thing as a Secret Shopper program (Which there is) they were not about to send me the money FIRST! I called the FBI, who were not interested . "You didn't lose anything, tear up the check and forget it."  "What do you want us to do?"  My reply was "I want you to go and arrest these people. Do your job. I may not have lost anything but hundreds or maybe thousands will" I then called the FedEx tracking system and found that the package was mailed in Virginia - it had a  Canadian address on it. The check - actually a United States Post Office Money Order - had an address in New Jersey on it and I was instructed to send the balance to Massachusetts! The FedEx fraud unit is in Memphis and would not be open until 9.00am. So I called the USPS fraud people who were also not interested. "We get a hundred calls like this a day. Throw it away." They said. When I persisted they asked me to send them the FedEx envelope, the letter and the check to them. (The FBI also asked me to do the same - after I persisted too much. Later, after 9.00am, I called the FedEx fraud people who were the most helpful. When I pointed out that they were the only ones making money because they were being paid to deliver he put me staight on that! It seems that the scammers steal a number from a company that uses FedEx and uses that number to send the packages. When that company, in this case one from Canada, discovers that a bunch of packets were sent out that they did not send they call FedEx and tell them. FedEx then has to eat the charge. He explained to me that the packets did not come from Canada, or even from Virginia, well they did come from Virginia, but the scam company sends the checks labels etc to a payroll company and tell them to mail them. The payroll company thinks they are sending out paychecks. Anyway there are hundreds of these scams going on all the time. He said most likely the perpetrators are in a country like Nigeria. And it is impossible to stop them. The only way to stop them is not to send any money. If people don't send them money they will stop. If they get money they will continue. I showed the Postal Order to the bank. They said that it was a good forgery, they may or they may not have cashed it (And only if I had enough money in my account to cover it.) Later when it bounced they would want the money back from me, plus of course their charges! The Post Office said pretty much the same thing. They took the Money Order from me and would not give it back - or even a receipt for it! I said, "But the FBI want it, also the Fed Ex fraud unit want it." The Post Office employee said "The Post Office is part of the FBI" and kept it. What a lot of fun we have!

41?

Yes 41, I can hardly believe it, my favorite daughter is going to be 41 years old next month! I know, I know, she doesn't look a year over 30 - she really doesn't.
It is a private joke between us when I introduce her to someone and tell them that she is my favorite daughter, because of course, she is also my only daughter, only child for that matter. But she really is my favoriete daughter - hey I could say she is my least favorite daughter couldn't I? But I don't care how many daughters there are in the world, and there are a lot, she is the best one, and my favorite one.
We have to claim some credit for how she turned out. We still read horrendous stories of children born with awful physical and mental disabilities and while many are undoubtably not the fault of the parents but of their environment, their family anscestry, etc some could probably be avoided by use of common sense.
Julia became pregnant in 1970, 42 years ago, not exactly the stone age, but it might as well have been when it came to taking care of your body and the new life inside of you. Doctors said the baby is protected by the mothers body from outside dangers etc, etc, etc. But hey what is wrong with taking extra care of something so valuable? If you get a new car you take care of it by parking away from other cars, leaving it where you can see it, well most people do, I don't. As I said to someone who was installing a roof rack on my new Jeep Grand Cherokee one day, "Just drill holes through the roof and bolt it on securely, I don't want it falling off." When he looked at me horrified, I said "It is not my wife, it is just a car."
Anyway we decided, well not even decided really, it just seemed natural, that Julia would not take anything, or do anything that could endanger Baby. So she took no alcoholic drinks at all, not one, and no drugs at all, not even an Aspirin. If she had a headache, she had a headache and she put up with it, period. She didn't even have her hair permed or dyed We didn't want to take a chance on any chemicals making their way to Baby. Food labels were carefully examined for contents and if there were any doubts they were not used. We didn't use any chemicals around the house, well as little as possible that is, obviously we had to use bleach, washing machine and dishwasher powders, but no sprays like hair sprays, air fresheners, no insecticides, or even perfumes. If I saw a roach or a fly, a fly swat or a shoe was the answer. In fact one day when she was at work at Williams and Wilkens, the book publishing house where she worked, there was a roach problem and an exterminator company was brought in to spray for bugs. Before they could start work Julia told her boss that if they were going to spray she would have to leave work for the day. The company assured her that "It was completely safe."! Which is about as stupid a statement as anyone could make! The spray was designed to kill insects - how "safe" could that be? So she went home for the day.
The same common sense approach continued after Sarah's birth. She was breast fed for 6 months. That seemed to be the best and most natural start to life. When she went to a bottle we used glass rather than plastic bottles. We had no evidence that there was anything wrong with plastic, it just seemed to be common sense - there are those two words again - that we did not know a whole lot about plastic and it seemed much more likely that anything contained in a plastic bottle is more likely to pick up something from the plastic than it was from glass.
Again, while breast feeding, of course Julia took nothing that we felt could in any way affect Baby. So headaches continued to be untreated with pain pills and alcohol stayed in the cupboard. Once Sarah was weaned Julia felt that she was able to get a perm, have her hair dyed, use hair spray, use perfume, take aspirin and have a glass of wine. But poor Sarah had to forgo most drugs that babies take. No Aspirin, baby Tylenol, etc for her! She did get a shot of whiskey once at the age of one when we were on an overnight flight on a an airplane to the UK and she insisted on crying for 7 of the 8 hours of the flight. (someone suggested that a little spot of whiskey in her bottle might help! It didn't.)
Another "Unknown" was the Microwave oven. I had worked with Microwaves while working with the Admiralty in the UK and knew that they were dangerous. We went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that we were protected from them. Knowing that Microwaves might affect our bodies and not knowing how safe the new household Microwave oven was, and having a new baby - the most susceptable time of a persons life - we decided to forgo the convenience of the Microwave oven. At least while she was young and until more was known about it. I think Sarah was about 10 years old before we decided they were safe enough! (I am still not certain.)
As she grew, we almost went to the opposite extreme about keeping her away from 'stuff'. But this 'stuff' was natural 'stuff'. We had noticed a tendancy for people to keep children away from 'nature'. As children, we had been allowed to play outside, even encouraged to be outside in the air and around nature for hours every day. It did not appear to have harmed us. Was it just our imagination but did today's kids seem to get more colds, allergies, earaches, etc, etc, etc than we did? Maybe it was our imagination, but we did not think so. It seemed better to let a kid get in the dirt, eat some of it if she wanted, if she had a headache a nice cuddle wih Mummy or Daddy was better for her than children's Tylenol. Drugs, antiseptics, we tended to forgo all kinds of treatments for normal children's ailments in favor of allowing her natural body's defences to work, thus allowing her body to build up its own natural defence agains germs and bacteria. I think it worked, I hope so. I think it worked for us. As children we had very few treatments available other than a hug and a kiss if we got sick or hurt. Maybe a Band Aid for a big cut, and it probably got washed first too! Nowadays the slightest ache or pain requires a box full of drugs as well as multiple visits to multiple doctors. Quite apart from breeding hypocondriacs, how can anyone afford such largesse? And how is anyone's body going to learn how to treat itself?
I'm sure most people have noticed - I surely hope that they have noticed - that todays children have more ailments than we had. Many of today's problems did not even exist in my childhood, or if they did they were very few. Allergies, Asthma, Autism - just to start with the A's ! Something is wrong somewhere.
The obsession with Antibiotics may be one cause. Antibiotic handwashes, mouthwashes, body washes, soaps, for clothes in washing machines, for counter tops, for floors. Some bacteria escape with just a light touch and "get over it", next time they are exposed they are immune, they meet another immune bug, and have lots of baby immune bugs. Soon more and stronger Antibiotics are needed.
Even our food animals are routinely fed antibiotics! Chickens, cows, pigs, etc are all fed antibiotics, "In case hey get sick", not only that, it has been found that they get bigger, faster if they are fed antibiotics! So we eat the animals, and of course the antibiotics that are in them. Most of the antibiotics produced today are fed to animals. Bacteria are rapidly becoming immune to antibotics. This is a terrifying scenario. There are no new antibiotics being found. There are some bacteria around today that are only susceptible to one antibiotic now! How long will it be before they become immune to that one? Then it will be open warfare on us. Already people are dying every day because antibiotics don't work any more. We have destroyed one of the miracles of modern medicine and science with our greed.
Antibiotics were indeed a miracle and responsible for saving millions of lives and much suffering, but by feeding it animals, animals that didn't even need it, and putting it into most of today's cleaning products we have rendered it impotent.
Well now, somehow this little blog that started out as one thing has developed into something else so I had better wrap it up before I go off into another rant!

Snakes.

One day last week while I was out the chickens started to "Make a racket" as Julia put it. They were clucking and cackling up a storm. She looked out in case there was a fox or something upsetting them. Nothing.
When I returned I went out to get the eggs. It is fairly dark inside the chicken house. I looked into the laying box - there are four boxes for them to lay in but they all use the same one - and could see some eggs. But I could also see something else. But could not make out what it was, so I turned on the light. Oh yes they have all the modern conveniences in our chicken house, a light, a window, food, water, perches, a water view, and a door to go in and out of. What more could any chicken want?

Anyway, with the light on I could clearly see what had upset the ladies, a snake, a large snake, a very large black snake was occupying their nest and was even then in the process of swallowing one of the eggs! The egg was inside of the snake, although only just as I could still see it through the mouth. It did not rush off, so I went and got a stick and a bucket, put the snake into the bucket and took it across the road to an empty lot where I released it. Complete with the egg!

Well I thought that might be the end of the story, but was not quite sure, thinking it might make a return journey for another fine meal of a free range organic egg.

I checked carefully each day and saw no sign of it. Untill today. I went out to collect the eggs, looking carefully before putting my hand into the nest. The snake is not a poisonous type, but it was large and can bite. And sure enough there he/she was, getting ready to swallow another egg. Off I went to get the stick and the bucket. I persuaded the snake to get into the bucket. But once in there what did I see? The snake was still in the nest! No, there it was in the bucket. There was another snake in the nest, but it was leaving and was gone before I could get it into the bucket.

I had to go and get some milk so took the snake and the bucket with me and dropped it off at a small park nearby, about a half a mile away, called the Hancock House. This was the original house here and was also the  name of the Lake that we live on now when it was called Hancock's Pond. It is now called Boyd's Pond.

Well I got the milk and on my return went straight to the chicken house of course to check on the snake situation. And there it was, looking for lunch. Again it was too quick for me, escaping down into the thick straw on the base of the house. I could not locate it.

I just went down to check again, but again no sign.

So, Watch This Space fot the Continuing Saga of the Serpent!

Spending.

The Republicans want to ADD 7 billion to the defense budget. This is MORE THAN THE DEFENSE DEPT ASKED FOR! The Republicans are the party who want to cut spending! Now they do want to cut taxes to the rich.

Romney had $21 MILLION in income last year. Yes, thats right in just one year he brought home ten times as much as most people earn in their lifetime! And he paid a measly 12.8% tax on on it, compared to the average Americans 30%. But the Republican party wants to CUT the tax that he and millionaires like him pay. So, the Republicans want to cut spending, but they also want to spend more on defense (Even more than the defense dept wants) and they want to give rich people more money. (These are people who already have so much money that they can't even spend it all.) How do the Republicans plan on doing this? Easy they want to cut food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid.

Is that clear? They want to CUT from the poorest of society, people who can't afford to feed themselves or their children. Young families, the unemployed, the old, the sick and the disabled. People who can't defend themselves. They want to take from those and give it to the richest among us. Those who already have more than they need or can use, who already pay a half to a third of what the average person pays in tax, and have the biggest slice of the pie that this country, or any other country has ever had. And the Republican party want to give them more!

I don't know about you, but it makes me sick.

I'm a reasonable man. I know we have problems. (Caused almost exclusively by Republicans, I know.) But I and most Democrats want to fix those problems and we are prepared to make sacrifices to do that. It needs to be across the board. There are people who are cheating the system with food stamps and in other areas. But guess what, while these people are stealing a hundred dollars a month or even a week from the country there are other stealing millions of dollars a month or a week! There was the case recently  of the BILLIONAIRE who tried to steal $70,000 from the government. There are dozens stealing millions from Medicare and Medicaid, 60 minutes exposed them, nothing happens. Congress takes millions in bribes - a MILLION dollars a DAY from the Health Industry alone! Imagine how much THEY steal from us! All the BIG businesses, banks, agriculture, wall street etc etc are bribing Congress DAILY. And our Congress - the best Congress that money can buy - made a law making it LEGAL to bribe them!! They call it Lobbying, by calling it Lobbying apparently it makes it LEGAL to bribe Congress.

Enogh already, I'm feeling sick again.

Confrontation or Compromise?

Well which sounds best to you? Confrontation or Compromise? Any person of normal intelligence and temperament would obviously say Compromise. But not the Republicans, it seems that any one of their Congressmen or Senators who is even slightly moderate or progressive is villified.

If anyone shows a willingness to find common ground they are treated as treacherous. Instead of reason, compromise and finding common ground, they are looking instead for even more partianship.

The more reasonable of the more and more extreme Republicans are being forced out - Olympia Snow and and Richard Lugar, as are the more moderate Democrats like Jim Webb and Evan Bayh. All replaced with more extreme and less open minded politicians.

How can we ever have any decisons made for the good of the country when Congress is full of people determined to stress Confrontation instead`of Compromise.

I see more paralysis in our future. (And I might add I blame it mostly on the Republicans who will not give an an inch on anything in spite of repeated attempts by the Democrats to try to meet and discuss.

Climate Change.

New evidence, or just coincidence? The average temperature for the whole US was the highest on record! And not by a little bit. When records are broken it is usually by tiny amounts, maybe a tenth or at most a few tenths of a degree for example. But in this case, to use words that are used way to often, it was smashed! The temperature over the last 12 months was 2.8 degrees above average. For Maryland it was even bigger. Maryland had a temperature over the last 12 months that was 4 degrees above the average. That is since records began in 1871, 142 years ago. To repeat 4 degrees higher than the average! So, we have had higher than average temperatures for 15 straight months now. This led to a "Winter" with only 1.8 inches of snow! Total for the whole winter! Rainfall continues below average. Groundwater and streams are below average. Parts of Maryland are under drought watch. We`are 5 inches below normal for rainfall so far this year - and that is during the wettest part of the year, and only 4 months into the year! I would think that we should be concerned. Instead of just saying, nothing is happening, it is normal, don't worry, etc. Sometimes action is needed. The scout motto of "be prepared" is a good one, but not one that the USA or the world seems to think applies here. Well let's hope they are right. Hope for rain and return to normal temperatures.

Choose two.

The World is a mess, and that does include of course The USA. I refer to virtually ALL areas from Financial, Political, Daily Life, Environment, Weather, Business, Education, Religion, Media, Food, you name it.

However if I had to pick two, I think they would be The Environment and The Income Gap. Wow, they are pretty diverse area's of concern aren't they?

Let's try to make this post short. obviously it could be a thousand pages long and still only scratch the surface of our problems - almost all of which are man made.

But to start with The Environment. This is degrading so fast, and accelerating, that I see almost no hope of it surviving too much longer. Of course without our Environment to support us we too will be gone. Certainly a way of life that is anything like what we know now as a way of life. I see virtually no attempt to save it from any of the areas that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. The attack on our Environment is especially egregious here in the USA, even more so than the Republican attack on women. Ooops, sorry, where did that come from? But is our "attack" on the Environment really an attack, or is it more a case of ignorance and neglect? We prefer not to know. Perhaps that is why we are not educating our children in this area? Or, it sometimes seems, in ANY area! We simply don't want them to know. Is that because we are trying to protect them from knowing what is happening to their habitat or because we are afraid that they will find out and stop us!

The survival of the Finacial world requires continual expansion. This is a complete antitheses to the requirements of the natural world In search of ways to expand areas where we can live, food we can eat, places we can exploit, we have converted millions of acres of forest and wilderness area to food production, polluting it with, fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides. In meat production we have degraded the lives of innumerable animals beyond belief. Even such monsters as Hitler and Stalin would be revolted if they could see the sickening way we treat the animals we use for food.

 (Watch "Food Inc", and I will be surprised if you would be able to bring yourselves to eat mass produced meat ever again!)

We have overfished the oceans to the point of wiping out most fish. We drag huge nets across the bottom of the Oceans and across the Coral Reefs, killing anything and everything. Keeping the few things we can eat and throwing the rest back, dead. And then we pollute it. Our land based food chains flush their deadly debris in to the poor oceans - fertilizers, weedkillers, insecticides, animal wastes by the billions of tons, nitrogen - which we sucked out of the air that we breate, to make fertilizer, and which then is dumped into the oceans creating huge aquatic dead zones off of our coasts.

It is hard to believe that we don't know this. How can we not know? I suppose the polluters - Big Business, Big Agriculture, Big Oil don't want us to know. But the fact is that WE don't want to know. Our right to ? ? ? - you name it, supercedes all else.

The human race is now 7 Billion strong. Hundreds of time larger in weight than any other large species that has ever been on this Earth. Talking of Species, we have already destroyed Tens of Thousands of Species! Yes ten of thousands of complete species have been made extinct by our actions! And fully 20% to 25 % of those remaining are endangered. And Homo Sapiens - that's us - has only been on Earth for one ten thousandth of its history. The Earth is around 4 to 5 billion years old, we have been here for maybe 500 thousand years - just one ten thousandth of Earths life and in that short time we have brought her to her knees. Actually it is far, far worse than that, probably 99% of that destruction was done in the last 1,000 years, and most of that in the last 100 years. No, Earth, as we know her, cannot possibly survive another 100 years of Homo Sapiens at the rate that we are killing off the animals and the plants.

There is a possibility, I suppose that we could survive without the other animals and plants that we used to share Earth with. We could live in huge apartment blocks and grow food in tanks. Pink Slime?

Or we could go out into Space and find new planets, to destroy? Or is it possible that we could learn from our mistakes here and live WITH the new Environments?

No, I agree, of course we won't.

Oh, oh I almost forgot the second item on my list of two! Income Inequality. Who can doubt that this is a problem? A quick review - 1% of the US population own more than 50% of it's wealth! That leaves the other 99% to share to other 50%!

How is this for a way to put it. There are 100 people trapped in a room with no food. A pizza is found. They "share" it. One person (The 1%) gets HALF of the pizza. The other 99 people get to share the other half amongst them ! ! ! Seems unfair to me.

Another way, the average American pays 30% of his earnings in taxes. The top 2% of earners in the US pay an average of 16%! Take someone like Mitt Romney for example, his income last year was 21 million dollars, he paid 12.8% in taxes. Remember now, the average American pays 30% in taxes! Warren Buffet, paid 14.8% last year. (At least he knows he pays too little! And he gives large amounts to charity. In fact he gave half of his fortune to the Bill Gates Foundation, which finds ways to make a difference by using the money to help the less fortunate.) But Romney wants to CUT taxes to the richest Americans even more! They already pay at half the rate you and I pay, and he wants to cut it even more! There are CEO's of large companies that collect "pay" of 20, 30 even 50 million dollars a year! One CEO had pay of $378 Million last year. Several were close to $100 Million. There were Bankers who made salaries of around $50 Million! Some banks have hundreds of executives or partners, each one of which can receive bonuses in the Millions of dollars! These are the people who are so greedy that they were prepared to destroy not only the US economy but the Worlds economy for their own evil, greedy ends. Reducing millions to poverty, ruin, and suicide so that THEY could have more millions of dollars in one year than anyone can earn or use in a lifetime.

During the Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, the top tax rate was 90%. That meant that any income OVER a certain amount, I'm not sure what it was - maybe a million a year - was taxed at 90%. At that time we still had plenty of very rich people, we also had full employment and almost no National Debt. Gradually over the years the top tax rate has been dropped lower and lower. As it dropped, the National Debt rose (Reagan alone Quadrupled the National Debt) that is because there was not enough collected in taxes to pay for the expenses of the country - a very simple basic fact.

You can see and understand that in your own life. If you earn $50,000 a year, you can only spend $50,000 a year, unless you want to get into big trouble. How about if you earned $50,000 a year and spent $80,000 a year? How long could you keep that up do you suppose? That is what the USA is doing, and has been doing, for a long time - ever since Clinton left office, and also before he came into office. Yes, 40% of everyting we spend, we borrow. And yet politicians want to cut taxes! Does that make sense? They say we need to pay less in taxes - especially the rich - that will help to cut down the National Debt, and help to solve the problems with our economy. Please explain that to me.

Let's go back to our example of the family earning $50,000 a year (And spending $80,000) They decide that they can solve their problem by cutting their income! (The same as the politicians who want to cut taxes, which is the income of the US, to solve our spending and debt problems.) So he cuts his hours to 30 hours a week instead of 50 and his income to $30,000. Surprise, surprise, it doesnt solve his problem - he now has to borrow even more! He is worse off.

I could have told him that. So could anyone with a teeny tiny bit of common sense.

Another fact, a surprising one this, is that as taxes go down, unemployment goes up! It is a fact, look at graphs that show taxes going down and you will see that unemployment goes up. I know, I know it doesn't make sense. But it is so.

Taxes at this time are at the lowest that they have been for over 60 years! And unemployment is at its highest in 60 years! (In fact taxes in the US are the lowest of ANY civilized country in the WORLD!) Is it any surprise that we have problems when we don't even collect enough tax to pay for our expenses. And politicians are calling for even lower taxes! (Don't forget, we are already at the lowest tax rate ever!) It is so easy to keep saying we are taxed too high, politicians say, "If You vote me into office I will cut your taxes!". If I said "We are not taxed highly enough, vote me in and I will raise your taxes." who do you suppose would be voted in?

It is an impossible situation.

The rich completely control Congress, and therefore the country. We have the most corrupt Congress in the Whole World, in my opinion. Sure there is corruption in every country, but there they meet in coffee houses or in dark alleys, money changes hands and votes are changed. But here in the US we have taken corruption to a new level. Here, Congress has made it LEGAL! It is called Lobbyists, they are allowed to bribe Congressmen. The Health Industry spends $1 Million A DAY Bribing Congress, or Lobbying if you prefer. (A Rose by any other name is still a Rose - and this one STINKS!) And that is just The Health Industry, then there are all the others pushing and shoving to hand over their money, their trips on private jets to private islands, home additions, etc, etc. Big Oil, Big Business, Big Agriculture, Big Banks, and all the others that can't hand money to Congress fast enough! Legally!

You and I don't stand a chance against such unmitigated greed, we can't hand over millions of dollars, so we are out in the cold. And somehow the Politicians are so persuasive that the majority of the people seem to think all this is perfectly fine. Do they think perhaps that one day they too will be rich and not have to pay taxes? How naive can you be? THEY will never let that happen! Where was I? Oh yes the Income Gap - is too big, in case you didn't get my drift. David.

Where have all the fish gone?

First I have to tell you that The Lake is as beautiful as ever. When I wake up every morning and look at that lovely lake I find it hard to believe my good fortune, not only am I married to the most beautiful woman in the world but I live next to this wonder of nature. However there is a change, and that change involves the wildlife. Normally The Lake is teaming with wildlife. At times I have seen 50 or more Cormorants fishing here. In the early spring this year there was a small batch of them - about 13, I counted them - that stayed for a few days. Since then I have spotted the odd one swimming around. The Osprey were so numerous at times that I worried (I always have to have something to worry about!) that they would remove ALL the fish here! But this year I have only seen one Osprey, and that only every few days, and even he - she? - hovers, but does not dive. I have yet to see a catch by an Osprey this year. Usually one can stop and watch for just a short time and see as many as 4 or 5 or 6 Osprey all fishing at once. One of them is hovering and diving at any time and every couple of dives seemed to produce a fish. This year nothing. Early in the year, much earlier than usual, the yellow perch and the white perch were here. I know because I was catching them. Now no fish at all. I can't even catch a lowly Sunfish. What has happened?

A Surprise!

Apparently it turns out that Marylanders are NOT the highest taxed in the country! According to the Council on State Taxation, in a report on State and local business taxes across the nation, done last summer on property, sales, excise, gross receipt, corporate income, franchise and unemployment insurance taxes as a percentage of gross state product. Maryland's stood at 3.7 percent of GSP. The National Average is 5.0.

Who ever would have thunk?

We, Maryland, also has the highest percentage of our citizens who are Millionaires! In 2011 Phoenix Global Wealth ranked Maryland number one in the Nation showing that 7.22% of Maryland households are Millionaires! (The calculation does not include home values or retirement accounts.)

So, as Dan says, "Don't be so cranky. Life here is better than you think. Sit on your deck, have a brandy, pet your hounds, and light up a cigar."

The Affordable Health Care Act.

First I want to say that I am in favor of The Act, in fact I would be even more in favor of a Universal Health Care.

And, I don't like the Rights's way of trying to denigrate The Act by calling it Obamacare. I don't remember Medicare being called Johnsoncare, do you? Or how about Social Security was that called Rooseveltcare? I don't think so. We don't even call The Massachusetts's Health Care, Romneycare!

While it is far from perfect , it is a HUGE improvement on what we had before, when we could have our Health Insurance cancelled, because we got sick and made a claim! Or we could be refused Insurance because we were sick! Or coverage could be denied for any number of reasons. The American Health Insurance BUSINESS had more workers figuring out reasons to deny coverage than for any other part of their BUSINESS.

Yes that's right, your Health Care is a BUSINESS, the USA is the ONLY civilized country in the entire World where your health care is a business! Run for PROFIT! Should our health be a FOR PROFIT BUSINESS? It is not anywhere else. And don't try to say, "Would you want to work as a Doctor or a Nurse for nothing?", because of course you know this is not the case. Doctors and Nurses and all health care workers are of course paid in Switzerland, and Taiwan, and the UK, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, and all the other countries that cover ALL of their citizens for HALF or less than half of what we pay here in the United States!

Other countries don't have Health Care Insurance Executives who are paid millions and get millions more in Bonuses - because they made such a huge profit for their investors! Companies can have hundreds of Executives, and each one can "earn" millions in bonuses, paid for by you! The investors have to paid too, and they are paid well, and the insurance companies make sure they are paid well. They make sure that there is lots of profit by cutting off people who are sick! Or who get sick. And by figuring out ways to deny coverage for various reasons.

This is the only civilized country in the world where you can go bankrupt and lose everything because you were unfortunate enough to get ill, or to get cancer, or to have an accident, or to have a family member who does any one of those bad things! Get sick in the UK, or any other country in the world and you will get treatment. You don't have to sell your house and everything you own to get treated. Or you die, because you can't afford to get care, like can happen here.

And then there are the prescriptions. Only in America are drug companies allowed to advertise on TV, on Radio, in Newspapers and Magazines etc. Half the cost of a drug here in America is in the advertising! How often have you been watching TV and seen the same ad a half dozen or a dozen times in one evening on one channel? And there are a hundred channels!

Then there are the machines that Doctors offices have, it seems that every office now has it's own, X-ray, Cat Scan, MRI etc etc, so naturally as they have huge payments to make on them, almost everyone has to have a battery of expensive tests. So that the Doctor's office can make the payments on their expensive equipment!

How is it possible for all these other countries to give coverage for everyone, for half or less than half of what we pay? Well for a start EVERYONE pays in, just like EVERYONE pays in for Social Security or car insurance or for any form of insurance. So when someone gets sick they are covered. Here, only sick or old people get insurance, the young and the healthy "Don't need insurance", so they don't get it. But just like with car insurance - how about if only people who were going to have accidents bought insurance? Saying, "I am not going to have an accident, so I don't need insurance." won't wash! What happens to those people who, "Don't need Health Insurance." if they get sick or get into an accident? They get treated, because Hospitals and Doctors HAVE to treat them, by law. Then WE pay, you and me. So they get a free ride. Same with Car Insurance. If only people who are going to have an accident buy it, it would be VERY expensive (Just like Health Ins that is only bought by sick people.) but then there IS an accident, a tire blows on your car, someone pulls out in front of you, you fall asleep, you hit another car which hits another one, a bus goes over an overpass. You caused 10 people to die and 30 to be injured. Can you afford that? No! That's why we have car insurance, because if you didn't, everyone else would have to pay for that. You wouldn't - you are either dead or you can't afford to!

So, to review, other countries pay less because - Everyone pays in. There are no investors pulling profits out. Prescriptions cost half, because drug companies are not spending Billions on advertising. The system is run by executives who are paid to run it, and don't receive millions in pay, profit sharing and bonuses. The whole system is run at cost, not at a profit. If you need an MRI you are sent for one, you don't get one because the Doctor has a payment due on his half million dollar machine.

I have to get an MRI on my brain every year to check up on my tumor. That costs, my insurance company, $1,500. The same MRI in japan is $93. An Angiogram in the US averages $798, in Canada it costs $35.

I can hear you now, "But our care is so much better here." We live longer, we are healthier.

OK, The average life expectancy in Italy is 82, in the US it is 78. The percentage of people in the US with diabetes is 10%, in the UK it is 4%. Child mortality in the US? We are number 30, even below Somalia! we used to be below Pakistan!

If we had a Universal Health Care System our Corporations would be better off! Now they are in the position of having to pay Billions in Health Care premiums while Corporations in other countries don't have that disadvantage. So they could compete better.

An aside here, we have heard that US Corporations have the highest tax rate in the world (at 35%). Now we find out that it is actually the LOWEST in the world!! With the possible exception of Iceland. The reason for this is that they have so many exceptions, loopholes, special interests and so on that they actually only pay 10%. This is of course because we have the most corrupt Congress in the world. It is legal for Corporations, and even people, to bribe Congress! In most countries bribery goes on of course, but there they meet in dark alleys, or under bridges, or in bars, and cash changes hands. Here in the US, Congress has actually made it legal for them to be bribed. They call them Lobbyists. Lobbyists pay Congress to do their bidding. The Health Industry for example pays Congress one million dollars A DAY through Lobbyists. And there are hundreds of other companies doing the same, Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Agriculture, Big Banks, Insurance Companies, Mortgage Companies, Wall Street, all pushing and shoving to hand money over to the Best Congress That Money Can Buy. No wonder they want to stay on for year after year after year. And if they somehow go too far for even the American voter to put up with, they retire, on full pay! Yep they can serve just ONE term in the House and receive full pension for life. $174,000 a year! Just imagine how much they must be raking in if they prefer to stay in Congress if they make more than if they just retire and sit back and pick up $174,000 a year. And of course they get free health insurance, paid for by us of course. And all kinds of other percs, like an office etc etc etc.

Finally a family member who, 25 years ago, was treated for cancer in Johns Hopkins Hospital for more than a year might well be dead now if we had then, the Health care System that we will return to if the Republicans have their way. Even then, 25 years ago, with a good insurance policy, our out of pocket costs were more than $50,000. If we had been denied coverage, as we would under their idea of "care", it is doubtful that we would have been able to come up wih the necessary more than half a million dollars needed for treatmnet.

I beg of everyone to fight for a Universal Health Care System for America, so that we can finally have Affordable Health Care for all of us. Like the rest of the world enjoys.

A Change of Pace.

At this time of year, mid-March, in most years you are likely to find me outside wielding a snow shovel or a bucket of salt and sand. However this year you are much more likely to find me wielding a fishing rod! Instead of bundling myself up in layers of clothing, boots, gloves, a scarf and a hat against the Mad March Winds, I am instead lightly clothed in summer pants and a thin summer shirt. Yes, the world has gone crazy. We have been enjoying temperatures in the 70's and even the 80's for 2 or 3 weeks now with no sign of it abating.

Flowers like the daffodils have not just come out, they are almost finished! I have already mowed the lawn once, blossoms and flowers are everywhere. Birds and fish are ubiquitous, as of course are weeds and insects.

As I often seem to do, I planted early. Let's hope this will not bring the wrath of Mother Nature down on me!

A couple of years ago I bought a snow blower, after the "Snowstorm of the Century". We have had very little snow since. Of course! I anticipate no more heavy snow until the snow blower rusts up solid and is unusable. This year I prepared by placing a bucket of salt and sand and a snow shovel outside of the back door And also outside of the front door. I dug out a selection of waterproof gloves, boots and coats, as well as hats and the inevitable scarf, and placed them strategically close. None have seen service. In fact I replaced the buckets of salt and sand and the snow shovels back in the basement. Nervously, I have to admit, but that was a few days ago and 'they' are still calling for warm weather. Today is warm and sunny with temperatures expected to top 80 degrees.

What can I say? Dare I say Climate Change?

Food Waste Friday.

Nothing much ever seems to go to waste around here. How could it with my favorite saying being, "I will eat anything that doesn't eat me first!"

If by some miracle something does escape my roaming appetite, there are the Chickens who will gladly fight me for it, or the fish in The Lake, or the Final Frontier of The Compost Heap!

Nope, nothing for the Food Waste Friday Folks again, I am glad to say.

David The Silver Fox.

Fog.

Once again there is a thick fog over the area. Most mornings I wake at around 6.00 AM. For the last two weeks when I pry open my eyes and peer out at my world I am greeted by a blank wall of fog. As I lay there, with my mind running at a million miles an hour, the fog horns sounding from time to time - why are they so few? - I contemplate the coming day, it's delights and it's fears.

Of the Delights there are many, the biggest of which is Julia's smile. But this won't come yet as she is still asleep. Then there are the antics of The New Cat - Monty - the friendliness of our "Old" cat Muffey, my morning cup(s) of coffee, the view of "My" Lake and it's teeming wildlife, a walk outside to pick up the morning newspaper, checking my e-mails, maybe seeing my neighbor Mike, watching The Lake come alive - usually this is a varying process of The Lake being like a mirror, or not, and the sun coming up - that always happens! - and as it comes up it "Sets fire" to the trees on the other side, it causes The Still Lake to ripple, or sometimes it causes the rippling Lake to calm. Always the birds appear, flying over, landing, fishing, fighting, splashing or just sitting. If I just sit and watch The Lake I might see a Muskrat or a Snake swimming across, a bunch of Cormorants fishing, little Diving Ducks, a Great Blue Heron winging across looking like a miniature Pterodactyl. Sometimes there is a surprise - a Buzzard or even an Eagle and very rarely a deer, a fox or a raccoon. Any or all of these could happen today.

Then there are The Fears. I imagine that we all have these? At least I hope that I am not the only one. There are the Terrible ones, too terrible even to contemplate, like Nuclear War, the Death of a Loved One or Republicans taking power. Then there are the Mid Size Fears such as illness, an accident, losing my job, the economy getting worse, what will be in the news today, and a host of others, then finally the Small Fears - are we out of milk, do I have enough coffee, am I going to have to cut the lawn again, what's for dinner, what - it's laundry day AGAIN.

A new form of taxation.

Dare I say a BETTER way of taxing us?

I propose a three tier taxing system.

The first tier would be very simple and very easy and everyone would pay, albeit at a much lower rate than at present.

The second tier would be difficult to escape, but it would be possible to limit how much you pay. It would be easier for poorer people to limit how much they pay.

The third tier would almost be voluntary! While it would not be possible to escape it completely, you would be able to decide not to pay it. And if you did not pay it you would be healthier and not only you, but everyone else would be better off!

So here goes;-

Tier one, a flat tax that increases as your income increases. I suggest 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% rates, based on income. The tiers would need to be set. Up to a certain amount a person would pay 5%, then on the amount OVER that first level the rate would be 10%, and so on. The higher levels would only be on the amount OVER the previous level, not on the entire income earned. This is the same as it is now. But the rate would be MUCH lower. There would also be NO deductions, allowances, loopholes etc. You report your income and you pay on that income.

Tier two, a sales tax. To pick a number I suggest 5% for the States and 5% for Federal. With no tax on food, medical and services. This would reduce the bite on essentials and help people with lower incomes more than the richer. I see you being able to reduce the amount of tax you pay in this level, although it would be difficult to impossible to escape it completely. But you can see that someone with a very low income who could only afford the essentials like food and medicine would pay little tax, while someone with a large disposable income would be paying more tax as they would buy more. It would also be difficult to avoid this tax as it would be added at the source, or even before the item is priced! (One possibility here might be a couple of levels of tax, for example 5% on most items but a higher rate on luxury goods like expensive jewelry, cars, boats, planes etc.)

The third tier, a "Health and Safety" tax. Many people would be able to choose to avoid this tax completely! Anyone who did pay it would not only be hurting themselves financially but also their health, and/or the health of us all and of the Planet. Quite simply there would be a substantial tax on such things as Cigarettes, Alcohol, Fat, Sugar, etc. We would be able to CUT DOWN ON THE BAD STUFF, stuff that hurts us, and save money! we would get stronger and healthier and wealthier! Who could argue with that?

We would also tax Carbon, Gasoline, Cars (The bigger they are the bigger the tax), Pollution - or Polluters, etc. Again we could reduce our use of scarce stuff, CUT DOWN ON POLLUTION AND HAVE CLEANER AIR AND WATER. And save money doing it! And breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water and have healthier kids and us! Who could argue with that?

We would also tax Guns, Ammunition, Speeding, Murder, Rape, Theft, Drunkenness (in public), Assault, Violence, etc. WE WOULD ALL BE SAFER. And save money doing it. Who could argue with that?

With my idea the total tax paid would be the same. (Actually it is obvious that we need to increase our tax level as we are not collecting anywhere near enough taxes to pay for even basic services. But that is another thing.) So the tax paid would be the same. It would just not come from income alone. Instead the lions share would come from the bad stuff that we do to ourselves, our world and our fellow man. This would give us a reason, and an excuse, if we need one, to stop doing bad stuff.

Don't take so much of our hard earned money, tax us for doing things that are bad for us and everyone else. This should also cut down on our Health Insurance premiums as we would all be healthier! And cut down on money spent on insurances - by cutting down on speeding etc. Less of our money would go to prisons, people might think twice for example if they were going to lose money if they are violent. Money for all those crimes would be confiscated and used to pay for the prisons.

Want to keep more of your money? Do good stuff. Be good to yourself. Be good to the Planet.

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

HOWEVER, apparently people in the US kill more people than in, say the UK. Some figures, just for interest of course, (All figures are per 100,000 people) : -

Gun ownership. US 89,000. UK 6,000 15 times as many.

Murder by gun. US 6.24 UK .13 48 times as many.

Accidental death by gun. US .58 UK .02 29 times as many.

Suicide by gun. US 7.23 UK .33 22 times as many.


Now maybe it is just coincidence, but I do notice that gun ownership seems to increase the number of deaths by gun! Also the number of suicides and accidents by gun. Now to a person like me who is fascinated by numbers and figures it is clear that guns kill people. The more guns people have, the more people die by the gun - ergo Guns Kill People.

What is further of interest is that in the US the numbers all show that although gun ownership is "only" 15 times higher than in the UK, murder by gun is 48 times higher, suicide by gun is 22 times higher and accidental death by gun is 29 times higher.

Common sense or the law of averages would say that all those figures should be 15 times higher - the same as the number of guns higher - but instead we see figures of 22X, 29X and 48X which is of interest to me. Does it mean that instruction in gun safety is better in the UK than in the US, or that the UK has safer guns than the US, or that people in the US are more angry or unstable or less civilized than in the UK? Surely not, but certainly there is something about either the guns or the people in the US that causes them to murder and commit suicide by gun at a much higher rate than almost any other country in the world.

Another figure that will almost certainly be brought up in any argument by gun proponents in the US will be gun ownership in Switzerland which is 47,000 per 100,000 of the population. US murder rate by gun is 11 times higher than the murder rate by gun in Switzerland, accidental death rate by gun - US is 5 times higher - and suicide by gun in US is only 1.3 times higher than in Switzerland!

All great fun - for someone who enjoys figures.

Bits and Pieces.

Our new Cat/Kitten, Monty reports that he received a B+ in Pouncing School. Well so he should, he has been doing an awful lot of practicing lately. But Julia and I do agree that he receives an A+ in cuteness. And as for climbing, he sems to be at the top of the class, there can be no doubting that.

Meanwhile the Chickens are doing very well as we are getting 5 or 6 eggs virtually every day. Unfortunately this is more than we can eat! I do have one customer who buys a dozen of our beautiful organic eggs every week or so. Kristen The Frugal Girl is very into Fresh, Organic Food, as we are of course. This does not reduce the stock sufficiently and the supply of eggs is building. We do provide our neighbor Mike and his lovely wife Christine with some eggs, and in return they supply the chickens with their surplus food. Any left over fast food from Chinese to Pizza is welcomed by our Ladies, gobbled up and turned into fine looking eggs. What a miracle that is! But more customers are needed.

Out on The Lake, the Cormorants have arrived. Could this be because of the early arrival of Spring, and with it the Fish? Yellow Perch arrived about three weeks ago and White Perch about a week and a half ago - much earlier than I have ever seen before. But I have yet to see an Osprey. A neighbor tells me that we can expect more Eagles this year. We have indeed been seeing several pairs of Eagles during the last few years but Mike says he heard that there are even more coming. He claims that the Eagles like to let the Osprey catch the fish and then steal them. Lazy tykes! Certainly there has been a sufeit of Osprey lately, although I have not seen any yet this year. What with the Cormorants and the Osprey, not to mention the Seagulls who also seem to get their share of fish, I despair that there will be enough for us! So I guess I will have to satisfy myself with the sight of this glut of nature.

The weather has once again exceeded all expectations with temperatures in the 70's and even 80 degrees or more over the last week or two. the weather forecasters are calling for temperatures in the 70's for at least another week. It is only mid March but there are Cherry trees in bloom all over, not to mention the Bradford Pear trees and all manner of other bossoming trees. Of course Snowdrops, Daffodils, Tulips, Hyacinths and Pansies are everywhere. The Holly trees are loaded to the point of the branches sagging under the weight of their berries, so those who claim that a rash of holly berries foretell a cold winter are wrong! Along with all the other "old wives tales" that supposedly foretell the weather several seasons into the future.

Well I am going to wrap this up now.

Another funny story about our favorite daughter Sarah.

When Sarah was about seven she was reluctant to eat her greens. One day Julia said to her "Eat your beans dear". Sarah said I don't eat beans since the accident. "What accident?" said my wife. "When I accidentally ate one." said Sarah.
She was a smart little . . . . something, sorry can't seem to find the right word here! But it will give you an idea of the problems we had raising this one.
But I guess it was worth it.

Hey, we won the lottery!

- - - by being born in he West! With a world population of 7 Billion there are at least 5 or 6 Billion people that we are lucky not to have been born as, including China, India, Africa, and much of South America and Asia.

We are all among the top 1% of the world in income, even the people on welfare in the West rate among the top 1% in wealth in the world!

So you see you DO have something to be happy about!

(If only we could send some of those politicians and Rush Limbaugh to one of those other countries we could all be even happier!)

David.

Our new cat.

We are the "proud parents" of a new kitten who we have named Monty. He is just about 7 weeks old and left his mother to come and live with us about 2 weeks ago. A cute gray and white kitten he has captivated Julia's heart and receives the kind of attention from her that I would love to have!
His first doctor's visit was a few days ago and he was given a clean bill of health. No sign of the dreaded feline leukemia, but he does have ear mites, for which we douse his ears twice daily with some revolting, expensive, medicine that seems to be doing the job. Monty does not like it, nor do we as we get a dose too as he shakes his head after it is poured in (Well 5 drops are put into each ear!) this results in a shower of the medicine all over us and whatever else is within 10 feet. And presumably a bunch of dead and dying ear mites are in the resulting spray too.
Anyway this little story was prompted by Julia's remark this morning that Monty needed a bath. When I asked why, she pointed out that his little face was covered in food and the medicine. He washes himself, but is not too successful. The thought of washing this little guy, who even hates having a few drops put into his ear, and which when we do it results in vicious lacerations to both of us from his nasty claws, OK from his little needle like claws, that he is not yet able to retract, fills me with dread.
So my simple answer was, "Let's get Sarah to wash him." I then made an up and down motion with my hand as if I were dipping a cat into a barrel of water and pulling him out again, repeatedly. This brought laughter to us both as we remembered our daughter Sarah washing her cat Andrew like this some 38 years ago.
Here is the story.
We came upon Sarah just after she had put her small cat Andrew into the tumble dryer. Fortunately she did not know how to turn it on! We retrieved the miserable wet animal and asked her why she has put him into the dryer. Her simple answer was, "Because he is wet." When we asked her why he was wet she said, "Because I washed him." Asked how she had washed him, she explained she had washed him in the water barrel in our greenhouse. Of course we had to ask why she had washed him and received the answer, "Because he has paint on him." Indeed, on close examination poor Andrew appeared to have been painted green. Asked why he had green paint on him - remember at the tender age of 3 we don't know how to lie - she said, "Because I painted him."
So all was revealed and yet another episode of, "Life with Sarah", entered our repertoire.

Running down the Republicans.

Well at least I am being honest!
We all know who got us into the mess we are in now - The Republicans. The only thing that they are any good at (apart from running up the National Debt - 2/3 was made by Republicans) - is critizing the guy who is trying to fix the mess THEY made. I will give them that they are very good at critizing, but that is about all. They certainly are no good at connecting or compromising or helping. They are going all out to sabotage Obama at every turn. They seem to have no interest at all in fixing problems - problems that they made - or in helping anyone else to fix them.
In fact any plans that they do have - mostly cutting taxes for the wealthy and increasing taxes on the poor and middle class (soon to be the new poor if the GOP has it's way) will increase the National Debt substantialy. The WSJ and Money magazine etc agree that if any of the GOP candidates do what they say they want to do - cut taxes to the rich, they don't have any other plans that I can see - the National Debt will skyrocket again, as it always has under the Republicans.
It is not really necessary but I might as well point out that the present increasing National Debt is almost exclusively the fault of Republican policy. Namely starting two wars and not increasing taxes to pay for it, and then cutting taxes - to the rich - at the same time as they made no provision to pay for two wars!
Beyond belief.