I'll be surprised if this goes through (gets posted). Anyway, if it does, just ignore it.
Wednesday, November 29
Big Brother: Watching, Listening And Shouting
More above this excerpt, and more below...
In the US you can call your cell phone company, ask them where you are and they will tell you down to a few feet. That is a federal operation that's hooked into the NSA right at this moment and about to be hooked into every major police department and squad car.
Your name, everything about you, what you're doing, where you're going and the cop can punch in a few keys and use your phone as an audio sensor.
Major cities such as Austin, Texas have already installed gunshot detection microphones. The government assured us that they respect our privacy but the very companies installing them bragged about how they can listen to a kid on the street talking to his friend two hundred yards away.
And now, from Rochester New York to Austin Texas to Chicago, the government has announced that they are being used as microphones and they will be used to listen to us.
And it's not just in the street that you can be listened to.
Private industry and eventually government is planning to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance, invasive advertising and data mining.
Full Story...
(http://www.infowars.net/articles/november2006/281106BB.htm)
Tuesday, November 28
Demonstrations over New York shooting (at least 50 shots fired)
Demonstrations over New York shooting
27 November 2006 22:17
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has met community leaders in a bid to defuse mounting anger over the shooting dead of an unarmed black man by police officers.
Mr Bloomberg condemned the shooting but said he will support the city's police commissioner.
Sean Bell was shot dead outside a strip club in the borough of Queens on Saturday morning following his stag night.Mr Bell, 23, was due to marry the mother of his two children on Saturday evening. The incident happened as Mr Bell and his friends were leaving the club, which was under police surveillance.
It is understood that over 50 shots were fired by five undercover police officers at the group. Mr Bell was killed and two of his friends were wounded, one of them critically.
The incident has sparked demonstrations in New York amid echoes of the shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999, shot 41 times by police officers who thought he was reaching for a gun and not his wallet.
The killing has been condemned by civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who addressed a rally in Queens and demanded an official investigation.
New chicken yard
We got the new chicken & duck yard almost finished this afternoon. The only think left to do is put a gate in the opening so that we can close the birds in during the day. If they *really* want to, they'll be able to fly over the fence, but chickens, at least in our experience, don't fly unless they feel that have to. We're not in a hurry to get that gate on though, because we *need* to butcher at least 7 roosters. Currently we've got at *least* 11 roosters and about 30 hens. The rooster to hen ratio is too high and we feel if that we locked them all inside a 200 square foot fence together that the roosters would more than likely fight *all* the time. They scuffle quite a bit now, but they've got 10 acres of space to get away from each other. Therefore we'll be butchering several roosters real soon. We got the chicken tractor moved from over by the pumphouse into the new yard by tyeing a rope to the handle on the front of it, the other end to the back of the riding mower, and pulling it into the "new" yard. Hopefully the chickens that were going to bed in it every night will be able to find it. You know, chickens are the brightest birds on the block. *smile* I just went and took a couple of pictures - one of the chicken tractor and one of the newly fence yard, but neither of them came out well because it's too dark out there. Went spent all afternoon working. My DD and I put one side of the fence up. Later, after Rain got up, woke-up and ate, she came out and helped. When we needed to attach the fence to the back of the chicken coop there was a small tree growing where we needed to hammer u-nails in. Rain went and got the branch loppers out of the shed and proceeded to cute the sapling down. She like the tool so much that she went on a tree-branch trimming spree. *smile* When my DD and I couldn't do anymore of the fence by ourselves, I asked Rain to come and help us. She did and we got the other half of the fence up. Once we had it attached to the poles we had, we got some more poles to put in the spots where there was too much space between pole and put t-poles in (about 5 of them). After that it was just about time to feed the chickens and ducks, so we came in and took a break and rested, then went back out. We fed the birds, moved their water bowls into the newly created yard and filled them. Then DD moved the swimming pool that the ducks swim in to the yard and filled it. After that we picked up Rain tree debris, put the tools away and came in. That was *our* afternoon, how was yours? :-)
Monday, November 27
Building a chicken run
We got a few things done today, like driving into town and getting some things. After that we came home, chilled, watched a bit on the tube, read email and blogs. Then later I went out, got on the riding mower and cleared the brush and grass from the inside of the fence of the front of the pasture. I did that because we wanted to take the inner part of the fence, the part to keep the goats we once owned from going through the strands of barbed wire, down so that we could use it to build a chicken-run. It will make quite a big one too, since we now have 200 feet of welded-wire fence to use. When taking the fence down, we made it a family affair. Rain and I took all the wire clips that held the fence to the t-posts off while the kids carried the small bucket for us so we could put the clips in it. Once that was done we pulled the fence away from the posts and rolled it into a big-ass roll of wire. *grin* Then we rolled it to the front gate of the pasture (about a 100 yards) and out. Then we came in and took a break. After the break we went out and measured where we took the fence down from, so we'd know how much wire we had - 200 feet :-) Then we rolled the wire to the side of the chicken/duck coop (another 50 yards or so). Used the 100 foot tape-measure and figured out where to put the t-poles for the chickens' new run, and then came in for another break. When that was done it was time to feed the birds. After I did that and filled their water bowls, I grabbed the t-pole pounder and started putting the t-poles up. Not long after I got started, Rain and DD came out to help, which they did. After about 45 minutes to an hour, we were done. Tomorrow we'll put the fence up and connect it to the poles. Then we're going to use the kid's old swing-set (w/o the swings) and put a tarp from the back of the wood shed, over the swing-set, so they'll have shade on sunny days and somewhere to get out of the rain/snow if they want. We may use an old, holey 24' foot round swimming pool cover instead of a tarp, but we haven't decided yet. Well, that was our day, hope yours is going well and ends well.
Sunday, November 26
Trippy & Moon in a box
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As always, click for larger view :-)
Picture #1 is Trippy and #2 is Moon, in the box that *was* for holding a hand-held Dirt Devil vacuum. I hadn't had the vac. out of the box more than 5 minutes before Trippy found his way into it. He *really* loves his boxes, any size, it doesn't matter if he fits comfortably or not, he'll try to get in. *smile* I had another picture of our biggest cat "Rocky" in the same box, but I told my DD she could take the camera's card out of the reader while I still had the picture open and I guess that caused the picture to be deleted. (?)
Saturday, November 25
Our new monitor
(click to enlarge)
We went and picked-up our new-to-us freecycle monitor this morning. We were a little worried that it wouldn't work when we first got home because it was exactly as the same on we had been storing in the closet that didn't work. We decided to hook it up and see if it worked anyway, and to our surprise, it did. YAY! :) Guess the one we were storing has something wrong with it. We thought it just wouldn't work because we don't have a Packard Bell CPU (it's a PB monitor), obviously we were wrong, because the one we got today is also a PB and works fine. When it was offered on freecyle, he said it was a 15" monitor, but after getting it home we noted that it's just a 13". It's kind of small after being used to a 15", but we're just happy that we don't have to look at the laptop monitor anymore. Nothing wrong with those, just that the print was smaller than we liked. As you can see, we've got a wire cone-type thingy sitting on top of it to keep the cats from laying on it. Hope that it lasts longer than the other *three* we've gone through in the same amount of years. *crossing fingers*
While we were in town we deposited a few dollars in the bank, and then stopped and got some gas on the way home. Once home we just kind of hung-out like always. Hope you're having a great day as well!
Friday, November 24
Brunch, desert, T-Giving, football, bowling, monitor, and parents
Right now I am feeling pretty good. I just got through eating a hamburger for brunch and a piece of pumpkin pie for desert. Yum! Then I took my medical pills, and now I'm here, with you. *smile*
Our T-giving day was a pretty good day I suppose. It was NOT religious or anything, but just a regular day spent eating more traditional foods like Cornish game hens, pumpkin pie, blueberry pie, chocolate chip cookies, drinking cola, tea, and water. When we weren't eating, I was watching TV (most of the Lions v. Dolphins game until I got bored), while Rain was on the computer, and the kids were playing their video games. DD was playing Zelda on the GameCube while DS was playing Zelda on his Gameboy SP. Later in the evening I watched the Broncos v. Chiefs game, where the Broncos got beat 19 to 10. I'm a die-hard Broncos fan, but I live in MO, so I can be both a little sad and a little happy with the way the game turned out. *smile* All in all a good day.
Today we went to the bowling alley in Buffalo, MO to meet with anyone from our local homeschool group who showed-up. Well, we were the only ones. We had a good time though. I won with a score of 104, Rain came in second with 100 even, DD was third with 59, and DS came in fourth with 38. I was surprised at how well I actually did, considering I still can't bend over very far without my back hurting. But as long as I don't twist while bending over, I do alright. We think the kids need to find and use bowling balls that're lighter. They still have trouble making the balls come out of their hands smoothly, but still, they did pretty good for this only being the second time in their lives that they've bowled. *smile*
Still using my DD's laptop, but I've attached our keyboard to make typing easier. A person on one of our FreeCylce lists said he has a 15" monitor we can have, but he hasn't written back saying when and where we can pick it up.
Oh yeah, and I talked to my parents last night. They're doing okay. My mom actually tried a very small piece of pumpkin pie, a little bit of ice cream, and a little bit of home ground and brewed coffee. If you remember, up until yesterday, as far as I know she hasn't eaten or drank anything that hasn't been put through the feeding tube she been wearing for months. So it appears as though she is getting better, albeit very slowly. YAY!
Thursday, November 23
Changing PCs. Chicken protection
Okay, so I'm having a conversation with myself about the size of the fonts on my blog. Like, do I *really* need to worry about it? Should I just leave it the default size of my blog writing program? I'm leaning toward just leaving it as is, mostly because it's less time consuming in the end. Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. Sorry to those of you who liked that I used larger than normal fonts. Forgive me?
I spent most of the day yesterday setting up this computer. It's my DD's laptop, and needless to say, it didn't have the programs like Spybot, Ad-Aware, and AVG updated because 1) My DD hasn't used it much the last month or so. and 2) Even when she did use it more she never remembered to update. Now that's all done, so I can get on with my business of blog-writing. Oh, I forgot to mention I had to download the blog-writer first, which I did last night and set-up this morning.
As some of you know, the reason we had to switch to my DD's laptop was because the monitor on our computer crapped-out... AGAIN! :-( It's the 3rd time it's happened in the 2 years we've had it setup where we do, because the cats like to lay on top of the monitor for the heat. So, once we get another one, we've got to figure out a way to keep them off of it. Ideas? I've sent an email to a Freecycle list, but I wouldn't imagine too many people have spare monitors just sitting around, they're not exactly cheap. Ideally I think a flat one that the cats *couldn't* get one would be ideal, but I'm *definitely* not expecting anyone to be offering one of those. *smile*
We're losing chickens to predators at a pretty good clip, prolly coyotes. Stupid chickens make it really easy for them to, by hanging out in the back by the lagoon where the coyotes can easily sneak-up on them. So, what we've decided is that we're going to take about 100 feet of fence on the front side of the pasture down and build a large chicken run. Hopefully that'll deter the predators, and hopefully they'll lose interest and eventually we could let the chickens out again for total free-ranging.
Well, the first NFL football game is back on, so I'll talk to you later.
Monday, November 20
PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTIONS MAY DIE IN SENATE
apc@governance.net wrote: From the American Policy Center
http://americanpolicy.org
PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTIONS MAY DIE IN SENATE
ACTION NEEDED NOW IN LAME DUCK SESSION
URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT
EMINENT DOMAIN PROTECTIONS WILL DIE WITHOUT IMMEDIATE ACTION
We have only one week to pass Eminent Domain reform to counter the Supreme Court's disastrous Kelo VS New London decision that said local communities could take private property for use by private developers. That decision means no property is safe anywhere, as long as the local government decides it can make more money by throwing property owners off their land.
Last year, the House of Representatives passed the Property Rights Protection Act (H.R. 4128) by a vote of 376-38. The bill would give Congress the power to discourage Eminent Domain abuse by withholding federal funds from any city that use Eminent Domain to seize property for private developers.
However, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has deliberately held up the Senate version of the Property Rights Protection Act (S.1313) in the Senate. Specter is acting in partnership with the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to kill the bill. They don't want to lose the eminent domain power over your home. Specter is playing a well-used game. He knows if he just holds on until Congress adjourns, the bill in both houses will die. We would have to start all over again in the Democrat-controlled congress next year.
Here's the good news. Senator James Inholf has introduced an identical bill (S.3837) to get around Senator Specter. This means there is still a chance to protect property rights before the Republicans lose control of Congress. Urgent. We must take action right now!
ACTION TO TAKE:
1. Call both of your State's U.S. Senators (no time to write) and urge them to support S.3837, The Property Rights Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Inholf. If this bill is not passed by the end of the Lame Duck session, the bill will die and we will have to start all over again to fight for property rights protection.
U.S. Senate Switchboard: 202-224-3121. Ask for your Senators by name and the operator will connect you.
2. Call Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Tell him you want S.3837 brought to the Senate floor for a vote. He has so far refused to do so. We must put pressure on him to act or the bill will die. Senator Frist's office number: 202-224-3344.
We can get S.3837 passed. But only if we apply enough pressure to Senator Frist to force a floor vote.
Please pass this action alert to at least 10 more people. It's urgent that you act now. The lame duck session will only last about another week!
NEWS: Drug War/Iraq War. CIA report on Iran
http://tinyurl.com/y6y9nx
November 19, 2006
Subject drug war to the Iraq War test
Nolan Finley, nfinley@detnews.com
Now that Washington is awash in rare bipartisan logic about evaluating the goals and strategies of the Iraq War, the same reasoning should apply to the other conflict America is hopelessly mired in: the war on drugs.
The parallel between the two is undeniable.
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http://tinyurl.com/y2hoxs
Nov 19, 2006
CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter has said.
Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.
A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.
"If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran," Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.
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My source Liberty Outlook
Sunday, November 19
Comfy kitties, football, cookies, beds, and more...
Click to enlarge (I think)
Took this picture a couple of evenings ago, because, well, Rain and I thought it was cut how he relaxes so much when he's asleep and curls his front paws. When he's awake and you pet and/or try to hold him, he will *not* hold still and is moving constantly, or wiggling constantly when being held. But when he relaxes, he *really* relaxes. LOL.
Click to enlarge (I think)
This is one of our other white kitties - Trippy (3 spots on top of his head). As you can see though, he doesn't curl his front paws when he's sleeping. *smile*
Haven't done anything today except watch TV, specifically NFL football, and even then I wasn't really *into* it. I was a n ice guy and let my sweetheart sleep-in this morning even though it was her morning to start her week of getting up at 7 a.m. with my daughter to feed the chickens and ducks. I suggested it last night because it just seemed like the thing to do. *smile* Also thought it would be a good way to say, "Thank you for making cookies 3 times for us this week". *smile* And because this time of year she's almost always in baking mode/mood, she's going to make us brownies tonight. WOO-HOO! *drool*
My daughter has been doing laundry almost all day, which, quite frankly, I was surprised because it's been a *long* time since she's done it. It's just one of those things she doesn't generally feel the need to do. I guess her chores of cleaning litter boxes, unloading/loading the dishwasher, feeding the animals, and doing her homeschool-work is enough most of the time. Don't know what bug bit her, but I'm certainly NOT complaining. *grin*
It was colder than, well, ice this morning when we went out to let out and feed the birds! I know this because we had to break the top layer of ice off of their water bowls. I even took out a room temperature bottle of water to top them off so that the water wouldn't re-freeze before the sun started warming things up.
A couple of months ago I told my wife that I would build her a bed frame because she's always wanted a bed that is so high off of the floor that you have to hop up onto it, or ideally climb onto it. She'd love one high enough to have a short ladder to climb up to get in bed. Don't really think we can afford the wood to do that though. In fact, that's why I haven't built any frame for her, shortage of funds. *sigh* All this to mention that I probably should be doing some research on-line to see what kinds of ideas and how-to's there are for such things. If you know of any good "raised bed frame" links, send on in the comment section :-)
Saturday, November 18
Window locks. Reading material. Google Earth of Iraq
I almost wrote that I got quite a bit done today, but when it comes right down to it, putting locks on 3 windows really wasn't all that much work. But I did also switch the fan that is hung between the living room and the woodstove/kids game & TV room, with a very similar fan :-) I did that because the one that was up there has an annoying clicking sound that came from one of the fans. Long ago (this past summer), after we first got that fan, we took it apart and tried to figure out why it was clicking, but found no reason for it, so just put it back together and lived with the noise. Granted, it was all that loud if you had the TV on, but when you muted it, you could hear it. Or when you walked to the front door to let a cat in or out. I guess what I'm saying is that it wasn't really that bad, but I was on an activity roll this afternoon, so I replaced it with the other twin-fan fan.
Usually I try to wait until I've got all my emails read and responded to, or the blogs I read regularly read and commented on. But having 36 email articles to read, if I read them I'd be out of time to write. In fact I've still got a few blogs to read too. It takes me what seems like forever to get through many emails because 1) I'm a slow-ish reader and 2) I probably respond to too many. Unlike my wife who can read 50 emails in about 30 minutes or less, it takes me over an hour to get through that many. *smile*
Anyway, I tried to look-up Fallujah and Basra, Iraq using Google Earth, but it said it couldn't find either. But I was able to virtually visit Bagdad. I was trying to see if I could see any buildings and/or houses the U.S. army has blown-up, but was apparently *denied* access. I cannot believe that in normal circumstances, there would be no satellite pictures of those two cities, and that's why I think the U.S. government has a deal with Google to withhold pictures of areas/cities the government doesn't want ordinary people to see. *sigh*
Friday, November 17
Why write. Money-making. Cookies.
Hi! I wasn't going to write anything today, but was looking at my Google Analytics page. Although I don't have more that about 9 page visits on any given day, people ARE reading my blog on Blog*spot. And who am I to disappoint someone who comes to see what I've wrote, eh? I must admit though that I have haven't been real motivated to write every day, because I don't *do* anything that I consider worthy of writing about every day. My days are mostly spent just hanging out watching TV, checking/reading email, and when the mood strikes, blogging. I'm not one that does a hell of a lot of creative things that I could explain to others to do. So what am I *supposed* to say? I know, "just write whatever you want". But, but, if I don't write something at least a little interesting, people won't read my blog. On the other hand, nothing I've ever done on-line has ever generated a profit, so I don't know why I worry about whether or not people will come back. That's in reference to the PSP link on the right-hand side of my blogger blog that if clicked can lead to a *little* bit of money *if* someone buys what the link leads to. As far as I know, in the several months that the link has been there, *no one* has. Oh yeah, since I joined ad-sense, that's a reason to get people to come here, but I'm not expecting much to come of that. Yeah, I guess I'm feeling a little defeated. My wife thinks it would be beneficial if she got a job to bring in some extra money, at least for 6 months to get a little ahead. However, we have a van that get 10-15 miles per gallon, and the nearest place she could get a job would be 10 miles from here. So we'd be spending most of the money she made, on gas money, so we don't think it would be worth it. But if we could figure out a way to get a car that's gets better gas mileage, she could get a job to bring in some extra. But in order to be able to afford to finance a car, she would need a job. And that's the catch-22 that so many teenagers and others are going through as we speak. *sigh* You've got me here on SSD wishing I could relieve her stress of having just barely enough money to pay the bill, but don't know what the hell to do about it :-(
On the happy side, Rain made us cookies last night - they we yummy. She put half of them in the freezer so that we would not eat them *all* in one day like usual. As you can imagine, the first half was gone by noon today. *grin* She's making another kind of cookie today. They're little balls of cooked dough covered in powdered sugar once they come out of the oven. They're called "Russian tea cakes", and they're good too! :)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I have so much to be happy about, I just wish I wasn't cursed with having an anti-money gene or something. I'm told I push money away because of my attitude about it (wishing life didn't seem to revolve around it), and that until I change my attitude, it's always going to be this way. Well, I don't know *how* to change it when nothing ever seems to change regarding it, ya know? *sigh*
Thursday, November 16
Charles Harrelson. Auction for grandma. Beta.blogger. Zoundry. Qumana. Playday. Calls from (probably) creditors.
Did you know that Woody Harrelson's father is in a Colorado prison for shooting a federal judge some years back? I didn't know that until I saw it on the news a few days ago. Doing my search for an article about it so you didn't think I was making it up, I saw that he's in a "Super-max" prison, and Colorado's is brutal, the headlines said.
When we talked to (my) MIL before last Saturday, she said she would like us to be there when grandma's stuff is/was auctioned off this week. When we were there on Saturday moving some of the stuff from there to here, mom neglected to tell us *when* this auction was to take place. We *thought* it was going to be this week, but don't know. Hopefully she'll tell us when, since the last we heard, MIL, SIL, and grandma were headed to NM on Tuesday of this week. If she doesn't, oh well. We don't really have the gas money to make a 4th trip to Branson (1.5 hours each way) anyway.
Haven't been writing the last few days since I switched to the beta version of Blogger, because neither Zoundry or Qumana had updates for their software. I could've posted from blogger, but don't like doing that. I know, millions of people do it every day, but I'm not one of them. *smile* I *thought* I did a work-around for Zoundry yesterday, but when I posted to Blogger, there was no 'subject' and I had to add it manually from the site. Today I was going to check in the Zoundry forum for an official work-around, but saw that there was an update with a fix for beta.blogger when I got there. So I downloaded it and am now writing about it. While at Qumana's site, I sent a message to 'support' asking them if they'll be fixing their software for the beta version, and also if they're going to fix it so that there's a 'subject' on LiveJournal when you post using their software. I'll let you know if/when I hear something.
It rained *all day* yesterday. That was fine. I didn't feel all that well anyway and we said (email) that we couldn't attend the homeschool group's playday because we were all still a little sick. I suppose had it not been raining and would've been outside at the park, we probably would've went. But it was obvious it was going to have to be an indoor event, so we opted out. Because of the rain, the chickens spent most of the day on the porch, so you can imagine how messy it got. When I get motivated and the weather is good enough, I'll hose it off.
We've been getting calls that we assume are from credit card people trying to get a hold of us, that leave messages on our answering machine that just give a phone number and say "this is regarding a very important business matter". Do they *really* think we're going to call them? I mean, whoever is leaving these messages doesn't say who they are or what the matter it's about. We don't call people unless we know who they are and what they want, ya know?
Tuesday, November 14
Zoundry and beta.blogger
Good afternoon everybody. Rambleman here, or as you might know me... T._._._ :-) As you may or may not know, I have changed my blogger account to a 'beta.blogger' account. I use the Zoundry blog writer for blogger and livejournal. *If* this gets posted, then I've set it up correctly, but if not, I'll have to play around a bit more and/or try the Qumana writer, which the settings have also needed changed to work with beta.blogger. To set-up Zoundry for beta.blogger, you need to set up a new blog account. Start out as you normally would. When you get to the 'next' page, type in your account name normally, unclick "Use settings from autodiscover", change 'Account Type' to "Custom Blogger V1 API". For your 'Account Username', type in your *full* email address (that's how I had to do it because my blogger account is through google), and of course your password. Change the 'API URL' to http://beta.blogger.com:80/api and click 'Next'. If you did it correctly, it should start downloading posts from your blogger blog.
I have NO idea why this picture is so blurry :-(
P.S. The only problem with the above set-up is that there is no Title/Subject at the top of the entry when people see the blog on-line :-( I will change that manually I guess. *sigh*
Sunday, November 12
Branson yesterday, home today
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Well, we got a bunch of stuff from grandma's house yesterday. Did get everything we thought we would, because once again when we asked if we could still have the yard statues (a couple of dear and a couple of bird baths), we were told that they decided to sell them. We also thought we'd be getting a couple of swinging doors from her utility room, since we were told we could. And again when we said we'd be taking them, we were told, "No your not, those belong with the house", so that agreement was also broken. You see, more than likely, the person (Branson hotel owner) will probably tear that house down and build a new one, because the current house has water damage and is old. So I don't think taking those doors would've been a big issue. Our friend and his son did most of the work, especially the heavy stuff. I tried to help as much as I could, but didn't do any really heavy lifting. I chose mainly to be on-hand as a stabilizer when needed. We may have to return to grandma's house later this week to supervise the auction, but of course we're hoping we don't. And we won't be unless MIL calls and tells us what day we need to be there. MIL & SIL said they'd be heading back to their home-state on Tuesday, so I hope they call us before they leave so we know what's going on. Not that we have anything against returning, it's just that I'm kind of tired of having to do 3 hour round trips. Went to Norwood a week from yesterday, went to Branson last Sunday, Tuesday, and yesterday. I would like to stay home for a few days in a row, just for a change, ya know?
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Here's a couple of the things we got that we like the most.
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Although we're going to have to go shopping in a couple of days because we're on our last 5 gallon bucket of cat food. We go through 40 lbs. of cat food a week, I think. Yes, a lot! Some would say that's a good reason to get rid of some of our 21 cats, but we can't, we're too emotionally attached to them. Although I don't worry too much if one disappears from time to time to predators or finding a new home.
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Now we have a bunch of stuff to do today. We need to put my son's new bed together, and take his old mattresses upstairs to my daughter's room. But first we need to take both of her current mattresses off of her bed and take them out to the craft-room-building, and then offer them on Freecycle. Then put all the little things, like nik-naks displayed somewhere. We also got several plants.
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Also today we need to once again take the kitchen and bathroom trashes out to be burned. Would wrote this last night, but I was pooped.
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As for my back, it's doing better, but still zings if I bend wrong. My cold? Still got it, but taking Diphedryl keeps me from getting too stuffy, but I'm feeling better.
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Friday, November 10
Impeachment. FEMA. My back and cold. Trash burning
I was just reading an article about Nancy Pelosi. Apparently she isn't liked by most republicans because she is, "A mother of five and a grandmother who first ran for Congress two decades ago, Mrs Pelosi is in favour of gay marriage, tough gun control and backs abortion rights without qualification.". I don't know about you, but I think those are GOOD things (well, except the gun control). Although she says that, "impeachment is off the table", maybe we can hope that "John Conyers of Michigan who is positioned to become chair of the House Judiciary Committee", can keep impeachment from becoming just another campaign promise. All that being said, I imagine that not much is going to change, at least not radically, anytime soon. For instance, there are STILL a lot of people who live (or lived) in New Orleans who still don't have homes to go to because their apartment buildings have had all the doors boarded-up. Plus there are many houses that haven't been rebuilt, or even cleared away because they're "totaled". Then there's the fact that some people like Kalimir who got grants from FEMA, and have been asked to repay the money within 30 days. That just seems wrong! Will the Dems fix that situation?
Yes, my back is doing better now that I've been resting it since we got home Tuesday evening. Although, we had to drive into town a few times, and the driving really bothers it, I should be okay with moving a few things out of grandma's house tomorrow. We'll see though, because it's an hour and a half drive, so my back will no doubt be a little tense by the time we get there. But, we've arranged for a friend and hopefully his son, to help. They're bring a cattle trailer to put the stuff in, which isn't as much as we thought there would be, because MIL told the person who's doing the estate sale that he could sell the things that my wife said she wanted (like the china hutch). *angry sigh*
Well, I've got a full-blown cold now. My heads is stuffy and I slept like crap last night/this morning. Luckily, I don't have "the cough", but I can feel it coming, I'm sure. I've been taking nasal decongestant every four hours or so, and have managed to blow some of the snot out. Eww! *smile*
Sick or not, I still need to take the trash out and burn it in the burn-barrel this afternoon. Plus I may clean up the debris around the lagoon, primarily I would like to get the fence that was around it, rolled-up and put away. There are many tall weeds that we pulled down, that need to be put in the brush pile. May have to wait on the trash burning though. My son just came in and said it was raining. Hopefully it will give us a break for a little while at some point.
Tags: impeach, bush, impeachment, democrats, republicans, pelosi, conyers, new orleans, apartments, public housing, fema, government, politicians, katrina
Wednesday, November 8
Out of town
Howdy, y'all :-) Been a few days since my last blog. That's because last Saturday we went to a friend's new-to-them house and had a bonfire. That was nice, although at first I was a little cold because of the weather, after standing for a little bit by the fire as it was getting going, I warmed-up quite nicely. Even got hot enough that I had to move away a few feet one time. *smile* It was fun finding sticks to throw onto the fire. We also visited a lot in the house, drinking coffee, cola, eating chips, and munching on hotdogs that we cooked by sticking the hotdogs into the fire while they were attached on the end of long sticks. *smile* YUM!! We also got to visit with a couple of other friends that we hadn't seen in a VERY long time. It was GREAT to see them. They have a new-to-them truck that looks really nice. I'm very happy for them, they needed a new truck. *smile* Unfortunately, another family that we had hoped to see was unable to make it due to getting busy. We plan on seeing them again pretty soon. All in all a very good time was had! *GRIN*
The next day (Sunday) we went to Branson see my mother and sister-in-law, who were in town to see our grandmother. Right now she's in a convalescent home recovering from surgery of getting a pace-maker in. The day we visited she looked and sounded good, just like the last time we saw her before her surgery several months ago. From that place she'll be going home to say good-bye to the house she's lived in for over 30 years. She's going to be moving to the same state as her mother. Then we came home. On Tuesday we went back to her house and picked up some of the things that grandma won't be taking out of state with her. We'll be driving back to her house this coming Saturday to pick some things that we couldn't get on Tuesday. Hopefully a couple of friends will be able to help us with a couple of trailers they said they could let us use. *crossing fingers*
While we were at grandma's house on Tuesday, we were in her garage looking at stuff to bring home. I knelt down to look into a box, then leaned forward (still kneeling) to push something away from the box so that we could get a dolly underneath it. Well, when I did that, something in my back went ZING and I was in pain. Bad enough that I couldn't stand back up for a few minutes. Once I was able to stand up, I couldn't bend my back *at all* without serious pain. I was hoping that I just tweaked something and that it would be all better today after I woke-up. Well, as it turns out, I still have to keep my back as straight as possible, especially while sitting. When I walking it's not too bad, unless I bend suddenly without thinking. I can't bend over to pick anything up, which is pretty annoying. I'm really hoping that by Saturday I will be able to at least lift a few things. Even if I can just carry something after someone hands it to me will be helpful. Or perhaps I could push the dolly with boxes, but not sure. Needless to say, it's NOT a good time for my back to start hurting. *sigh* Did go to the park so that the kids could see their other homeschooled friends, and we could talk to the parent on those friends. Normally other parents and kids show-up, just not today. Maybe next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, with all that driving and being away from home, our email has built-up. I currently have 186 emails to read. So if you're waiting for a response from me, please be patient.
Thursday, November 2
Making-up. IE7. Windows Updates. Shopping. Birthday meal
My sister replied to an email I wrote to her that we're cool after her forgetting to tell me that my brother was in town before he went back to England. I had sent her an email telling her that "we're cool!" Well, she wrote back to make sure I meant it, because she had read my last entry and noticed that I was pretty angry. I wrote back to tell her that "yes, I meant it, I wrote that pretty much at the moment of anger, and have since been understood and urged to let it go' and forgive. So that's what I've done". Therefore, sister o' mine, rest assured that we ARE still friends, and I'm not angry anymore. Okay? I still love you! Okay. *hugs*
After I read my email and blogs today, as always I noticed that the little "update notification" symbol in my toolbar again. And once again tried to install the updates (4) and once again failed to install any of them. I thought, "Hmm, I wonder if I install Internet Explorer 7 if the updates will install". Long story short, no, even after installing IE7 and updating it and restarting the computer, I still can't install the updates for IE6 or Frontpage Office 2003. Then I decided that maybe I had disabled something to do with the .NET service and changed a few things. Well, now I get an error message every time I restart the computer, and I can't figure out what to change back. *sigh* I may just go back to a previous restore point, and hope that I don't have to reinstall IE7. My *first* impressions about it are that I like it. It's now got the option of opening windows in tabs, just like Firefox that we've been using for quite some time now. Another thing I like is that the words on the screen are larger when you first get to a site. I have not been able to get the font size that I like to be the default size, and the 'medium' size is too small, in my opinion. Another reason I wanted to try it is because I wanted to see if sites loaded fast than Firefox. I think they do, at least a little.
Okay, it appears to be time to feed the chickens, ducks, and look for eggs. Be back in about 10 minutes. Don't go anywhere, ya hear? *smile* (3:24 pm CST)
See? I told you I'd return about 10 minutes later, and it's now 3:38 pm CST. *smile* The birds have been fed, 4 eggs collected, and the mail brought back from the mailbox.
Tomorrow is payday, so we *finally* get to go grocery shopping. Thank the Gods, cuz we're running low on the good stuff. Plus we're taking our daughter who turned 14 a few days ago, to her choice of restaurants for her birthday meal. We're taking her to Shoney's :-)
Wednesday, November 1
Talk with mom and dad
I talked to my mom a little while ago. I was happy to hear that although she's not eating by mouth (on a feeding tube still), she is feeling better and is doing physical post hip surgery therapy working towards eventually not needing the walker. Dad's doing fine too, and says that you'd never recognize mom now that she's been home for a month. YAY!
I am pissed off at my sister and brother. Mom told me that he and his girlfriend flew in from England to visit Las Vegas, and then my mom, on their way back to England. While they were in Colorado they stayed with my sister, brother in-law, and their daughter. That's just great. I guess it's good to know where I stand. Not only did I have NO IDEA they were in the U.S., but was NEVER told they were at my sister's. I WOULD'VE called because I haven't talked or emailed (cuz he wouldn't reply) with him for over 10 years! My sister DOES have email, so she could've dropped me a note, ya know? What the fuck?!!
3 month non smoking anniversary. Halloween
Well, it's been 3 months since I've had a cigarette! I'm kind of proud of myself. The longest I had gone before this was in 2000, starting before we decided to leave NM and head for MO. I had started within the first 2 weeks of being in MO, while we were living in the campground. I started smoking then because we were in a *major* thunderstorm with wind and copious amounts of rain. I got all stressed out because I kept having to go out of the tent and try to pound the tent hold-down stakes back into the ground that was turning to mud. I believe it was the next day that I started smoking. Since then, I had quit once for a few weeks here and there. But THIS time I do believe it's going to be a long time before I smoke again. If you see me writing about my one year anniversary of being a non smoker next November, you'll know I'm STILL a non-smoker.
Yesterday was Halloween/Samhain/All Hallows Eve. If course you knew that. *smile* It was just another day for us. We had bought some candy on Sunday, and it was all gone by early yesterday afternoon. Which was fine, because we bought it for ourselves anyway because we *never* get trick-or-treaters in this area anyway. Too far out in the country! :-) So we just did the usual things like play on the computer, play video games, and watch TV. Like I said, uneventful! Even if we had planned on going to town dressed-up, we probably wouldn't have because my wife has been suffering with a stuffy head and cough for a few days now :-(
Tags: cigarette, smoke, smoking, smoker, non-smoker, halloween, samhain, all hallows eve, anniversary
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