50 Billion More

GWB wants 50 billion more dollars to fund the "surge" in Iraq. Fifty Billion. Fifty Billion. Fifty Billion more! I don't even know how much we have spent in Iraq, but this site can tell me to the second. Are we any safer here at home because of this? I don't think so. I wonder how much better things could be here at home if this money was spent here. During the past few years national school test scores have gone down, more Americans are without healthcare than ever before, people still without homes two years after Katrina. Anyone else see anything wrong with this picture?

Lottery Fever

Holy Moly - Mega Millions is estimated to be at about 325 Million Dollars on Saturday. Nobody won last night, so big money on Saturday. The odds of winning? Not really very good, but that does not stop anyone from buying at least a ticket or two. I will admit to buying some, I will admit to wanting to win, I will admit to day-dreaming about what would happen if I won. Well, if WE won - that would be my beloved and I. How life could change for us and everyone we care about. So I'll buy some tickets and I'll dream the dream. I will participate in the tax on the stupid, you just never know.

580 Thoughts

Since I spend so much time on 580, I thought I would just share some of my wonderings while driving. Yes, I probably should be paying way more attention while driving, but my mind seems to have a mind of its own. Today I will talk about trash. If you spend enough time on the highways you will see just about anything on the side of the road, in the middle of the road and sometimes right in front of you. Over the past few days I have seen:

One shoe. How does one lose one shoe on the highway?
Two big trash cans. Sitting on the side of the road, like someone had taken the trash out and just left them sitting there.
Three hubcaps - very shiney.

OK, this is starting to sound like a song, so I will stop with the list and just ask these questions. Do you not notice the mattress that just flew off the top of your car? Or did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe you should tie down those big plastic kid toys in the back of your truck before you get on the highway? Hey, maybe it was not such a bright idea to put the gas grill in the back of the pickup. When you get to the other end of your journey, do you get out of the car and wonder where the mattress went? Do you feel stupid when the kids are crying cause you lost their play structures on the way to grandmas? Do you wonder what you are going to have for dinner cause you lost the grill on the way to the party?

Hmmm....

The ride home

I followed Jesus home last night. While on my way home a big white van came onto the highway and all over it was written Jesus is coming. And there he was right in my rear view mirror! How about that. The van also had things like:

Save yourself - Find Jesus
Do not spend eternity in Hell, it is unbearable, it is uncomfortable, it is too strong!
Stop the sin - Praise Jesus

Then the van passed me and I thought - Well, there goes Jesus.

Hmm...

I wonder about people sometimes. You read every day of a child disappearing, never to be seen again. I read all the time of things you need to do to protect your children. I was behind a car yesterday that made me think about how easy some people make it to know too much about them.

The car had those little family stickers on the rear window, you know the dad, the mom and then a little stick figure for each child. This one had a dad named Tim, a mom named Kelly, one boy named Eli and a baby named Brian. How do I know this? Their names were written under their sticks. On the rear window was also a sticker in memory of the worlds best mom, her name was on there as well, but I don't remember it. The license plate said missnu

It crossed my mind that if I was a predator, I could follow this woman for probably not too long and find out where she lived, where her children went to school or child care, where or if she worked. At this point I know enough about her schedule and her life to approach one of her children call them by name, tell them I knew your grandmother or I'm a friend of your dad, Tim or any number of combinations to get close enough to snatch them.

I am very sad about this post. I am not sure what makes me sadder, the fact that I actually thought about this or the fact that parents have to worry so much about stuff like this or the fact that some people don't seem to think enough about it.

Healthcare in America

Now this is a sad story. Why is it that in the "richest" country in the world healthcare is not available to everyone. I know I have blogged on this subject before, but it just really amazes me that people are making choices like this, here in America! It may very well be that there is a lot more behind this story than first meets the eye, but if this what things come down too....

Inspiration comes from strange places

Inspired by a blog - what kind of blog can it be? Check out my new friend Ryan, he is very inspiring. Those that read this blog that actually know me, know that I have struggled with my weight for my entire life. I was a skinny kid, a chubby teenager and I just kept getting bigger until I hit my late 30's. Then I became 40, fit and fabulous. Three hour a day work outs, giving up food and just general nuts got me to less than a size 0. At that point in my life, my self esteem was a little too low to be less than a zero, so I did come back up to a size 4. I maintained that for a few years. Well, I have stopped exercising, let food back into my life and now my size is well, we won't mention that. But Ryan has given me the desire to commit myself to losing weight. I have decided to commit to 1-2 pounds a week for the next year and to exercise at least 30 minutes a day three times a week. I may not post my measurements or weight on my blog, but I will let you know how it is going from time to time. I am saying this out loud so that perhaps I may inspire others to join me.

My Daemon

Thanks to Scobie Chick, you can help me find my true Daemon. I started as a snow leopard, lets see what I end up as. Was I true to myself?

Vanity Plates

Do you drive down the road and see cars with vanity plates? I always try and figure out what they are trying to say, I do not usually succeed, so I make up my own story. Today I was behind a car with the following plate LOVDOEXZ I don't know what they are saying. I went with that they are a recovering addict and were addicted to oxycontin. Any other takers?

Whatever happened?

Whatever happened to bathroom scales? We got a new one and I swear you need a degree in engineering to get it to tell you how fat you are! It used to be that you just stepped on and a little wheel moved inside and there it was in a little window. You are fat. Now, I have to press the power button once and it tells me how tall I am. Then again and it tells me my age. Then again and I have to wait for a beep. Then I can step on and wait for it to beep and then it shows me how fat I am.

I am sounding old. Back when I was young blah blah blah!!!

Hmm....

Karl Rove leaving the White House. The reasons he is giving are "it is time" "more time with family". What are the real reasons that the man that GWB called the architect would leave now, so close to the end.

The Garbage we make

We went to the dump prior to going to Kaspers this afternoon. We took a bunch of junk we no longer wanted. Our dump you drive into a big building and drop off all your stuff, where they go thru it for any thing that is recyclable. It made me think, we throw away far too much stuff. We buy to much stuff. How do you cut down on the stuff? How do we stop creating so much crap?

People face

Today I went to lunch at Kasper's Hotdogs with my beloved and Mare-demort. We walk in and country music is on the radio. For those that don't know, I am a closet country music fan. So, I started singing along to the music. The girl behind the counter gave me a high five and said "I love you!". From there she proceeded to tell me that she was raised in San Diego on country music, she is a country girl. She went to see some country star - I sing along to the songs, but for the most part I don't know who sings them. She got an autographed picture for her mother and her boyfriend got his head signed, he had shaved his head that day, just in case. Then she told me about the Kenny Chesney concert she went to. The second to the last song he sang was "There goes my life" and she cried because she had just found out she was pregnant. The last song he sang was "She thinks my tractor sexy". She is also a whiskey drinker, but she can't have any for another six months or so until the baby is born.

Chance Meeting

On TV last night was a special with Charlie Gibson about the Reverend Billy Graham. My friend Mare-demort asked "hey, didn't you meet him once?" Why yes, I did. And here is the story. Mom if you are reading this - sorry!

Quite a few years ago I had to go to Washington, DC on business. It was right around the time of Bill Clinton's second inauguration. It was cold that year, so cold that the threads holding my buttons on froze and broke and all the buttons on my coat fell off while crossing a street. The entire city was buzzing with preparations for the parade and big day. My personal life at this time was a mess, I had had my heart broken a few months earlier and was still a wreck. So, while I as in DC I decided I would go to Dupont Circle and go to a bar and get lucky! Well, that crazy thought started one of the weirdest nights of my life.

I was staying in a big hotel, I don't remember the name, but it had a shopping mall on the first two floors. So, I decided for this "big" night I needed some new underwear, just in case my plan actually worked. I go out and get into the elevator, thinking about how to accomplish my goal, since I am not very good at this sort of thing. I am the only one in the elevator for about two floors, when the doors open to let two men on. I look up and this old man with the most incredible eyes, looks at me and says "hello, how are you?". I'm standing there trying to figure out who he is, he looks familiar and he "feels" familiar. He says a few more things to me, when the doors open to let someone else on. This woman lights up and says "Oh, hello Reverend Graham". Then of course it hits me, Billy Graham! Holy crap, I am in the elevator with Billy Graham. Then I think - man, I wonder what he would think if he knew he was in an elevator with a lesbian on her way downstairs to buy new underwear in case she gets lucky tonight! I never got the chance to ask, the doors opened up and he turned and said to me "have a good evening". Hey, maybe he did know? So ended my meeting with Reverend Graham.

My evening got weirder after that, maybe someday I'll write about the rest my evening, being welcomed at an Italian restaurant that the gay guide said was gay, but wasn't anymore. Meeting their favorite customer, Willie Brown. Finding a postcard of a woman I know and she was naked. A crazy cab ride and chocolate heads.

Grrr!!!

I travel on the 580 every weekday to work. Most days it does not bother me, but today, oh today. Coming home I must have run into six drivers doing something I hate. Most days I will just say something to myself, but today I wanted to run right over the top of them. I am talking about those idiots that think the passing lane is for cruising down the highway, maybe doing the speed limit. I think I actually screamed "Move Over" five times as I drove east. Then I just love it, you are forced to get in the next right lane to pass them and they are just driving along doing 60 or so, like it was it was ok.

Alright, rant done.

File this under Creepy

Is the entire Jackson family creepy? It seems that Jermaine's ex-wife or soon to be ex-wife, is also the ex-wife of his brother Randy! And then she says she has concerns about their children when they visit their father. Seems dad, the kids and the new girlfriend all sleep in the same bedroom. I have concerns about her, who marries their husbands brother? Is this really common? I know that Henry the VIII married his brothers widow, which I also find creepy and which did not work out too well for Katherine of Aragon after awhile, but at least his brother was dead. Imagine the family parties, you've got Michael bringing his monkey, Latoya bringing that weird guy she was married to, Janet - wait a minute - did she attend any family parties? Then Tito - is Tito still around? Then you have Randy and Alejandra and then next Christmas you have Jermaine and Alejandra. How do you tell your brother that you are dating his ex-wife? Was she Randy's ex before she started dating Jermaine? Was she secretly in love with Jermaine while married to Randy? Did she compare them in the sack? Oh man, enough of this, it is giving me a headache.

Crazy stuff

I just went to look up a word on Websters Dictionary on line and they now include a medical dictionary. My first thought? GREAT! Now all those people that look up all their symptoms on the internet and are convinced they have a something really bad can look up the words they don't understand. More self diagnosis - just what the world needs. Sometimes there is such a thing as too much information.

People Face

Another instance of people face. Standing in line at a check out stand and the woman bagging my loot say's "Oh, I'm so glad it is the weekend". I being the polite person my mommy dearest raised me to be, say "Yes, I love the weekends". Now truthfully, I should have known better than to respond, because I had been here with her before. I already know that she married a man that her parents did not approve of, moved to Hawaii, raised a couple of kids, divorced the rat bastard, moved back to the bay area with her parents, but that did not last long and her parents must be ancient cause she is no spring chicken.

Now I find out that she likes the weekends because she is free of her radiation treatment for two days. Monday thru Friday she has treatments at 12:30, she leaves work at about 12:00 and then comes back after the treatments to work the rest of her shift.

What do you say to these kinds of revelations? Gee, I hope things work out? What are you being radiated for? Do you need a ride?

Just not sure.

Just when you think

Just when you think you have had a really bad day, you hear of some people that really did have a bad day. I am just watching the news and seeing the rescue/recovery effort in Minneapolis at the bridge that fell down. One man says he was speaking to his wife on the phone as she was driving over the bridge. Her last words were "I have had a really bad day". How sad that she found out so quickly it could get worse, much worse.

It all makes me think of how lucky most of us are. While we all have sadness, pain, death of loved ones in our lives, we are never going to be on a bridge that falls down. We all drive on the highways every day where people are just crazy, we get on planes, we don't think twice of the fact that we live in an area that shakes on a pretty routine basis, but the chances that we are going to be killed on the way home from work after a bad day are pretty slim. Next time you are thinking you've had a bad day, keep in mind how bad it can be and say a little prayer.

Back From Vacation?

I am technically back from vacation. While my body is here, my mind and my soul are still in France. In my head I am in my beloved Paris, walking down a street and looking in a window, cause you just never know what you might see. Paris has called to me since the first time I stepped off the train on my very first trip. I go back as often as I can. Sometimes my beloved goes with me, and because I am a very lucky girl, sometimes she does not mind if I go alone.

This last trip was a week in Paris with many friends and family to celebrate my birthday. It was wonderful and something I will remember for the rest of my life. After that week my beloved and 2 friends and I went to the Loire Valley. I returned to this beautiful area after a ten year gap. We returned to the same place I had been so many years before, Baulay outside the town of Sache. It was more beautfil than I remembered and our hosts Benny & Patrick were as friendly and helpful as before. This is a magical place and if you ever have the chance, take a trip, dream a dream, you will always remember it.

California Budget Crisis

Watching the news about our lovely government in Sacramento. We (the state of California) are in the middle of a budget crisis. This means the State's bills stop being paid, the State employees are not getting paid and as of tomorrow Medcal payments will stop to hospitals, day care centers and nursing homes. Medical? Stopping payments?? Again the poor, the elderly, the very people that need it most will lose coverage. And the State Assembly could pass an emergency bill to fund Medical, BUT THEY ARE ON VACATION!!!!!! Vacation? Vacation? How can some of the very people necessary to solve this crisis be allowed a break? Our elected officials should be in their seats every single day, every minute of every day until this is solved. Call me crazy, but WTF?