Kitchen Rehab II

hello, the kitchen is nearly done. I've made a slideshow since it takes so darned long to upload photos here.

Take a a look; I hope you like it. We like it a lot.

Kitchen Rehab

The kitchen rehab is proceeding nicely. Today the refrigerator moved into the den. I can see some advantages to this arrangement: retrieve snacks without missing any TV. Hmmm, maybe there's room for the microwave in here too.

Take a look. But don't ask me where the trash can is. I'm afraid it's lost.

Moses' $800 Hat

There is a children's book we like a lot called Go Dog Go, by P.D. Eastman. One of the recurring threads is the male dog asking the female dog, as they ride around in his jaunty roadster, "Do you like my hat?" She always says no until the end, when she says "Yes, I do, I do like your hat!"

I don't think any girl dogs will like Moses' hat.

You're probably wondering why he is wearing this hat. On Tuesday Paul took him to the vet because we felt a lump on his shoulder about the size of a ping pong ball, but soft. The vet called later in the day to say he wasn't worried about the lump, it was just fat (I find that hard to believe) and he wanted to know if we'd noticed the hematoma on his ear flap. Ummm, gee, no, we hadn't. Was that a bad thing? Dr. Rose went on to expain that when dogs shake their heads vigorously, they can get blood-filled bruises on their ear flaps. I've been around the pet care world long enough to know that no good would come from this blood-filled bruise. Moses is happy to be home now, with his rawhide and his kitties and his big front yard to do his doggie business in. And that $800? Heck, we would have just wasted on something frivolous.

Welcome home Moses.

What is this Plant?*

*It's called amaranthus - also pigweed, love-lies-bleeding, summer pointsettia


My friend Barbara A. gave me some wildflower seeds as a gift; the plant shown here is the most fascinating of the whole group, which did amazingly well considering the lack of attention they received from the gardener. They're wildflowers and my belief is that they don't need human intervention. Does anyone know what this flower is? I've included a close-up of the "petals".


thanks Barbara

All Pets -- No Politics

Today was Tux's first day outside since moving in with us on April 3. I wanted to display the photos in order, as he stepped out the door hesitantly, but the blogger machine had other ideas. Pepper still hates all the other animals. Moses has lost weight, don't you think? He cleaned up all the bread I threw out for the birds a few days ago. Good boy. Tux enjoyed the outdoors and I told him, since he did not run away like his sister, that he could go out again tomorrow. I hope you will enjoy these out-of-order photos.

What Do ACORN and the Postal Service Have in Common?

I was going to write a pet update but once again current events have distracted me from a more pleasant task. The pets are all fine, by the way.

I have been wondering for some time what people mean when they use the post office as an example of how government can't do anything right. This belief has been voiced frequently during the health care free-for-all, where everyone gets to shout about what they want, unless you're in favor of medicare for all, like me, then you have to shut the hell up.

Back to the post office. I listen to C-SPAN's Washington Journal in the morning. This is the show where callers get to comment on current Washington hi-jinks. One day a retired guy called in from Hilton Head. Right away you know this is a wealthy white republican. No one else can afford to live in Hilton Head. He whined about socialism and government ineptitude, using the post office as his example. His example of the sorry state of our national mail system is that he remembers when the mail was delivered at 8:30 and now it is delivered at 10:30! Aha!! Oh snap. You are so busted, mailman. What better example of incompetence is needed to make the case against USPS. Only a retired person with time on his hands would even know when his mail gets delivered. And, what difference does it make? Can someone tell me please?

It dawned on me a few days ago what the beef is with the post office. When affirmative action was implemented, the workforce at the post office became integrated. What do whiney republicans hate more than the post office? Affirmative action. White guys hate it when black guys get to ride on their gravy train.

Now, about ACORN. Who works at ACORN? A lot of low wage black people. Who does ACORN serve? Poor people, a lot of whom are black. How much government money does ACORN get? Very little.

ACORN's detractors claim to be outraged by corruption and government waste. I ask you, are they also protesting Halliburton and Blackwater? How about Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, and any other financial service entity currently feeding at the government trough? How about Enron and Tyco and all those big companies that squandered and cheated their way through billions of dollars and hurt millions of people? I don't remember those protests, do you?

Oh wait, all of those are run by white guys, and made tons of money for white guys.

Sometimes I forget the rules. Never mind.

Bullshit

One of my favorite blogs, Margaret and Helen, recommends that we start calling the constant hysteria aimed at our president what it is, which is bullshit. This is not a word I normally use, but it is time to call out these racist folks who claim to be so worried about the imaginary government take-over of their lives. These are the same people who sat on their hands for 8 years while the previous administration started 2 costly, deadly, quagmirish wars, wiretapped anyone they felt like, suspended our basic rights, politicized the Department of Justice, squandered our standing throughout the world, and pretty much gave us the finger while saying "in your face, chumps".

But now, my fellow americans, we must prevent the president from giving a back-to-school pep talk to our students.

Next these same parents, so worried about their impressionable youth, will be demanding that the president's picture be removed from their schools.

And will the school administrations cave on that? You bet.

What message is this sending to black students? What message is this sending to business owners who might be thinking of locating to one of these areas where the president is being censored? Would you locate your business in one of these areas?

The USA has a terrible dropout problem. Is it any wonder with idiot parents like these that one in 3 students drops out of high school. Colin Powell and his wife Alma started a foundation called America's Promise Alliance to address specifically our disturbing inability to finish high school. This makes me wonder how these same objectors would be acting if Colin Powell were president. How about Hillary - how would they be acting if she were president?

I despair for the future of our country. I remind myself that any time a country goes through big dramatic changes, those feeling threatened by those changes make a lot of noise and carry on irrationally, but then the change comes and they quiet down, or die, or accept the change, which turns out not to wreck the country after all. Please tell me that will happen this time.

I don't like to use the word bullshit, but sometimes that's what you have to do, for the good of the country.