10 February …

 

Last week was a bit out of kilter.  Sorry the blog was late.  I am hoping that time is past as I begin to plan for Spring.

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I think I neglected to share a photo of this year’s under-tree train.

Holiday Train 2016

The engine is different.  The joy is the same.

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The wheel of the year is certainly turning.  It seems just a few days ago that it was completely dark outdoors by 1530.  Now it is still light at 1800.  Soon twilight will last until 2300.  Time is going by soooooo fast.

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3 January 2016We had snow again beginning on Groundhog Day and continuing, but not steadily, until the weekend. 

I missed my session at the Family History Center … again.  Our road wasn’t in deep snow, but what snow we had was on top of ice. I had to go out for mail and it took me thirty minutes to go the three miles to sanded pavement. 

The FHC used to expect this and just not schedule me from the middle of December until the end of February.  I am hoping we are getting back to “normal” in re snow pack, so that schedule may become the norm again as well.

I am getting antsy about starting the family history which involves non-US research.  Maybe I’ll have to find a way to upgrade my Ancestry membership to International for half a year.   Oh well …

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Friday last, we received this notice from the local landowners’ group … 

“Today’s power outage lasted for one hour and sixteen minutes with ten thousand five hundred customers effected.”

Reminded me how lucky we are with our power set-up.  We didn’t know anything about the outage until we got the email.  Our lights and house equipment (such as the washer and fridge and telly) were working as usual.

Oh well …

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Recently heard this report on NPR, and am still digesting the idea that we are funding both sides of the conflicts in the Middle East and the Ukraine.

The Pentagon is spending money to counter Russian aggression. And yet to launch top-secret military satellites, the Pentagon still relies almost entirely on rocket engines made in Russia.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, at a January hearing Sen. McCain held on the Russian rocket engines, told his armed services panel the U.S. would need to buy at least another 18 of them at $30 million apiece before an American-made replacement is ready.

Guess it is a good way to hedge your bet … i.e. whatever happens, you win … but is it ethical  (we’re killing “collateral damage” on both sides)?  Shouldn’t voting taxpayers have a say?

I remember when we MADE most of what we needed (our own space equipment, clothing, building supplies, food).  In those days most people had jobs at livable wages, children went to school at no cost for tuition or supplies (lunch did cost … a quarter), doctors were family docs and made house calls, and so on and so on …

Nowadays the unemployment rate is high and many of those who do have work don’t receive a livable wage, tuition is VERY high and students and teachers have to provide pencils and paper and all other supplies, doctors are specialists a lot of whom are millionaires, we ship our raw materials overseas and pay high prices for the returned finished products, people at the bottom of the fiscal profile are deemed worthless and those at the top are dis-proportionally rewarded merely for being at the top, and so on and so on …

This country, which was once a shining light in the world, is now an author of darkness and is becoming the prime example of ignorant wrong thinking.

I don’t have a solution to this problem, but I have no doubt it is a problem.

And that makes choosing for whom to vote a real conundrum.  Some candidates seem to think the process is a joke.  Other candidates appear to acknowledge the problems, but the government machinery is such that they may have little or no chance of making a difference.  Maybe electing a clown who will immediately destroy the country is the best choice.  Once destroyed, the way to rebuild is open.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again … this time without all the mistakes?

People don’t fail — they give up.

Pay attention to what is happening.  Make your choice.  Vote. Good luck.

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This morning the melt has cleared the land …10 January 2016

the sun is shining …10 January 2016 Dawn

 and a new day has begun.

 

‘Til next week …