One thing or another

I recently read a book by Glenn Beck.  Most of it I did not really understand.  It was about the economy and threw around a lot of figures and charts.  One thing was clear that our country has accumulated a great deal of debt.  On both sides of the aisle.

One part dealt with religion.  As a society, we are trying to chunk religion to the side.  I do not think we can force religion on anyone.  However, without religion in people what is there?  Beck makes a point about if religion is not there then something will fill that void.  His point (and granted his quote is better) is that it will not be good.

Faith is a moderator or probably better than that term.  It improves us.  Left to ourselves we would be in a sad state.   

The question for us is what fills us?  Faith in things that do not last or in someone who has been around a long time...eternity.

Create-ure

I wish that I was more creative.  I see those people bursting with energy.  That is not me.  Take for example the Wiggles.  If you have seen their concert, (I have not, but have watched a video of one) then you see them  on the move all the time.  I look around and see people on the internet doing things I have never thought of.

It would be nice to draw, sing, or write.  I guess I will just have to enjoy others' work.

The ugly truth

Why does always seem that the "ugly people" are show the most of television?  Wendy last night mentioned the unattractiveness of someone.  I know I am not high on the attractive list and I have been guilty of looking at some people and thinking, "Hmmm?"  Then she said that she should not talk about people as much.  I came up with some hogwash about it is not bad if you call someone ugly.  If you still love the person.  I guess it is the truth.

In thinking about it, is it?  It is better to think of someone positively.  It might even change the viewpoint of someone.  If we were nicer to others it would be a different place.  Admittedly, some people make it hard.

It is good to call em like you see em, but also sometimes to call em like you would like to see em.

It takes two

I noticed that I entitled my previous blog post the same as another.  I was thinking of calling it "Abort, abort" but thought better of it.  Or "Life matters."

I thought "In the Dark" was good because people are struggling with the issue. Plus the baby is probably in a dark place.

In the dark

Now I usually do not get political or social active, so I will probably have no idea what I am talking about.  The vice presidential debate was on last night.  One of the issues that was mentioned was abortion.  Abortion is a tough issue.  It seems that the Democrats, alleged by Republicans, are trying to turn it into a war with women.  Some polls show that women align more with the Democrats and the right to choice.  Funny that the Democrats give rights to women to end a child's life, but force Americans to have health care.  Where is the choice in that?  That is another topic I know nothing about.

I do not know much about abortion because I am not a woman nor have I been aborted.  I imagine it would be tough.  Tough on the body and tough to decide to get one.  It appears Democrats want to legalize it.  I guess they think it would be better if it was regulated.   You can correct if I am wrong.  Republicans say only in certain circumstances.  Rape, incest, and health benefit to mother.  Ok, now here is where I may get stupid.  Why is incest included?  I looked it up and the definition says intercourse between two closely related people.  My question, I know incest is not right, is that not consensual?   Maybe my point is not clear, perhaps I do not know what it is.  But, if it is consensual then why put in the exception?  Maybe they wanted the child?  Or is it being considered rape?  I told you I have no idea what I talking about.

The Democrats answer is let women decide.  It is their body.  Granted women are intelligent, but do they all know medical risks?  True some are doctors.  That is another point that sticks in my mind that I have not completely worked out yet.

I know most things I feel so what, unless it directly affects me.  I know I do not have answers.  I am not sure how I would respond if one of my daughters wanted an abortion.  But in the words of Joe Biden, VP, from last night...Let's give everyone a shot!  Or in my paraphrase dealing with life...Womb to grow!

The power hour

It is ironic that I wrote a post about not liking the dark, because we were in it for almost 12 hours.

We had not quite finished dinner, we were enjoying a bowl of ice cream, when BOOM!  The lights went out.  We think great.  So Wendy goes outside and the neighbors are standing around.  It is about 7:00 pm.  So we think let's go to the Y to get out of the house.  We had to the Y to walk around the track.  I call the power company.  Expected time of power return 9:30 pm.  On the way the Y it looked like it was our neighborhood and the next one.  So we thought that should not be too bad.  After the Y we drive around the neighborhoods to wait for the lights to come on.  At 9:30 no power yet, but trucks and crews in our subdivision.  Could be good or could be bad.  So we drive around some more.  The time we get back the trucks are gone, but no power.

So we enter the house.  Track down candles and flashlights.  Have to find batteries, fortunately we found some from a wedding gift.  A little light at least.  By the way maker of flashlights, why do you shove the instructions up in the place I need to put batteries so I have to dig it out after I try to put the batteries in.  I never knew candles to come in handy before, but they did last night.

I call the power company.  Next expected time of power is 12:30 am.  Some time the power comes on!   Hooray!  Ten minutes later after I had set the clocks, it is back off.  I call again.  Oh by the way did I mention both are cell phone have low batteries.  My phone keeps cutting in and out and I am transferred to a live person.  I know she thinks I am a moron because I kept saying "Sorry, I did not catch that."  Then she would yell-like what she said.  By the time we got off the phone I thought I heard her sigh good-bye.  The vindictive part of me wanted to keep calling her back to bug her.  Lady, I know it is one in the morning.  At least you are getting paid to be up!  After I talk to her, in a few minutes the power comes on.  We go to bed.  An hour later the power goes off!  Not again.

This time I call they say 3:30 am.  By that time no power, I call again.  I am told by the auto attendant that repairs are taking longer than expected.  We say forget it and go to sleep.  This morning I wake up and think what am I going to do for breakfast.  The answer have power!  The lights came on at 6:00 am.  I saw the work trucks still in our neighborhood.  Hopefully the power will stay on.  It was on at least when I left.

It is true you never think about how convenient it is to have something until it is gone.

That was our night.  How about yours? 

In the dark

I am not a big fan of being in the dark.  The ironic thing is I wait until the last possible moment to turn on the lights.  That is another less interesting story, mainly because I am cheap.  However, back to being in the dark.  This time of year is rough on me because it gets dark around 7 pm and stays dark until 7 am.

I like to get up early, but it is hard wanting to be active when it is still dark.  My body is saying go back to sleep.  So after a few minutes I usually do.

A HOA there

It was Saturday night by the time I checked the mail.  Our mail arrives late and we had run some errands.  The only thing in the box was a letter from our HOA.  Never a good sign.  I only had the mild dread because I knew we had recently had the house pressure washed and the shutters painted.  Re-read that sentence again if you want.  Because we were told to in a previous letter.  This current letter stated that we failed to do this.  Type what?!  I believe we did that in August and the so called "inspection" on September 26 says we did not.

Wendy was furious.  She was not able to get much sleep that night.  She sent an e-mail with a picture attached showing the painting of the shutters.  We do not have pictures of my brother power washing the house, but the house has no grime on it.

So there are a couple of things about this...
1)  There was no second inspection.  They just sent a letter saying it needed to be done because they knew people would not do it.

2)  The person doing the inspection has no idea what he is doing.  Or could have the wrong house.  I mean if you look at the shutters now you can tell a big difference.  They look bright and freshly painted!

3)  Wendy thinks it is political.  They have targeted certain houses with violations in the past.  She remarked that many houses in our neighborhood have faded shutters.

I think it is sheisty that the letter arrived on Saturday.  A day when no one is in the office.  Hmmm.  I know we do not pay a large amount of homeowner dues compared to some associations.  However, I see no evidence of what the HOA does for us.  Besides spending my money on postage telling me what a bad homeowner I am!

HOAs are compatible with other abbreviations that I will not mention.  Some people think they come in handy.  "Oh, without them the properties will look awful."  I say who cares?  But that is me.

Hopefully our next housing experience will be different and no HOA! 

Playing Dirty

Over the weekend our church had a community service day.  This is time for the members to get together and do projects for the community.  The mission friends class, which Joy now belongs, planted flowers at the local nursing home, handed out cards to the residents, and helped in the church garden.

I took Joy to the church Saturday morning, while Wendy stayed with Ava.  I hung around just in case Joy became too fussy.  Fortunately, she did pretty well.  She was not too interested in digging in the dirt.  I believe she put one flower in the ground.  Most of the time she was content to walk around.  Joy did hand out a card or two to the residents.  After that we returned to the church to "help out" the garden.  Basically it was picked beans off the pulled up plants.  The kids enjoyed it and talked about finding the "biggest bean in the world" several times of course.   Joy pulled some beans off and put them in the bag.

Then with the planned activities over and some time, the kids were allowed to play on the playground.  Joy has gotten to the point where she does enjoy the playground.  Mostly a slide.  She slid a few times and climbed some.  After that it was time to go.

I think it is good to have that the church includes the young ones on the mission projects.  It teaches service and gives excuse for the parents to get involved.

Hair or there

I have thought about for several months buying a home haircutting kit.  Wendy asks when I bring it up, "Who is going to cut it?"  Because she adamantly states it will not be her.  The kit does appeal to me because of the one time price.  I would pay fifteen dollars instead of the on the low end eleven every once in awhile.

I think to myself that I do not even know how to use a razor to shave my face well.  How am I supposed to use a haircutting kit?

A lot of people would argue my hair does not look good anyway.  I guess the question is how much do I have to lose?  Besides hair that I want cut.

Debate and switch

Last night were a couple of debates, which could be of interest to people.  It was the gubernatorial for our state and the presidential debate.  Wendy was very excited to see the presidential debate.  I only have paid attention.  I think most of the debate one would hear the same thing repeated from the candidates.  It is all about answering the questions with the point in mind.

The interesting thing about the pre-debate coverage is the desire to underestimate.  Part of me can see why the candidate would do this.  The candidate does not want too much pressure.  Yet the other part of me thinks well why should I waste my time watching if you are going to be a blubbering idiot.

According to people who get paid to talk/write about the debate or wanted to express an opinion here are the things I gathered.  The moderator was not horrible, but let the candidates do their thing and seemed to others as if he was not in control.  From what I saw some people wanted to see the candidates question one another.  Second, there was no big quote which will be the focus point of advertising.  Granted I do not remember much anyway, but I do not remember much what was even said.  The last point from the social media world is that Romney won the debate.  I guess that is why there are three debates to see what will happen next time.

Probably most people who watch the debates have their guy in mind already.  So I guess it truly comes down to advertising that the candidates do not have to pay for.  Or a chance for the American people to see some gaffes.

Real men love curves

I guess that is why they call them mountain men.  I am not a mountain man.  I do not enjoy driving those curvy roads.  I will admit that I feel it in my stomach the slightest dip.

The end of last week and over the weekend we took at family vacation to the mountains.  The Baptists own a piece of property and rent it out.  It is one employee perk.

It was a pretty good time, even if we did not get to do all we wanted to do.  Or now that it is over it was a blur.

We ate well and saw a couple of sights and sites.  I guess that is the important part of vacation.