Category Archives: Life in New Mexico

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Sooo, I’m Waiting for the Big Celebration!

ISK-ISPC015013 - © - InspireStockYeah, I’m waiting for the doorbell to ring, and the balloons to fall, and the gaily wrapped presents to tumble into my lap. Just to keep me busy, while I’m waiting, I walked the dog, cleaned the house, did a load of laundry, and got groceries.  I was pretty sure everyone was hiding in the bedroom when Diego and I returned from our desert jaunt.

I was even more sure that the backyard would be stacked with friends and relatives when I got back with bags of groceries. I even changed my top to look extra nice.

The guys are here to paint the rest of the new fence out front. I’m waiting, because no doubt they brought all the presents with them. Along with the paint.

Speaking of which, Diego loves his new fence. He runs out his back door and speeds around the house to check out what the neighbors are doing. He has a water dish in case he gets thirsty. He has plenty of shade. He likes it all. He’s thinking of what he wants for his birthday, and we haven’t yet even picked a date for his “birthday” yet. He seems unconcerned about it all.

Actually, I don’t pay much attention to birthdays. Other people’s? Yes, I pay attention to that because that’s polite. My own? Naw. The Contrarian managed to remember before the morning was over. That’s saying a lot. Heck we often talk about our anniversary and then get so caught up in living, that we forget when it actually hits.

Having a birthday now is sorta of a badge of survival anyway. I’m not sure that makes me feel a lot better about being 63 years of age. I’m smarter than I was at 36. But what to do with all that stuff stuffed in there? I have no clue. I figure when you get to heaven you get to put all that stuff in a box. I’m not sure how to make enchilada sauce is a useful thing in heaven.

We are going out to eat today. That’s what we usually do on Monday, so I don’t even get an EXTRA “out to eat” day. That seems wrong, and somehow doesn’t make today’s out-to-eat day all that special. I noted that on google search they had cupcakes and candles? Was that for me?

I got the usual number of “X posted on your wall” in Facebook. It took me a minute to realize it was the “happy birthday” obligatory if you can remember, stop by to type happy birthday. Or Have a great day! Or Hope you have a super birthday!  Or words to that effect. Do you try to come up with something a bit different to make it appear that you actual care? I do. But I confess I don’t think of the person’s “happy day” much past the click of the mouse to the next page.

I haven’ really thought about anything I “want” for my birthday. I pretty much buy what I want anyway. When you can afford to buy most things, nothing much seems very special does it? Unlike Tiny Tim and his wonder at the goose for Christmas in A Christmas Story. Or all those stories about pioneer life in the olden days when an orange and gum drop were major delights to be swooned over and enjoyed slowly and to the last drop on Christmas morning.

I got a number of “gifts” from some stores. JCP sent me a $5 dollar gift certificate. Pier One gave me a 25% off ticket. I got a bunch of tickets from JoAnn Fabrics. My broker sent a card, my dentist a $5 coupon at some ice cream palace over on RoadRunner Rd. I’m sure they all are thinking about me today. That makes me feel warm inside.

I noted that the wind stopped blowing as Diego and I walked into the desert. I’m sure it was homage to me and my desire not to walk into a head wind. I thought that was nice of Mother Nature, aka, God.

The housework went nicely, all the dust cooperated and clung to my dust cloths. Some people call their dust cloths rags, but I think that’s just mean. How do you expect a slip of cloth to do its job well when it’s referred to as a rag? I mean really. These things are important folks.

The car cooperated in my drive into town for groceries. That was a nice gift I thought. It’s been a thoroughly nice car for some time, although the engine light does like to come up a lot. That’s got to do with the catalytic converter according to the computer code at Auto Somethingorother place, which hooked her up and said she was only unhappy with her fuel mixture. It goes on and off. We can disconnect the battery and let her sit and stew in her unelectrified self for a bit and then plug her back up, and the light stays off—until it doesn’t again. She’s just petulant.

Actually I think the car is not a she. But I haven’t gotten under her to check for sure.

If you are in your twenties and reading this, boy are you in the wrong place. Unless you are studying to become a geriatric nurse. Then you can screw OFF. I’m being polite, and not using the F word. If you are in your 30-50′s, then the above is a preview of the state of mind you too will attain upon reaching your 60′s. It’s got to do with social security. It’s not very social, and not very secure by the way. And Medicare doesn’t care one whit I suspect either. You’re just another warm body until you are a cold body. And then it’s on to someone else.

So hey, if you get lucky and get to be 63, you too can be the happy person you’re reading right now! Aren’t you excited?

Yeah, well screw off then too!

Just kidding.

Sorta.

 

 

 

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How To Fold a Fitted Sheet

folding copyI thought I was being pretty darn anal. But I was on Facebook one day, and I saw this video posted by one of my “friends” on how to fold a fitted sheet.

I admit, I was intrigued. I bit.

I watched it. “Wow, how easy is this!” I mused.

The next Saturday when the sheets were dry (I waiting with eager anticipation I gotta tell ya), I raced to the bedroom with my sheets and started following the directions as I remembered them.

After three tries, I threw the wadded up mess on the shelf in disgust.

But then, well my anal really kicked in.

I went to YouTube and searched for a fitted sheet folding video.

And I found dozens.  I mean literally dozens.

It seems that (1) almost everybody knows but me, and (2) almost everybody wanted to show me how.

So I tried again.

And failed again.

And again.

And again.

I watched at least six different videos.

Finally after watching ever more closely, I got the hang of it.

So I was going to just mention it to you in passing–you know the way people do on the street–”hi, good morning”–(walking past each other, then turning)–”let’s do lunch next week okay?”–(walking a bit further but still not out of shouting range)–”oh, hey, your hair looks great like that! New style?”–now just a bit too far past to hear, so wave and turn and go on your way. . . .you know what I mean.

But I went in search of a picture of the process, and accidentally found this site. Well not exactly accidentally, since I was looking for the picture, but I double clicked instead of single clicked and found myself at this lady’s site, and I went, “whoa this is anal +.” So I thought I’d show you some of her stuff, cuz I makes me look really really normal.

Well, normal. That is a relative term if there ever was one right. I mean if you are in a “home” for the crazies, and you are the least crazy, well, you’re normal as far as they are concerned aren’t you? And if you are at a psychiatric conference in San Francisco, my dog probably qualifies as being the most normal. Ya see what I mean?

Anyway.

This is anal:

quiltsI mean really? A sign to tell you what you are looking at? But she means it literally, as you can see:

quilts2See? These are not “antique” quilts but “play” quilts. Don’t get mixed up.

Here’s the whole enchilada if you wish to see a “well-conceived linen closet:

linenclosetI mean it’s to die for right?

I knew a person like this. But it was a guy. We used to sneak into his office and “mess” it up for fun. We were adults. He put up with us. He bought a house. A year later he was “sorting” out his attic.

I admire people like that. When I don’t call them crazy. You can admire crazy.

I can be tempted by “order”. But I fight against it.

I like to imitate the universe.

It may seem ordered, but it’s really ordered chaos.

The blog is called “I Lived on Wisteria Lane”. She seems to have stopped blogging abruptly in October. That’s always worrisome. If you like organization, well, do visit it.

By the by, I still can’t figure out fitted sheets. I have a mental block I guess. I’m a failure in the housewife wars.

So I’ve made a cake, and some pastry cream. It’s for the Contrarian’s birthday on Monday. It’s a Boston Cream Pie. He likes Boston Cream Pie. My cakes are still sinking in the middle. I have upped the temperature, and reduced the baking powder. They still sink. I’m a failure in the baking wars.

I am going out soon to help with planting. I have my new L-shaped planters to fill with petunias in the front. And about seven thousand planters in the back. The Contrarian is concentrating on the veggies.

We’ve got plenty of good old New Mexican soil in the bottoms of everything. It’s hard as a rock. It doesn’t seem to rain here.

We have bags and bags of manurish top soil. It smells like horses, well the behind of horses. Wait, that’s not right either. I don’t smell the behinds of horses, I can promise you that. But the stuff that falls out of their behind. The dirt smells like that.

Diego likes the smell of the soil. Maybe he would even like the smell of a horse’s behind. He doesn’t say. We have put up wire lines to keep him from rooting and digging in the big beds. He’s a dog after all. They like dirt apparently. Diego digs in the desert a lot. I think he’s looking for jack rabbits. He just wants to be their friend.

They don’t seem to understand dog speak though. They run. They run very fast.

Just me knitting in the garden

Just me knitting in the garden

 

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I’m Going As Fast as I Can!

SONY DSCReally I am. Actually, I’m traveling at lightening speed.

For example:

Yesterday I got up, cleaned house until 6:50 a.m., walked Diego two miles, finished cleaning the house, went to the grocery store, returned home, put away groceries, searched through all the papers in the file cabinet, finding 90% of what was necessary for the accountant tomorrow and the taxes, drove the Contrarian to the Eyemart with his new prescription, picked out frames, and stopped for *gasp* fast food for lunch, and arrived home, all before 1 p.m. At 3:00 p.m, I returned to Eyemart and picked up his glasses. The(Two more weeks and I can have chocolate again!)

Today, I cleaned house until 6:50 a.m, (finished by the way!), walked Diego two miles, and returned to make the basic parts of a Shepherd’s Boy casserole, which is now waiting to go in the oven. And *gasp* it’s only 9 a.m. and I have 50 minutes of leisure before we head off to get the taxes done.

Tomorrow, I get to go to the pool, and get my hair cut. We are determined to get all our “stuff” done this month. We have to hit the Veterans Affairs office to turn in our property tax exemptions yet, and something else that needs filling out, which I no longer remember.

I keep waiting for that blessed week when there are no “things” to attend to. I never used to be this busy. I really never used to be. The more retired I get, the busier I get. I know there is something important I should be ingesting from that realization, but I’m either not aware of what it is, or I’m scared to discover what it is.

I once upon a time said that virtually everything I dreamed about moving down here came true, but for a couple. The Catholic churches basically suck here (which I never would have imagined), and there is no pool within two blocks of where I live. Well guess what? One just got a good deal closer.

It turns out that one of the parks and rec outdoor pools is only about four miles from me. A darn sight closer than the approximately thirteen mile one that I go to now. It doesn’t open until Memorial day, but I have been told that almost nobody goes there, so I can enjoy myself in solitary bliss probably. Why they wait so long I have no clue–it’s in the mid-seventies every day now, and often in the low to mid-80′s.  Go figure.

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It’s been ten years since the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq. Where are all the celebrations? Were we not greeted as “liberators”?  Yeah, I guess not. It’s really hard to make an argument that awful as he was, the Iraqi people are not really any better off than they were before we “saved” them. I suspect they are much worse. And nobody worth a damn went to jail for that crime.

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The GOP screams like a stuck pig that they have “no war on women”. Well, yeah they do. But it’s only a huge segment of a much bigger picture in which a lot more people (mostly men, but not all) are implicated. Cases in point.

  • Remember the dude at the CPAC who wanted to know why Frederick Douglass sent a letter forgiving his slave master? After all, the North Carolinian “white demographic” pointed out, he got “food and shelter” after all. He pointed out it would be a damn sight better if we still had segregation, and that Black folk could do all the voting they wanted in Africa. Well it turns out that as that meeting broke up, a woman approached and proceeded to give him a thing or two about his overt racism. Said White Male, retorted, as I am told, “so is this the new rebranded version of the GOP where women confront and tell off men in public?” or words to that effect.
  • You all no doubt heard or read about the Steubenville case where at least two young men of high school age took advantage of an inebriated fellow teen girl, and raped her. The coverage has been, to say the least, extremely sexist in its presentation. The reporters and their networks cannot get over how sad it’s been for the boys, who had “promising football careers” and were so altogether nice in every way. They never missed a chance to remind us that the girl was so drunk she passed out. Oh and they ALL “inadvertently” dropped her name in their video reports even though she is a minor.

Forgive me if I still bluster about the need of women to continue the fight for full and complete rights in this still patriarchal world we live in. We put on the trappings of equality, and people do the “politically correct thing” and underneath it all, well, men will be men and boys will be boys, and women? Well women just keep taking it.

Read the link. It’s an important commentary on how we still operate in this country.

And well, it’s time to be off to the tax accountant. Sigh…you know I just love this!

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Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Don'tcomeinNO!

We can’t.

And some days, I do get powerfully tired of discussing why you’re wrong and I’m right.

Because I am right. Truly. I mean it would shatter my entire persona should I discover that I’ve been wrong all these years.

Makes life an entire waste of time, being wrong. You clearly see that.

So do me the kindness to play into my delusion that I am right about EVERYTHING. For I get awfully nervous when I’m wrong about ANYTHING.

That pretty much sums up the state of affairs in America today. Can I get an Amen?  Yeah, okay, a tepid uhuh will do.

Some days I am purely not up to the task of yammering on and on about all the stupid people and stupid stuff they do. I mean, my sanity is at stake here too you know. I have a right to peace and quiet don’t I? I was reduced to calling a woman a bitch today at the pool. I mean is there no place where general common sense rules can’t abide without resort to that?

I mean we are paying a paltry buck to swim, you don’t own the damn lane woman! She said I was “unprofessional”. Since I’m not a professional lap swimmer nor do I portray one, I don’t know what that meant. If she doesn’t want to be called a bitch, she should stop being insufferably selfishly bitchy. Seems obvious to me.

I don’t think I’ve called a woman to her face that in 25-30 years. Truly I don’t. Maybe since I was a teenager. It’s not my normal sort of language.

I figure the GOP made me do it. They are always riling me up with stupid.

So in the name of sanity, I shall not go on and on about the state of the freakin’ly screwed up world. A word or two will suffice.

  • GOP: still in denial that they lost, and still lying about everything.
  • “New Ryan Budget”: same old same old Ayn Randian crap designed to weed out the weak in favor of the “fittest.”
  • Fundamentalists: still abusing the bible for their own self-comfort, making it hate who they hate, and love who they love.
  • Democrats: still living in denial that GOP cares about what the public thinks about anything.
  • Corporations: still raking in the profits and laughing as they sit sipping fine cognac after an afternoon of schussing at the chalet in Switzerland, or drinking Pernod at their villa along the Cote d’Azur.
  • Survivalists/conspiracists/Teabibbers: still actively drinking the kool-aid and waiting in the dark with their assault rifles for the coming of “that Negro’s” Blackhawk copters.
  • Republican state governments: still wasting taxpayer money on beating up on Planned Parenthood, and stupid laws to protect “our freedoms”.
  • Congress: still spending ninety percent of their time raising money from their masters, and using the other ten percent to spew platitudes that even bore them now.
  • Professional Athletes: still engaged in efforts to get away with doping, since sports are now the way to become a multimillionaire in one easy contract.
  • Professional actors: still plying their trade all the while believing that their opinions on anything other than their trade matter to anybody else.
  • School system in America: still lousy and getting worse.
  • Business in general: still laughing that anyone thinks their major goal in life is to “create” jobs.
  • Media: still trapped in the notion that presenting both sides is their job, when one side is one neuron short of a brain.
  • Health care: still great if you are rich, increasingly lousy if you are not.
  • Dental care: still great if you are rich, almost non-existent if you are not.
  • Public transportation: great if you like buses. Lousy if you dream of high-speed rail or non-polluting vehicles.
  • Religion in General: still missing the call to en mass call for justice and social reform in America. Jesus does not recognize most of them as following Him, surely.
  • Dogs and Cats: still offering the best and sanest alternative to human interaction around, and they are cheap too!
  • The rest of the Animal Kingdom: still holding on, hoping to survive the insane human invasion.
  • Planet Earth: still coughing and hoping that humans will come to their senses before it must eradicate them forever.
  • Reactionary Republicans: still happy because they have God on their side, and don’t care about anybody else anyway.
  • Progressive Democrats: still unhappy because they care that everybody isn’t  getting their fair share.
  • The Aliens among Us: still more interested in the poker game at the Galactic club house on Saturday night.

I rest my case. You have all the news you need. Perhaps I shall find something of actual interest tomorrow. Hope as they say, springs eternal.

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What Fresh Hell is This?

sayingsIt would not be a good idea to cross me right now. Seriously. Don’t do it. I’m channeling Dorothy Parker and you know how dangerous that can be.

One of the ubiquitous sayings of the Great Parker was: “a good thing to appear on my tombstone would be: wherever I am, is usually against my better judgment”. And nothing could be truer.

Okay, so yesterday was set up to be the day from hell from the beginning. I had a dental appointment at 7 am, followed by a rush through the grocery store, followed by a drive to El Paso to make up for a cancelled eye appointment.

So far so good.

I don’t think the drive to El Paso is all that bad mind you, but I do worry about catching some communicable disease as I drift across the border from my beloved Land of Enchantment to the home of one George W. Bush, painter and failed president. (You heard he’s just soooo committed to his new art career right?)

Anyway, we got down there okay, although one does has to run the gauntlet so to speak of some of the worst drivers in all of kingdom come, which is where I feel headed as I try to avoid their bumper car mentality. I mean does anyone in Texas no anything other than “put ‘er to the floor, close your eyes and yell Yippie-Kio-Kia?”

So after nearly one hour plus the inevitable stop at the train tracks and the inevitable train with no end, we arrive, almost late, but not quite. The Contrarian is called within 15 minutes of arrival, which is as close to telling time as I would assume could be expected in the land of cows and over-sized steaks.

He emerges fifteen minutes later, “done”, meaning that they have discerned his eyeglass prescription in nothing short of laser speed. But there is a catch. There is always a catch.

The dude assigned the monumentally difficult job of turning the pages in a book offering you the latest in VA eyewear fashion (meaning the damn frames), while you dear patient look and point when you find a pair that don’t look too nerdy or Elton Johnish, is NOT IN TODAY. And *gasp* not another employee of the eye clinic is qualified to turn that page. I mean even a post-it note stuck between two pages and a best guess that these are the ones, was past their pay grade level.

This of course means that we must return on another day to pick out the damn frames. Good news? Oh, we don’t need an appointment–anything time between the hours of “this is a damn stupid way to handle things” and “you’re nearing the ninth gate of Dante’s hell” will do.

So after some shouting at each other, for no good reason but that we are both so gloriously pissed at the VA and “bureaucracy” in general, we cross back into the land of sanity, (the pavement actually improves at the state line), and we careen happily home, secure only in the knowledge that tomorrow is another day, and the Contrarian has a dental appointment at 10 am. My joy overflows.

So, now my swimming plans for Tuesday are off.

So, all my schedules are screwed up, and you KNOW I am a very scheduly-type person.

So I reschedule my day for today.

Now the wonder kids in Washington of the D.C. (standing for Dumb Cockroaches) have as you recall, changed up the Daylight Savings Time, which is no saving at all since you give back what was gained any the damn way. And if ever there was a thing not to f**k with God over, it would be time itself.

So after 9/11, the Dancing cephalopods in Congress wanted to “DO SOMETHING!”, so they started the DST even earlier and let it run longer, and nobody gained as I said a damn thing, and something about saving money, well that never happened either. So we have a dumb thing in the first place, made even dumber, and poor milk cows just weep in frustration as their udders have no clue what to do.

So instead of it being nicely light with the sun just beginning to send a glorious glow over the top of the mountains, it’s freakin’ pitch black. And I don’t like walking with a flashlight waiting for a rattler to show me his pearly whites in the beam.

So, I am forced to rearrange my schedule of walking too! Instead, I get up at the crack of dawn which here is now not dawn at all, but dark dark as I said, and begin cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, which is a bit hard on the stomach at such an ungodly hour. After I have that done, it is light enough to walk the Diego, who is having a crisis of sorts finding that other people on the block get newspapers too every morning, and feeling duty bound to bring them all here, to sort out the mess.

To this deadly mix of mismanaged mayhem, comes the Contrarian, with the announcement:

I CANNOT FIND MY PHONE!

After a look through the car, and every pair of pants pockets, hoodie pockets, robes, and other items that have pockets, searching through the bed, the oven, the drawers in the every place that has drawers, even gazing hopefully down the gullet of said Diego, who has been known to take it for a walk,  the only and I do mean ONLY answer, is that it is in the EYE clinic in EL PASO!!!!

And it’s there, waiting for us to go and pick it up.

Pray for me.

Pray for me a lot.

 

 

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Yeah It’s Good For Some

Good-Economic-NewsThe Stock Market hit a new high.

Corporate profits are probably at all-time highs as well.

The people who do the work? Not so much.

Between 1979 and 2007 59.9% of gains in income went to the top 1%, 36.7% alone going to the top 0.1%. During that period, gains by the 90%? A mere 8.6%.

Productivity has increased since 1950 by 254%. During that same period, wages went up 113%, and most of that increase occurred by 1975. Productivity, on the other hand, has risen steadily and continues to rise.

The response of the corporate board room to the recession has been to find more efficient ways to accomplish their target goals. They devote their R and D to the purpose of creating a cheaper way to make their product. Cheaper never involves hiring workers. They would make their products devoid of human workers if that were possible. Machines don’t require health care benefits and pensions. They don’t need money devoted to safe working conditions and lunch breaks.

Don’t tell me, please that corporations are job creators. They are profit creators, and hiring is now the last resort to accomplishing that goal. That’s why Wall Street is doing so well, and yet the unemployment figures are still so high. It’s got zero to do with regulations or very little. It’s got very little to do with “uncertainty” about what the buffoons in Congress are going to do. It’s got to do with profit. There is no morality here. It’s not part of the capitalistic model.

Kim-Jong-RodmanMeanwhile, there was this farcical drama in North Korea.

The pity is that the media thought any of this worthy to report upon. Dennis Rodman is a delightful entertainer. As an intellectual, well, he leaves a great deal to be desired.

His “opinion” is about as useful as that of a three-year-old. And I like the dude. He’s had a tough life as a kid, and he’s managed to make a good life for himself. I give him credit.

Kim? Oh good lord, he never got spanked as a child, that is certain. And I’m not much for corporal punishment either.

But he definitely needed spanking. In fact he needs spanking now. He’s always in the middle of a tantrum.

And dude, find a new barber. That haircut is silly. Seriously.

ScaliaIt’s hard to judge this Supreme Court. I’m not sure if we haven’t had this kind of horror before, when the Court was filled with really nutty people who make a mockery of the Constitution.

The Dred Scot Court comes to mind. That must have been an awful one.

But it would be hard to argue that this one is close to the top of the list of really awful benches.

Scalia is an intellectual joke, playing word games about original intent of the Framers, when all it comes down to is his personal disgusting beliefs.

Calling the right to vote a “racial entitlement”. And then suggesting that instead of testing a law against the Constitution, he has a new job–doing the dirty work for Congress, meaning that Congress is too beholden to special interests and can’t do the “right” thing because it might cost them an election.

So Scalia to the rescue. Doing the “right” thing. What a douche.

DronesLet me get this straight.

Some Republicans are all upset at the use of drones against US citizens.

Got that.

No Republicans ever raised this issue when Bush starting using them.

Don’t get that.

In American courts, EVERYone, citizen or not, is gets the same rights.

Got that.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is arrested in Turkey. He is moved from Turkey to Jordan (Turkey prohibits the extradition of prisoners to those few countries that still practice the use of the death penalty and we are one of THOSE countries) and then transported from Jordan to the US for trial.

Got that.

Republicans are incensed because he can’t be interrogated properly except at Guantanamo (he was interrogated by an elite force of experts in Turkey and talked to the tune of some 20 pages), and because he is a bad dude and has no right to the rights granted him in our civilian courts.

Don’t get that.

Morality sure winds a crooked course in the Republican mind. And incidentally, in a good many Democratic ones as well.

Just a word about something I care about.

I am now the Sunday morning cat adoption “cleaner” for Pet Smart. I do this through a local adoption group in my area called A.W.A.R.E. What I learned is that Pet Smart joins with local animal groups across the country to adopt out animals. That’s a good thing.

My job is to clean the cages, feed and water where these cats live, and to play with them as much as I wish while I’m there. This is done twice a day, seven days a week, all serviced by volunteers.

My only point here, is that if you are interested in adopting a kitten, think of them as a source. You are not getting a “kitten” mill animal, but one that has been rescued and needs a good home. Prices are typically $50, and all animals are already spayed or neutered and have all their shots. In some cases the animals may come from the local shelter. You will probably get a bit better animal, since these kittens get more socialization than those typically housed in shelters.

I have no agreements of any kind with Pet Smart or A.W.A.R.E. in return for these statements. It’s only because I care about the animals. Perhaps other pet stores do the same. I haven’t inquired.

kittensandpuppies

 

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Searching for the Gem

Estate saleAre you a junkie?

“Psst, come over here so we can whisper.”

Does your heart go pit-a-pat at the idea of buying other people’s stuff at bargain prices?

Yeah, I know. It’s just too good to pass up.

I like estate sales way more than auctions. I hate to wait for hours for “my” item to come up and then the bidding starts about a kazillion more than I could ever pay in the first place.

Estate sales are neat and tidy. Everything is already marked.

We went yesterday to a great one. Chock full of lawn and garden this and thats. I mean stuffed with planters and statues, chairs and tables. Just stuffed. We bought a bear carved from a log with a welcome sign. That went at the front door, hoping to distract from the lovely? piece of patio stone with the words “The Payton” carefully painted on it, a gift from our handyman. Of course it’s Peyton and not Payton and it should have an ‘s at the end. We must of course show it. We would not be rude.

We also got “Juanita” a two-foot terra-cotta Indian woman with long braids and an ample girth. She’s in the living room hopefully giving off good vibes. Then I splurged on a copper sculpture that is a series of rings mounted on a disk. I guess I should take a picture, but anyway it’s a piece of authentic art produced by a sculptor here in Las Cruces. I also picked up a glorious leather purse on the cheap which is the perfect size.

We are going back today when things are “half price” an ultimately “best offer” to gather up some garden urns and perhaps some wall artwork.

Sequester-Army-KnifeI am so freakin’ tired of the word, and all it entails.

I am so tired of idiots.

Boehner looks more and more the boob as one-trick pony. If he says, “it’s time to get serious about spending cuts,” I may hire a thug to go to DC and beat him to a pulp.

It’s time to get serious about kicking your ass to the curb.

It’s time to get serious about kicking the Tea Bibbers to the curb, permanently.

It’s time to require a basic test to anyone who wants to run for a government office. Prove that you can read. Prove that you can think. Prove that you can count to 100. I don’t know, something. I’ve heard more stupid from people who got people to actually vote for them for some office than I care to remember.

Seriously, my dog could do the job. Seriously, I think he could.

Just-MarriedI really think this is gonna happen.

I mean I really do.

I think the Supreme Court will overturn California’s anti-gay marriage legislation.

About 30 other states have similar ones. They should fall too.

If the Court does invalidate it, hopefully it will be on a denial of equal protection under the law, a constitutional precept. Us constitutional law trumps and any state law or constitutional provision.

Game over.

Then perhaps we can get on with other issues rather than continuing our relentless attempts to punish people who aren’t like us.

The same will probably not be said for the Voting Rights Act and section five. That is probably going to fall. And that is a shame. Instead it ought to be upheld and broadened to cover the entire country. And it ought to prohibit any attempt that tries to disenfranchise any group of people, be their students, the elderly, or ethnic minorities. Voting is our most precious right. We should bend over backwards to make sure than everyone who wants to can. And maybe we should mandate that everyone does.

ObamacareThe GOP assured us that they would NEVER go willingly into the land of Obamacare.

They would kick and scream, they would throw themselves upon grenades if need be.

No never!

But political realities have a way of changing stubborn minds. Fearing that his time in office is limited, Governor Scott of Florida has had a change of heart. Chris Christie saw the logic of the situation as well.

Bobby Jindal has not. Which is a pity, since he counseled that the GOP must stop being the party of stupid. He’s the one of stupid for continuing his hold out. I mean who wants to be in the same camp as Ricky Perry from the grand old state of delusion, Texas? I mean Bobby, you still have New Orleans! You are not in Mississippi or Alabama, fighting for your very IQ life. I mean really Bobby.

whichwayWell it just ain’t about Obamacare though.

It’s about everything these days.

It’s about immigration, and gay rights. It’s about women’s rights. It’s about taxes, and loopholes.

How to rid themselves of TEA! When all the respectable Republicans (assuming they exist) just want a cuppa joe.

Boehner looks sad most of the time.

He must weep a lot at night.

The Tea Bibbers on the other hand, are all gleeful. They are too stupid to know any better.

I tell ya, it is so unfair to elephants to have them embarrassed this way in association with jackasses. I mean is that an irony or what?

We’re hitting around 70 degrees here today. I mean that is enough to make a heart sing is it not?

brave-but-dumb

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