Saturday, November 28, 2009

National Guard ??

Why is it that some states have been called to duty in Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan more than other states? Or so it seems, as here in a northern state at least 3,000 men have been called to duty 4 times so far! FOUR TIMES! And they may be getting called up again! There are some cities, that when the firemen, police, mayor, business owners, doctors and hospital workers were called up the first time, the women were forced to work. And when the men came back and wanted their old jobs back, the woman didn’t want to give them back their jobs! They liked them!

Isn’t the National Guard supposed to be a group that stays at home and protects us in case of a natural disaster! Like calling in the National Guard when a hurricane hits the south? Or an earthquake hits an area, aren’t we suppose to be able to have our own troops close by so that when we need them they are there so that we can send them out somewhere that we want them to go to? Am I wrong in thinking something is wrong here?

Friday, November 27, 2009

250 miles from home

The other night we traveled over 250 miles to be with some of our family. As we were driving we could see diners that were popular, closed, forced out of business sometime within the past year. There were garages, restaurants, gas stations, doctors offices, all of them closed for business and the place up for rent. It got worse and worse the closer we got Canada, it was as if all of America was feeling the pinch of the times. When will it end? Is there any sign? I was hoping that we were starting to feel a little relief, but after seeing almost half of the state closed down I'm not feeling too optomistic right now. People who had jobs now out on the street, their family gone somewhere and the dad trying to find a job, it's just heartbreaking. I wish there and easy answer for everyone!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Cigarettes vs marijuana

The cost of cigarettes keeps climbing and climbing. In some areas it is up to $10 a pack! They (the government) say that this is the easiest thing that they can tax, tax cigarettes and because of the people who have to be on them, they will pay, no matter what the price is! No matter that we, the government, let people use a drug that somehow is legal, we let them destroy their bodies with either 1st or 2nd hand smoke, but we won't let people who need marijuana, for medical use, be able to use it. We even have some states (more than I want to admit) that can put a doctor or patient in jail for using the drug that can help them that's not a pill or syrup or even monitored by a pump. I have been told, that because the government cannot control marijuana yet, they refuse to consider it. Why do they hurt people who need it to be able to live with their pain easier, and yet just tax cigarettes, when it is a proven fact that cigarettes do nothing good for anyone! Strange isn't it? I remember being able to buy cigarettes for my dad for 25 cents. They sold cigarettes and booze to minors in the 60's. If it were tried today, we would be putting the sellar in jail, how different 4 decades make!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Talking about TMI

Isn't it strange that TMI comes up into public view again? I kinda liked watching it on tv again, it brought back memories of when I was younger and cop work was so much simpler! We dispatched the local police officers for one county and TMI was in an adjoining county. So we got stuck doing everything that had to be done when TMI almost caused us to become a memory in some people's minds. Make sure today to tell someone that you care about them, least something happen to them or yourself and you never get the chance again!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity yesterday

We were invited to attend the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Award Ceremony yesterday to award someone that we have known for a few years, the 2009 Citizen of the Year Award! Listening to the biography of a person that I thought I knew a little bit about, made me realize how we really don't know a lot about most people at all. It was very impressive! Then as we listened to them talk about the man who they were going to award the 2009 Omega Man, we realzed it was someone that we knew! Again,I was amazed at how people that you think you know a little bit about turns out you don't know about them at all! We all need to start listening more to people and talking less about ourselves!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Had fun last night

I won free tickets to go to the IMAX Theater at The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk last night and got to see the special showing of 'The Light Before Christmas'. Since IMAX is just so neat, I got passes for my husband, my son & his daughter, my granddaughter. She is only 3 and had never been to a movie, so we were just a little bit worried. But as the theater filled up with almost more children than adults and some of them even younger than she is, I started to feel a bit better. As the lights started to tune down I was paying special attention to her, but I had nothing to worry about. She was riveted to her seat, watching each figure grow to above life size. As I was able to watch the story of a 'Night Before Christmas' unfold before my eyes, she never moved! Not for the entire show! And when it was over in less than 35 minutes she said "I love this, my movie, the bestest of ALL movies"

Isn't it nice to be a kid again, and have no worries. Everyone needs to be able to escape, if only for a little while, from reality. Do it this weekend, if not for yourself, for my granddaughter, so that you might have the 'bestest of all time'.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A good man

When my husband was a commissioner of a taxing district, he was one of the board of directors for the electric and water utility in our area, we met a man who had taken it on himself to have a Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless and low income people each year. He never asked for money, just supplies. And we even ended up working on one Thanksgiving with him, serving the turkey to people. But, since my husband knew that the electric and water departments had a community fund to help people who need help, he told the man, who applied and because of his unselfishness manner, was awarded $1500 each year. But, and here is the kicker, he ALSO starts before Thanksgiving getting Christmas toys for the kids, so that on Christmas Eve he can drive around and drop off toys at the children's houses! So, instead of using the whole $1500 for Thanksgiving he splits it and uses $750 for the diner and $750 for Christmas. And he won't take any money from anyone, when someone tries to give him something for the presents that he brings to the house, he always says no. I think someone like that should be rewarded with something special, I just don't know what yet.

Oh and because of what we do, like getting a case of sweet potatoes, 3 or 4 turkeys and I got some sweet potato pie once (which he LOVES) my husband does not want anyone to know what we individually do to help the man. It has always been our way of helping those that can't help themselves right now.

Wouldn't it be nice if EVERYONE could help in one way or another during this, a bad economic time?

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Smething about our past president


Did you know that our last president has put us further in debit than all the presidents throughout history combined? Each and every war, back to the Revolutionary War and up to and including Desert Storm has cost us less than what we have paid to date, for the war that has no name. And our new president has only been in office for 10 months, so take the total of the war without a name, subtract the last 4 months, as anything before that would have still fallen under the guise of the previous president, and that would be how much this last war without a name has cost us Scary isn’t it!

Monday, November 16, 2009

A fresh idea

I have been talking with the Secretary of State and the Chairwoman of our State party today. Because we have an election coming up in March for town committee members and a chairperson, vice-chairman, treasurer, secretary, etc. I think, that, as a result of the election where most of one party lost, and most of the other party won, we need to step back and regroup. Each and every one of us. We need to find out what went right, because I'm sure there were right things happening around the state, and what went wrong and correct them so that they NEVER happen again! We need training! People are thinking about running for different positions in the local towns, but if they don't know what this job entails, how can they do the job right? It's not fair, today, to expect a person to take on the role of Chairperson of a city if they do not know what they are getting themselves into! Am I right, or am I wrong? What do you think.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Sen. Joseph Lieberman's home

A lot of people came out today, about 500, candles bright, hoping that Senator Lieberman will keep the public option in the proposed health care reform bill, and let the bill come to a vote in the Senate. It amazes me that just one vote can carry such a big responce from the people who voted for him. Maybe they will have to reconsider their vote!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A thousand things to do but...

There were a thousand things that had to be done today, but it seems that not one got done today. What with the rain, the guys couldn't cut the tree down in the rain, so that didn't get done. Then, talking with a friend about issues was a bit educating. Seems that people, even today, don't understand the value of being a Democratic or Republican! You either are one party or another, and if you are the wrong party then you can't talk to the other party! Isn't' that a bit ridiculous ? And the people doing the talking are older than either on of us! If I talk to someone I don't care if he is a Martin from outer space, if I have something that both of us want to talk about, we will talk and no one had better say anything to either one of us, ever! But, instead of talking to me, they will call and tell everyone else what they think about me and the Martin talking. Don't we know better, what if someone else knew that we were talking! O my! Isn't life interesting!

Friday, November 13, 2009

What to do

My doctor told me Monday that I need a new knee! Seems that there is nothing left of the old one, it's bone on bone! But, since I am on so much other stuff I don't feel all the pain. Just the most severe, and then only when my knee locks up. It just does this at the strangest times, like when I am asleep in my bed and I suddenly wake up in pain. Or when I can't get up in the bathroom. So, maybe I will and maybe I won't, it's just that I trust my doctor with my life, so if he does get serious, then I guess I will consider it. I wonder how many people have their knees and hips replaced and go on to a long and happy life with little regret?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A huge politician was buried today

Otha Brown Jr was buried today after 78 years on earth. He was a teacher who taught from 1961 to 1990.  He was the Chairman of The Second Taxing District from 1982 till his death. He held so many political offices, from Common Council to the State Legislature from 1966 to 1972. He was among the first people to fight for the development of a Human Relations Commission and a Fair Rent Commission and he won! Both are going well and since I am a member of the Fair Rent Commission I speak from experience. As a teacher, politician, friend and mentor he lead a long and full filling life.

The city and state are a better place because of Otha Brown Jr living here. I hope that someday someone could say the same thing about me, but I don't think so! LOL

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Yesterday was my day

Yesterday was two of my three son's birthday! Yes, #1 was one day late when he was born, his brother, #2,  was 16 days late, #1 was born around 2 pm, #2 was born around 11:30 pm, but both of them were born on the same day, two years apart! And because they were born the day before a national holiday, they always were able to stay up on their birthday and celebrate! It seems that it was so much easier back then, before we, as a family, had computers, video games, I-pod, calculators.. the list goes on and on! Remember when the kids would go out and play for hours and no one had to worry about anything happening to anyone, except maybe a scrapped knee or scratch here or there. Seems like days were much easier back then, what happen? Anyone have an idea what happen to days like that? Wish I knew.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Busy today

I had an appointment today at 1:30 pm and I wanted to get there on time. As there was a bad accident on I-95 that had closed part of the highway for over 8 hours, I figured I'd leave 1 hour to get 15 miles. Think again! I started on I-95 and came to a stop 1 1/2 miles from home. Traffic was stopped! I was able to get off the freeway and take the back roads and got to my appointment in time, with 15 minutes to spare! It seems that having an interstate is more of a hassle than an answer to most peoples problems. My husband says that when he was going to URI  ( University of Rhode Island ) in the 70's I-95 was already too small when they opened it! Why is it that with today's technology every time the people want something and they approach the federal government for help, by the time they finally get it approved and find out that it is funded it is already obsolete? Is this what happens any time the government gets involved? Like the bridge to nowhere in Alaska?

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Had a beautiful day today..

Sometimes you just know that a day is going to be a beautiful day, well that's what today was! We drove around a Naval Base and my husband talked about how he and his college roommate would go to the PX and get liquor, etc. See, his roommate's dad was Lieutenant so his son could get on base with his authority.  Then he talked about working as a tailor for Navy officer's candidates and bringing uniforms into the base and having the guards at the gate salute them as they came in, full salute!  They had an officer's sticker on the cars that they used to drive into the base and even thought the guard knew who they were, they still had to salute~! Man would they get mad as the guys would smile as they drove by!

It was good getting away for a couple days, I think everyone should if they can. Even just going to a hotel/motel in the same town and just relaxing and not worring about anything often helps you clear your  mind, I know it has helped me a lot.

Friday, November 6, 2009

A long way from home..

It's the Friday after the election. I've had time to lick my wounds (you'd think I lost, LOL) and since my husband already has plans in the works, I'm not worried, even though I never was really. Just think, we get back our week days and nights again! No more juggling every weekend with three or four places to go!

But I have a problem,  we have to go 80 miles one way to the wedding on Saturday afternoon, We have to be there Saturday by 6:00 pm for the rehearsal, and the wedding is at 2:30 pm Sunday afternoon The hotel will let us in at 4 pm and out by noon or 1 pm, so if we check in right at 4 pm and get where we have to by 5:30 pm we will be ok. But, until I checked my notes, I thought we were going to drive around for 5 hours. Man, was I glad that I checked my notes!

Notes are very important, in all manners of our daily live! I'll get back to you Sunday evening, have a good weekend!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Well..

My husband lost the election on Tuesday. We thought he had a chance, but with the new way of voting, the odds were against him. It was a really bad turnout. Not to mention that the other party had more people vote than 4 other polling stations together. They wanted to change the Board of Ed, and they knew that they had to get out and vote. So they did. And since our party had done nothing to help our candidates, we only got 6 positions out of about 35! Glad we can get away Saturday as I still have the wedding practice that day and then the wedding on Sunday! Yeah!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Just so you know

It looks like Mike lost today. We don't have the numbers yet (the town committees is to stupid to actually put numbers out there ), but there's only 1 out of the 5 candidates that were running at large that looks good. However, there are 503 absentee ballots that have to be added on to the total list, but it doesn't look good for Mike. We came home and he's already asleep, isn't it nice to be able to sleep even when you loose an election. It wasn't the money ( he was getting $44.76 a month for being on common council) it's more that each candidate had to campaign alone and since Mike can't go door to door maybe that hurt him more than what he has done to help the city in the two years that he was on the common council.  But, I will get the final numbers and let you know soon.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Is today finally over?

Mike had off from work  so that he could go down to the train station and talk to people today. But, since he has also been feeling a little under the weather, I've been a bit concerned about what he might have, so when he said at the last minute that he would not be going to the train station, I was relieved. But then he said that he wanted to see a doctor about his foot, so we spent 1/2 the day either trying to see a doctor, or driving around with GOTV signs. See we had the GOTV signs that went up all around the community telling people that a van will pick them up at a certain time and place take them to their voting place if they needed a ride. As a lot of the signs went out to senior centers and large apartments that don't have cars, and it's hard for the people to get around. I spent 2 hours putting up 5 sings. Finding the area was tough, some of the areas stood out easily while others were hard to find. But I think I found them all, and hopefully a lot people will use the free vans and vote tomorrow.

Tomorrow's the day, give me strength. My husband has my son and myself getting up at 5:00 am and checking all voting places to make sure his signs get put up right. I let you all know what happens late, no matter what .

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sunday's are always nice days..sometime

My husband wasn't feeling too good today, so we decided to stay at home and just take it easy. Not to mention that my husband had to re-boot the computer system, a 24 hour updating process. So, he got to play on the computer and I got to sleep in and then watch tv! And other than a few phone calls, it was a good day. We know of a couple who are in their 70's and still going strong. Yesterday, today and tomorrow may possible go down in history as one of the hardest days for them. Because we, as a party, are having problems with the powers that be, our District chairman has taken it upon himself to get 4000 palm cards for 13 different polling place, or 52,000 ! By tomorrow by 9:00 am! Not to mention that our chairman has secured the use of two window vans to go around Tuesday and stop at places to pick up people and take them down to the voting polls. So, tomorrow I get to take fliers to each place, to post at their mailbox site! Plus I have to make sure I know where they will be going to vote! So, better get out the voters info quickly! Hope everything runs smoothly! Two days left!