A Tiny Rant

I'm going to start with a tiny rant today... one I'm sure with which many of you can identify at this time of year! 

Mail. 

Every day, in my mail, I get solicitations for donations.  Yes, I do make 

some small donations throughout the year... but I am 

being ASSAULTED with solicitations this year, and 

Keith is now getting slammed. 

I wish these organizations know that I DO check them out on 

Charity Navigator to see how they do with their donations... 

but for all the return address labels, cards, and other "souvenirs" that I am sent... 

I have pretty much decided to take a hard line.  I donated to a few 

that I believe truly in... and the rest... well... I am using 

some of those labels... and throwing most solicitations into the 

mail unopened. 

I'm retired, for Pete's Sake!

I wish I had a penny for every piece of paper I had thrown away in the 

last month. 

Here's another tiny rant...

I recently renewed my subscription to Country Sampler.  I am cutting 

back on magazines now... and letting many subscriptions lapse. 

Two weeks after renewing, I got a "special offer" from 

Country Sampler, and I put it with my bills to see 

what it was about on bill-paying day. 

I opened it... and actually wrote a check before looking at the date on the 

label. 

I was offered 1 year for 18.00 and the Home Tour edition for 6.99... came to 24.99 with tax. 

I wrote the check... then looked at the label. 

I am paid THROUGH 2016!  2016!!!!!

Good gravy. 

I tore the check up, and the envelope. 

I have been trying for WEEKS to get a picture of this old boy in his pasture.  Many times he 

is up near the fence (he has a fly mask on).  He has two calves as companions. 

Day before yesterday, I was able to get it!  

I stopped in a store in Lawrence yesterday, in between rainstorms. 

I thought this white pumpkin was beautiful!  Then... today, at 

Wal Mart of all places, I saw white pumpkins galore for 3.99. 

I should have gotten one. 

This is our side yard yesterday and today. 

We have had maybe 4 inches of rain in the last three days. 

It is brisk (59) and sunny this afternoon. 

And the dogs went out with me to fill the sugar feeder.  I am still seeing a few 

hummingbirds. 

Last night, I saw probably two hundred geese high enough up I could not hear their honking.  

They are the FIRST geese I have seen since we moved here... and oh, how I have missed the geese terribly. 

No camera with me, of course. 

Our little boy is always smiling. 

My heart had been lost to pugs... but I have to tell you... this 

sweet Boston Terrier has won me over to this breed... they are loving

and so much fun to have around... he is always happy. 

We have yet to hear him bark, but he runs to the window with Lilly whenever she does bark. 

It is a pleasure to go anywhere on errands... the world is so beautiful in October!

Tonight we are going to my 46th high school reunion.  Some of you may remember 

that we had a large 45th reunion last year... and this year, we are all meeting at a bar for a "46th"... well, some of us are.  Last year I dressed to the nines... this year I am going in jeans and a sweatshirt! 

Keith will have his Royals shirt on... there is sure to be a lot of talk about the 

Cinderella team!  

Pictures tomorrow. 

I Feel a Two Post Sunday Coming On

Okay, I have a couple of early morning rants so I must be feeling better.

One is the fact that now one has to type in not one but TWO nonsensical words on Blogger when one is trying to post a comment on some blogs.  The funny thing is, I am sure I have misspelled several of those words, and the comment is accepted anyway.  I mean, c'mon, Blogger!

Another comment problem.... even though I am signed in to our own blog, I will come across the odd blog where, when I try to comment,  it will tell me to sign in with Google Friend Connect, Yahoo, Facebook, etc..  Then, when I press "Google Friend Connect" absolutely nothing happens.  Does this happen to others?  I have found several very nice blogs lately that I wanted to encourage and tell them how much I enjoyed their posts... but could not. 

Totally off this subject... and sorry, if I'm offending anyone... but honestly... was Whitney Houston a national heroine?

As you might imagine, there have been a lot of Hall's Mentho-Lyptus cough drops consumed here this week.  I really would rather not have a cough drop that lectured me, despite the fact they are so soothing to the sore throat.  Their wrappers contain sayings such as "Keep your chin up", "Dust off and get up", and "You got it in you".  Maybe the fact that I was supine and suffering aggravated me the most.

And non-rant-wise, I'm going to try to get caught up on blog-reading today since I'm still not top shelf yet (nor is Keith).  We are also finalizing gardening plans, and hope to have Chris up next weekend to help get all the beds ready.  We are expecting some rain here this week, and some cooler temps.  If Keith is up to it later... and we are not sure he will be... he is going to try version two of the hoop-structure plan to see if it works.  More about that in a separate post.

We received a wonderful Hallmark card from our friends Theresa and Don after we lost little Hannah.  I wanted to type out the sentiment here (I hope Hallmark will not sue me) because it was so wonderful, and because I hope it will help friends like Vickie, who has so recently lost her own best dog friend...

"They will not go quietly,

the dogs who've shared our lives.

In subtle ways they let us know

their spirit still survives.

Old habits still can make us

think we hear them at the door

Or step back when we drop a

tasty morsel on the floor."

She didn't know north from south at this point, but oh, how I miss her warm little body at my feet as I type.

What the Heck is Going ON?

I know this is a second post but I have a RANT.

What the heck is this?

Your current account (my email at gmail) does not have access to view this page.

Click here to logout and change accounts.

I have been getting this on some blogs in the last two weeks.  I literally cannot comment on these blogs now.  Have I been removed?  I don't remember being offensive to anyone, I have always tried NOT to be... and the blogs appear to be "public" blogs, meaning anyone can read them. 

Have any of you been getting them?  It would be just in the last two weeks or so, but I kept forgetting to mention them.

As the email mentioned is the email with which I log into my account at Calamity Acres, it's very vexing.  Several blogs are ones that I enjoy reading, and can still read, but no longer comment. 

Is it a Blogger problem or am I BANNED?????

ARGGHHHH!

On the Soapbox Again

At my office, there are distributed copies of USA Today on a daily basis.  Though I have subscribed to the Kansas City Star for 40 years, Keith reads it in the morning with his coffee, and I look at USA while I eat lunch, so it has become "my" paper.
One of the headlines today was that there was a 3.9% hike in food prices last month.

I ask you how poor people are to eat?  In a nation as rich as ours, how on earth are parents and old folks and singles out on their own to stretch their food dollars? I grew up in a stable neighborhood, with two parents, two brothers and a little sister.  It was not uncommon that we had six or eight porkchops or other pieces of meat on the table each night for dinner.  Having hamburgers was a treat... that wasn't considered a "real" dinner.  Now, members of my own extended family, including one of those older brothers, are on foodstamps.  One of my grandchildren gets free breakfast and lunch at school, his mom has been unemployed over a year and her benefits have long run out.

Shame on us for not doing more to make food more equitably distributed in this great nation of ours. 

Calamity Acres is trying to do it's part... our eggs, with the exception of some going for personal use, and some to my brother, go to our local food kitchen.  Yes, there is a great need for the other food donated, and the protein-rich eggs.  I wish we could all do a little of this, to help those still in need.

We remember tonight, also, the poor people of Japan who are dealing with so much grief and destruction still.  It will be years before their lives are back to normal. 

We pray for the people in the Mideast, whose lives are in constant danger and uproar. 

We hope that gas prices come down, so food prices will, too, eventually, and people can get to the jobs that they have. 

We pledge that this year, we will save as much of nature's bounty from our garden as we can, to share with family and friends, and to feed ourselves without waste.

We hope and pray that the good people of our nation can find jobs that show them respect and pay them a living wage, and that they are able to provide for themselves and their families with the money they earn by their honest day's work.

My own prayer is that I learn as much as I can weekly from those of you reading and writing these wonderful blogs on the web about gardening, about raising animals for food, about saving the harvest, and about getting along in this wonderful nation of ours. 
I thank all of you, again, for your comments and suggestions.  I read your blogs with wonder and amazement and feel akin to all of you.  I know you are the people who stop your car to move a turtle across a road, and thrill to the cries of the geese overhead. 
Thank you!

Ranger thanks you, too!