Red Rooster no more

I was sorry to hear that owner of the Red Rooster has had her lease revoked. I have to say, I am not surprised that she wasn't able to keep it going. The location on the water is a fun place, but unless you know the restaurant is there, you probably wont know it's there.  I wonder if the final blow was the morning of the "perfect storm", when the tide rose right in the door and onto the floor. Let's hope someone can make a go of the place with just the right business plan for that location and that it still involves food and drink as there is nothing nicer  than sitting over the water on a sunny day, surrounded by all kinds of nautical activity, sipping a glass of wine.

Snow penguin

Jacob got a new snowboogie for Christmas and has already put it to good use. I remember the days when we used to ski and slide and never think about protecting our head. Hmmmm

USB

If I can remember, I am going to pick up one of these outlets with the USB port next time I go shopping. I rarely shop anywhere other than the grocery store these days. But, I did go to JCPenny at the Tacoma Mall yesterday. I used to be an incredible shopper....could look for hours. Not so much any more. I made it through the clothing, shoes and jewelry and ran out of steam.  I did manage to find a cute royal blue coat for only $40.00. It fit "around" nicely, but as usual, the sleeves were down to my knees. I checked it over carefully and decided the sleeves could be shortened. They had plackets and buttons so were a little tricky..maybe that is why is was still there...no one wanted to tackle them. By nightfall I had them apart and well on their way to being finished.  Now to decide if I want the three buttons on each sleeve or to leave them plain.  lalalalalalala

Merry Christmas

Well...all the work was worth it. I enjoyed making the clothes so much that I will probably make more :o) There are birthdays coming up in Jan. and March so maybe a few summer things will be next, or possibly things to match for big and little.

Cookies

A friend sent this picture and we thought it might be a nice idea for the refreshment table at our next concert. What you do is use a dog bone cookie cutter, cut them in half and decorate. How easy is that :O)

Bring Him Home

Happy Winter Solstice :o) I feel like this day is the beginning of the new year and as we head toward the light, a ride on the Polar Express is a good way to make that journey, with a little prayer added to the mix. Aw...maybe a couple of prayers.

2013 Calendar

If you haven't yet purchased a 2013 calendar, I've found just the one for you. A local realtor, Matt Thompson, gathers picture from local camera buffs and puts them together each year in a beautiful calendar. I stopped by his office yesterday and bought two. One for me...and one for a friend who used to live here in the harbor, but now calls Ohio home. I don't know about you, but I have quite a collection of old calendars because I just can't seem to part with them when their usefulness has come to an end. ....and that goes for those from a friend who lives in Michigan and takes incredible pictures of her area...mostly ships I might add...you know...the ships that ply the great lakes through rain, sleet and snow, that she shares in her calendars.
Again..if you are interested in ordering one from Matt, here is how you do it.

And...you may have seen pictures of the huge tide we had a couple days ago. Well, here is a video of the Red Rooster restaurant when the tide was the highest.  I hope they are able to get things cleaned up and be back in business without too much damage, soon.

And  one more thing, if the cold and rain are starting to get to you, how bout a trip to Cabo. I love this shot, especially in the morning as it's beginning to get light.

No net work today

Today we're having the "perfect storm". The tide is high and so is  the wind, and the two combined make it rather unpleasant for those who live or work too close to the shore. As I type, the tide is high in the parking lot at the Purdy shopping center so you'd best wait to shop until the tide goes out unless you have a pair of dandy wading boots. In the picture, the Schulich dock..or it used to belong to them, is under water, so for sure, there will be no net work any time soon. There is one good thing coming from all this wind....the air is soooo  fresh :o)
For more water world pictures, check out this site.

The blues

I have two shoe boxes filled with doll clothes....the pattern says it's for American Girl dolls.. let's hope so  cause I sure would be sad if nothing fit. I'm thinkin I'd love to have a blue outfit like the one in the picture with it as cold and damp as it is outside. Only 4 more days :o)
Our concert went great last night, though I sensed a definate somberness in the orchestra and audience...and I am thinking it's because of the tragedy that took place this week in Connecticut. It's been like a punch in the stomach to the whole country and even the " experts" know that there is no way of preventing a person with mental problems from hurting others if he is that determined.  Having lived for years near a person with mental problems, who we all know should be "confined" in a safe environment, and know the only way he can be "locked up" is he has to hurt someone first makes me tired of hearing and reading all the crap about gun control etc..  There are no easy answers or sure ways to deal with people with mental problems. My heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones and to the family of boy who changed so many lives forever.

Morning lights

Only a week to go until the shortest day of the year. I must say, I do love getting up in the early morning when it's dark outside and there are only the tree lights to light my way....Just for fun, I got out my fancy camera this morning.... set it on the kitchen counter to keep from moving and took this picture.. I am so used to hearing a quick click that I instantly wonder,,what did I forget to do when I hear the first click and the long pause....and finally the last click.  It's amazing how our brains think it through before the last click is heard.  For those who don't believe in  a creator...maybe they've never used a fancy camera :o)

Artesian

When I was very young, I spent quite a bit of time at my grandparents home and one of the memories that stands out like none other is the day the well driller hit water!! It was an artesian source and I can still picture the geyser spraying higher than the roof top...with bits of clay and water flying everywhere. Grandpa, standing on the right in the picture,  was very generous and through the years, at least 9 homes used water from the well. Hopefully there will always be enough sweet, pure water for those who need it and I must say, it's a treat to have an occasional drink from it after being on the Gig Harbor water system for so many years :o) I am not sure where we got our water before the well was drilled, but I do know we lived next to a creek with a culvert that ran under the road  resulting in  a small "water fall", plus there was a ram in the creek,  so maybe we got water right from the creek.

Knits

I love sewing with knits...I bought this fabric sooooo  many years ago, and finally  found a use for it. Now to make something to go with it...maybe a pair of warm winter pants...I know there must be just the right piece of  fabric hiding in my pile of stash.

Christmas jacket

Made this today and am still working on a skirt to go with it...not sure if it will be long or short...hmmm...
Had to take time out from sewing for lunch at the Inn of Gig Harbor. It was the  Welcome Neighbor Club luncheon and I decided to join since I have been to a few nice functions of theirs and the people are very nice. My friend Arlene and her group, the Soundsations, sang for us and this was my favorite song.
When I got home, the neighbor kid needed albuterol and knew I use it. He didn't want to go to the Dr. to get it so I gave him one of mine and in  return, he climbed up on my roof and put on moss killer. He had just finished cleaning his roof so I sent him home with the moss killer and said "use it" :o)
We have our own good neighbor club here :o)

Only 17 more days

Only 17 more days until winter solstice.. and only 11 days until our concert. Just for fun..here we were, practicing our hearts out the other evening.  We flutes have fun with Under the Double Eagle and there is ususally a piccolo with this song too, but our faithful tooting buddy is undergoing chemo for a newly discovered breast cancer , so we made do without her, but will have her back for the concert if we have to carry her in "o) . If you look at our program, you'll see songs with "eagle", "panther", "sea hawk" and  "cowboy"....kind of a football Christmas concert.  We've had  a "rhapsody" concert, a "waltz" concert,  "march" concert in March, and now a football concert because...well...I guess because it's football season.....and of course because it is the Christmas season, we do have two interesting pieces, one of which is this.
Again...my favorite is Haydn's 82nd symphony.  lalalalalalallal

Enough I think

Ingy helped me empty all these from the little chest thingy that I store them in so we could move it and make room for the Christmas tree.  She then helped put them all back...and nary a  one got broken...phew. After taking a good look at how many there are...I must refrain from buying any more. They come in all sizes, even little ones for the girls.  Jeanne, this whole addiction started with you bringing me the two from your travels down the coast a few years ago...so...own it :o)

Maria

This is  what the Maria looked like in the 1970's....before the guys added "tophouses". It looks like summer and with the skiff up, I've no doubt my hubby was headed to the salmon banks for a little sockeye fishing. She's a wood boat, so of course there is constant maintenance, and a friend posted this video she took on facebook of the Maria getting a few new planks. The shipwright is a native Tacoman, Mike Vlahovich, who has worked on many a boat from the west coast all the way to the east coast, mainly on Chesapeake Bay, restoring the old skipjacks. By the time this work was done, my hubby had passed away and our middle son was the one who over saw the job. I will be forever grateful to my sons for being there for me.

BlueCoat

Here's yesterday's addition. Today is my busy day so there will be no sewing, and tomorrow will be kids kids kids so there of course will be no sewing and to be honest...my neck needs a break :o)

Day two

Okay...yesterday I made a black ensemble...skirt, sleeveless knit top,  jacket and pants from sweatshirt fabric.  .....today...I'm thinking a coat may be in the works.

Jammies

I finally got motivated yesterday, dug through my fabric stash and found enough to make a truckload of clothes for the little girl's American Girl dolls.  I thought if I could make one outfit each day until Christmas, then  wrap them all  in one giant package, they would have fun going through them together and sharing....ya think???? 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Len :o)

Ichi-meter

Amy Franz is the name of the  gal wearing  the white with red brim baseball cap and  posing for a picture with her son and daughter at one of the Mariner's games.  We met on the KIRO radio chat many years ago and what brought her there was to hopefully have the host of the show, Dori Monson, see her comment that she had lost her baseball mitt. Lost her mitt you say....well...she had set it on her car after a game for some reason, then drove away forgetting it was there. She was hoping a listener might  have found it and would return it. After much sharing and never meeting in person...she mentioned one day where she always sits at the games....and in those days it was at the Kingdome.....so, while attending a game with my sis and our two youngest, I found my way to her seat...called out her "chat name" and she turned to me and I said my "chat name" ...we giggled, hugged and have met many times since at assorted gatherings...One sweet gal and one faithful fan.
Oh..and the reason I mentioned Amy is because of this and this.  OH...and she never found her mitt :o(

Hat and gloves

We had a fun Thanksgivng day yesterday. It was my first being  more than ten minutes, at the most, from home, but this year's celebration took me to Edmonds with my middle son and his family for an incredibly relaxing  day with the other grandma and grandpa doing all the cooking except for a string bean casserole I had brought.. They live half the year in Petersburg, Alaska and the other half here in Washington. Talk about the best of both worlds.  It was all I could do to stifle the  guilt I felt as I sat and watched them do all the work :o) )  Before dinner and before the couple who had dropped in for a short visit and who live not far left for home, we played a game that is traditiion in their family.  They piled a whole bunch of gift wrapped items on the coffee table and we rolled dice, choosing a gift if we rolled doubles. Once the gifts were all off the table and in posession of whoever won them, the timer was set for five minutes and  we started rolling again for doubles but this time we chose  from whatever looked interesting that another person had.  By the time the clock ran down, those who had had a pile of gifts had almost none and those who had few had more. It was fun opening the packages to see what we had ended up with. I ended up with a package of dinner napkins, a roll of plastic wrap, a package of candy and a small lemon cake..oh..and I also got a knife sharpener that sticks to the cupboard that won't slide while being used. I gave that to the man of the house as he's into that sort of thing :o)  In the picture above, Bergen ended up with cute little head and hand warmers. She was totally fascinated with the fingers being uncovered so that she could still use her iPod. 
It was a really fun day and I think leaving home on Thanksgiving could prove to be one of the best ideas around ....thanks again Bob and Signe...it was such fun....and I am looking forward to pumpkin pie for lunch :o)

GHPCOrchestra Concert

Just a little proof  that the sun does shine here and that it's not a constant deluge all the time. Those of us who were available got together the last time the sun shone, and posed for the postcard picture that is sent out  to all our faithful followers about our upcoming Christmas concert on December 15th. 7:00PM at Peninsula High School. Take a peek at our website and you'll see the music we'll be playing. I must say..my favorite is Haydn's 82nd Symphony.  Maybe it's because the flutes just carry on all through it and when we finish, it always brings a giggle and a smile to our faces.  Hope to see you there :o)
Just for fun,, here's something altogether different.

Lunch bunch

I mentioned the other day that a few of us "old" Rosedale friends and schoolmates got together for a visit to the musem and then to lunch at  the home of the gal in the background on the right.  The only one who grew up elsewhere is the fellow on the left. What a fun afternoon we had .

Old pictures

What a hoot......my nephew was going through some of mom's old slides and he found this picture of me and my "first love" . How he ended up with the picture I do not know, but it was neat to be reminded of the fun times we had when we lived in Valdez. I think it was taken a month before my 15th birthday and we were probably at the annual basketball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska.  My friend Doug was a very talented athlete and Valdez ended up in the play-offs, but Nome won the championship that year in 1955.

Bless our veterans

Building a house

Had my buddy again today and we built ourselves a dandy house. Jacob is putting the finishing touch on things....then...of course.....since we all know that building the house is 99 percent of the fun......naturally.....the only thing we could do next..... was.....shove it off the table  :o)

Lunch with friends

Yesterday was a fun day, spent with old friends. First we did the  museum, which was my first time of really taking time to see it all, then it was off to Rosedale for lunch at Dinah's home. Out of the 7 of us, 6 went to school in the little two room school house in Rosedale and the 7th grew up on Vaughn Bay so at least attended high school with the rest of us. Jeannine, the gal in the picture with me, was in my class and because she played the piano, was the one who accompanied us when we played solos. She has been a pianist all her life, in fact, she is Professor Emeritus from California State University in Northridge, California. She still teaches piano and lectures, but does it now from her home near Olympia.
One thing I found to be interesting as we sat and visited over desert...all of us had voted for Romney and all of us were sick at heart that after the past 4 failed years of Obama,  the american people hadn't been able to see just how decent, bright and well equipped Romney is to begin the process of getting this country back on the road to recovery.
This is what we have now.

The end of cake

We’ve Come To The End Of Cake

Sarah Hoyt, Nov. 5th

Today I’m going to come as close to political as I ever do in this blog. You’ve been warned. If it’s going to annoy you, you may leave now.
This election has swirled around a lot of crazy things, starting with “War on women” a concept that might as well have been invented by a Martian with no understanding of human psychology or anatomy. I can just imagine the march on the women’s towns, guns blazing… I can, unless I realize that most men love or at least like women, and that women are not an army of same-minded robots. Then there was the war on Big Bird and finally the rather ridiculous injunction to vote for revenge – though what in heavens name requires revenge no one knows. Of course human nature being what it is, all of us can come up with several reasons to seek revenge on several people. We are none of us never wronged, and we, all of us, tend to see the wrongs against us as a much greater injustice than those we commit against others. This appeal to humans’ baser instincts might be effective. It is also a recipe for every man against every other.
My grandmother used to say “A house where bread is scarce, it’s every man’s hand against the other.” Bread isn’t scarce in America, save in the areas ravaged by Sandy, where we are seeing once again how centralized operations do a magnificent job for the little guy on the ground – by which I mean they are hungry, cold and in the dark.
However, I am here to tell you that we are broke. Not only are we broke, we are stone cold broke. No, unlike the belief of the hopeful diarist at DU the other day, this doesn’t just mean we can print more money. If you think that, you’ve confused the thing with the symbol.
If you print more money in an economy that is not generating more goods, you just make the price of goods go up. This is known as inflation. It devours the substance of those who have saved by making that saved money worth less; it makes us an undesirable borrower; in its extreme instances it makes it impossible for industries to accumulate capital for investment and expansion.
In fact, that’s what we’ve been doing for a good while now, and how we’ve got in the trouble we’re in.
So, we are broke. Our country is broke, our cities are broke, our states are broke too – though broke might be too kind a word to explain the state of California. We need another word Uber-broke, perhaps.
But why are we broke, you say? Aren’t we the richest nation in the world? Didn’t we put a man on the moon?
Yes. We put a man on the moon with intense concentrated effort that was – at the time – suited to a governmental push. (These days, with new tech, I pin my hopes on private space programs.)
Yes, we’re very rich, both in material and in terms of human capital. That means nothing. Some of the countries with most resources in the world are the most miserable. Venezuela comes to mind. The reverse is also true. Think of Singapore or Japan.
We are broke for the reason nations go broke: we forgot that everything has a price. We forgot this both individually and collectively.
Collectively we forgot that our wealth was finite and that everything we did meant something else didn’t get done. We empowered tremendous bureaucracies to do things like wage war on poverty, which might be even crazier than war on women, because at least we know what women look like while poverty and the definition of poverty changes from area to area and from decade to decade. Of course that was not all we did. We’ve had many many wars against wraiths and phantoms. We’ve gone to war against drugs – for instance – by which we mean a war against drug use, which is an individual behavior. We’ve gone to war against racism – not just the expression of racism, which would still be repugnant as it violates freedom of expression – but thoughts of racism. We’ve gone to war against illiteracy. We’ve gone to war … I could list it forever.
Never mind. All that money that got channeled into these programs – minus the 90% that went to feed and clothe and retire the bureaucrats who were front line soldiers in these wars – didn’t go to expanding the economy. It didn’t go towards colonies on Mars. It didn’t go towards the development of new agricultural methods. It didn’t go towards whatever purpose the people who earned it would have put it to.
But at least we’ve been successful, right? The poor are no longer with us. Oh? Not really? I see.
One of the things that money hasn’t gone to is to have kids and raise kids. As the mother of two I’m here to tell the rest of you it’s one heck of an economic sink hole. My husband and I, even when we’re both making decent money have times of barely scraping by. Kids have open expenses: clothes, food, schooling, health. They also have hidden expenses: without kids, Dan and I would be living in half the house, and probably in a more urban and cheaper setting. Kids pushed us to the more expensive neighborhood, where they’d be safe playing in the yard.
Most people simply can’t afford kids. And those who can, by working two jobs, don’t see the point of having kids for strangers to raise.
And therein comes how, individually, we forgot that everything has a cost. Back in the fifties the idea of negotiated pensions and comfortable retirements must have seemed great. Heck, it seems great to me. Given a chance I’d bargain to have my publisher promise to pay my upkeep for thirty years or so at the end of my productive life.
No one is offering me that bargain, because my employers must make the money they pay.
And again, here comes the rub. If you thought “so do all employers” you forgot that a lot of people work for the government. The government doesn’t make money. It can only confiscate it from those who make it. As such, it can lose touch with what is reasonable to promise employees.
Yesterday I found myself listening to one side of a conversation with someone who wants to vote in a way that will assure she can retire at fifty with her pension because she was promised, and 10% has been taken out of her paycheck her entire working life.
Well, yeah. And I want a pony and a magic unicorn.
The money isn’t there. The state in question is stone cold broke. We can argue till the cows come home about where the money went or if it was a good idea. Most of it went up some government’s hole and got lost in the gigantic game of bureaucratic pass-around. What it got nominally used for is irrelevant. As is whose fault it is.
The money isn’t there. And part of the reason it isn’t there is that all these programs, union or not, private or public depended on one thing: More people. In the early twentieth century, everyone knew that every generation would be bigger than the last. It is baked in all the sf books, even Heinlein’s.
Except we made it hard to have and raise children. And it didn’t happen.
The multitudes that were supposed to keep us safe and warm in retirement aren’t there. (This also has an adverse effect on investment but that’s something else again.) The money we paid in was spent on the current generation of older people.
Importing a whole lot of illiterate or uneducated immigrants won’t solve this problem. Their wealth creating ability is limited.
Which is when you must step back and examine things. SHOULD you have guaranteed retirement pensions for twenty, thirty years of your life? Why? And don’t tell me you paid into it and you’re entitled. Why are you? Other generations weren’t. And just because you paid into a Ponzi scheme that promised you a return of several billion, doesn’t mean you’re entitled to get it. Not even if you were forced to pay. It just means things suck and life isn’t fair. (My generation by and large never expected to be paid social security. Apparently we were more credulous about other plans.)
Look at it realistically: How much does a thirty year vacation cost? Why should you have it if we’re broke? Aren’t there bigger needs for that money? More importantly, doesn’t each individual family have bigger needs and know them better.
This applies not just to retirement, but to everything the government is promising us: free health care, free child care (what do you think schools are anymore?), free this, free that, and a pony on top.
What you have to ask yourself is “where is the money going to come from?”
No one is lending to us anymore. We’re printing money and lending to ourselves. This is sort of like cutting off your leg and making a roast. That money is devaluing the money in every saving account throughout the land. It’s making all of us poorer.
But then, if we’re broke, don’t we need free healthcare? And free contraceptives? And free— Do I want people to die?
I’m all for free everything. What, you think I’m stupid? I’m no more industrious than the average person. Okay, I like writing, so I’d probably still write if I won the lottery, but I promise you I’d also spend a lot of time listening to music, reading, and walking around in pleasant surroundings. I’d love to have stuff just fall in my lap. And I want all my friends to have free stuff too. Most of them work way too hard.
BUT EVERYTHING HAS A COST. LISTEN TO ME. EVERYTHING HAS A COST.
Where is the free stuff going to come from if we’re broke? No, don’t tell me rich people should pay more. Most of us have some idea of the imaginary rich person with a money bin like Uncle Scrooge’s. I’m fairly sure government employees think that way too.
It’s not true. Most rich people invest their money. They start companies. They invest in other companies. The money is in motion. Yes, they still live very well but… here’s the sad news: if you confiscated all of their money – all the money of everyone making over say 100k, ALL OF IT, you’d run our country for a couple of months. And that’s at present rate. Forget giving out more free stuff. Also, if you tax rich people and companies to the hilt, they move. France is learning this now. (The countries who’ve made it illegal for the rich and businesses to leave, like… oh, North Korea, for some reason don’t get richer. Go figure.)
And if we consumed all that in a grand spree, after that we’d be even more broke, because there would be no money for investments.
Look, guys, it’s none of our faults. Most of the policies that led to this were created a LONG time ago. Some of them – the Universal Rights Of Man – were spearheaded by the Soviet Union as a weapon against the free world. Marxism has been distorting the minds of people longer than any of us have been alive.
It was the idea that wealth is finite, fostered by Marxists, that led to policies that discouraged having children, because children were viewed as a drain, not as wealth creators. (Yes, every human is a wealth creator in potential. When there were only a dozen humans in the world, they were all much poorer. If that’s counterintuitive to you, you must study real economics.)
The best things in life aren’t free, not unless the best things in life are air, whatever water you can find, and the occasional lame squirrel. Everything must be paid for in money, or in what money represents: work, effort, knowledge and yes, blood, sweat and tears. As for the “But France has a pony” argument – yes, other countries have “free” healthcare and stuff. It is free for them because they were willing to stifle their development and innovation and, yes, their population. It still worked, because we do this thing called Foreign Aid. This is where we bought France a pony. And we stood by to keep other kids from stealing her pony.
That is not just crazy, but it’s also on the way out because – again, guys, from the top: we are broke!
This means when all those kids er… countries for whom we’ve been buying candy and toys don’t get them, they’re going to get mad at us.
Because of this, though I disapprove of adventurism abroad, the only program I’d keep is defense. We must be ready to keep what we have, little though it is. And we must build more. And we must spank anyone who tries to attack us quickly, effectively and without remorse. And then we must come home and work.
The time of walking around waging war on FOREIGN poverty is gone too.
When government offers you free stuff while at the same time demanding you pay taxes on the penalty of jail, all it’s doing is taking your money, removing its cut, then giving it back to you. (“Nice economy you got here, shame…”) Which means in the end you’re poorer, but bureaucrats have more power.
Of course, perhaps that’s what you want. Perhaps you want to vote for revenge. One thing that free government stuff is good at is killing people. What am I talking about? Oh, from guaranteed income (yes, it’s been tried) that let people spiral into depression and addiction, to well… free health care where they make the decision of what the treatment will be and you have no say, to the “free contraceptives” in the Soviet Union, which, in the end, were JUST free abortions performed in substandard conditions, because the Soviet Union was so broke it could not produce enough condoms, let alone anything more sophisticated. (Or where did you think everyone adopted from Russia came from?)
Perhaps you’re making a calculation that the people before us got all the good stuff, and if their life is shortened a little, there will be more stuff for us. It’s sort of a rational decision, except that the maw of government rarely gives back that which it devours. You too will eventually be caught by the bear, after you throw the baby from the sleigh. But … it’s a strategy. Immoral and possibly imprudent, but it will give you “revenge.”
But if that’s not what you want, think carefully before you vote for free stuff. There is no free stuff. Everything that involves the work, effort or knowledge of others must be paid for. Either out of your own pocket or out of the pocket of others – which in the end makes us all poorer because that money isn’t used for mega-squid farms and colonies on Mars.
Yes, you were promised. Sorry. They lied to you. They can continue to lie, but things will only get worse. You might think you’re saving yourself at the expense of future generations, but unless you’re VERY OLD now, you won’t die before the collapse comes. At the rate we are going, you’ll be around when all the free stuff stops because there IS NO MONEY. Only you’ll be older and less able to cope.
Better to rip off the bandaid now. Prioritize those who need to be taken care of – say those over sixty – and let the rest of us build at least a very little head of steam before the time comes we can’t work. Me? I’ll be here at eighty with my hands on the keyboard.
And if your goal isn’t revenge on past generations – when you go to the polls, remember that we are broke. Whatever they promise you, those are just promises. Like money printed out of nothing, it means nothing.
You can choose to embrace sanity now, or it will surely be forced on you later, at great cost in blood, sweat and tears.
There is no cake. The cake is a lie. We’ve come to the end of cake.

Fall Leaves

The hillside across the bay is ever so slowly changing from green to gold and gold to red. I used the long lense on my camera and took this pix this morning...then messed with Picasa and this was the final result. Today, I have done absolutely nothing constructive, and why should I, it's the day I was married...50 years ago... and since I knew for sure, that anyone that old was ready for a nursing home,  today I am behaving like an old person.....it took me 6 hours to finally have a shower and get dressed and another 4 to get my shoes on....now that I am finally ready to step outside my home, that is just what I am going to do...take a walk..and thank goodness I can do it without a cane or a walker ...I can bop along and keep up with most any one, ..well...except for my 3 year old grandson :o)  Have a good day.

Halloween costumes

Last night a gypsy, a fireman and Cleopatra showed up at my house begging for candy. It was a rainy halloween, but that didn't stop the kids from having a fun time.

Calm Water

As I walked my walk route yesterday, I felt a little guilty as I looked at the calm water just below me, knowing that there were many along the east coast being battered by angy seas.
Years ago, when our youngest was just a baby, we lived on the spot where the new house sits,just past the flagpole. It's gone now, but I see the old house next door is still there, along with the old Skansie dock. It's nice to see the dock still being used, though not for the building of nets.

Taku

My daughter in law's mom and dad watched their "ride" pass their home in Petersburg  this morning. They had reservations to leave for Bellingham today on the Taku, but as you can see, she's under tow though  they are still  hoping to get away today.
The last time she sent a picture of any thing other than a fishing boat was  when the Hanseatic passed by, on her way to transit the Northwest Passage, which she did and is now off the African coast in wonderful balmy weather.

Trick or treat

Jacob stopped by today in his halloween costume. He had a cool cowboy hat, a neck scarf, and cool cowboy boots. His mama decided to be practical and buy the real thing. He can wear his boots all through the winter and his hat will be great for keeping off the rain and who knows..if he goes back to visit his aunty in Colorado, he'll fit right in.

Tea time

Ing and I had tea the other afternoon...it was just after we had picked the last of the plums. She set everything up and then waited on me hand and foot. As a thank you, I read her some nursery rhymes. She didn't know it, but I had turned on my digital recorder and caught a bit of our conversation.  Have a listen :o)

Two Babushkas

What fun it is to dig through the drawers at someone else's house...and that is exactly what the girls did a couple days ago while mama did some grocery shopping. Okay, their last name isn't Babushka, but it's close :o)

Seaside circle

Good morning world....I slept 9 hours last night thanks to trying to sleep two nights on a single bed that was high in in the middle and made me feel as if I was going to roll onto the floor when I moved. Thanks Jim and Jeanne for the fun stay in Seaside, Oregon at your beautiful timeshare, thanks for the walk in the wild, wet wind along the shore, thanks for the popcorn done the old fashioned way,  thanks for sharing the debate and being another pubbie so we could make comments and not get beat up, thanks for taking me to the Warrenton Goodwill and the junk shops and most of all, thanks for us being able to be our true selves as only long time friends can  :o)

Thomas and friends

Jacob lined up all the trains at grandma's house and was quite pleased with the results. He likes to see if they will stay connected as  he pulls them. It's such fun watching their little imaginations at work.

Sleepover

The girls stayed at granny's last night so that mom and dad could go to a surprise birthday party for a neighbor. I am up quietly typing while they are still asleep. I remember those precious quiet hours in the morning as a mother.

Fly away

Summer is quickly flying away and I had to finally turn on the furnace just long enough to get the chill off the house, then it was back to the small heaters. I'd rather pay the light company for power than send my money to foreigners for their oil.
I watched a litte of the VP debate last night, listened to a little on the radio and then when I got home again, watched a little of the rerun on TV. It was hard to watch Biden smirk, smile and throw his hands up, and I think Ryan did a good job of carrying on with all the interruptions. Course I am bias, but for what it's worth, Ryan won easily.  Let's hope the Romney-Ryan ticket wins  the election and then maybe, just maybe, they will take on the many problems we wouldn't have if our present president could work with others.

Another goodbye

I lost my neighbor of 44 years yesterday. Lorraine lived across the street from me and when I saw her in the morning at her dining room table, I knew all was well.  The past two weeks she was in the hospital and then the nursing home...now she's taken that final journey to her  eternal home. I am happy for her that she is finally free from the suffering she went through and relieved for her children and grandchildren  who have been her caregivers.  Rest in peace, Lorraine.

 

And...something altogether different, but well worth watching. 

And....don't forget the VP debates tonight at 6:00.

Award

Our Gig Harbor Peninsula Civic Orchestra performed at the Puyallup Fair in September and when we finished, we were awarded this participation ribbon....it's our first ribbon and first award, hence the reason for the huge smile from our concuctor, Matthew Underwood. We are starting our 9th season and many of us who were at the first rehearsal are still playing plus the many who  have joined since and the one thing we all have in common is the love of makin music. Thank you Matthew for starting this wonderful, crazy, thing :o)
Oh...and I finally found out our December concert will be on December 15th, 7:00 pm at Peninsula High School. Just for fun, here's a sample of our last years Christmas concert.

Heading in

Son sent this picture last evening  of the sinking sun  as they headed into the Columbia River. Knowing they're almost home and safe must have been the reason I slept so well last night.

The New Yorker

Ouch!!! Here's another empty chair picture, but this one will be on the next edition's cover of  The New Yorker magazine. The article below gives a great explanation of why the debates and Obama's presidency turned out the way they have.

October 6, 2012

How the Liberal Media Ruined Obama

By Lisa Fritsch

It's not an "Incumbent Curse," as MSNBC would call Obama's performance at Wednesday's first presidential debate. It was not Obama's fear of coming across as the angry black man, as Michael Eric Dyson surmised, that prevented Obama from driving a strong debate on the issues with Mitt Romney. And it was not that Mitt Romney has been practicing since June for the debates, per David Axelrod's analysis. Nor was it a question of Obama losing the debate stylistically rather than substantively. And certainly it was not that Mitt Romney was untruthful, thereby catching Obama off-guard. The fact is that this Obama we saw last night and have endured for the last four years is a product of our liberal leftist media.

Obama was not ready last night, he has never been ready, and he will never be ready to be the leader this country needs, for he is the first president to have never been vetted.
My own mother observed that "it's the media's fault that Obama lost the debate. Watching the debate reminded me of a child set out on his own after being raised by parents who failed to teach him responsibility and accountability and let the child think that he was above being corrected or disciplined. This was the time that Chris Matthews could not jump in and tell the people what Obama meant to say." Indeed, Obama has been brought up by an adoring and overindulgent liberal media who have coddled him for the last eight years on everything from his appearance to Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and his caught-on-a-live-microphone secret handshake with Russian President Medvedev, where he promised that he will have "more flexibility after the election" to work with the Russians on missile defense. Additionally, we have the age-old public displays of media affection, including Dave Brooks' awe over the crease in Obama's pants and the "thrill up" Chris Matthews' leg. With a sycophantic media like this, who needs accountability?
Until Univision took Obama to task over his promise on immigration, Americans had rarely seen President Obama being held accountable by the media to match his word with his record. An unsteady, flustered, and out-of-gas Obama was bewildered as to how Univision's Jorge Ramos could have missed the "how to conduct an interview with President Obama" memo.
Wednesday's presidential debate revealed the same tight-lipped, flustered president -- unprepared for Jim Lehrer's reluctance to intervene and stop Romney from daring to question and attack his record.
This is not Romney's fault. It isn't even Obama's fault. It is the fault of America's leftist liberal media who have continually misled Obama into thinking he would never have to answer to his record.
And so the media is quickly back on task, as David Axelrod so aptly conveyed to CNN's Candy Crowley, saying, "I know you and others are going to be following this tomorrow and so are the American people." In other words, clean up this mess. Only the mess is Obama's record, and the media is right to cry. Americans' eyes are opening. They are no longer buying into the notion of hope, because hope now has a record: a record unemployment rate, a record thirty-two percent of Americans on food stamps, and record-high gas and commodities prices. Republicans have a candidate -- as evidenced by the debate -- who is not afraid to confront Obama on his record and who, most importantly, has the courage to run on his own good record and experience rather than good wishes.
This time is different. In 2008, the media was able to aid Obama in pulling the wool over America's eyes. This time, the media will not be able to take Obama out of the equation and make every pensive question about him the fault and flaw of the circumstances and people around him. In other words, the media was able to make 2008 race about electing Obama while at the same time never fully vetting or making known very much about him. The media made Hillary Clinton look whiny and weak when asking about the differences in the debate questions. They viciously attacked Sarah Palin, making the race about cults of personality and Saturday Night Live. They painted the Tea Party as bigoted racists who didn't approve of a black president.
But Obama is the president now, not the candidate, and the media will be unable to convince the millions of unemployed looking for work that their circumstances are just a coincidence in light of Obama's presidency. The media will be unable to mislead the many small business owners who have laid off employees for fear of rising taxes and insurance costs. The media cannot protect Obama against those Americans who have seen firsthand the devastation of Obama's last four years in office.
The media has given Obama a false sense of entitlement and has so glorified his very presence that what is being witnessed now is the total lack of humility and the unrefined intellect of a spoiled child. Obama simply has not thought through any of his platforms, because he has never needed to. He has never thought through the depths to which insanely expensive ObamaCare devastates the middle class, because he has not needed to. Obama has no answer for investing $90 billion in losers like Solyndra and green jobs, because Obama has not had to answer to anyone in the last eight years -- not as a candidate, and certainly not as president.
Now the same media who has spent four years coddling Obama is aghast at the dull and dejected child they have created. Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow want to know what happened to Obama. Where was the real Obama?
But the real Obama did show up. It was Obama in the flesh, without the benefit of media airbrushing and highlights. The true Obama and his A-game were revealed -- no teleprompter, and no softball questions pitched exactly to the left of the plate, where Obama likes them. Obama was unguarded and unprotected by the media, leaving him to face his kryptonite: accountability.
Lisa Fritsch is the author of Obama, Tea Parties and God and a national television and radio commentator with appearances on Fox News Channel. www.lisafritsch.com

Eastwood was right

The first presidential debate definately proved that Clint Eastwoodl was right :o)

Roger L. Simon

It was a bad twentieth wedding anniversary night for Barack and Michelle Obama. Twenty-five should be better. No irritating debates to deal with. It won’t even be an election year. Maybe they can celebrate with a Mai Tai or two in their new beachfront home on Oahu.
All the networks agreed last night, even the court eunuchs on MSNBC, as did the polls and the focus groups, that Romney won the debate. Obama looked like a warmed-over version of Richard Nixon, shifty and evasive in his answers. But Nixon was always infinitely more prepared than our current president and considerably more informed.
The fuddy-duddy liberal choir of the mainstream media looked shell-shocked. But secretly some of them may actually be relieved. Anyone with an IQ in triple digits knows that Romney would be a better president than Obama with the country and the world in the situation they are. And that probably includes Obama himself, considering the level at which he debated.

If Romney is elected, dad would be back and they (the media) would get to be kids again, living la vida loca while protesting until blue in their collective faces everything Romney does in the coming years. They get to be “against the man” once more. They don’t have to defend the man, such as he is.
A few of these media folks may even subtly throw Obama under the bus – a just deserts since he has done that favor to so many others. We’ll have to see. It did seem to me while watching the debate that even moderator Jim Lehrer, try as he might to help the president, was starting to realize Romney was the better man. Even Ed Schultz and Bill Maher apparently tweeted that Romney had won, not that they would ever change their views short of a waterboarding — or even then.
But, in defense of Obama, there is a more significant reason he did so badly in the debate than his own relative ineptitude and dyspepsia. Liberalism, his ideology, is economically indefensible. It doesn’t work. He had, in reality, no response when confronted by Romney’s positions. When it comes to liberalism, there’s no there there (hence the outcry on the Left that he should have insulted Romney more, about the 47% etc.).
If Obama and/or his minions begin to think or realize that, they are really doomed. This will not be a normal election. Their world will be upended. But if they do continue and win, it will be even worse, because the country, and even Western civilization, will unravel quite quickly thereafter.
But I am more optimistic. What we may have witnessed on October 3, 2012, is the death of liberalism. And it deserves to die because it is a greedy and self-centered ideology masked under the pretense of generosity and guarded fiercely by wannabe media potentates like Chris Matthews who had the next thing to an aneurysm at the performance of his onetime idol.
Liberalism will come back, of course, under one or more of a million names. But for now Mitt Romney has administered it a serious body blow.

Another interesting read.

Romney for president

 

Harbor entrance

Just me, messing with another picture. This is the harbor entrance from the outside looking in.

Donkey Creek Chum Festival

Today is the annual Donkey Creek Chum Festival. The festival will be celebrating its 6<sup>th year, at a new location (Skansie Brothers Park). The Chum Fest celebrates the salmon, our fishing heritage, and the environment.There is always a lot of action on the water as well as on the street. Be sure and stop for a delicious BBQ'd fish burger. Oh, and the hours are 10:00 to 4:00.

The current distribution of chum salmon spans most of western Washington, including Puget Sound, the coast, and several lower Columbia River streams. The chum stocks of these three regions represent genetically distinct population groupings and are managed separately. Along with sockeye and pink salmon, chum salmon have traditionally been considered a commercial fishing species. In the nineteen-nineties, chum salmon have been the most valuable of Washington produced salmon to state and tribal commercial fishers, in terms of total state-wide annual value. In recent years, however, there has been growing sport fishing interest in chum salmon, both in marine and freshwater fisheries. As sport fishing opportunities have been restricted for other species, the abundant chum salmon runs have been "discovered" by many salmon anglers, and new fishing locations and techniques are helping to make chum salmon an important sport fish.</sup>

Friends

My friend Arlene and I have known each other since we were freshmen in high school which, if I can do my math,  makes it 57 years. You'll not find a more faithful friend nor one with a kinder heart. She went to nursing school and one of my special memories was having her the nurse when I had one of my children. She certainly went into the right profession. I hope, with all the changes in our lives recently,  we can stay as close as we've been.  Love ya, Arlene :o)

More messin