How warped are we in this society? [Rhetorical question.] I just read an AP story from yesterday ~07 May about hackers who loaded the Epilepsy Foundation website with images and links to flashing images that trigger seizures in people who have photosensitive epilepsy!  ARGHHHHHH! What are we becoming? The FBI is investigating the security breach and I hope they capture and convict whomever is behind this malicious act.  This apparently was done just to do harm. How sad. They achieved their goal as several people apparently suffered from intense migraines and seizure symptoms. I am so sorry for those innocent victims.  Needless to say, the website has increased security measures. 

Writing first,titling later….mainly because I’m not sure where this post is going….Our twenty eight year old son called us last night to tell us his deployment orders are firm and he’ll be going to southwest Asia [yes, that includes the Middle East and Afghanistan] in a couple of weeks. He has been serving in our military for ten years this year. He will be away from a five year old who will be starting kindergarten in the fall and a almost [ in July] two year old who has never been away from him for longer than a month.  He is a Tech Sargent who is awaiting his results for the Master Sargents exam and who recently took the initial steps to possibly stepping into the officer corp. He graduated from college with his bachelors last year after taking classes evenings while working his normal duty schedule during the day.  He has deployed before and I know we just have to trust that God [or the universe or what supreme power you choose to believe in] will watch over him if he encounters danger. He is a wonderful father. A good husband. A great son. A good grandson,cousin,nephew,….. So whatever other problems besetting this world of ours you all will have to excuse me if I don’t find them so important now!  When you have a person in the military you honor them most by showing your respect,support and gratitude for their service.  My Dad served in World War II as did my father-in-law and my uncles and countless others. I had uncles in the Korean conflict as well. My brother-in-laws served in Vietnam.  But I truly had no appreciation of the sacrifice and worry involved until my son enlisted.  Regardless of your opinions of the government’s decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan please remember these brave men and women and the jobs they are doing for the nation.  They stand on the wall for us all.   

Beautiful day here in Erie PA. Sunshine,blue skies, spring flowers in bloom.  People out walking everywhere in my neighborhood and with smiles on their faces. After taking my puppy, Cricket, for our daily jaunt around Gridley Park, we came home and made pink lemonade served up with a fresh slice of lemon from a beautiful jade colored glass pitcher! As gloomy an outlook as I was experiencing yesterday today is a new day and Life is full of possibilities! 

So glad that Barack Obama won North Carolina’s primary yesterday and from the news accounts barely lost in Indiana.  It should be most interesting to see how the story unfolds in the Democratic party now. I am and have been a lifelong Republican and I support Obama.  He represents a brighter future to me. Anyone who remains calm when all about him are a twitter in the face of the politics-as-usual mud slinging and who offers solutions to problems this nation faces and yet will readily admit there will be times when he will make mistakes,is my kind of person. Go Obama!  The Republican party here in our locale is pitiful, IMO.  I was never one of those straight party voters anyway. I judge each candidate on the content of their character and the sincerity with which they propose their ideas and then if they are elected~how they followed thorugh on their “promises”.  Haven’t missed a major election since registering to vote at 19.  Though I have opted not to vote in many primaries here in the City as there are very few Republican candidates put forth for office that I feel deserved my vote.  I also support a more open primary system and would like someone to really explain the reasons why Pennsylvania does not allow Independents to vote in primary elections.  I believe that Pennsylvania needs to join the twenty first century and change the voting procedures in many ways. Not that it will every happen!

That’s my rant for today. Smile. Life is short, make the most of every moment.

ARGHHHH! As Charlie Brown would say ….. why does the world seem like its being enveloped by a cloud of pessimism and despair?  I am trying to send positive thoughts out to the universe in hopes that it may help.  Politically, I wish we would get back to discussing the real issues that face us as a nation~economic recession, rising costs of food,fuel, housing, and healthcare, change at all levels of government to a climate the encourages being responsive to the electorates needs [not wants, but needs] that is committed to finding common ground toward peace, prosperity, improvement and growth.  Enough is enough! Societally, could everyone just try to respect others points of view, show compassion and understanding, and display some responsibility both on a personal level and as part of the human condition???   As trite as it sounds, try to leave the world a little better than we found it.

On a personal level, could people practice forgiveness and understanding.  Just for a moment look inside ourselves and admit our errors and instead of holding onto past injuries whether they be emotional or physical, real or imagined move forward, strive for unity, love, and as the AA creed states the acceptance of things we cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference between what can be changed and what cannot.  Sunday was the fourteenth anniversary of my mother’s death. I miss her every day.  I long to change the cross words I may have said to her in my youth.   I wish she could see how her grandson has become the man and father that is better than my wildest dreams. And meet her great grandchildren~they are wonderful,funny, handsome, tender, loving boys who are the very best of us.They carry with them so many mannerisms that remind me of her and my late Dad. I have learned to cherish every moment you are blessed to get with those you love. Waste not a second of that time!

Hi. Lately I have had the most negative feelings about Erie, Pennsylvania that I think I ever had about living here. But then this morning Saturday May 03, 2008, I discovered a post on erieblogs.com that displayed a google video of an Erie Management Group production promoting the Erie area. It made me re-think my position. I have grown up here and remain an Erieite. Please if by some chance anybody is reading this I hope you can spare just twenty seven minutes to see why Erie Pennsylvania is a great place to live, work and play. Come visit us sometime! If I was more tech saavy I would link you to the site but sorry -no such ability! Also might I suggest to you all that you check out GlobalErie.net. This is a blog written by a former Erieite who now resides in Washington, D.C. and usually contains some thought provoking discussion about a wide variety of issues.

Just having checked on my previous posts, I thought I would blog about my day…It was unusually productive and interesting. Awoke at 5 a.m. and called my husband off-work due to a cracked tooth and resulting dental appointment. He went back to sleep and I shuffled off to start the coffee and think about what I wanted to accomplish for the day. Cricket got her morning walk with the two of us. That was nice as I didn’t have to hold the leash and could look at all the amazing architecture of the century-old homes in our neighborhood. I must say, this spring the whole neighborhood looks cleaner and like more people are taking an interest in fixing up their properties. Landscapes are superb with flowering trees of pinks & whites, brilliantly red and yellow tulips and daffodils and of course the object of my envy for quite a few summers now a spice viburnum on the corner of 10th and Cherry Sts. Its flowers emit the most wonderful fragrance I have ever experienced!!!  After the walk, we returned home and set about transferring four foot sections of branches from walnut and choke cherry trees which blew down and were damaged in the January 29th wind storm here.  We stacked brush piles three feet high  the length of the curbside from our house all the way to past our neighbors. Hopefully the city streets crew will collect and chip them for us. We gave them a call requesting pick-up so we’ll see.  Any larger branches were stacked for firewood. There remains one walnut trunk to finish taking down but that has to wait for another day as my husband wants some assistance to fell it due to its size and proximity to both ,our house and the neighbors. After collecting and stacking the debris, we raked the yard and took a coffee break.  As we needed more garbage cans to fill with yard debris we decided to go shopping.  First we visited the post office to dispatch some photos to the neighbor of his yard post tree and return In the Valley of Elah[an excellent Tommy Lee Jones film which we very much enjoyed.] Then walked over to the Sidewalk Cafe downtown to eat a bite. I had a Greek omelet with rye toast that was spicy and delicious. My husband a veggie burger with side salad.  Afterwards we travelled on to Nickle Plate Mills, a feed store turned garden center downtown in search of plants and basically just to peruse the merchandise. I like to frequent the locally owned stores and give them my business as opposed to the often cheaper but objectionable “Big Box” stores like Wal-Mart, or as I like to call it ChinaMart.  I am sooooo glad that we did.  a very knowledgeable garden lady helped  answer some questions I had on what to plant in my front yard since the large maple tree is no longer there and the area now gets full sun which killed all my lovely azaleas [Boohoo!]  She asked what other plants remained in that garden area and suggested we move the hostas as soon as possible as they too are intolerant of full sun. She asked that we bring in digital photos of the area and she would help pick out some plants or better yet a tree  to replace the maple. She had some great suggestions -hydrangea, a flowering pear tree, and Then- she asked us to follow her back to their greenhouse and showed us five Korean Spice Viburnums !!!! Oh Heavenly Day!!!! For sixtydollars we left there with a beautiful fragrant blooming viburnum with a bag of peat moss to help the planting, plenty of good advice on caring for it, some free dog food samples for Cricket, and some urine-off spray as Cricket is still on the path to being totally house-broken. Then we stopped at Valu-Home Center and purchased three new navy blue 34 gallon trash cans. When we got home we set out the perfect spot for the viburnum and Alan began to dig. Meanwhile I began to load the new trash cans with leaves and branches from a huge 3′ x 10′ pile of debris. It took no time at all for them all to be filled to the brim and still the pile is 2′ x 6′!!!! Nine garbage cans of various sizes filled with leaves and branches from the neighbors yard mixed with magnolia flower petals from our tree. The trash men are going to LOVE us on Monday- Not!  Took some more digital photos of the cleaner area.  Why? you may ask…..well, the neighbor bordering our neighbors house uses Ted[the aforementioned neighbors driveway and parking area quite regularly  and he felt all these branches and leaves were impeding his huge Chevy truck's ability to drive up and down and park in Ted's yard!!  What nerve! This guy is relatively new to the neighborhood and has been slowly impinging on Ted's property and offers no payment or acts of kindness for Ted's generous permission to use his drive and parking area. It aggravates me as I am sure you can tell! Said neighbor, Mark, enclosed his yard with an ten foot high chain link fence and is in the process of converting his carriage house [which was a three car garage] to an apartment to add to is main house four or five units!  Thus he limited his own parking area and needs Ted’s area. The driveway is really two abutting drives separated by two century old chestnut trees and a boulevard. Right after they took ownership of this property, Mark wanted to cut down those Chestnut trees and Ted protested as they are growing right on the property line and he feels they are his trees and he emphatically does not want them removed.  We believe this may be the crux of Mark’s displeasure with the fact that in removing the fallen trees we had part of Ted’s backyard filled with branches and logs and leaves from the spring clean-up. But they never were in the drive or blocking his access!!!! Luckily I took photos of our progress to send to Ted as he resides in Cleveland. We have been mowing his yard and keeping watch over his property with his permission for years now and we have a cordial relationship with him. I wish the same could be said of the new guy,Mark. But, alas, he projects a superior attitude and has made comments that disparage the neighborhood, its residents, and definitely believes he is above us in all ways. Today he and his wife drove up said driveway as I was finishing putting the filled trash cans off  to the side in the back of the house. They never acknowledged us and just drove through and left!  After a few telehone calls between Ted and myself we have decided he may either be under some sort of stress [financial or otherwise] or just one of those people who are never happy and are best avoided whenever possible. So as long as things are copaceticwith us we will still tend to Ted’s yard as well as our own and endeavour to make the neighborhood a more pleasant place. Anyhoo, the yards look great. The viberniumis planted and watered and I hope it thrives in its new spot.  After we finished all the yard work we cooked skinless boneless chicken on the grill and had baked potatoes and corn. We were beat. We gathered up all the toys Cricket left scattered about the yard and put away the tools and hose and waited for the thunderstorms that were fast approaching.  Needless to say, it didn’t take long to fall asleep with Cricket at my feet. But then, at one a.m. the dog began to growl and bark and lo and behold the other neighbor was up and making noise with her screen door open and woke us. Alan went back to bed as he needs to be at work at 6 a.m. and I , of course, couldn’t get back to sleep so here I am doing laundry [better for electric use] and blogging. So that’s my day.    

Been up since 3 A.M. and now after my third cup of java and perusing the news I thought I would ramble on about things….I must admit I am disappointed in the low voter turnout [under 50%] and the loss by Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary election yesterday. Unfortunately, it confirms my view of Erie and the rest of PA in that for the most part they are conservative uninterested unmotivated narrow-minded people stuck in the past.  If I had the means I would relocate to an area of the U.S. that is more in keeping with my attitudes and opinions….like Kansas or Texas or Indiana or even move out of the country to Canada. But alas, it looks like I am here for at least the short term so making the best of it. It will be interesting to see the Democratic primary process play out the rest of the way now.  As a moderate Republican I still will be supporting Obama if he is the Democratic nominee for President. I find that I agree with his positions on healthcare, government reform, economic issues, and military issues more than the other candidates running this year. But enough about that….

Earth day. I spent the day outdoors raking, planting, picking up litter, romping with our new puppy, Cricket. It was a balmy 74 sunshiny degrees in Erie and you could not have asked for a more perfect day weather-wise!!! The birds are slowly but surely returning to their regular visits to our birdfeeders and bird bath. My pair of cardinals are back. Unfortunately, so is the skunk that visits in the night. UGH! But hey, live and let live-that’s my motto. He serves a purpose in this world as well and who am I to grouse about his lumbering across my neighbour’s yard? Its nice to see the reduction in the amount of car traffic on my street. A good byproduct of the sky high price of gas! Maybe we’ll see more pedestrians and bicyclists around town now.  I can’t wait to begin planting the annuals. It is still too early here in northwest PA to plant them. I do not trust the weather gods to keep the night time temperatures warm enough to sustain them yet. I had to dig out the dead azaleas from my front yard garden and must decide what to plant in their place. Now that my front yard gets lots more sun [ a 100+ year old maple tree died and had to be removed last summer] I am not sure what will enjoy that area.

Well, oh my! Its after 5 a.m. I best go wake up my husband for work… 

Hmmmm….What’s life without trouble? It makes you appreciate the calm good times, I guess?! Having had a major disagreement with my daughter-in-law I have been spending a lot of time pondering confrontation, argument, parenting, and just life’s ups and downs in general. In a nutshell I spoke out about the way a disciplinary situation was handled or mishandled [IMHO] involving my five year old grandson[who did not feel the need to put his shoes on the correct feet before going to pre-school that day] and it escalated to angry words and evolved to total breakdown in communication with my daughter-in-law. I was wrong to allow my temper to get the best of me and not discuss my feelings on the issues in a calm and adult manner. She only ”heard” my criticism of her mothering skills. She retaliated with bitter ammunition of past events and shifting of the blame to anyone other than herself. As it stands now, we have zero communication between the two of us. My son handled the situation as best as he could . My only regret in his regard is that he never bothered to ask my side of the story nor discuss the situation with me other than to make arrangements for my departure from Wichita post haste. I know he is in a difficult position and I do not feel any anger toward him just some disappointment. I am far from perfect and I know I can be critical and judgemental and when I get angry I let people know it. I said my peace to her and offered my apologies for losing my temper and raising my voice and if she cannot find her way back to a more reasonable relationship I am willing to accept that. I keep the boys in my thoughts and prayers everyday and they live in my heart every moment. I will not allow one ugly day to ruin my memories of the four months I was privileged to spend with them in Wichita. Love you Joshua and Brenen.  

Ah, to be five again…Wake up with a smile on your face and an eagerness to see the new day. Eat a little shredded wheat and juice for breakfast and decide whether to play or just watch a little Clifford and Sesame Street on PBS with a little Word World thrown in!  Get dressed in the latest Power Ranger shirt and sweat pants. Go next door and play with your fellow pre-schoolers for a bit.  Romp around with your new puppy and old dog. Give big hugs to your baby brother when he arises from his slumber.  Eat chicken noodle soup and nachos for lunch. Have some lively conversation about life with Mama and Gramma.  Get ready for soccer practice. Even though its only his third one. Bundle up with layers a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and jacket. Don’t forget a hat! B-r-r-r its cold in Wichita today [with the wind gusting it feels like thirties!] Talk on the ride to practice about all the things you can see from your car seat and how much fun it will be to visit Erie,PA in the summer with Papa. Wonder how Daddy is doing on his TDY in Mississippi and If he fixed that plane yet?!

Arrive at soccer practice and dribble the ball with his feet down the hill and over to his new teammates and coach. Stretch it out first thing! Listen closely to what the coach is telling you. Do sprints and dribbling drills and take a turn in goal. Get my first jersey- Number ten! [Just like his daddy's first hockey jersey number].  Listen to the instructions to mommy for our first big game on Saturday.  Pack it in and go to McDonalds for some “play-eat”. Wow, got a pirate ship in the Happy Meal. Take Brenen up the playplace -run,jump,slide, yell. Time to go, home again before we know it. Take a nice long warm bath and play with the new pirate ship. Scrub up the body and wash the hair-all by himself because that’s what ‘five year olds do!’  Get wrapped up all snuggly in a big bath sheet . Dress for bed. Watch CARS the DVD. Read along with gramma five learn to read books. Play some more with the puppy.  Play a little soccer in the basement playroom with gramma. Oh, Oh Hungry again. Ask mom for some food. Eat some dinner. Time for bed. Kisses all around. Crawl into the top bunk,pull up the Spiderman sheets and cuddle up with the soft Power Ranger figures. Pretend . Imagine. Drift off to sleep. Sweet Dreams Little Boy. Life awaits you.

Wow! Having just perused the Erie,Pa Times News and its affiliated blogging site GoErie.com and several other news sites I cannot remember this amount of negativity and pessimism in people’s opinions. Granted things right now seem bleak….the stock market is tanking, financial institutions are reaping the rewards of hubris and poor decision making[i.m.o.],war and unrest seem to be a constant, health-care is a mess, groceries are costing an “arm and a leg”, who can afford to go to college, and everybody seems to be unwilling or unable to tolerate the other person’s point of view !?!?!?

What had happened to us? Where is the resolution and resolve to put one foot in front of the other and get on with the business of living?!  We appear to be a nation of depressed mean-spirited, ne’er do wells. I do not believe that is who we are! There is goodness, kindness, compassion, philanthropy, and tolerance in many, many people.   We , human beings, have the capacity to become greater than our dour angry dark side wants us to become.  Show some Faith, Hope and Charity out there. Work for the common good. Believe that there will be a better tomorrow. We can work for it. We can achieve it. We can judge a person by the content of her/his character and not the color of his/her skin. We can ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country and go out and DO IT!!! Volunteer. Give a hug. Smile. Things aren’t that bad. Really.