Y'all need to go cruise HT and pick up a few of the offended lefties and treehuggers and start pumping some life back into this lock box. I have never seen things this slow.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2004

Answers

Us lefties and treehuggers are too busy workin our butts off tryin to get the assholes outa Washington.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2004

Todays score shows President Bush in the electoral vote lead 311 to 217. Of course it changes daily, but half the fun of politics is watching the race for the electoral votes. You can check it at

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2004

Actually, Kerry has moved more solidly into the lead in WA state, according to the news/polls this past week. Who is responsible for maintaining the map?

I'm really steamed about the Wild Sky Wilderness Bill getting shoved out of consideration. This is great legislation, we had a great bipartisan thing going out here, and then Nethercutt decided to grandstand, and it fell flat. There's days when I reallllly hate politics!!!

btw, we get polled a lot on the phone.

What's DNR and HT?

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2004

In case people don't know about the Wild Sky Bill (I'll try this as a hyperlink):

Wild Sky measure is killed in House

If that doesn't work, cut and paste: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/192087_wildsky23.html

Tree huggers aweigh....(mixing up a metaphor)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2004

Can we leave out the offended lefties and tree huggers and try for some folks that aren't religious freaks? I don't think that I'm a leftie or a righty; nor am I a tree hugger. I think I'm more of a tree patter - not quite militant enough to be a hugger!

Sheesh, there for a while I was greatly enjoying Today's Homestead (not to be confused with Homesteading Today) but now it's getting overrun by fundies and the site bosses are getting weird.

I will be so damn glad when this election is over.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2004

Kerry campaign announced yesterday that they are pulling his ads in 6 battleground states.

Sheepish DNR - do not rescusitate, HT Homesteading Today - New and improved Countryside :>)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2004

"New and improved Countryside :>)"

Maybe techically speaking, but certainly not people wise.

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2004

A tree patter? LOL! Sounds like a fear of intimacy to me, Polly! ;) As for me, I give my trees a hug all the time, well the nice big fat ones anyway. Not as attracted to the bony feel of the skinny ones.

As far as after the election goes, depends on how it goes. I really do not see how I can continue to live in a country that would elect a cabal like those running it now. I just do not know what I would do. Too depressing............must think positive.

I need to go to therapy to figure out how to respond to my mother. I'm obsessing about her, making up lectures and comebacks to spew forth, vascillating between that and just never speaking to her again, which is pretty much what my family would prefer. My sister seems to be able to just let it all slide, she just says 'they're stupid and nuts, they'll never change, so forget about it.' I'm trying to see it that way but not succeeding very well. I'm a much more passionate and intense person than my sister. Mom wrote me a letter defending her nutcase religious zealot sister-in-law who has done numerous anti-gay things to my family, and it pissed me off. Then she finds it necessary to say to me, her daughter, "we will never approve of your choice of lifestyle." Well tough shit, she's never approved of anything about me ever anyway. If I turned out to be jesus christ there would still be something wrong with me! So screw it. The worst part though was that this time she got my dad to sign it too (do you suppose she threatened to take away his heart meds?). That was a kick in the stomach.

See what happens? I'm ranting again. GRRRRR...........not very enlightened of me, eh? sorry.........carry on...........:)

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2004

I like what you said, EM...that you give your trees a hug once in awhile! When I really need to think, I have a place all my own that I go to just sit, think and "ruminate". Just happens to be sitting and leaning against a really fat oak tree here :-)!!!

Sheepish...we're still fighting against the development of a 1000 acre natural island (Sears Island) here off the coast of Maine that the Federal government wants to develope into ANYTHING but the natural resource that it already is!!! Pisses me off!

BTW...does the "popular" vote really mean anything nowadays?? The electoral vote doesn't seem to truly reflect the real feelings of the people to me! Just my opinion...

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2004

Earthmama,

I'm really, really, really sorry to hear about what your mom and dad wrote. I cannot imagine having to deal with that rejection. It makes me furious and sad (and I don't even know your folks). Maybe therapy would be a good idea, I dunno. What is the matter with people?

Marcia, I think everything is so manipulated these days, I can't tell the popular vote from the unpopular...the truth from the bullshit either.

Good to hear from you folks; wish things were going better for everyone.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2004

I'm still holding out hope that it's all this darned election; and that things will be better in November. Then again, interest rates are starting to rise, etc... I am so sick of gloom and doom, and there I go, adding more!! Sheesh, might as well go to TB!

Probably more a fear of pathogens than a fear of intimacy - I can wash my hands....

I think I do like trees better than people, nowadays.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2004

Home computer is dead; hope to be back online soon!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2004

Did you do a DNR on your computer at home?

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2004

Nah - altho it is probably old enough for a DNR order. I took it to a Computer Wizard and begged him to fix it. I think I may have even groveled. I cannot believe how much I miss the darn thing - so much, that I am over at Jessie's house today, doing her laundry, just to have a chance to sit in front of a computer.

I think I need a 12 step program. Or may I need de-programmed. Or...?

Hee hee

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2004

Polly,

You could do a 6-step program, because you would be multi-tasking the whole time anyway!!

Hey did you see what's going on with Mt. St. Helens again?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2004

I wuz thinkin bout you, sheeepish, when I heard the news about st helen's. got anything to add to the news reports?I know watcha mean, polly, about addiction to the internet. Our internet service has been in total disaray for weeks now and i can't believe how nuts it makes me. im not even going to start with going into the problems with changing servers, deciding about dsl or wireless or wired or whatever, both at the house and the business, puters going crazy after moving, mac vs pc's, etc! am not using any caps cuz pressing the shift key on this unfamiliar laptop often makes me hit something or other that erases my page! and it has no mouse so it takes me forever to make an entry, but here i am anyway, makin myself crazy at the puter!

I am at old house in Mahtomedi tonite alone, gonna clean tomorrow and meet up with the guy who is supposed to fix my pool heater (did i tell you howmuch I will not miss the pool??) cuz the buyers want it fixed. we never used it,cuz it costs about two bills to heat for a weekend!if i were staying or replacing, i would put in solar or heat pump or somesuch).

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2004

Yeah the old girl is definitely acting up again (the mountain, of course! Not ME!!), but no molten eruptions (yet). Guess the area under the last lava dome is swelling (last I read up about 100 feet), so I suspect we'll have some dramatic event sometime in the near future. Nothing like the one in '80 I wouldn't think. That was literally awesome (and subsequent eruptions/disruptions). Talk about ash. Sheesh. We had ash on and in everything for so long...I almost forgot. Anyway, my aunt made a quick dash up here to Snohomish County (from Oregon) to house-hunt this weekend. She was concerned that they'd close I-5 if too much ash blew up again.

Houses, houses, houses (do I sound like something out of The Ten Commandments: "Moses, Moses, Moses"?). I think we found a contractor for E. Wa. I cannot believe how SLOWLY things move over there but we are getting numbers this week so we can go talk to the bank. I also cannot believe how much more expensive things are since the last time we built a house (early 90s; not our current little gramma-house). Lumber is really expensive. Other stuff is cheaper though (probably all imported). Labor is a big question mark. Our house is smallish, but architect-designed, so there will be a few million decision points for the project, too. Gotta get the right contractor, and I think we've found one. I'm looking forward to it. Just hope we can get this going and get something up with a roof and windows before it snows. We've got all our engineering and permits in hand.

Had beautiful weather last weekend. Got to clean up a bunch of stuff in the gardens. Mr. S. got barn doors and the new chicken house painted. Starting to cool down at night. I sure got some great apples this year, and I'm still getting cukes. We sure have a lot of Banty cockerels...Aurucana and Americana versions...pretty cute but useless in the egg department).

Gotta hit the treadmill (my stress-reducing buddy!).

-- Anonymous, October 05, 2004

Sheepish, Pop is keeping a close eye on the volcano via news reports. His litany is "Why don't they keep those damn fools back away from that thing?" and "Don't those people know they could get hurt?" He would love to be out there - well, at his cousin's house in Wenatchee, anyway - that would be close enough for him. If it blew overnight, I don't know it as I haven't had my daily news report from Pop yet. Sheepish, tell me again why you want to move to E. Washington; and what type of area will you be in over there? I pull out my folder of "Grandma House" ideas and drawings every once in a while. I always used to think that I would put it somewhere on the farm but I don't know, now. Taxes (property) are getting so high out here - $3200 plus this year on the house and acreage, services are not worth the taxes, yuppies are moving in the area in droves (altho some folks probably wouldn't call it a drove!), road rage is prevalent, and the people aren't what the people were - if that makes sense. I wonder if they ever were?!

I am in the midst of recurrent panic attacks right now. Jes has gotten her job and the house they applied for over in NC, which means she will be moving - very soon. I have been helping her pack. I would really rather be out in the woods, pulling my hair and screaming, but that would probably upset the coyotes, to say nothing of Pop. Who is dreaming of his dead brothers and sisters. AACCKKK!! He tells me that they are not beckoning to him, nor telling him how glad they are to see him; so I am comforted by that, at least. Who, me? Have Granny's superstitious gene? Surely not!

I have been toying with the idea of getting a different job, but did not want to leave Jes stranded on the wacko ward. The people there have changed and the dynamics are strange lately. I can't quite put my finger on it, other than we are not quite as cohesive of a group as we had been. I feel my nursing skills slipping away and feel a need to get back into the type of nursing that uses them - at least part time. I told my boss my feelings at my annual eval a couple of weeks ago and he kinda blew me off - with a compliment. Said that he was satisfied with my skill level and that the inpatient doc had complimented me multiple times for being on the ball med/surg wise. But I know that the skills are slipping and it worries me. What to do, what to do? We are so short staffed on RNs that it isn't funny; psych positions are difficult to fill but we have had one opening for over 6 months now, not counting the two that have been filled; plus some prn openings. I have been called in twice on this vacation so far.

I say that the people on the unit have changed, but I can't quite pass all that on to them, as I know that I have changed too. I read back through the posts I made three years ago, two years ago, last year; and I wonder where I went. I liked that person - I want her back!! I am getting more cynical, less compassionate. Can I blame it on age, d'ya think?! Do you folks ever look back and see changes? Are they positive or negative?

Well, I'm off to read the newspaper before Pop gets downstairs; then off to shower and head over to Jes's to pack some more. I am really NOT looking forward to this move. Damn damn damn....

-- Anonymous, October 06, 2004

Polly,

Our house is going to be in Soap Lake (sorry I can't remember how to do hyperlinks in lusenet), but you can cut and paste, (1 hour east of Wenatchee)

http://www.thelake.org/gallery.html

http://www.soaplakecoc.org/soaplakenews.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/81641_soap07.shtml

We are probably going to live part-time in Tonasket, WA and have a weekend house in Soap Lake (eventually)

For Tonasket links:

http://www.okanoganfamilyfaire.com

Of course this is silly! There's much more interesting stuff than what's on the websites.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2004