Political Thoughts

For the most part, I keep my thoughts on the political race to myself, much like my thoughts on religion. I can count on a lumberjack's hand the number of people I discuss both topics with.

I refuse to be part of the crowd who forwards emails willy-nilly proclaiming a candidate is this or that. For the record, I'm voting for Obama. I don't care for McCain's politics, but I do respect his service to this nation. I don't forward any emails regarding him because I don't feel there's a need. His actions speak for themselves. And his messages of hate and negativity that I have seen lately are starting to make me lose what little respect I do have for him. Don't try to argue that it is others in his campaign (Palin) who are saying these things. When McCain sits silent, he is approving their message. It is his campaign, after all. What comes from it comes from him. Do you really want a president who won because he called his opponent a terrorist and sat idly by while supporters called for his death? What kind of country is this?? How can any one of you turn a deaf ear while such an injustice is perpetrated?!?! How Un-American!

So why must people send me these lies about Obama? He's a Muslim!!! No. He's friends with terrorists!! Again, no. Socialism! Nope. Hates America!! No. You're doing nothing more than grasping at straws.

I hate to pull the race card on you people, but the reason you keep looking for things about him and forwarding emails that only perpetuate lies is because you're too scared to come out and say that you don't want to vote for him because he's black. I dare you to refute my claim. You don't "trust" him? Tell me why. And don't you dare try to use any of the excuses I've already covered in the paragraph above.

I've been called a sheep because of my views. What?!?! A sheep only follows the one in front of it without looking up to see where they're going. They're told where to go, what to do, when to do it.

I have looked at both candidates and their platforms and made an educated decision. Do I agree with everything that Obama has laid out? No. There are some things we have a pretty big difference of opinion about. But I still agree with him more often and have more confidence in him as a leader than I do John McCain.

If I am a sheep, then I am a black one. Able to think for myself and go my own way. If you are voting for McCain, that's cool. It's your choice and the Constitution allows you to have it. But there are better ways to try to get me on your side than sending me hideous lies. Try facts over fiction. Grandma always said you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar. If your candidate cannot win on facts, then he does not deserve to preside over this nation.

One last bit before I go--Bill Clinton presided for eight years over a nation that saw its biggest economic growth in modern times. Under George W. Bush, we have lost more than we can count--jobs, lives, freedom, respect. The current problems of this nation cannot be laid solely at the foot of 9/11. The stewardship since that date is what has led us here. Do you want change, or more of the same?

EEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!

Up-to-the-minute blogging from the house....

Just a few minutes ago I was sitting on the sofa with my laptop updating my Netflix queue when I heard a ruckus outside the back door. Tommy went from a dead sleep to slinking toward the cat door to check it out. Thinking it was Sam "protecting" the homestead from a neighborhood cat, I got up and flipped on the porch light, opened the door, and stepped outside.

"Sammy," I called. "Where are you puddin' head?"

I was looking down at the bottom of the fence next to the wall of the house where part of the board is broken expecting to see my short-haired brown tabby pop through. Instead, I find myself with a beady-eyed little gray opposum dashing past my feet. Eeekkkk!!! I saw it disappear across the patio and into the yard.

I barely got my feet back on the ground when a second one popped through! Oh My God!! It turned and darted back through the hole in the fence in about the same nano-second it took me to leap back into the house and slam the door behind me. My heart took a minute or two to stop pounding from that hirsute surprise.

I'll give you all a minute to chortle at my cowardice...

All right, I know they're not dangerous, but come on! They're disgusting little disease-carrying marsupials. I don't really want to be hanging out with opposums and I certainly don't want them around my cats! And what's with that whole playing dead thing they're supposed to do when faced with danger?? These two acted like they had rocket boots on!

Now I'm trying to decide about the cat door. Do I really want those creatures roaming around my house at night? Wait. Maybe that's why the cat food is disappearing so quickly. Eeww!

Great. Now I'm going to be terrified of stumbling over one of them in the middle of the night. I'd rather have the squirrels back in the attic. Guess I need to find someone to come trap them.

Ah, home ownership!

Bird Brains

Someone asked me about the bird next door since I commented on it the other day.

I don't know exactly what type of bird it is, but since it talks, I just went with myna. I haven't stuck my head over the back fence to get a good look at it. And I don't like people enough to actually make friends with the neighbors. I like peace. And silence. Something I don't get much of thanks to the furballs, but I'm used to them--and they nap for about 22 hours a day anyway.

All I really know about the bird is what I hear. When I get home from work I hear it out in its backyard, usually screaming like a little kid. The first time I heard that, I wondered if I should investigate and/or call the cops on a child abuser. It didn't take me long to realize it was a bird. Most of the time it only screams like that when the other neighbor's dog is barking uncontrollably at it.

Then there's what is quickly becoming my most hated word: "Mama!" I don't know how you mothers handle the repeated use of that word. But from what I've seen in the grocery store, that word, once repeated 30 times in a row, is usually answered with an irate "WHAT??!" shouted loudly enough to be heard from across the store. Now imagine it coming from a bird and no one responding to it....

During the summer I only heard it during the short stretches I was outside moving the sprinkler around the backyard trying to save my crabgrass and a few blades of fescue from the ravages of dehydration. But about three weeks ago the temperatures took a dip and I can now keep the windows open during the day, which has led to a more intense exposure to the bird. I now hear hours worth of wolf whistles (was it raised at a construction site?), all kinds of birdie cawing sounds, the inevitable refrains of "Mama!" and--as of last weekend--the bungled choruses of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

It could be worse, I guess--it could talk like a sailor. Which would probably make the parents of the homeschooled kids down the street raise enough ruckus to get it removed. Hmmm, maybe I should give the bird a few English lessons. Starting with George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words.... Hmmmm.... *taps chin thoughtfully*

**UPDATE 10/20** The bird learned a new word--"Bye!" which was repeated unto eternity this weekend. Too bad it never left.

Dirty Car Art

No, they're not dirty pictures, just pictures drawn in the dirt! On a car!

At last, someone figured out something else to do other than scribble "wash me, please" on the back window of a dirty car.

Scott Wade is a fellow Texan who has taken dirt to a new art form. Check out his site Scott Wade's Dirt Car Art. He has taken classic paintings like the Mona Lisa, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and the ever popular Dogs Playing Poker and rendered them in dirt.

I grew up on a dirt road and am used to cars covered in multiple layers of grime. Too bad none of us ever came up with this idea (of course it would have helped to have artistic ability!)