September 11th and Hurricane Katrina

September 11th... the "infamous" date in U.S. History. Who would have thought that we'd still be reading every single day in the newspaper about how more of our soldiers were killed in the war that "ended" years ago? And at the same time our country is coping with the biggest natural disaster in our history. I wonder where all the money is coming from to support these causes. And then I wonder... if we have all that money now to spend on the war and the disaster, what was all that money being spent on in 1995? Or 1998 (for examples)? How can the country have all this "extra" money NOW? Is the government maxing out its credit cards or something?

I had a thought... What if two days before the hurricane hit, the federal government offered every person who evacuated the coastline $500 -- or even $1000 -- in cash? Would the people have found SOME way to get out of town then?

Another thought... remember New York Mayor Giuliani and how he seemed so on top of things? How he was right there telling everyone what was happening... getting things DONE... instilling confidence... even though that attack came out of nowhere as a huge surprise? Where was that kind of leadership and involvement after Hurricane Katrina hit... with days of warning?

It's just kind of a depressing time in our history (understatement). :-(

Because it sure seems like we need it these days!

One of the wonders of the universe and a favorite story

I'm painting the kitchen today and I think one of the wonders of the universe is how a paintbrush seems to hold so much more paint when you're trying to CLEAN it than when you're painting with it!

I saw the movie "War of the Worlds" tonight. I read the book years ago and it's always been one of my favorite stories. I couldn't remember the details... just that huge mechanical alien-controlled behemoths were annilihating everything on Earth. I thought the movie was intense and I watched a good part of it hiding behind my knees. Sure I had to suspend most of my common sense and logic for two hours, but I still love the story and really enjoyed the movie!

Give a person a fish . . .

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day;
teach a person to use the Internet
and they won't bother you for weeks.

HOW does this HAPPEN!?

HOW can I throw so much away and still have so MUCH stuff? Right now I can't do anything on my desk without knocking something to the floor. I don't know where it all comes from! But I need to find a way to eliminate it or I'm going to end up in the looney bin!

This really made me laugh!

A friend of mine sent me this quiz and I thought it was hilarious!

QUIZ

If that link doesn't work, the same quiz is located here, too:

QUIZ2

Dodged the Hurricane Dennis Bullet!

It's the morning after the day before. We expected to wake up to a totally different situation this morning because yesterday a strong hurricane was headed straight for us. Everyone was expecting the worst because this storm was stronger than Ivan last September, and Ivan caused a LOT of damage and inconvenience. But this time we were all prepared... everything brought in from outside... windows boarded up... and about an hour before landfall, the storm started traveling more north rather than northwest, and it ended up being hardly anything here.

Path of Hurricane Dennis

Yup, I survived it all!

In the past couple months I've had some suspect skin lesions excised, a lymph node in my neck removed, and my first colonscopy. This might sound horrible, but I'm overjoyed because everything turned out really well! All these things were done nearly at the same time simply due to coincidence. I went to a dermatologist about some spots on my skin expecting that he would say, "Oh, here's a prescription..." but instead he said they should come off. Then a swollen lymph node that was staying swollen motivated me to finally find a new primary care doctor, which I've been saying I would do for YEARS. I expected HIM to say, "Oh, that must be from whatever... just keep an eye on it." But instead he said, "That needs to come out!" And at the same time he scheduled me for a "routine" colonscopy. I'd never had one before because our health insurance doesn't cover it, but he was going to write it up differently.

So... one thing after another was accomplished and now I'm free and clear! Yippee!

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Cindy rolled in last night and now we have a yard full of tree trash. These big southern oaks create a lot of that even during calm weather. They drop leaves the entire year (but more during the winter). I'm very happy that we didn't lose power during the storm, though! Another one called Dennis is on its way now, and the weather people say that it's going to achieve hurricane strength soon. So we are definitely on hurricane watch! Our local television station WKRG does a good job of covering the weather in our area.

Oh say can you seeeeee...

Happy Birthday, America!

Surgery

I go in for surgery tomorrow morning and the "worries" keep running through my head. I can't seem to help it even though I fully believe that worrying doesn't change a thing. I don't really have anyone to share the biggest worries with. My husband, Jim, doesn't seem to want to hear about it and doesn't tune into anything very emotional. When I asked if he doesn't ever think, "She could be gone tomorrow" he just says that he would survive and worry about that if it happened.

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives
you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.
- Glenn Turner

It all takes time

It's a beautiful sunny morning and I'm sitting here at the computer trying to figure out what this blog stuff is all about. I would like to be able to add photos, etc., and notify people that my blog has been updated. I guess it all just takes time!