Found out my stepmother's surgery went well and there were was no spread.  They sent her home the day of the surgery, my things have changed!  Yikes!  She was very sore later, bless her heart.  We were all so blessed and thankful for the good news.

Giving Thanks

It's nearly turkey day and there really is so much to be thankful for...or for which I am thankful.  And grateful, too.  We have a roof over our head and some cash laying about and an email that has made the rounds several times says that is richer than about 75% of the world's population.  There have been times when I stood in the middle of our local Kroger and thought about the abundance and variety of foods there.  It boggles my mind to think of the technology that has gotten all that food to my store just down the street from where I live.  I've told y'all I'd not have made a pioneer woman in the rough and rowdy past, and I'm here to re-emphasize that statement.  No pioneer stock under my roof.  We won't be standing in line to colonize the moon, but we will stand in line to get groceries.  We are down to earth folks and simple things make us happy.

We are meeting at our daughter's home for Thanksgiving.  I'm grateful for that, and everyone will be here for Christmas.  My half sibs and I have made up after a falling out last year.  Their mother has a lump in her breast and will have surgery tomorrow.  Hopefully we will all have one more thing to be grateful for.  Having health is one of the basics, and without it life is so difficult.

Here is wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving day with family, if you have some or friends if you don't, or spending some down time on your own doing something you want to do just for yourself.

Occupy Dallas' Occupation May Be On The Skids

I really don't know what to say about these protesters. They aren't very articulate in their desire to exercise their freedom of speech. It is more like a massive whine and they don't really know what to say. They want other people's money and the right to camp on city property. I just did a google search for what their goals are, but could find nothing concrete.  Even a reporter for NPR had little luck figuring out their goals when he tried to interview them at their "anarchy table".

Douglas, this morning's spokesman, was no more articulate at noon than he was this morning when the TV station interviewed him. There was another interview later when I'd have thought he would be more wide awake. The other protesters I've seen haven't had much to say for themselves, either. I feel embarrassed for them really.

Busy Days

This has been a very busy weekend. Today is hubby's birthday and we went to see "Puss In Boots" with our son and his family then out to eat with them. Both were much fun. I discussed with our grandson what he might want for Christmas and finally suggested he make a list and email it to me. Actually he doesn't have much of a clue what he does want this year. I've saved all of the toy catalogues that have come out with the newspaper so far this year and am going to take them with me the next time we get together. It will be fun going through the catalogues with him.

I think I'm going to take a whole bunch of pictures of hubs this week. It seems he just doesn't make it into many of them anymore. I got a few of him on the trip to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago, but he is sort of the "invisible man" from taking all the family pics. He is really handsome and photogenic. I'm not that good at the quick cute smile or holding a smile while there is camera surgery going on. Kids might get a snap of their dad for Christmas.

Yesterday we met my cousin for lunch and then some shopping...for sure one of my poor husband's favorite things. *L* I found/bought a beautiful knitted throw for those days when it is rainy and cold...yeah right. It was 84F and sunny here today. Anyway, my reasoning on the throw was the cost of the yarn plus the cost of my time, + the cost of a therapist when I got halfway through and made an unfixable error and had to start over was much less than the cost of the finished throw. Yea...I think like that sometimes when I really want something.

Stand Back Y'all...He's All Our's Here In Texas

Oh mercy!  Rick what were you thinking?  Oh yes...you weren't or couldn't is more like it.  It is ok...I can't remember all those silly facts either...but then I'm not running for public office.

Thanks to WFAA news for getting this video out so quickly.

I did whut?

After re-reading the post below I have to admit I did not participate in any of the protests during the 60s and have always lived here in Fort Worth.  Maybe I got a little carried away with myself.  *L*

Get A Mirror Occupy Wall Street Protesters

I received this in an email over the weekend and it pretty much sums up how I feel about the Occupy Wall Street folks. I've lived through the riots in California in the 60s and the Chicago 7 disturbances during the same time and Mayor Daley. The sixties were filled with love, drugs, and rock and roll, as well as, a lot of demonstrations against the Establishment and the Vietnam war, when the protesters confused the soldiers with the war. It was a sad thing, but it happened and we learned from it. 


Here is what was in the email:

This column by Mary Beth Hicks, a New York Times columnist........

"Call it an occupational hazard, but I can’t look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters (or any of the other "Occupy" morons around the globe....) without thinking, “Who parented these people?”

As a culture columnist, I’ve commented on the social and political ramifications of the “movement” - now known as “OWS” - whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: “Everything for everybody.”

Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it’s clear there are people with serious designs on “transformational” change in America and Canada who are using the protesters like bed springs in a brothel.

Yet it’s not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question, but rather the fact that I’m the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters’ moms clearly have not passed along.

Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters’ mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn’t, so I will:

1.) Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice - that everyone should be treated fairly - is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nations were founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said, “You can’t always get what you want.”

2.) No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.

3.) Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots, because colleges and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans or Canadians owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.

While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.

4.) Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for - literally.

5.) A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York, while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social and political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.

There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gouged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you."

Just be glad I'm not your mother for sure, you all.

Halloween Tricks and my 555th post Wow!

Parent's were challenged by Jimmy Kimmel to tell their children they had eaten their Halloween candy.  Oh my!  There was a great deal of justifiable drama!  Poor little guys.

Wow! This is my Five Hundred and Fifty Fifth post!

Fall wardrobe selections

I love this time of year.  The temperatures are cooling down and people have no idea how to dress.  I've seen some really bizarre outfits in the past few weeks.  Ladies with shorts and a really heavy cardigan that comes down to their knees or a heavy coat is not an infrequent sight these days.  It is like some of the younger girls just want to wear their new fall coats.  Guys sort of grin and bear it when they go out in clothing that was appropriate in August when it was 105F and now with the north wind blowing and the temp in the 50s they sort of look as if they are gritting their teeth and hoping they can make it to the car quickly.  However, they are the ones who come out looking like fashionistos when it warms up to 80 something and ladies are looking for places to ditch the goose down jackets.

The clothing confusion should clear up soon when the temperatures settle in to something approaching normal.  Right now we are on the temperature roller coaster.  This afternoon it was 78ish and then a really strong cold front came in it dropped to 48F with a 40mph wind making the wind chill to feel like 40 degrees.  I can hear the wind whistling around the front door!  The weather people are predicting a frost and maybe a freeze for tomorrow night.  Heaven knows what folks will wear to school and work in the morning.  God love 'em.

Do you have a particular outfit combo that just sends you into giggles or just causes you to smile tolerantly?  For me it is the shorts and long sweaters.