Hand Me Down World

When I was a kid a morning like this with the fairly widespread frost that I saw just about everywhere on my drive in this morning would have our school teachers talking about squirrels scurrying around gathering twigs & leaves to line those huge nests high in the trees for warmth & looking for enough food to get them through the harshest part of the winter. I remember thinking that with my nine brothers & sisters it wasn't so much different than what my mom did to get all of us ready to face the winter ahead. The heavy winter clothes would come out in droves and the "hand me down" wars would begin! I never seemed to get exactly the coat or hat that I had my eyes on for a winter or two before. And I always ended up with the MITTENS!! The gloves were what I wanted....they looked so much better than those mittens! You could tell "guy gloves" but there was no such thing as "guy mittens". They could be hand me downs from one of my sisters for all anyone knew!! And the kids at school would remind you of that OFTEN! That must be why the 60's group The Guess Who sang "don't give me no hand me down world".... But not one of the 10 of us ever went to school cold...So the squirrels would get ready to keep warm for winter just like we did. A few things you don't think about as a kid though is how your mom & dad made sure the house was warm when you got home. In those days as the squirrels were scraping up everything they could find to keep warm, parents were scraping up every dime they could find to keep the house warm; we just either never knew it or never thought about it. Today though I think about it a lot. With the cost of heating oil & other fuels, keeping the home warm today may be even more difficult than during the days of my family "hand me down wars". Here's hoping that while the squirrels are rustling through leaves getting things ready to help them stay warm this winter all of us can rustle up ways to keep our homes warm too.

Give Peace A Chance

It really pisses me off...oh wait...I should try being more civil. It really angers me to hear the reaction of some this morning to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. It's really laughable to hear the reasoning of some people as to why it was not deserved. Well thought out reasoning like "what a joke" or "he's an idiot", "the guys a moron" or "I'm no fan of Obama". Well, fan or not, as Americans we should all be proud of the fact that our president is viewed by the rest of the civilized world as someone who is deserving of the award. It's sad to think that we will hear more anti Obama sentiment over the Nobel prize here than anywhere else in the world. With all of the problems we have here at home & the questionable commitments we've made to other countries we should all take a moment to put aside "the reasoning" of some & think clearly about how important it is to have the world find our leader worthy of such an honor. In today's dangerous world the U.S. should never take its eye off the ball. But for those who want it...... maybe it's finally time to "Give Peace A Chance".