No Thanks, not for me

Black Friday, crowded malls, frenzied consumers, junk food, more crap, packed parking lots, packaging, plastic bags, credit card debt, rude people, pervasive/invasive Christmas Muzak, traffic jams, crying children, buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend, stuff, stuff, stuff. 

The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns

The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns

JMM and I watched this PBS presentation of Ken Burns' documentary about the Dust Bowl years in the Central Plains 1930-1940.  If you missed it, I encourage you to watch it either at the PBS website or on DVD.  It is excellent.  Most of us are familiar with the basic facts that the farming practices of the time, the cyclical droughts and winds of the area combined to produce dust storms for a number of years.  But seeing the pictures and hearing the interviews with people who were there and lived  through it made it real.  There were years where less than 10 inches of rain fell on land that had been plowed from horizon to horizon.  The native grasses had been scoured from the earth leaving the top soil bare and easily blown by the strong prairie winds.  The dust storms came four, five, and six times a month for months on end and no one knew when or if it would ever end.  I am amazed that anyone survived in those conditions and just as amazed that only 25-30% of the population left; I would have thought anyone and everyone would have left.  The soil and water conservation policies that were implemented through FDR's New Deal stabilized the soil enough that when the rain did return, crops could once again be grown. However, the farmers learned to irrigate crops using water from the Ogallala aquifer and are rapidly depleting it.  

Which brings me to the thought that kept coming to mind over and over while watching the 4 hours of this show.  We are doing the same thing on a global scale by pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  Just as the farmers of the plains destroyed the native grasses and reaped the whirlwind of the Dust Bowl so will we reap the devastation of climate change.  Are we so tremendously stupid that we think this will all go away?  The people of the Dust Bowl faced starvation and watched their children die of dust pneumonia. What will our children and their children face as the very climate of our entire planet warms?  As we watch the oceans produce less food? As we watch ocean levels rise? As population pressures increase? As fresh water becomes scarce?  I don't know but there is a time of reckoning coming. 

Weight Watchers Report

I have been rather remiss about posting my weight loss saga but I have not abandoned the program.  This week I lost 0.8 lb.  total lost 24.2 lb.  weight 150.4 lb.  setting the pace for the world's slowest weight loss.

I am so tired of the Israelis and the Palestinians

I remember when I decided that Prince Charles and Diana deserved each other.  I feel the same way about the Israelis and Palestinians.  It is time to stop the "He hit me first!" "No, he started it!"  Perhaps if the U.S. would stop funding both sides and offer money only for days of peace.  You make steps toward peace you get dollars, no peace no dollars. 

I'm just not interested in how horrible either side is.  To me they are both behave just abominably. Much like Charles and Diana. 

Goals for Week Ending Saturday, November 17, 2012

1. Continue Read the Bible Chronologically in a Year 

2. Start cutting out next quilt top using leftover fabric

3. Continue Weight Watchers 26 points per day

4. Finish Block #10 on quilt

5. Dr Chao appt.

      Mammogram Part II appt. 

6. Reading

     South Riding by Winifred Holtby

     The Man who Saved the Union by H.W.Brands

     The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David Haskell 

7. Cook 4 dinners

8. Take scooter in for repair

Did pretty good last week.  Didn't make my 4 dinners but I was sick one day and JMM wanted to eat out a couple of times and I'll never say No to that. 

Way to Go Republicans!

Keep choosing candidates who were selected by your Tea Party primaries. Be sure they insult immigrants and have little knowledge of basic reproductive biology.  It is always helpful if they think it is a good idea to let basic industries go bankrupt and that half the nation is a bunch of whining victims.  Don't forget to do away with the EPA and/or FEMA. Show how much you care about the health of your fellow citizens by promising to repeal any baby steps toward the provision of healthcare to everyone. Keep up the good work! Thanks, The Democrats

Zzzzzzzzz

One of the more disappointing aspects of aging is that I no longer sleep as well as I used to.  What makes it so unsatisfactory is that I was once a world class sleeper. I could nap with the best of nappers.  I enjoyed sleeping and dreaming.  I happily anticipated bedtime.  Alas no longer. I wake frequently all night every night. It doesn't matter if I nap during the day or not or if I go to bed early or late.  I remember my aunt telling me one morning that she hadn't slept all night. I didn't believe her then, I thought she must have slept and just didn't remember it.  I believe it now.  I had a sleep study done 3 weeks ago and have an appointment with the sleep doctor to get the results next week.  I have some Lunesta but I am rather hesitant to take it regularly.  How I would enjoy a good night's sleep!

Goals for week ending Saturday, November 10,2012

1.  Continue Read the Bible Chronologically in a Year --done. 

2. Start cutting out next quilt top using leftover fabric--in progress. 

3. Continue Weight Watchers 26 points per day--done. 

4. Finish Block # 9 on quilt--done. 

5. Haircut--done. 

6. Reading

     South Riding by Winifred Holtby--in progress. 

     The Man who Saved the Union by H.W.Brands--in progress. 

     Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton--didn't finish, didn't care for it at all. 

     A Fearsome Doubt by Charles Todd--finished. Very good. 

7. Cook 4 dinners--cooked very little. Sick one day and JMM wanted to eat out a couple of times and I will never say No to that!