National Healthcare

Is this ever a topic to ruminate over!! Thoughts in no particular order:

1. We waste sooooo much money in the current system.

2. Other countries manage to provide reasonable healthcare for their citizens.

3. Everyone (with the possible exception of the Warren Buffetts and Bill Gates income levels) is really just one catastrophic disease away from bankruptcy whether they have insurance or not.

4. If I were an insurance company, I would sure want to require everyone to have insurance, i.e. pay me. (And we have all had such pleasant memories of trying to get the insurance to actually pay for things....)

5. The conversation stopper: FEMA

The Lost City of Z by David Gramm

I finished listening to this on CD on my way home from work last night. It is non-fiction about the explorer P.H.Fawcett and his explorations into the Amazon in the 1920's and especially about his search for the lost city of Z. All I can say is that I may have been willing to go on one expedition into the Amazon but after starving, being eaten my insects and parasites, and infections, I sincerely doubt that I would ever have gone back. It evidently takes a mind set that I lack. The book was interesting and I learned much about the indigenous people of the Amazon and I learned more than I wanted to know about maggots and the body. Usually one of the best things about listening to books on CD is the reader's voice; this one was adequate but not outstanding.

I have mostly stopped buying books on paper and get them on CD to listen to while on my daily commute. Although it is more expensive, I really enjoy listening more and besides it makes the commute much more enjoyable.

Thought for the Day:
"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it." Samuel Johnson

Putting things off

We are focusing so intently on getting the mortgage paid off that there are many things that I choose to just put off. There are big things like replacing furniture, blinds, & valances and little things like new sheets and kitchen towels. Being a habitual list maker, I have a When the House Is Paid Off list. We are getting close--6 more months--and I am getting antsy to start working through the list. (At the top of the list is a dishwasher replacement.) I don't want to do anything though that would jeopardize accomplishing the main objective but oooooh how anxious I am to start down that list!!

Thought for the Day:
Lord give me patience and give it to me right now.

GM in Bankruptcy

Today's news is all about the GM bankruptcy. I suppose the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history is newsworthy but it is hardly something new, unexpected, out of the blue. Then handwriting was really on the wall when GM lost customers like JMM and me. Why have we bought Japanese cars and not GM?? Simple dependability. The one time we bought a GM vehicle was in the early 1980's when we bought an Oldsmobile. It was a dream to drive--for about 2 years and then things started going wrong with it--the a/c, the windows, etc. I finally traded it in and we went back to Toyotas--good gas mileage and utter dependability. I now have a Honda Odyssey with over 100,000 miles on it and guess how many times I have had problems with it--zero. I take it in for maintenance and never have I had any problems with it. And the Honda dealership where I take it, treats me like royalty.

I am sorry for the GM workers, bond holders, and retirees but not sorry enough to buy a GM car.

Thought for the day:

Henry Ford:
A setback is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

My Luxury

I admit it, I love having someone come in and clean my house. And I love Adrian. About 8 years ago, I decided that with my CMT either work or housework was going to have to go and since I make a lot more money than I would save by cleaning my own house, I would hire someone to clean. Back in the old days when most everyone had household help, you could check around and see who was available and who had good references. Now though, everything is franchised and you really don't know who is going to show up. So I called Molly Maids and took a chance. The house was cleaned but the people kept changing. After less than a year that Molly Maid franchise folded but one of the regular cleaners asked if he could continue to clean for me--that was Adrian. I said sure, same days, same pay which worked out fine for me because I had a regular, steady cleaner and fine for him because he didn't have to split off a percentage for the franchise owner. As I got to know Adrian, I liked him better and better. He is very dependable and does a good job. I pay him $100 to clean my house--it is well above the going rate but I want to be his number 1 priority. Anyway, I encouraged him to expand his business--business cards and fliers, and to get dependable people to work with him so that he could build his business. He now has all the business he can handle; he says that his biggest problem is finding reliable workers to help him. He is from El Salvador and is the kind of immigrant that we need more of. The sun is shining and Adrian is here cleaning, all is well in my world.

Thought for the day:

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?- Albert Camus

Goal 2009 Update #11

I have scheduled the June 1 house payment with a $5000 extra principal payment. This will bring us down to just under $44,000 left. We are half way through the year and still on target. As long as we stay fully employed and well, we should be able to get this house paid off by December 31.

Thought for the Day:

The Madoff affair is the cherry on top of a national breakdown in financial propriety, regulations and common sense. Which is why we don’t just need a financial bailout; we need an ethical bailout. We need to re-establish the core balance between our markets, ethics and regulations. I don’t want to kill the animal spirits that necessarily drive capitalism — but I don’t want to be eaten by them either. Thomas Friedman 12/17/08 NYT

Early Summer at OakMeadow

One of these days I'm going to learn how to attach photos to my blog so I I can show you just how beautiful it is here. In the meantime, I'll just keep telling you.

The tomatoes are spectacular this year. We are harvesting all we can eat and the rest I take to work to give away. One cherry tomato plant must have 100 tiny green tomatoes; these seldom make it into the house as they are so easy to pick as they ripen and just pop into the mouth.

The front porch baby barn swallows have flown. (And we have cleaned up the mess of poop on the porch under the nest.) The back porch babies are working their parents to death to keep them fed; there are 4, I think. It will be another week or 10 days before they are ready to fly. I wonder if we will have a second brood like we did last year??

The vitex is covered with spikes of purple blooms but what is really interesting is that as you go by it, the bush seems to be humming and almost vibrating. It is, of course, the bees gathering the heady nectar. I wonder if they tickle the bush as they move in and out of the flowers.

The daylillies are in full bloom. We have some yellow and some orange.

As my mother used to say though, "Into every life, a little rain must fall." And into our lives, the evening mosquitoes have come. No lingering on the porch after dark these days! As they think of me as a food source, so I like to think of them as food for our baby swallows.

Thought for the day:

"Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving." - Kahlil Gibran