Hodge Podge of Life

Judges wages in Idaho $110,500
Who has to make decisions, some
times life and death ones. Who tries
to have justice for all...

A quitting CEO in a big box
company gets a 220 million dollar
good bye package ? Even though
the company has had money problems.
Where is the justice of that?

And police officer gets reinstated
even though, he exposed himself to
a coffee hut clerk? So morals is not
a requirement for that job, I guess...

I went to get gas Tuesday night.
I went to start my vehicle after
I had filled it with gas. Which, by
the way, had dropped 11 cents.
The vehicle would not start. Not
a big problem, after all I am only
mile and half away from home.

Searched my pockets, no cell
phone. Not in the vehicle either.
Left it on the table. So grabbed
a quarter and a dime and went to
use the pay phone at the gas station.
Now when I use a pay phone last,
which is quite a while. It was a
quarter. So figured it might have
gone up a little. A LITTLE!! It was
50 cents!!! 50cents to call a mile
and half away. An no, the gas
station will not let you use their
phone. (make note..to self...
NEVER EVER FORGET YOUR
DANG CELL PHONE)!

Pay phones were a dime
when I was a teen. That is
why we wore a dime in our
loafers. It was called our
mad money. If we got mad
at our boyfriend, we could
call a friend or parents and
have them come get us.

The King came down and got
the vehicle going. It was a loose
cable. But I am too short to open
the hood, and way to short to lift
it up.

50 cents for a phone call. Ridiculous.

You be the Judge..What is the Answer?

I would say I am ticked to the max.
But how can you be ticked at the
weather...

I couldn't post my blog early last
night. (I like to, as they do their
repair work or it is down usually in
the mornings).

But even more than that, I missed
my show...Boston Legal last night.
We had the power go out 3 times.
The last time was 9:30 p.m. and it
was out until 2 something a.m.

I especially wanted to see Boston
Legal as it had to do with a subject
of great interest to me.

3 of the lawyers were going to New
Orleans to defend, I believe, a doctor.
It could have been a nurse. But why
they were was based on a true story.

During the hurricane, there were some
elderly who were left behind. There were
caretakers left with them. I thought they
were nurses aides. But the program had,
like I said..a doctor or nurse. Who was
charged with murder.

This person, as in real life, (the promo said)
had to makea decision. The water was
rising in the nursing home. The elderly were
mostly in their 90's. As the water rise to 3 feet,
the person in the program, help the elderly
die in bed, rather than leave them to drown.
I don't know if it was by shot or what.

The dilemma is .....You are in your 40's. You
have family at home. People who depend on
you.

Do you leave when the water is 3 or 4 feet
high?
Do you stay with the elderly and drown with
them, so they won't be alone?
Do you, if you have it in your power, give them
a shot that you know will let them die in
minutes. Staying with them until they die,
and then leave.

You know there is no hope for these
people. No one can come get them.
You hope you can swim to safety
after you leave the building.

I don't know what I would have done.
As a nurses aide for years, you love
your residents. I would not have the
decision to help them die with meds.
Aides in nursing homes don't give meds.
Do I leave the elderly who are close
to death anyway, and save myself?

In all honesty, I don't know. If it had
been one or two, many I would have
floated them outside and hope some
one comes in a boat. But in the real
story, that wasn't an option, as there
were many. No one wants to play God.
I would be the last one to judge the aide
that left.

What do you do? And what will the
law do to you, if you leave?

The Wharves of Old

After reading Atmospheric Ruminations
yesterday, it brought back memories of
the wharves of Newport, R.I.

When I was a kid, one could walk down
any of the wharves. You can't now. Because
of condo's and yacht clubs. Most of it, you
look thru the chain link fence to see the Bay.

But when I was a kid, you could walk from
wharf to wharf. Until you got to King's Park.
Which was one of the local beaches.

Sitting on the barrel at the wharf that my
parents had their boat at, I would watch
the fishing boat come in. There was
the Champion owned by Ernest Coggeshall.
And this was Commerical Wharf.

They would go out into the Atlantic, not too
far off the coast. They had what they called
trap fishing. That was huge wings that came from
each side of the box. The wings would guide
the fish in to the box that had a scone like
hole. Where fish went into the box and could
not get back out. The small boats would
surround the box which was held up by corks,
that were sewed into the netting. They would
raise the box up and there was a scoop that
came over from the big boat. It would scoop up
the fish and put it them into the holding hole.
As far as I know they would go out daily. My
parents took my brother and I out one day so
we could watch. They were close friends of
Ernest and his son Ernie who did this for a living.

As I would sit on the barrel and watch the catch
brought up from the hole in the boat, and emptied
on to the table. There were several fishermen on
each side, who would sort the fish. They would
sort by size on which side of the slide the fish
would go, and the small ones thrown back in
to the water. The fish were sent down the slide
to boxes full of ice. There would be fishermen who
would man the ice boxes, and throw a new box in
as they nailed the tops on the full ones. Then they
were loaded on to the truck, to be taken to market
in Providence.

As a teen kid, watching fishermen, most of them
Portuguese and some Italian.. I learn some of the
not so good words. lol... But it was great to
watch. And the sea gulls would fly around in
hopes to catch a fish that was thrown to the
waters.

The fishermen were always so happy, but it was
a very rough life to live. If anyone has seen the
movie The Perfect Storm, they would see how
rough it really was. The sea claims a boat a year.
And several fishermen.

Affordable? In whose eyes?

Affordable? In whose eyes?

I see affordable homes.
Affordable vehicles...
Affordable products.
Affordable colleges??

By whose standards?
I don't think the person
who is making $5.50 is
going to afford a home
that is "affordable" by
advertisement standards
of $220,000.

They say that middle class wages
are at $125,000, that is a hoot.

Being I never earned more that
$20,000 in the 17 years of work
at the last place I worked at. And
that was only in the last 2 years.
All the other years were way lower.
I am classified as poorer than dirt, I
guess.

Rokon watching the weather

You know....I don't think I like the looks of this... looks like a long winter

Excerising with Misty

Rokon said I had to do push ups... suppose to be good for keeping the tummy flat. Guess she thought I ate to much over the holidays

Tough MidWestern's

You know those Mid-westerns are tough.
Have you seen those pictures of the cattle
out on the range with no food...but the
National Guard is there throwing out
bales of hay from their helicopters.

You see trees down, electric is out for
thousand and more people. There
is driveways snowed close for many
places. Farmers trying to get
their cattle feed and water. Losing
10 cattle per day...

Wires down, road closed. People
staying at home because of the
weather and even stores are closed.

Yet, I haven't seen Bush in a helicopter
flying over to see how bad it is.
I haven't heard of a celebrity going
there to help out.

No outrage on TV about Fema hasn't
showed up there to help these people.
No one screaming about the government
not coming in fast enough to help out
or rescue people.
I haven't even hear any of the 3 states
Governors asking for help.

These people just hunker down and do
what has to be done. They are use to this.
They don't ask for money ...no one is looting
the others.. No one is asking the Federal
Government for a handout. There isn't news
stories other than the direct evening news,
talking about how horrible it is.

The farmers are making due. They are making
lemonade out of lemons. They are use to
the electric going out. It goes out during
storms from time to time. They get snow
storms every year. Some worse than others.
They melt snow for water. The guys pull each
other out of snow banks, or plow out the
neighbor with their tractors. No one charges
anyone for any of it.

The restaurant give food to the police, fire
department and electric guys who are on
duty for 12 and 16 hours at a shot.

Families take in others, even if they
are strangers, to give them a roof over
their heads. Have the wood stoves going.
And none of these people act like the world
owes them a living. If anything, they open
their hearts and cupboards and sometimes
home to all. Just as they have in the past
150 years.

Too bad Louisiana doesn't know that lesson.

Preview of Retirement Husband

Having the King home for 4 days
was kind of a preview of what his
retirement is going to be like.

He washed the dishes, and
he did a lot of the cooking.
But he also vegged out. With
the weather like it was, I can't
blame him. So it was old movies,
playing with the puppy, and
tinkering here and there in
our Some Day Soon Room.

I look forward to when he puts
his time in.. see I have at least
a years worth of 'HONEY-DO's
for him to do.

Among them is the 47 Ford.
He has told me in the past,
that he would do it in the winter.
It is winter project because you
can't do anything outside. And
he has a great heater in there.
But winter comes and goes..

Then it is a summer project.
We can have the doors open for
fresh air and the days are longer..
But summer comes and goes...
And so has 5 years....

And I want to tear the kitchen apart.
Every time I go past the wall that
I want to cut in half, the temptation
is calling me...

Oh, yea, I can keep him busy for
at least a year. And all I have
to do is tear apart the wall and
he will have to fix it. See, I am
great at tearing apart things. But
I just don't know how to fix it back.
See the post about our front porch
in 2005.

Geesh, he hates that.

Passing of the President

As I watched the funeral process
this early morning, I thought about
Ford. No matter how anyone felt
about his politics.. you had to like
the man. He meant well, he tried
to be fair, and he did what he thought
was right for the country. He was just
a nice man. Not too many of those in
politics.

I watched later as the other Presidents
sat there listening to each speak about
Ford. And I wondered what was going thru
each of their minds. Especially Bush senior
and Carter. Where they wondering which of
them were next? Were they thinking, is
this how it will be for me too.

Clinton is too young to be thinking about it
but then again. He might be thinking about
which producer and director Hillary could
get to do his funeral...............I am joking..
really... I was joking...geesh, some people
just can't take a joke.

Wages and the Economy

I read the paper to day with some
interest and not being able to
understand.

You see they said it was a slow
news day, so Judge Roberts was
made a proposal of a raise for
Federal judges.

As it went along it told about
how Congressmen voted them
selves a $3,000 + raise from
last year and the Judge thinks
the judges should have a raise
too.

When talking about the minimum
wage, most of the congressmen
say that it is a bad idea. Because
it could effect the economy. That
some business wouldn't be able
to afford the minimum wage if it
went up to say $7.50 like a lot
of states already have it.

They say it would also raise the
prices of products and services.
All of this does seem reasonable.

But what I don't understand is how
it hasn't effected the State of
Washington and Oregon and
other states who already have
the $7.00+ wage for minimum in
their states. They seem to have
people still buying the product
at a reasonable price. But cause
ours in the state of Idaho is NOT
cheaper because of our $5.50
wage for minimum.

But even more to my puzzlement is
the fact, that raising the judges,
and Congressmen wages by $3,000
a year does not effect the economy?

Why is it when the common man
gets a raise where it is sorely needed,
it has great effect? Especially when
the common man gets the smallest of
raises.

Guess someone smarter than I, will
have to explain it to me. And it will
have to be in common sense language,
not the razzle dazzle language.