Beyond annoying. In MT in charge? Maybe the techies are all off shore now. OK, I am done.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sh.. Know what I mean? And I mean, Josh, it's like awful, just plain awful. Did we invent it, this feeling of Auschwitz? Maybe. Help us back. You're the one who can, maybe.

I cannot comment on anyone's post, because I cannot sign in to do that. (Sighing)
So goodbye to all in here, and to the innkeeper. I am grateful for friendship and community- as are we all- and for the chuckles and the fury.
I will see you where I see you.
Happy Fried day.

(Tee hee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZ2by7M9NI

Thank you!  I have bookmarked your links.
Prob is that I cannot sign in to leave a comment on my own blog- thought it demanded a note of reassurance-despite the fact I am signed in to BLOG. Is this nuts or wot? Plus, no avatar- except on the horizon. Going to buy paint now before the rainy season starts. (I might click a second time to keep the publishing elves confused.)

Desperately seeking solace.

From each of us according to our ability to one in greater need. Please donate a small piece of your real worth to Face and his household - and give them a big boost of optimism. Anyone, ANYONE who has been in (or even just near) dire straits should find palpable meaning in the gift of assistance. It's good for all of us who give as well. 
Has help ever been passed to you when you were in need? Pass it on. What goes around, comes around.

For those of you that aren't familiar with my current situation you can read all about it if you will follow this ==============> LINK  

 

I figure I should tell everyone about the cost cutting we have done since this situation has developed. Here are a few of the measures we have taken to cut our expenses over the last 6 months or so. (we thought we had a couple months emergency fund and it went really fast, actually it lasted about a month, so if you have an emergency fund know that it will not last nearly as long as you think it will if things go south as quickly as they did for us)

          We used to be a two car family, no longer. We sold the car we had payments left on for  $500 less than we owed on it. And felt lucky to get that even though it took $500 from our savings.. we now drive a 1994 GMC Jimmy.

          We turn our electric hot water heater on for a few hours every other day. If you have an electric hot water heater, turning it off can save about $20 bucks a month, but I do miss my daily morning shower.

          Basic TV only.

          Our insurance now has the highest deductible available.

          Internet service is on and off a month at a time and only when we can afford it. So mostly off.

          The A/C is rarely on.

          We both cut pills in half every other day. That way a 30 day supply lasts 45 days.

          No going out for anything, dinner, movies, etc...

          No expensive cuts of meat, just the basics from the grocery store and what we do buy is always the cheapest version of whatever it is we need. (We have become quite the connoisseurs of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grilled cheese sandwiches).

Those are just a few of the things we are doing to cut our living expenses and I am sure there are more and I will try to post them as I encounter them, who knows they might help other folks dealing with some hardships. If anyone knows other things we could do please let me know every little bit helps. 

We hope that the word on our "square foot sale" gets out on every blog, email list and any other place you might be able to post my original blog or something you write yourself about our situation.  I will re-post the original in a couple days because I really don't know what else to do (If someone has any other ideas please let me know and I will jump all over them).

In the meantime THANKS to those folks that have already helped and if there is something I can do in return please let me know. And if someone has the ability to help me set up a web page called "savemyhome" (or some version of it)  please let me know because it will NOT be a "one of" I will keep it up and running and try to help others in the same situation we are in. I just don't have a clue on how to set up a web site. I would also appreciate it if someone could explain how "diggit" works. I think it is something that could help but don't know for sure how to use it, or exactly what it does.

If anyone would like to purchase a square foot in my field here is the information.

Mail

Steve Lanier

PO Box 35

Jackson, Ohio 45640-0035

and paypal is

stevelanier "theatsign" yahoo.com

THANKS again!

S

Mr. Obama. Tear down this god damnable Corporation!

Someone I am friended with on Face Book finds it a passing strange world wherein an impoverished co-ed in New Zealand would actually sell her virginity in order to survive. I don't wonder at the transaction for a second, I just wonder where her next 35 grand - or whatever she made - is going to come from. After all is said and done, virginity is only a commodity for others' fantasy. What if she has talents, or perhaps just one real as yet unrealized talent? Talents can be exercised, developed, increased in value. Virginity? Overrated by many I suspect, and can only be parted with existentially (or sold) one time like the light of a new day. How much is that first stream of rays worth? And didn't you experience it yesterday? Can't you tomorrow? This young woman can too.
Talents and friends are often neglected and ignored to some degree; just never sold, that would be ridiculous.
There are at least three friends I meet in the Café chat room when I visit it who have been ignored at little too much by the world, and I wish for their sake that there were some rare and shining commodity like Hope that could be marketed like Virginity over and over again, so that its stock would so quickly rise so high in price that their difficulties would poof! simply disappear.
Isn't it time to create a fund for those of us in great need? A little bit from each of many can go a long way. We have helped before. We can do it again. 
Thoughts, please? (And if you choose to rec this, it may increase in reading value :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091016/ap_on_re_us/us_boy_in_balloon;_ylt=An7EOltDcU3ZBoOd4TDmlYJpaP0E;_ylu=X3oDMTJrbDlnaGgyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMDE2L3VzX2JveV9pbl9iYWxsb29uBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2JveWZlYXJlZGZsbw--
And a little child shall lead them. I'll say. On a wild goose chase? Oh my! Now Dad, poor Dad, feeling a little sad but hugely relieved at the same time- oh maybe a trifle embarrassed and apologetic towards his six year old Petit Prince- can go back to playing at designing and flying dirigibles. Well, medium sized balloons. What a bore compared to riding in one.
So where do the Wild Things really take us? Into a cardboard box in the garage.
I wish for all of us who have some anxiety- some fear about what the future holds, a nagging realisation that we are not really in charge of our own safety- a two hour flight of fancy and delight, a short escape from the horrors of our earthbound fantasy. Have a good day, as it were.

Some of us work at what we do all year round. My trash and recycling is being collected as I write because Monday is always Monday where I live- and this work is done on Christmas Day or any other holiday as well. True, it's a private company, not a state or local government funded operation. That said, the men who work at this are so spiffy, so polite, so cheery in greeting me as I race out with the last little bit of recycling you would think that we were at a cocktail party.
The bridges in San Francisco are maintained all year round as well. When I moved here the first time, I learned that the Golden Gate is always being painted. Surely, those workers get this weekend off? But we know that the Golden Gate is an Icon, as Icon's go. It is a lovely color. And it is a stunning structure to look at. I see it from my bedroom window here in the East Bay, when the fog is not between me and it. I have come to love the fog as well, but the fog is another story. This one is about labor devoted the well being of others.
Caltrans shut down the other big bridge, the East Bay Bridge, for the weekend on Thursday at 8:00 in the evening so that a span on my side could be sliced away and replaced, just part of a seismic retrofit which is scheduled for completion in 2013. The Bay Bridge allows travel for a quarter million commuters everyday. That quarter million is in addition to those who use the rapid transit system known as BART, which from my side travels underneath the Bay to cross it. A 50 foot span on the Bay Bridge collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake; thus the necessary commitment to a seismic retrofit. A very good thing California is able to afford this infrastructure project, don't you agree? Or was, at the time that it was planned. I love the nickname of the huge sea going crane employed to raise the heavy steel for this project: The Left Coast Lifter.
When inspection on Saturday revealed a crack at a significant distance from the site of the  span replacement, a crack halfway through a span-supporting steel link- a crack large enough to close the Bridge by itself!- the news now became that the Bridge had to remain closed for some indefinite period. The two inch thick piece of steel functions within a series of eight links. But a link cracked all of halfway through, and discovered only when the opportunity to inspect so closely presented itself with the Bridge empty of traffic?  Well, that is something to shudder about. So we were braced for days of crowded BART trains, late arrival at work, delayed returning home and a general condition of frayed nerves and headaches. We were  told to expect at least one additional day without the Bridge and perhaps much longer, perhaps a couple of weeks.
But this morning bought news of American Labor Day Weekend heroics. A steel contractor in Arizona has been hard at work throughout the weekend. The repair materials are now complete and were flown during the night by charted plane to San Francisco and then moved onto the Bridge with police escort. I wish I could have been there to cheer the parade.
As the crew work frantically up there in the sky, the rest of us plan our grilling of food and our gathering of loved ones. My husband and a couple of our brood are meeting just now at the Rockeridge BART station or beyond to bike up Mt Diablo. It is a gorgeous sunny day. I am planning to cook a menu for both vegetarian and carnivore family members. Have fun, my husband and I say to each other as he leaves to ride to the BART station. I will walk the dog and get ready to make Italian sauce for meatball and non meat meatball hoagies.
And the crew continues, laboring as fast as they can, putting our almost Humpty Dumpty Bridge back together so that we can carry out normal lives beginning Tuesday morning. Happy Labor Day.

Like many others here most likely, I received this from David Plouffe today.

(lefty) President Obama is holding a live strategy meeting on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time for all Organizing for America supporters. I hope you can join us, online or by phone.  The President will update us on the fight to pass real health insurance reform -- what's happening in D.C. and what's happening around the country. He'll lay out our strategy and message going forward and answer questions from supporters like you. And we'll unveil the next actions we'll organize together. This is a critical time in this President's administration, and in the history of our country. I hope you can join us. Here are the details: What: Organizing for America National Health Care Forum When: Thursday, August 20th, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time RSVP and submit a question for the President. The President wrote to us a few weeks ago to ask us to go the extra mile this month in the fight for health insurance reform. And so far, you've stepped up in a big way: Last week, an astounding 60,000 Organizing for America volunteers stopped by representatives' and senators' local offices. You told your health care stories to staffers and members of Congress -- of losing insurance after getting laid off, of being denied coverage upon finding out about a serious illness. And you thanked those supporting real health insurance reform for all the work they've done so far. But these local office visits were only part of the story. The D.C. media has been trumpeting coverage oftown halls disrupted by angry opposition to reform. But the reality on the ground is very different. Organizing for America supporters are showing up in huge numbers at these meetings all across the country -- outnumbering opponents of reform, often by overwhelming margins.  You've organized 11,906 local events in all 50 states -- from press conferences to community discussions -- since we launched our big campaign for reform in June. And you've made hundreds of thousands of calls to Congress.  Your work so far has been incredible. But the special interests and partisan attack groups who oppose reform will not let up, and they will tell whatever lies they can to spread fear. There's a lot more work for all of us to do. This Thursday's meeting is our chance to huddle as a team, get the latest information and talk about how we're going to achieve this victory. You don't want to miss it.  Click here to RSVP and submit a question for President Obama: http://my.barackobama.com/forum  Hope you can make it, David Plouffe This is nice. David does a good job. I appreciate that he helped to get our President elected.  I think  we helped too. But is this also an opportunity, e.g. for those feeling a tad wistful about LBJ's reputed Oval Office charms, to inquire about  the vigor of the bully in the bully pulpit? I  am guessing we can submit one question. Today. Mine, in process of development,  might have to do with removing health care benefits from all members of Congress if there is not health care for all, on the principle that members of Congress get to pay taxes and to vote. What's yours?

Why oh why, DD, do I get this error message now, whenever I attempt to visit your blog? I am on mac and one assumption could be it's nothing to worry about, hey just click on Ignore warning. On the other hand, I do like my mac and it's my only computer. So I always go back, missing Arthur.

Two things happened Saturday, November 1st, All Saints Day.
1) It RAINED in Northern California- after two years of drought! Rain can be so lovely when you count toilet flushes and water flowers with dish water.
2) Sarah Palin made it to the top in Canadian radio comedy. 
May wonders never cease.