Prairie Moose Ranch

The day before...

2010-01-18T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the day before the special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in the Senate. Massachusetts, which is a very liberal state has the choice between the state Attorney General, Martha Coakley, and a vet who is conservative, seems not to be afraid to speak his mind and wants what "I" want for the country to happen for MA. It's a start, but if Scott Brown can pull this off and get elected, which will hinge greatly on the turnout of conservatives in that state, we might be able to stop this horrible HC bill which is essence the biggest takeover of our freedom by the government.

Brown would be able to be the fillibuster guy, they wouldn't just be able to pass the bill, well, that's not right, if the Dems decide to do the nuclear pass they can do it with 51 votes, not 60, which they'd have if Coakley gets elected. But they do that at their own peril, because the majority of Americans have rejected this plan and for the first time in our life time they don't care, they aren't listening to their constituents, and they plan to make our country socialist, like Europe. I say they should MOVE to Europe if they don't like this country and don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out!

2009-12-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

Well, allot has happened since my last post. Mike got a job, in fact two jobs, he's at a Bakery now, and then starts, hopefully, we've done the background check, etc., he needs to go and get a checkup, but he did all that for the job he started back in October, so he should be through that okay, but I won't believe he has the job at the Dairy until he starts there.

I came within days yet again for a Bugle Bay Basset Hound, this time FROM Marge
Cook at Bugle Bay, but only two males and the one I wanted wasn't show quality. So
now Kim, who bred my setter, has a B-Hound, Opie, and she's been bred to a son of the top
B-hound in the country, if she's pregnant, Kim gets pick, and she'll pick a boy and I get him.

Then Sheila who has Bugle Bay Six Pack and High Desert Bugle Bay Pumpkin, well, I'm first on the list for a male pup from her, so I'll have two B-hounds in no time!

Lots of houses empty up here. People no doubt lost jobs and/or couldn't afford their house. We're still waiting to see if we get to stay in ours. This shit never stops, it's just one thing after another. My car died the week of Thanksgiving, has used a dealers car until he sold it and now have a mangers' cadillac from work which she is a blessing for letting me use it but I'm going broke driving back and forth, my 60 mile one way trip.

Bad time for car shopping, I don't have much of a budget and prices are high. Hope to find out about two I'm interested in tomorrow so I can go and get it on Tuesday, and drop the caddie off.

Am SLOWLY, due to dial up , trying to download the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer. Got HBP on Tuesday, but not the one with the trailer...argh!

Am sick of the economy, and new 1.1 Trillion dollar stimulus was passed a few hours ago, we can't afford anything, they all have to go.

Sick of looking at cars, am going to go and watch a movie or something, while on my slow dial up I wait for the HP trailier to download.

Sunday ramblings...

2009-06-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to watch the stuff coming out of Iran. The youngsters want change. They have high inflation, high unemployment, sounds like what's coming this way too. Already have the one thing. Revolution!!!

I wonder about what's happening here, to my country that I don't recognize, to my family as it is. Unemployment runs out in August and then my life runs out. I don't have any place to go, don't have the money, don't want to lose my house, my animals, I know about myself one thing, I can't and won't face that. I don't know why people are letting this happen, the debt, the policies that won't put anybody back to work. No one questions any of it in such a way that things will get done about it. Unemployment continuous claims dropped 148k this last week, because all these people got jobs? No...their benefits ran out. These drops in number will happen more every week now as peoples' benefits run out. No one is hiring, these folks now have nothing. They will lose everything. I will lose everything in just weeks.

I have always seen myself as a survivor, but I don't want to survive losing my animals and my home. There are no jobs for my husband to get, even ones that wouldn't be enough to stay here anyway. You should see the pages upon pages of applications he's sent, of resumes sent, of interviews done (few and far between) and nothing. Not even Walmart! A new one opening in a nearby town.

No one cares about us, not our government, not his family, not friends, I guess I have no friends, must be because it's too uncomfortable, "there but for the grace of God"? Whatever we get, we deserve I guess. No, I'm mad, I don't think anybody whose worked hard and made a home and pays for it deserves this. No one!

On and on and on...

2009-06-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

Status still the same. Hubby still unemployed. The money runs out at the end of August. Then they can take me out of my home feet first. If this is what it's come to, so be it. We're old, in our mid fifties, no one wants to hire us. This doesn't feel like my country.

These are just my thoughts during this time. I don't care if it's read, but someday someone might find it on the web and know of this horrible journey that just doesn't seem to want to end. It's horrifying, I don't sleep, we're stressed out to the max. I found out this week that a friend's husband's company almost closed, and to keep it open they've cut their pay in half. How is that right? And on top of the stress of all of this, you are treated like a pariah. Still after almost 11 months, not one friend, not one family member has asked if we're okay, or "how are you doing?"
And on my birthday not one "Happy Birthday". These are suppose to be good Christian people.
I've never asked them for anything! Never would, and we're not invited to dinner although I've invited and had people over even though one of us isn't working. I keep up on how they are doing and friends and family. My boss, who is the only one who has asked about us says "well, they aren't friends then are they?" But it breaks my heart, I thought they were.

I must be a horrible person, so if we don't get employed soon, and they take my house, no reason to go on. No room in the US for horrible people. I work in cars so I already know from talking to the bosses that our business is expected to drop off dramatically. As used cars are already scarce work will become the same. I use to work all day on Monday but now I'm lucky if I have enough to do until noon or one. There is no sale on the 2nd of July so I don't have to come in, they're closed on the 3rd, and then no work on the next Monday. Any other time I'd be so happy, almost a whole week off. I could use one, but now it just means no groceries that week, no gas money.

They're going to paying us every other week that week too, so I have to try and make it two weeks on two days work. Great! It just goes on and on and on.

Coworker and neighbor is having a party today. Has mentioned it all week to other people. Brought it up at my get together weeks ago but hasn't told me what day, I now know it's today and hasn't ever said what time, okay hasn't ever said to come, so we're not invited, who wants a couple of losers around. I never in my life have felt like a loser, I sure do now.

I don't feel good...

2009-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Too stressed out I guess. About the economy, the unemployment for almost eight months of the hubby, that fact that I am in the car business.

Now the dissapointment of the whole Basset Hound thing. Hopefully, and hope springs eternal, hubby will be gainfully employed soon, and things will hopefully normalize. But I don't sleep well, and I don't feel good.

The economy and the stimulus has got me crazy. And I've emailed my elected officials, and they vote the way of their parties anyway. I sure wish I could attend one of the Tea Parties this coming Wednesday, but I work that day and I can't afford to take off. But I have to try and set up my VCR so I can watch some of the coverage.

I got Dick Morris' book "Fleeced" from the library and I have some of Glenn Becks' recommendations on a wait list there too. I'm not an economic genius, but I can count and when you owe the top amount for say...like your credit cards...and you have no money, and no way of making any money, so you get another credit card to pay off all of those credit cards you owe on, but when the bill comes due for the new credit card that has all this debt on it, you have no way to pay...how does that make anything better? How is that any different then what the Government is doing?

It's a Blizzard...

2009-04-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well it's a blizzard outside. Thought I'd get a post in before the electricity goes out in which I will get in bed under many covers and read the Patricia Cornwall book Jo Stump lent me.

Yes, the husband is still out of work. But FINALLY...two weeks ago...almost eight months since he lost his job, my boss asked..."How are you guys doing?" My eyes just teared up, I couldn't believe someone finally asked me. Eight months of this...haven't asked anyone for anything and someone finally asked. Everyone else is just ignoring me. I ask them how they are, I try and be supportive to them and I have no one to talk about this with. I don't know that I would. As far as anyone knows, we're going along just fine. I think that's why I like animals.

And of course if you look at what's going on with the country I doubt the husband will ever work again. And I have great worries about my job since I'm in the car business. All I know is that I've made some really big decisions in my life and now I'm regretting most of them. Not all...but okay, allot of them.

Now...how arrogant can you be to be President Nobama and stand there in Europe and tell them how wrong we Americans are to think that only we can be world leaders? Why didn't he mention any of this when he was running? Why didn't he tell everyone then how "unproud" he is of America, that we're no one special. I'm not the only one thinking this way, it's all over. What a maroon. Well I count the days until the 2010 elections. I just hope we can all survive that long.

The Spendulus Package passes...

2009-02-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

All I want...is for someone...anyone...who is a historian or economist to tell me when in our, or any other countrys' history that spending like this has helped a horrible economy get better.

That's all, just one person, just one. Show me the money...err...proof!

I liken this approach to what got this country into a fix in the first place. What's the difference between this and using your credit cards, to pay other credit cards...or your bills. And that's just the stimulus part.

How is any of this spending going to help the economy. Shouldn't a stimulus bill be nothing BUT stimulus? We have no money, a trillion dollars, now picture this in your minds' eye... 100 dollar bills, stacked upon each other would reach 689 miles into the air...that a trillion dollars, or this...lined up end to end, those same 100 dollar bills would go around the earth at the equator 39.5 times!

So if you were really going to stimulate the economy, wouldn't you do anything and everything you could to produce money? Corporate tax cuts, payroll tax cuts, drill here, credits for companies to hire people, to bring back the laid-off, to not have to lay-off... a fair tax, and flat tax, revenue...PRODUCE something, tax holidays, not spending a penny on anything that would not produce revenue to pay for this.

The people have no confidence that this will work. We are our own CEO's of our households and the majority of us know how to budget. No one...and I mean no one is going to let go of their hard earned cash if they think they could lose their job on Friday.

Allot of us screamed and emailed, and phoned our congressmen and senators when the first word of TARP came out...they didn't listen, they voted for it anyway. Where is our money, what is it, or was it spent on? They gave them that 350 billion dollars and didn't tell them to tell anyone what they were going to use it for. This Porkulus suffers from the same, BUT...there are people watching now...and I would almost bet the farm that where there's no transparency, there is corruption.

This was so bloody urgent that they couldn't read it? Not one person who voted on it read it.
There was suppose to be a 48 hour period so the bill could be reviewed, that didn't happen, they (the Decepticons) wanted it passed pronto before more and more people, IE. you and me, could read it and see how it's nothing that will help, it's earmarks and pork that wouldn't have ever gotten past committee, and wow, being in the Denver area, I can't wait for the throngs of the unread to gather en mass as they have twice before to fall at the feet of our President as he signs this travesty into law, right here in my little town.

I hope that the Repubibots who voted for this...Collins, Snow, and Specter (cowards...sheep) enjoy basking in the light of a bill passed...when the folks see that nothing is getting better they'll be put into stocks, I hope. Hopefully not voted in again anywhere...EVER!

If this was SO urgent how come only 7% of it will be put in to action this year??? Urgent, yeah...right, urgent to get their pet projects paid for by us!

This better work fast or there's gonna be a revolution, and it won't be just the conservative side of America who will be in on it. How will the supportive masses feel when this isn't the ticket? The politicians of America should never forget how fickle a distressed and hurting public can be.

We should be a producing nation...

2009-02-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

Tough times call for tough measures. This country should do everything and all things it can do to make money. Even very unpopular things. Screw party lines!!!

Drill, make our own gas, we pay 500 billion + a year to foreign countries for oil.
I'm not for giving up on alternate energies, but for fucks' sake, they haven't come up with
anything yet, at least let's make some money and have cheap gas while they're getting around
to it.

Drop NAFTA and any other "free" trade agreement that forces us to pay export taxes but
not import taxes for other countries selling their products here.

Fine...and I mean big time fines for companies that outsource their work. Cheap bastards!

Cut the Capital gains and corporate taxes, that would help companies to create jobs and keep the jobs they have now.

The plan now is to spend the way out...WITH WHAT??? Oh...okay we'll print the money and then five years down the road it will take a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a loaf of bread.
This was tried in the 30's and never worked. I have emailed politicians and economists about this asking just one of them to explain how they think this will work this time, when it never has. I 've got no response.

Every CEO and executive of the banks that knew this was happening and they all did should have to give back their bonuses and golden parachutes and that money should be divvy ed up between the customers that lost everything in this mess.

And if you think a trillion dollars or so will fix this then maybe you haven't heard about the Credit Default Swaps, and how that mess will take 60-70 trillion to fix. There isn't enough money in the world to fix that.

You could buy Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, McDonald's, Apple, Microsoft, Fed Ex, and I forget the other companies and there was like something along the lines of 27 billion dollars left over if you used 1 trillion dollars to purchase the above mentioned companies. I know there were more but I forget, someone on TV was trying to explain how much a trillion dollars was.

There's no time, people need to work to make a living, people need to keep their jobs, we need to be a producing country, not the consuming country that we are, there's no money in it, but if we did things to make money like what I mentioned above, and even a fair tax, that way EVERBODY pays a tax, even the folks on welfare pay when they buy that loaf of bread, there would be so much cash flow we could pay ourselves to get us out of this mess.

Instead we get further and further away from our constitution, and it might take a revolution to get us back. It'll happen if they pass this bill and it doesn't work, and common sense, I'm no
economist, tells me it won't.

Aren't you all scared to death? You think that if they throw money at the banks this will work? Companies can't make their bills, they need credit to do it. What about the houses, I liked the idea of 4% loans for everyone, that would help ones in trouble to stay in their houses and ones who pay their bills on time and can afford their houses to get a wonderful break too. You don't think that 300-500 extra a month wouldn't help people out? My husbands unemployment covers our mortgage...just, none left over, we have no propane, we heat water on a hot plate for washing, cooking, the lot, have for the past three months. I can afford the electricity and they've been working with me since it's high every month due to the electric space heaters. We use the fireplace allot, but just think, if he can get a job that will make what we need to make our bills I don't know what I'd do. To be able to turn on the faucet and have hot water, to take a shower instead of hauling pots of hot water to the tub to take a sitz bath and wash my hair.

And have I paid my phone bill, once in a while, my cell phone, am behind, I'll get that next week, my car payment...yes, I have to get to work, but we're four months behind on the truck payment which luckily I have a good man from the dealership letting us slide on that for now, I'll have to use our tax refund for that and to make up half a mortgage payment that we were behind on waiting the six weeks for the first unemployment check. So instead of using the refund to pay off the car and put the rest away save some hay, I'll have to hope we get enough back to make those payments up and then what...we do lose the truck, and possibly the house. We've paid off allot of our debt, had just got to where we could put $335.00 away a month to saving for a rainy day and he lost his job. "There but for the grace of God go I/you."

And in all these months one friend invited us to Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas, and this good person is someone I don't know that well. The one's I do avoid me like the bubonic plague unless they can talk about themselves, or I can do something for them. They would leave me in a gutter on the street, just pass me. It breaks my heart...I would never do that to them...never.
So the biggest lesson I've learned out of all of this, is you're on your own, trust no one.

Every day I want to run away, I wish I could.

You are on your own...

2009-02-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

I spent a great part of yesterday emailing all the senators of the USA. Asking them not to vote yes on the Stimulus Bill as it's a spending bill and not a stimulus bill. When your husband has been out of work for more then five months it's amazing what you'll do.

I've asked no one I know for any help of any kind and yet, you sure find out who your friends are. Ones I thought were have NEVER asked even how we're doing. Avoid the subject altogether. I'm not talking about the whole "job" thing, I mean not even a "how are you?",
" how are you doing?" nothing, nada, zip. But I sure ask them how they are, their family members, friends, enemies, even pets. Is it that if they do, they'll or their spouses will instantly lose their jobs? Their arms will fall off, or their teeth will fall out? This is hard enough, this is the most trying time of our lives and there but for the grace of God would go any of them. I would ask them how they were if it were them. So if this happens to you, you are truly on your own.

It breaks my heart. Trust no one. I am a pariah. I am shit. I am vindictive? I don't think I am and yet it makes me mad, not angry mad, hurt mad, but what is that, it's really just as bad if not worse. I want so bad to ignore them, not ask them how they are, not have anything to do with them, and yes, before this is over it might come to that, nah...I'm not like that, I won't let myself be.

My husband gets more and more depressed, more and more abusive, more and more cruel, taking out all of his frustration on me, why? And everyone in this situation knows this, we're the only ones here. He won't shower, won't shave, just sits around all day watching TV and eating everything in the house, well...that's not much, nothing special, Top Ramen Noodles is about all we can afford. No worries about the animals, they are eating like always, no skimping there...NEVER, it's not their fault. I'm working, but it's not good enough, it's not enough period. He's had interviews but no one has hired him, and the more it goes on, I'm thinking no one will in time. This blog is my only outlet, I have no friends to talk about this with, fine good upstanding, christian people they call themselves...hmm. There but for the grace of God keeps coming up in my head.

I keep on telling myself that spring will be here soon, and my favorite time of year, severe storm season, but this Stimulus...I mean Porkulus Bill will not create jobs for anyone. In fact, they don't get our lack of confidence, why would anyone spend money if next Friday could be the day they lay you off?

Good bye 2008...don't let the door hit ya on the butt on the way out!

2008-12-31T21:38:00.000-08:00

After celebrating my hubby's being out of work for four months yesterday, well...I can't tell you how glad I am to see this year out, despite the enormous fear of what 2009 will bring. Doesn't feel much like our luck has changed. Two days before Christmas he got hired by a Freight company. We sat stunned at the kitchen table that evening not quite knowing how to feel. I'll take that as an omen of what happened the next day. He was instructed by the Terminal Manager who hired him to come down to the Terminal and fill out the forms and find out when he would start. I went off to work trying not to think about it and waited for his call. He had another interview about three hours later that despite the fact he was hired at the one place he decided to go to that interview anyway. Fear and loathing do strange things to a person.
So he calls me and says that he got down to said terminal, note how now I'm not capitalizing that word , and the manager...oops, again with the small case... told him after he got there that corporate had told him to put the job on hold and that he would call him later and let him know for how long.

That was a week ago. Yeah, life sucks some times. So, he went to the other interview, and it was a LONG one, the guy showed him around, yada, yada, said that he had a manager there that just wasn't going to work out, and that my hubby was just what he was looking for and that he'd let him know. That again was a week ago. So now tomorrow...err...today he goes off on yet another interview, I guess I should be glad he's getting called on them, my God, if you could see how many resumes, and apps he's filled out in the past four months and hasn't had a nibble. So this is a phone interview with the giant company, I found out tonight as I researched it, and that will be at 1 PM , and then the waiting game...again.

It's getting harder and harder to hold on. You sure find out who your friends are, I've got some that ask me daily if we're all right and ask us to dinner, and offer wood and stuff cause they know that we'd do it for them, and we might have to the way things are going. And then there are the ones who treat you like pariahs, scum, avoid you like the plague, and a few of them I would cut down my trees if it meant to keep them warm. But we have not and would not ask for anything from anybody. Oh well, no worries, I hope they NEVER have to go through anything like this. And if anybody thinks that their job is safe, that this can't happen to them, boy would I warn everybody to fly under the radar, to do whatever they can to keep their job. It's a nightmare!!!

And the Government played on...

2008-12-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

It's the winter solstice. A cold 21 degrees outside, deceiving as it is with the sun shining full. My husband is still without a job, and no one is hiring. Had a healthy scare on Thursday, they laid off 28 at our office. I was spared for now. What a horrible day. Our manager had a meeting with all of us yesterday morning explaining how it's all they hope will be laid off. But who knows.

I'm beaten down, today is not a good day. As usually I hang on every word that all the business channels on TV go on about, I had to leave and come and get on the computer. I can't take it! The things they have planned for all of us. Nothing that will help with jobs. Oh they say so, but building infrastructure will take a while to plan. What will all the unemployed do until then? How will we pay for it? In two years time will inflation be so bad that it takes a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread?

I got gas the other night for $1.42.9 a gallon. The price of a barrel of oil was $34 and some change when the markets closed yesterday, but while on the way home, I stopped to top off as we all knew the weather would turn bitter cold this weekend, and the bloody price of gas was $158.9!!! WTF?!?!?! I AM SO SICK OF BEING RIPPED OFF!!!

A five pound bag of potatos...potatos costs about $5 here. Will it ever end? My husband talked to the electric gal, out here the other day putting "turn off" notices on doors and he asked her if there was allot of this going on, she just said that there were so many foreclosures in our area.

I caution anyone who can to rent or scan your PBS stations for a documentary called "America, freedom to facism". It's what's going on here now. I don't see how baling out everyone who already had money with our money will help. They give money to the banks, but don't fire the execs who brought them down, or take them off to jail, and take their golden parachutes and divide it up amongst the poor people who lost all of their money. Oh, they'll prosecute Madoff for his Ponzi scheme, that's because the majority of victims were millionaires themselves. But the poor working Joe can just get to the back of the line.

Credit isn't flowing because when our inept congress passed the Bail Out there wasn't any language in the pork laden monster that stated the banks who were receiving said billions had to lend it out. So they're hoarding it all and buying other banks and such. Great!!!

We are a consumer based society that doesn't produce anything. So we have nothing to make any money on to pay for our debts. Instead of bending over for OPEC, until we figure out how to make a reliable "clean car", why not drill everywhere we can, and produce our own fuel and to hell with OPEC. We could keep that 500 billion plus a year here...in America and pay off our debt and OPEC could sell to China and India, and Russia for whatever they wanted to.

We're all just trying to hang on. But we need to write our congressmen, our senators, we need to vote out anyone who doesn't do what's right by us.

God help us all!

Woeful in the USSA...

2008-11-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

Well, haven't blogged in a while. Been too busy surviving. Husband is in third month of being laid off. Three companies want to hire him but they are on a hiring freeze. No jobs anywhere, and with the prospect of living in a few days in the UnUnited Socialist States of America, well... allot more folks will lose their jobs. There will be no hiring as businesses make the decisions of paying higher taxes in this pitiful economy and not hiring or letting employees go in order to pay them.

We are on Unemployment for now, it just covers the mortgage. We make too much for food stamps, so it's do we keep the lights on or eat. We've paid taxed since we were 15 and 16, but the Government can't help us, but by gosh we've fed, and medicated who knows how many folks who don't want to work for a living. We have no propane, we use a hotplate to heat water for dishes and bathing, we're in our fifties and to hold on to our nest egg, we have to go through this for who knows how long. Much longer with a Democratic government.

Two things have happened this year. I've never been so scared in my life, I've never been more politically active in my life. So much so that neighbors and friends want me to run. My gosh, they hate Sarah Palin, they would loathe me. I hate this, I've never been so worried. My husband is despondent, to the point of well...let's just say it's horrible.

We've sold everything of value. To sell my precious camera was so hard. I've suffered with a pulled shoulder now for three weeks. It happened, just all of a sudden. Didn't feel anything pull, on my way in from the parking lot into the office, told them I had a bad pain in my shoulder blade, they immediately thought I was having a heart attack and rushed me off to University hospital, where after all day (can't wait for universal health care, BTW, you'll be at the doctors' for a week trying to get seen), a EKG, a MRI (they thought I threw a blood clot in my lungs), they came out great! At least I know my chest pains now are GERD, not my heart, for now. We're both on High Complex B Vitamins for stress. See "I" work in the car business. Boy, life is good, and by gosh it looks like come Election Day it will get so much better.

But really, what am I complaining about, I'm the proud owner of AIG, Morgan Stanley, Chase, who has my mortgage, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and a plethora of other big banking institutions, all run by the same bone-heads that brought them down to begin with. And who do the people want for President? A man with NO experience whatsoever. Great!!!

Anyone with half a brain, no... with an eighth of a brain can see that no one will be able to lower any of our taxes. They will have to raise them. There will be no "Taking care of ourselves", by making our own energy. Yeah, T. Boone, I'm all for natural gas, wind, solar, yada yada, but whose going to pay for the infrastructure of all this, whose going to pay to change over EVERY gas station in the country, to train every car mechanic, to change our cars over, or help us buy new ones? How long will that take? How will we survive in the interim? It's not just gas, it's food, it's everything. One of the companies my husband use to work for ( The LTL Freight business) is outsourcing all of their billing work to India. My husband and everyone in his pay grade got laid off so that company could show a $.02 profit per share. But by gosh, we'll bail them out too, right after the mortgages, and the banks, and the car companies, and the credit card companies, hell, I love paying for everyone, all the illegal aliens too. But "I" can't get help with food right now, we make too much on unemployment, I can't get free health care, I can't get help with propane, we have none, thank goodness it's been warm so far. Like I told Chase when I sent off one mortgage payment that included three money orders from the unemployment and a check to pay it, that we would keep paying, might be late, but they couldn't have my house, they'd have to pry it from my cold dead hands...might just be that way.

Oh yeah, since all of this, my car has started running like crap. I gave up my cell phone, so I told my boss if I didn't show up one day I'm out on I-70 broke down. Yeah, boy, I'm so happy right now.

I liked Dennis Millers' idea for the CEO's of these companies who needed a bail out, but they walked away with their "golden parachutes", give them one, a real one, and push them out of a plane at 18,000 feet.

Hey, I will say one thing, I never thought I'd be able to turn on Bloomberg TV, or CNBC, and know exactly what they were talking about. I am a little worried (snort) about the over 50 Billion Credit Default Swap problem, how are we going to pay for that? Yes, I thought I'd get some satisfaction if I told my Senators and Congressmen not to vote for that pork filled bail out bill, I told them if they didn't do something they'd be out of a job. Only one out of a job is my husband, but just wait my Socialist friends, you too will soon be vying against some 1.5 million others for the same job.

I just want to know in all of this...whose going to subsidise us??

It's SOOOOOO dry...

2008-07-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

The weather outside is frightful, and it has nothing to do with snow. Almost wish it did. We've had a very dry spring. Colorado is 5 inches below normal as far as precip goes. Thunderstorms last week sparked several fires in my area. Luckily none threatened my immediate area, but it sure is scary.

There was a grass fire up in Weld county yesterday that burned more than 1500 acres in a matter of hours. They got that under control before any structures were threatened, but the whole town of Wiggins was put on alert, and the ranchers were moving livestock out of the way.

I can tell you that the air last Friday up in Loveland was horrible. So smoky from all the fires, not bad as the air was during the Hayman fire, but hard to take nonetheless. Made for some spectacular sunsets though.

I've actually been watering around the house, just in case. We have a tendency towards high based dry thunderstorms this time of year, before the monsoon comes in. Haven't had a decent monsoon in years, doesn't look good for this year either. But it's so brown, it looks more like the end of August. Just before fall when all the prairie grasses go brown.

We did have a bad hail storm the 2nd of June... I posted a picture, lots of damage, had the insurance adjuster out three weeks ago, still haven't received a check. All the other roofs are almost all repaired, nice to get the check so we can do this before they all leave. It's hell getting someone up here for anything, so far away from every where. Hope we get some rain...soon!

GET OFF YOUR GAS!!!

2008-06-10T06:30:00.001-07:00

Written by Actor Chuck Norris to Congress...

Posted: June 09, 200812:38 am Eastern© 2008
Last Thursday oil prices increased $5.50 per barrel in one day. Last Friday marked the biggest single-day surge in oil price history, rocketing $11 more to $138 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In just two days, oil costs increased 13 percent.
Average Americans are literally driving to the poor house on financial fumes. With gas at more than $4 per gallon, roughly two cars in every household, and the average annual gas usage at 700 gallons, you do the math. Americans are being forced to use their hard-earned money that once put food in their stomachs to now put petroleum into their tanks, but to drive the exact same distances they drove a decade ago for four-to-five times the price.
As oil and gas prices skyrocket, Congress continues to play the blame game. In April 2006, with the Democrats poised to take over Congress with Nancy Pelosi at the helm, she released a statement saying, "With skyrocketing gas prices, it is clear that the American people can no longer afford the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress." She followed that with the commitment, "Democrats have a common sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging." So has the Democrat's commonsense plan worked? Average gas prices were about $2.50 a gallon at the time. Now they're $4 a gallon and rising. Some crack-down plan.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, they are going to discuss this week a cap-and-trade system, something that Obama and MCain both support. The main problem is official estimates say that it will increase gas by another $1.50 a gallon. Or as Newt Gringrich said in an interview recently with Glenn Beck, "It should be called 'Raise prices and destroy jobs' because that's what it will do. It's going to raise the price of gasoline; it's going to raise the price of diesel fuel for truckers. It's going to raise the price of aviation fuel for an already ailing airline industry. It's going to raise the price of heating oil. It's going to raise the price of natural gas, and it's going to raise the price of coal."
From the steady decline in the value of our dollar, to trade deficits and oil dependency, our sovereignty is being sold out from underneath us. Might I remind the federal government what one of their original and primary charges is: to protect the American public from the tyranny of foreign powers – which is exactly what is happening through others' financial rule over us. It is sucking the life out of our economy. And Congress is virtually standing by and watching it happen.

Look at the energy chaos that our government has allowed. While we remain at the mercy of oil companies, cartels and OPEC, our government has tied the hands of states and citizens to tap even temporary energy relief from our own land. Here are a few key vistas on the oil and energy landscape at the moment:

Though we have more oil in the shale of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming than combined in the Middle East (800 billion barrels), liberals and environmentalists have made it illegal to touch it.
It's illegal to drill in northern Alaska (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), or off the coasts of Florida or California.

Oil fields in Colorado are being shut down.

We won't develop shale oil fields in the Western states

It's illegal to explore in the Atlantic.

It's illegal to explore in the Pacific

It's illegal to explore in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

We're not receiving any more leases to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, while China, Venezuela and Cuba are.

We haven't built an oil refinery in 25 years and reduced in half those we have
There's enough natural gas beneath America (406 trillion cube feet) to heat every home in America for the next 150 years, but we can't tap it all.
We have the largest supply of coal in the world, but it's Germany who is planning to build 27 coal-fired electrical plants by 2020.
American airlines are in danger of going out of business.
American truckers are being stranded on the sides of the road.
American commuters are going bankrupt trying to travel back and forth to work, and are being forced to work locally for lower wages.
If there isn't a conspiracy going on here, someone needs to make a movie about one!
Bill Clinton once said, "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse emissions because we've got to save the planet for our grandchildren." That is the type of mentality that got us in this trouble. I'm all for doing our best to preserve our planet, but not at the price of losing our nation in the process. Bill's words just might come true, but not as he or Al Gore might expect. We might save the planet for our grandchildren, and lose America at the same time, unless we turn around this energy crisis now.
Instead of whining and blaming, Congress needs to take some practical steps now to stop the insanity at the pumps, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, open up some temporary energy production avenues for economic relief (like shale development) and focus more of their taxpayer work time into establishing further alternative ways of producing energy for everything (from coal, electrical, natural gas, hydrogen, solar, nuclear, wind, etc.) Being the wealthiest nation on Earth, there is simply no reason or justification for us to be dependent on fuels that we can't produce in our country.
If you're sick and tired of giving away $2 of every gallon of gas to foreign dictators, making other oil-producing countries, cartels and tycoons rich beyond their imagination, and watching the federal government flail for energy solutions and bow to international powers –all of whom are sucking the very life out of the American people, economy and threatening national security – I implore you to sign and pass along the petition, "Drill here, drill now, pay less" at Newt Gingrich's American Solutions website. We're hoping to send millions of signatures to Congress demanding an immediate emergency session and resolution to our economic and national security crisis revolving around soaring oil and gas prices.
Our message: It's time to drill here and drill now! The petition is simple. It states: "We therefore the undersigned citizens of the United States petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gas prices by authorizing exploration of proven energy reserves and reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries."
Speaking of unstable countries, did I mention that the Iraq oil minister just reported that oil production is at pre-war levels (2.5 million barrels a day), yielding earnings for Iraq of $28.5 billion in just the first five months of this year? What that means is, we'll likely soon be dependent and in debt to yet another Middle Eastern oil-producing country that we've helped stabilize and become wealthy while ours is going straight down the tubes.

Congratulations Congress – you're completely failing us.

** Go to the article where it's published to use and read links that are throughout the letter.**

http://www.blogger.com/www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66557&6=7

Final Harry Potter Movie News...

2008-04-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

Seems that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie will be split in two. One part to be released in November of 2010 and the second part to be released in May of 2011. I don't know about waiting so long for the second half, but am grateful that they will try and put into the movie what the huge book entailed. I was extremely disappointed in how much of The Order of the Phoenix was left out.