Unreformed

This morning the Senate passed the health care reform bill. 60-39. Who was missing?? Was this 40 Dems and 20 Repubs in favor?? As Aerosmith says, DREAM ON.

Now that the bills are through the nonsense of quorum calls and cloture resolutions and all the other b.s. that our representatives use to avoid governing and making hard choices, what did we get?? A political deal where any Dem senator who wanted could get some pork or special consideration for his/her state!! Abortion reform? Insurance pools? Less responsibility for the state and more for the Fed on Medicaid?

What about all the millions of baby boomers who would like to retire but can't get reasonable cost health insurance? What is so bad about a Medicare buy-in at 55? That's what all federal employees basically get for their health insurance. If it's good enough for Senators Liebermann, McCain, and Nelson it should be good for the rest of us!!!!

Now there will be a conference committee to blend the House and Senate versions into a bill that can become law after Barack Obama signs it. So to Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, John Boehner, Joe Liebermann, Barry Obama----before you go any further, please, over the Christmas recess, read Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy and learn how a LEADER acts.

The American people want HEALTH CARE REFORM not political hash. Early buy-in to Medicare, a public option for health insurance, reform in how medical professionals are compensated (pay for results, not number of procedures). This is not too much to ask and we, the people, deserve better than what we've gotten to this point!!!!

Merry Christmas

Dad's cousin sent him this, he shared it with us, and we thought we'd share it with all of you!!!! Please click on these words:

"Merry Christmas"

We love you all!!!!

from the Pirate Dogs

Anton Chico

Any self-respecting gathering of more than one chihuahua should have an Anton Chico. We don't---but hopefully the humans will add one soon!!!!

The story of Anton Chico is one that brings tears of pride to those of our proud canine race. It isn't enough that chihuahuas defeated Aztec slavers and those who sacrificed dogs to Quetzalcoatl. These valiant dogs moved north into New Mexico and secured the area near the Manzano mountains for the humans who followed them. Part of that was enabling the fortress of Don Salvador Tapia to colonize the area he named after the chihuahua who led him there---yes, Anton Chico was that dog. He led the people who repelled the Texans seeking to claim the land as part of their state which they believed should encompass the entire watershed of the Rio Grande. Were it not for this brave chihuahua, Albuquerque might be in Texas :-( Then what?????

So long live Anton Chico, noblest of the small dogs!!!! And this is the reason all families with multiple chihuahuas must get one named Anton (or Antonia--we are not misogynists) Chico!!!!

A true testament, written as inspired by the verbal history of chihuahuas by Bertequila, midshipman and chronicler of the Pirate Dogs.

Reality?????

My brother sent me this link to a story about "Student Day" in Iran. Remember when those days were a celebration of learning, a time of joy?? Now I guess we can add Opening Day of Hunting Season.......

Then there's the ever politically correctly minded Harry Reid comparing the Republicans to slave owners. Please don't take this wrong, but I see his point. He was comparing the obstructionists of today to the same class of politicos in the mid-1800's. Reid is just ham-fisted like his House counterpart Nancy Pelosi. If we get the programs we need to reform health care, fight global warming, get the economy back under control, it will be in spite of these two "leaders" not because of them.

We won't comment about Tiger except to remind readers that absolute anything corrupts absolutely.

Yesterday it snowed and we had a little ice storm on the high plains. Today the winds hit 60 mph. Please tell me again about NM weather---how warm and cozy we have it.........

Leny has developed a stubborn disobedient streak that manifests itself on Sunday when I leave LC for the work week in Clovis. She sits by the truck, refusing to come indoors. If we get insistent, she rolls over on her back, paws up like she wanta her sharpradorial belly rubbed. She hates my leaving as much as I do............

So enjoy whatever reality you are inhabiting. Got your Christmas shopping done yet??????

Update from the Mud Shack

What ever possesses people to do some things is totally incomprehensible to me. A standard washer/dryer pair takes up just over 58 inches---each is 29 inches wide, you need a couple inches clearance. So why make a laundry room 55-1/2 inches wall to wall??? Glad those new front loaders can be stacked; sorry to not be able to use our less than 2-years-old conventional top loaders.........

Gotta do a commercial for Lowe's---got the units on sale and they delivered Sat. a.m. at 7:30!! So nice to not waste a day hanging out waiting for delivery/service people!!!!! I've always had better service from them than their competitor.

Since the gas heater in the front of the house needs work, we have been heating with wood. The kiva fireplaces are wonderful. They are easy to light and once the massive masonry structure gets warm it retains the heat and keeps the area warm all day and most of the night.

We found a place that offers a variety of firewood for pretty reasonable prices and spent Friday stacking a 1/2 cord of pecan for our heat source.

Now Comcast is another story. The customer service people were a pleasure to deal with, the contractor was a jerk. We wanted at least two live connections. He provided one and groused that it wasn't on the orders to do two. Of course he still had his ladder against the roof and it would have taken him about 5 minutes to reconnect the splitter he had just disconnected.....It took me 10 minutes but that's because I had to wait for CZ to find me a pair of pliers to undo the connection.

There's some other small repairs that need doing, like the line to the swamp cooler that decided to spring a leak Thursday night......but no big deals considering the house is a fifty year old adobe!!!!! And I can sit in just about any room and marvel at the views, or curl up on the couch in front of the kiva fireplace with a good book or magazine.......

Can I figure out how to retire NOW???????

T-Day '09

Dad drove past a sign on a church in Alamogordo that said "This Thanksgiving, try counting your blessings, not your calories." So---

mud house

lots of running room

'Roid, Weetz, Bertequila

cousin dogs

Klingon Kats

warm kiva fireplaces

a great place to live

my people all together here for the holiday

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!!!!

Leny

First Mate of the Pirate Dogs

Elegy

So our 97 year old aunt died last Wed. in her sleep. The way one should check out---sleeping and with no pain. Nice service, too---very quick, no wake, viewing for two and a half hours before the funeral mass.

Lately I've been re-discovering Teilhard de Chardin and thinking and reading about religion. Aunt Mary watched "the mass" every Sunday at 10:00am. I knew better than to do my weekly Sunday call at that time. I guess I lost my faith one August day in 1966 and never really got it back.

So as the quote that serves as a header for this blog states, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." So should we view Mary's life. And be happy for her that her suffering is past and she rests in the bosom of the creator along with the litany of family that preceded her--parents Alessandra and Vincenzo, siblings Rose, Frances, Philipina, Delia, Philip, Gennaro, and Amalio. Requiescat in pace, Aunt Mary, for no-one deserves that peace more than you.