Off With Her Head!!!

This Paula Deen thing bothers me.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never said the 'N' word unless we were having a conversation about the 'N' word, as in “honey I don't care if your little friend says it you will not say that word here”, or “do you think they ought to use the 'N' word on TV.” I was not raised by people who used the word nor did I know anyone (who was not African American) who used the word. I do not think we ought to use any words that are hurtful as a general principle. 

Now back to Paula Deen. She used the word in the past, not like last week. She was honest, unlike some. She apologized (the poor woman must have the worst media advisers or none at all) in a horribly done video. I understand advertisers are uneasy about having their product tied to her name at this point, that is business and if you behave badly or say something stupid there are consequences. Nothing that is happening to her is out of line or unexpected, except this – the media reaction, Paula Deen leads on some news programs! With all that is going on in the world and our country is she really the top story? 

 

Dog-pile on so and so was not very fun in grade school and I'm fairly sure it is not fun in a media sense. If you say something we don't like you are roasted over the coals and spit out, you do your 'time out' - and then you come back, much quieter I'll bet. I worry about free speech in a world where one word no matter how ugly can ruin someone, or cause such a feeding frenzy in the media. Is this just another example of the 'shiny thing' principle? Or were we suffering from a lack of really good 'look at the racist' material? Is she an example of how black people are treated in America, or is she an excuse to talk about how racist we all are still?   I don't know the answers......I do know this, America has bigger issues than a 65 year old woman who said the 'N' word sometime in the past and may not be culturally sensitive! 

 

So she is off the air for awhile and she donates money to some funds that promote diversity and then she is back and all is forgiven........and what have we accomplished – except to make sure that we all look over our shoulders a little more often and the first amendment gets smaller. Remember that the first amendment is not necessary for things we all agree with, it is there for the 'uncomfortable speech', the stuff we don't want to hear. 

Hurtful language is not acceptable, nor is it a capital offense.

We've owned it for a year!

We got the keys on May 28, 2012 and spent a month moving possessions, painting, getting electricity reworked, new plumbing, cleaning etc.. We spent our first night in the house on June 30, 2012. In honor of our first anniversary in the house I have put together a little before and after show and tell. It is still a work in progress and we have pages of project lists, but I think we have done all right so far.

I am going to begin outside.  (Before on the left and the after on the right hand side)

 

There was just no room to park or pull in cars.

This is the front of the house

So we pushed the lawn back and put down new gravel.

The pretty lawn was doomed by the trencher that had to redo the main water lines.

 

That will soon be a cobblestone pathway to the back yard, I hope.

That is exactly what it looks like – a building blocking the drive!

The building came down and the drive is cleaned up.

It used to be a family lot, parents and kids and they never had a fence between the two houses before, sort of makes it a little less strange!

To the back yard-

The view across the back - from weeds to garden

The weeding was such a chore – by the time we moved in I had 4 ft thistles!

The aspen corner.  Hubby calls it the 'dear blind'

Moving inside!

The first day we looked at it I said that red wall would have to go!

Looking from dining/TV room toward kitchen

From the kitchen to dining/TV room.

I can cook and watch the news!

 Looking north toward the kitchen area

Looks smaller with the furniture!

Looking south into living room.

This past winter that wood stove was our favorite piece of furniture!  We are very pleased and frankly surprised at the amount of heat that thing put out and no smoke!

I think we got a lot done – but we still have more to do – hoping to get the exterior painted this summer, put in a couple of paved pathways and at least one more raised bed. Keeps us out of trouble! (In theory!)

It takes time when it's a cash only - no credit lifestyle but it's very satisfying that we've managed to get this all done without debt!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

If the NSA reads my blog - does it show as a page count?

I don't think the NSA is reading my blog, but somewhere deep inside a secret location they are storing all the information transmitted by everyone in case they have to look it up for a terrorism case....really??? I love a good conspiracy theory, that is why I read Tim Clancy novels! The recent stories about the NSA and PRISM (don't you think they should tell us what it stands for – you just know it's an acronym!) are fascinating. Our leaders tell us they are not reading our e-mails and I think that is probably true...so far. I have my own theory about the need to collect information from all of us, tell me what you think......

.....In the not so distant future, the affordable care act won't be...affordable that is, but we will need it because we will have put the insurance companies out of business, this is not a bad thing everyone knows by this time that they were only in it for the money and never had our welfare at heart unlike the government that exists only to serve us. We will have learned that each of us has a responsibility to the others to be healthy, smokers cost us $6000 a year in lost time or health care, obese employees run up the cost for all of us. Now more than ever we will need the government to keep a watchful and benevolent eye on us, to protect us from the people who are too selfish to see how their behavior harms the rest of us, it is time to give the department of HHS the information from our grocery store discount cards. Think of the lives that can be saved if we could be monitored so that if we buy food that is not in our best interests we can pay a fine, or – even better – the clerk would just set aside the items that show up on the scanner as prohibited for each individual, (no more fudge bars!!!) then the information from our credit card (and debit at this point right?) purchases can be monitored to make sure that we are not doing things and going places that are not acceptable. Our facebook pages and e-mails will be scanned for words like chocolate or Pepsi! Some people will be secretive and treasonous and try to use cash to avoid the monitors but stores are already watching for that and reporting suspicious cash use. (Seriously it's on the DHS website 'those who use cash') Black market ranch dressing will hit the streets. There will be hold outs, those who had food storage and those who have gardens but we can find most of those with the drones and the treats that the government hands out for ratting out your neighbors homemade chocolate chip cookies! And of course if you don't go along we will just have you taken off the rolls, you won't have access to any health care providers licensed by the government, you will have to have 'back alley' appendectomies...

That doesn't even include the children telling all about their home life at school, toy gun 'buy backs' in CA, and prospective employers demanding access to your facebook page for a job interview. (Wait - nevermind - those already happened)

I'm kind of excited, I've birthed my own conspiracy theory! Kind of proud.

Next post is the 'one year of owning the house' before and after extravaganza!  Keep your expectations reasonable please.