What we did before computers

I remember a time less hectic maybe, but it required me to sit down and write letters, stuff them in envelopes and wait up to two weeks to get an answer. Mail call was a favorite time of day with emotions ranging from elation if your name was called and deep sadness if you did not get anything. Long distant calls were made collect because normally as a young person you did not have any money to put in the coin slots. If you wanted something and you could not afford it you had to put it on layaway and make payments until you paid for it. Some how I always made that $78 a month pay stretch to the end. Of course the Air force saw to it I had a mess hall to eat at, a dorm to sleep in and if needed a dentist or doctor to take care of me. If I was overseas for longer than 180 days I got $6 a month overseas pay, but with beer at 10 cents a bottle and cigarettes 9 cents a pack life was easier. I just noticed something, the old typewriters used to have a cent key on them, computer keyboards don't. I am sure I had other hard decisions to make about banking and I remeber the very first credit card I got was a Chevron Gas credit card. I some how think I could go on forever about the hardships of not having a computer but some how that seems strange. Especially now that I have at least two at some times and my cell phone doesn't even count as one.

Been a busy couple of weeks.  We are working on my folks old homestead.  We have had it on the market for about four years and hasn't sold, wonder why, no one has a job here.  We have just about finished the bathroom make over and it is looking pretty good. Next will be the kitchen and family room.  That should be easier than the bath as it is mostly painting and flooring replacement.

We do have our house in Lynden on the market, but not sure how that will do.  It is a newer home in a great neighborhood so should sell quicker than this one.  Also more folks are employed there.  Will post some photos later.

Montana in the Little League World Series

Great to see the kids from Montana advancing as far as the have.  A team from the state with a population of 1 million going up against a city with a population of over one million.  Rooting for the team from Montana of Course.

Whopee it's started again....

Actually it started after the end of the last one, but why do we have to start the presidential election process so early.  Buy the time the actual elections roll around I am sick of all the candidates.  None of them seem to be qualified any more.  It reminds a situation where to much bullshit ruins the crops. 

I must have been growing up in the wrong era.  We had a class called social studies when I was in high school and we learned how our government worked. (Supposedly)  We learned about the constitution and the way bills progress through.  Now a days I don't think the congressmen we elect even know how it is supposed to work.  I hear remarks about creating constitutional amendment, congressmen talk about it like all they have to do is pass a bill.  Guess they really haven't read how the process really works. 

A large number of members of congress have not served in the military.  How the hell do they know what it means to be in the service.  Guess war movies still deal with it for them. 

Enough rambling, let just get the campaign started so I can liste4n to every one change their position two or three times during the campaign.  No one ever has solutions just rhetoric.  And god knows there's a lot of that.

Tired of the BS

I see the folks back in DC are up to the normal for them.  Bicker and point.  Seems to be the mark of the true politician. 

lynden

My MSN

Compromise, where did it go?

Polarization, that the name of the game. I'm right your wrong. What ever happened to it might be a good idea to look at both sides to solve a problem. Just because I may not like something doesn't mean that there is some merit to the plan. Come on people let's work and think about the common good.

I know retirees that refuse to vote for school bonds to support education just because their kids are educated and the grand kids live some where else. Logic, why should I support public education. Not that it matters if kids don't get the skills necessary to pay taxes in the future. Why should I care. I can complain about other things.

Taxes and Jobs

If no one has a job, how do they pay taxes?

Ever Wonder

The older I get the "wiser" my elders have become. Even though some have passed on, I still marvel at the wisdom they had about Vietnam. For instance when I was younger and in the military I thought we should get involved in Vietnam. To me it was like playing football in high school. Why should you spend all the time practicing if you are not going to use it. Once we became involved and I matured a little more and observed the politics of war I started to realize that war is for the politicians not the generals. The last General I can think of that fought and won a war was U.S. Grant. He negotiated the terms of peace and respected his enemy. Since then it seems that all wars that ended by negotiations of the politicians has sooner or later resulted in a follow on war somewhere else, because no one really thought through the history or social conditions that may have precipitated the out break. I recall when recently we invaded Iraq I was starting to question in my own mind the reason we were doing it. Sure all the information indicated they had WMD's but I still felt there were better ways to deal with it. Granted Saddam was an a..hole, but there were better ways to handle that than with a big budget war. $3.50 worth of ammunition and a well disguised CIA agent could have done that task. How many times has Afghanistan been invaded with the same out come. Looks like we are going to follow history and get out with out accomplishing much except leaving a bunch of cronies in charge which sooner or later will be out of office at the hands of local feudal tribes. That's the way they like it, who are we to try and change it. So as the vets of this war will learn, there will be another one in the next generation to test the warriors. Man cannot practice football and never play the game. Thus is is with war.

Debt and taxes

I wonder how long politicians will think all they have to do is reduce spending and the national debt will go away. Pretty soon it will start to cut into muscle and without some kind of investment in the future our children wont have to worry about the national debt. Instead they will have to figure out how to make a living in an anarchy.

Weather

I wonder if it will quit raining some day. I am getting very tired of grey days, wet nights and needing to use the furnace in the mornings to take the chill off the house. Oh sure it makes everything green, but when it is under two inches of water who cares. Frogs croaking at night are not entertaining anymore. All I hear on the news is the crappy weather all over the country, so I guess I should just be content with the rain. At least we don't have a lot of tornadoes and violent flooding to contend with.

OBL

Well he's gone. Buried at sea, now all the fishes can cope with him. I thought it was nice he received a burial according to his traditions, but wonder how many he didn't offer the same to. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if we could have gotten him in Tora Bora several years ago. I wonder how long it will be before everyone can just be a little civilized.

Whats new

I am in a ballet now. I consider my self a movable prop as I don't do any dancing, but I am having a great time. Kind of fun being around all those young folks and seeing the energy they have. The name of the Ballet is the Emerald Bay. It is a story about the 1880's in Bellingham WA and the Chinese expulsion. It is similar in some aspects to Westside Story and Romeo and Juliet. It is a love story biased on an Irish girl and a Chinese sailor set in a time when that was very forbidden.

I am having fun.

Wondering 1

I have often wondered about things and if anyone else does too. Some of the things are serious and others just plain silly. Serious things may be political or philosophical in nature, while other may just be plain frivilous. I suppose some of the more serious thoughts have evolved with maturity (anonter way of saying "getting older") I love idealists because they have such a nice way of putting everything in its place. I wish I could be one, but for some reason I sometimes wonder about the exception. Often Idealist just have the broad scope like "lets reduce the national debt." How is it folks can fix any problem with just a broad statement. What gives folks,