I'll Save it for the Next Time

Did you ever get the feeling that you buy some things just so you can throw them away? I guess I have a short memory, because it seems like the same things get thrown out almost every time I buy them.

Fresh herbs. That’s number one on the list. We’ll pick out a recipe that absolutely has to have three or four different fresh herbs, but only a sprig or two of each is needed. Then six weeks later, I look in the refrigerator drawer and there are those little plastic boxes with a few withered and moldy remnants of the herbs we just had to have for that recipe that wasn’t nearly as tasty as it looked in the cook book.

Another item is lemon juice. No matter if I buy one of those little yellow, lemon-shaped containers or a big bottle, at least 90% has to be thrown out when it turns brown and rancid. And of course, then I have to make a special trip to Wal-Mart to get another container of lemon juice...so it too can die a slow death in the refrigerator. Ditto for Louisiana hot sauce. Use a dab…store it on the shelf for a few months…throw it out…buy another bottle. The cycle never ends.

Then there are apples. With good intentions of improving our diets by eating more fresh fruit, I buy a half-dozen apples. We eat one or two, but the rest always remain in the drawer until they look like one of those wrinkly-faced granny dolls you see in the craft magazines.

Oranges are nearly as bad. I buy two, and they're as sweet as honey, so I buy several more from the same bin. Naturally, they are as sour as persimmons, which means those that are left are banished to the back of the drawer to shrivel up until the next refrigerator purge banishes them to the compost pile.

In the non-food category it’s paint. No matter which project I buy paint for, I always have too much left over to throw away, so it winds up on the shelf with a dozen other cans. However, the day always arrives when I need a little bit of that exact color I saved. I’m so brilliant and frugal! Then I open the gallon can and find a quart of rubberized paint, flecked with rust.

I can’t forget nails either. I’ll buy a pound of bright finish nails and use half of them. Instead of just throwing the rest away at the time, I store them in one of my little plastic bins for a few months, and when rust has finally taken over completely, I throw out the nails and now I get to clean rust stains from the plastic drawer.

There are many more things I could add to the list, but I don’t want to embarrass myself any more than I already have.

Dog Days

The traveling vet came by today to give shots to all the dogs, and to check Belle’s thyroid condition. Yes, our vet makes house calls, but she charges extra for the house call plus a fuel surcharge because we live over 20 miles from her base of operations.

The reason we have the vet come to the house is because Belle will not lead with a leash, and since she weighs over100 lbs, you can’t carry her. Naturally, it couldn’t be one of the small dogs that needs a checkup every three months, it has to be the biggest oaf in the house. She also gets car sick, so unless you want to break your back and have your car to smell like dog puke and excrement, you ask the vet to make a house call.

At least they now have all their required shots, ears have been cleaned, heartworm tests have been run and we have another three months to save up a small fortune for Belle’s next exam.

Thank goodness dogs don’t go to college!

Your Government at Work.

Combine ignorance, zealousness and good intentions, and you have the typical government edict. I can hardly wait until they’re running health care and the auto industry. If the government seriously wants to protect us, they should just slam the door on Chinese junk, not bankrupt a bunch of legitimate American businesses.

Story

CIA Joke

Leon Panetta as head of the CIA? That is absolutely insane! Was that pick because Capt. Kangaroo was dead? Hell, at least Capt. Kangaroo was a former combat Marine, while Panetta was a two-year Army 1Lt who's sole decoration is a commendation medal. Even I have one of those, and I'm certainly not qualified to lead a spy agency, though I'm probably better qualified than Panetta.

There are some jobs where political correctness must not figure in the equation, and Central Intelligence is one of them. When Carter took away the tools the CIA needed to do their job, we wound up with 9-11, and putting a wimp like Panetta in that job guarantees we'll have another major intelligence screw up before he's done destroying an already wounded organization.

If the number of ads being played around here are any idication, the CIA is in desperate need of people. I imagine the same thing is happening that happened to the military when Clinton was elected. There was a mass exodus to leave the service before he got into office.

Our Leaders Should be Proud

Judicial Watch recently came out with their list of the top ten corrupt politicians. It was no surprise to learn that seven of them were Democrats and three were Republicans. The sleaze ratio has been about the same for as long as I can remember despite the mainstream media’s efforts to protect Democrats at every opportunity. Now that Bill Richardson has apparently been caught up in a pay for play scandal, Judicial Watch may want to increase the number of corrupt politicians on their list. It shouldn't be difficult to reach the twenty mark.


http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2008/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washingtons-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2008


Clearing corruption within the party is where the Republicans should begin to rebuild if they hope to regain the House and Senate. They need to purge the sleazy few who always manage to drag the party through the mud once they are discovered. Drum them out of the party so that no R’s show up on lists like this one. No matter how senior they might be in Congress, or how important a job they might hold, Republicans have to make it clear that they will not tolerate anyone who violates the public trust.

Once the party gets its act together, they’ll have the right to take the high road into elections, but until they do, they can only say they are half as bad as the Democrats, and that’s nothing to brag about.

Sunny, Sad, Summer Saturday

Yep, the weather yo-yo was on the upswing again today. It was 76 degrees when I went shopping and WalMart was filled with short shorts, tank tops and sandals. several convertibles had their tops down and if there were leaves on the trees, you'd swear it was May, not January.

Sassy, the oldest of our furry pack is not doing well. Some days she has trouble walking and now she often forgets where she is and what she's doing. She's had several accidents on the floor when she apparently thinks she is outside. It's reached the point that I've been taking her out in the middle of the night so she doesn't have to struggle to find the doggy door.

I gave her a haircut today, and while she looks better, her fur still looks dull, yellow and unhealthy. Even a bath fails to make it shiny.

The mobile vet will be coming next week to give the other dogs their shots and to check Belle's thyroid condition. We've been debating whether to have her put Sassy down, but just about the time I think we should, Sassy struggles up to me, sticks her nose against my leg to verify that it's me, and then wags her tail with happiness. Her dark, silent world must be lonely, but as long as she knows we're still here, she seems happy. Dogs bring so much happiness...and heartbreak. I just wish she would go to sleep tonight and not wake up in the morning.

Happy New Year...and don't forget the cabbage!

Ready or not, it’s here. 2009. We welcomed the new year by watching a movie on television, and then listening to KAAM play golden oldies until midnight. A glass of sparkling cider and a handful of crème brulee almonds was the extent of celebratory indulgence, and then it was off to bed.

Yesterday, I managed to get all the Christmas decorations down and packed away, so that was a relief. Ours were the last decorations up in the neighborhood this year, and the first down, but Southern, or maybe it’s Texas tradition that dictates they should be down before January 1st. I sure don’t want to violate Texas tradition, especially since I hail from north of the Mason-Dixon line, and want to retain my “good ol’ boy” standing in the community.

There are lots of New Years traditions, and I think I managed to comply with most of them, so hopefully we’ll avoid bad luck. The house was clean, so it wouldn’t be a mess for the rest of the year. Then, today, we ate black-eyed peas and cabbage, and those are “musts” on the first day of the year. I think you’re also supposed to eat tamales, but maybe that’s only the Latinos. In any case, I’m not a tamale fan, so I’ll risk a tiny bit of bad luck and pass on their mandatory consumption.