One Candidate is in Deep Doo-Doo with Those Who Matter Most

"Mom, this is terrible!!!" proclaimed the eight-year-old daughter of a friend after she arrived home from school.

"I heard today that Mrs. Barack Obama changed Cookie Monster to Vegetable Monster.  This is just terrible.  This means war."  (Smacks her fist into her other hand.)

"I'm going to vote for Romney.  Maybe he can change it back."

Messages

The screen saver on my laptop is a slide show of the photos I've imported into Picasa.  On and on they roll, lasting less than ten seconds each, bits and pieces of my daily journeys.

Sometimes only the top of a carrot in the frosty ground shows, making me wonder how it is that I never noticed that particular part of the larger photo.  Most of the time, the whole photo is there but often only a piece is shown full screen.  I suspect this is due to the resolution, and I shoot at a high resolution.

For the last three days, one particular photo appears to be stuck.  It was taken on a rainy, foggy day last fall when the Stormbird was motoring into the near entrance of Halibut Cove, carrying me, the US mail, and numerous passengers.

On shore is Clem Tillion's nearly completed lighthouse with a partial red roof and the siding of choice in Alaska--the white high-density polyethylene fibers called Tyvek, originally made into house wrap but now found in many applications.   A year later, I haven't been to the cove and have no idea what color Clem chose for his new building.

I haven't bothered to check on why the slide show stopped at this particular photo, mainly because I like it so much.  So, there must be a reason and perhaps it's so you can see it , too.

Full screen on the monitor, it's breath-taking.

The Joke's on You, Mother Nature

I woke before the alarm clock went off.  In the early dawn,  I took one look out the window and immediately wanted to go back to bed until next May.

Not funny, Mother Nature.  Not funny at all.

Alas, hibernating for the next six months was not an option.  I had to run the mail route today and that white stuff drastically changed my plans as to how I was going to do that.

Sigh.  I'll bet my bed was still warm.   Oh, well, only 130 miles to go.

Yes, Mother Nature, it's pretty.  I'll admit that.

Very nice.  Not the wet black ice underneath, though.

Let's just say the drive was a bit interesting.  No, that's not my truck upside down in the ditch.

I made it to the post office in Hope just fine--45 mph for the first 20 miles, then smooth sailing after that.

Two hours later, the truck is still there and it's occupants were walking around, waiting for the wrecker.   Two miles down the road, another vehicle was upside down in the ditch.

Tern Lake was stunning.

 

 

Jerome Lake was beautiful, too.

By afternoon, most of the snow was gone, as you can see in the above pictures.

So while Mother Nature played a trick on us by dropping the first snowfall two weeks earlier than the average date, the joke was on her:

That's right.  Brand new studded snow tires that I just bought Monday  to take advantage of a sale.  Joke's on you, MN.  You thought I wouldn't be ready, didn't you?

Wait!  Didn't someone once warn that it wasn't nice to fool Mother Nature?

What am I? A writing prompt from Ann Linquist

Our online writing instructor asked us to look at something in a different way and write about it without revealing what "it" is.  Can you guess my "it?"



Odd that I never considered you like this before. Odd in a bad way, not a good way. There you sit, like  a frightful gargoyle freed from your concrete bulwarks, disguised in commonality. You think you rule the land, don’t you? We couldn’t exist without you? That without you, chaos would reign supreme and orderly society perish from the earth?

I despise you, you wolf in sheep’s clothing, pretending you are merely here to serve, hiding your latent intent, appearing docile and innocent while you wait the exact moment to pounce upon the unsuspecting. You silently contemplate your mischief, then rise up, shrieking like banshees from Hades.

Do you really think us so gullible, so innocent, so unwary of your kind?

Think again. We know you. We know what a malingering evil you are.




(Facebook friends:  no fair revealing an answer you already know.)

There are moments and then there are moments....

There is a saying that I absolutely love, and to which I have related many of the moments in my life.  It is this:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away."--Anonymous

Here is one of those moments:  one new upper denture:  $4500.00

That isn’t exactly a moment I will cherish.

Frost Heaves, Bumps in the Road, and Our Politicians

I try to stay away from politics here, but I can't stand this and have to vent.

I live in Alaska.  That means I am very well-acquainted with frost heaves, which are those nasty seasonal rises and depressions in what used to be smooth pavement.  Caused by multiple freeze-thaw cycles in roadbeds prone to water retention, you're lucky if your vehicle doesn't bottom out on them, or worse, have the front bumper and rear bumper crash onto consecutive frost heaves, leaving it suspended in the air, or your vehicle bumper-less and your gas tank leaking.

That's why I feel President Obama's pain when he recently spoke about a bump in the road.  Did you hear about that?  Here's a brief explanation to put his remark in context:

Terrorists attack our consulate in Libya and our ambassador is slain; Obama goes on Letterman and says "we can't think about the election all the time."

   

Anti-American demonstrations occur in twenty Middle East countries; Obama fund-raises with Beyonce and Jay-Z.  Tickets were only $40,000 each (yes, forty thousand), presumably so the 47 per cent could attend.

The Taliban attack Camp Leatherneck, killing NATO forces and destroying 6 Harrier Jump Jets, each worth more than double-digit-million dollars.

The President refers to all these things as a “bump in the road.”  He refuses to confirm the consulate attack was terrorism.  On Sept. 11? 

Secretary Clinton meets with top foreign leaders during the annual United Nations meeting in New York City: Obama goes to New York and appears on The View. The President won't meet with foreign leaders in New York nor will he meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu re Iran’s approaching nuclear threat and what will certainly result in world war.

As I said, I feel the president’s pain.  Perhaps we should smooth the road for him this November election day so he can devote himself to show biz full time.

***

And, to put my ire into context, I just finished reading Bob Woodward's The Price of Politics, so I now have a clearer idea of how things work in dysfunctional Washington, DC.  Bob Woodward is the investigative reporter for the Washington Post (currently an associate editor) who, with Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men, helped bring down President Richard Nixon.

Woodward quotes both sides in his book, which deals with last year's negotiations regarding the debt ceiling and the deal that culminated in this coming January's sequestration and the so-called Fiscal Cliff.  

The juxtaposition of those quotes from those involved in the negotiations reveals much about Congress and the presidency.  The secret deals, the spin, the fibs, and the blatant lies to the public infuriate me no end.  And they come from both sides of the aisle.  

Let's just say we won, is one of them.  Or, this is good for us.

Simply put, you can't believe a thing any of them say.  I don't think they'd recognize a truthful statement to the public if it were a massive frost heave in their road.

Dreaming about Bon Voyage

You know you're getting excited about your up-coming cruise to Antarctica when you dream about six-foot tall Emperor penguins roaming around your dog team's pen and you're afraid they will stab the dogs with their long pointed bills.

Emperor penguins

The Norwegian MS Fram, my home for three weeks this November.  Hey, if you're in the neighborhood, stop by.  I'll be in cabin 614.