The Reason Why She Was Stomped on?

Remember the woman who got stomped on down in KY outside of the debate?  See an interview with her on what she was attempting to do HERE.
and an example of one of the attempts in another state that was successful as the  move on organizations goal was accomplished. Hardly seems a reason to stomp on a person.

Vote November 2, 2010

I Remember

Thank you Stephen for this great find.

This and That From The Paper Bag

Occasionally that "got to blog feeling" comes along and even though I ought  not to take the time, the urge has overcome  good sense.  Part of my problem is that I have put it off long enough that there are several topics I want to cover.  Having  seen blogs where people write ten random thoughts down and leave it at that,  I want to go into  more depth on my concerns,  but yet rather than do a few separate entire posts I will combine a few paragraphs on items that I want to address in one single post.

1) Time to wine.  I have injured myself.  On Tuesday after work I threw away my terribly slow coffee pot and got the new one out of the box, getting it washed up for Wednesday morning.  Then I  decided I wanted to save the glass pot part,  which was then in the bottom of the garbage can in the garage.   I am 5'7" so I felt I could reach it.  While leaning over into the can, my fingers were barely touching it and I leaned just a bit more into it.  Something gave.  I am not sure if it was something in me or the edge of the plastic can but i quickly sunk about an inch and had a rather sharp pain in my side that knocked the wind out of me.   I caught my breath and was fine but am rather sore.  No bruising is present and it only really is painful when I reach down to pick something up.   One never realizes how often one does that till it hurts to do it.  Things  do seem to be getting worse every day so I suppose I messed up my intercostals and expect to be uncomfortable for a good long while.  The worst part is I am afraid to do my yoga as I am afraid I will make it worse.  Not doing my yoga makes the rest of me hurt.  The daily stretching always gets the tension out of my muscles and makes that age 53 stiffness go away.   Enough wining on to more positive things. 

2) Time to pat myself on the back.  Today I volunteered for three hours at a clinic for the un-insured that is located about a half hour from where I live.   It was not too busy this afternoon so that gave me a chance to get acclimated without too much stress.  The other volunteers seem nice and it was a positive experience.  I had wanted to volunteer in such a capacity for a long time.  As a nurse I went in to the medical  field to serve others and often get discouraged with  the business side of health care.  But I was unsure how to go about getting an opportunity to volunteer in such a capacity.   Late last winter when I went to a meeting at the Allen County Democratic building to help get the health care bill passed I met a person who was there because she was working on Tom Hayhurst's campaign.   She also schedules for the clinic for the uninsured (which Dr Hayhurst is one of the docs that is a part of that).  Since she had the schedule completed way ahead to free her up for working on the campaign it was not till November that I was free on an open time.  But today they had a cancellation and I was asked to fill in so I was glad to do so.    Often times working full time at my age is just about all I can do and today my house work went undone between the pain in my side and the fact that I was at the clinic during the time I would have normally been cleaning on my every other Thursday off.   Never the less,  it was a positive experience that I hope to do more of in the future.

3) My baby will be 27 soon.   When he was just under a year old,  in fact it was about this time of year,  he caught what started out as a cold.   I was recently divorced from his dad who was active duty  military and we had the kids on what was then called Champus.  I had driven to the nearest base to get him assessed and medicine for the cold but he continued to get worse and was getting dusky looking so I took him to the emergency room at the hospital where I lived.  I was told that unless I had the money in my pocket to hand over to the doctor that no one would see him.  I was frantic as a young mother holding my child who was struggling for his breath.   I asked the receptionist to page one doctor I knew of by name and he came and he did look at my son  and admitted Scott with pneumonia.  Scott was placed in an oxygen tent and spent a week at that hospital.  I know that today we have emergency room doctors and people don't have that sort of experience but never the less the event scarred me.   I know how it feels to have your child's life in danger and help in front of you but being denied to your little one.  That is why I am glad we passed health insurance reform in this country and why I think it was important that we did.  I wrote to Congressman Ellsworth and asked him to vote for the Health Insurance   Reform Act and promised if he did I would support him in his race for the Senate this fall.   I am glad he voted to pass Health Care Reform and just want to say that it makes me angry when his opponent's political ads put him down for that vote.  These ads even say that we can't afford to have values in this country.   How can people be attracted to vote for a man who says we can't afford to have values that provide health care to our citizens?  That we can't afford to have values that provide education for our children?   I have values whether I can afford to or not I guess.  I can't imagine voting for someone who over and over pounds into heads with constant television ads that we can't afford values.

4) Which brings me to my final point of this post.   This coming Tuesday is the day we all need to go vote.  Even though I live in an county that not too many people think like me and I will likely be in a minority I will still walk in there with my head held high and vote.   Over the years many people sacrificed and gave their lives so we could vote.  As a woman I especially appreciate those women who fought so hard to earn that privilege for me.   It has not been that many years ago that women could not vote.   I want to end this post with the plea to every one to exercise their right to vote this year.   It is an important election. 

Trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

You may recall that I mentioned two weeks ago that Mark and I wanted to see the sequel to the 1987 Wall Street - "Money Never Sleeps". We did so this evening. The movie portrays the stock market crash we experienced a couple of years ago only using fictitious company names. The greed of people continues to be the theme in this movie as it was the first one. At least in the movie people were in trouble for their actions at the end. That made it better than what happened in real life where no one got in trouble but instead got lots of tax payer money. Sigh. I sure hope the government does not give our social security to wall street like the republicans want to.

God In America: Watch the Full Program Online | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/
Six hour long segments. I haven't watched it yet but posting it will allow me to find it again easily.

Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview | Rolling Stone Politics

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395?RS_show_page=0
This came out while I was on vacation but this evening I finally got it read. I wanted to post it in case anyone else missed it.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Four

We concluded our walk of The Freedom Trail at the USS Constitution. http://www.ussconstitution.com/ We did not walk up to the Bunker Hill Monument after leaving the ship because it was the end of the day, the monument was closed, and we were very tired. Instead we hailed a cab back to the North Station and caught the metro back to Salem. We ate dinner at http://lobstershantysalem.com/ since it was our last evening and we felt we needed to have some seafood while on the coast. Although my sinuses had started feeling a little itchy on Tuesday afternoon late and my nose dripped a tad on Wednesday, it was not till during dinner Wednesday evening that my nose really filled up. So I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy the entire vacation before I got sick. The Amtrak ride home was pretty miserable but most of the trip I felt well. This is the last album of the trip to the Greater Boston Area that I went on the end of September 2010. While Peggy planned this years vacation, I planned last years trip when we went to Springfield Illinois and I will plan next years trip. I am not sure where we will go yet. But I am thinking more of a long weekend somewhere close by. Unfortunately I can't afford a trip like this one every year. We had a really nice time and I am very glad we took this vacation.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Three

This album is more photos I shot while walking Boston's Freedom Trail.
http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html
It includes Paul Revere's house, The Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground. Cotton Mather is buried here as is Edmund Hart. It is one of Boston's highest points and the British used the grave stones in this cemetery for target practice.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Two

As we continued to walk The Freedom Trail - http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html we passed by Kings Chapel and the burial ground next to it, where the first female off the Mayflower is buried. Also is the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorn to write The Scarlet Letter. After Kings Chapel, we passed the Old South Meeting House where the Patriots planned The Boston Tea Party. Soon we passed The Old State House and the area where stones in the ground commemorate the place where the Boston Massacre took place. This album ends with a picture of the doorway to Faneuil Hall. This was a market place that was built in 1742. During the years between 1763 and 1774 many important meetings of the patriots took place in the assembly room on the second floor. And on the morning after the Boston Massacre the victims were taken to this place where their funerals were held two days later.

There will be two more albums of pictures I took walking The Freedom Trail.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part One

On Wednesday we rode the metro into Boston and walked The Freedom Trail. Rather than label and provide links to each photo I will provide a link to The Freedom Trail and the photos I am posting are in the order of how they were taken on the walk. It will take a few albums to get all the photos posted.

http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html

This album starts at the Boston Commons and includes pictures from The Statehouse, Park Street Church and The Granary Burying Ground. There is a stone in this cemetery for Samuel Adams and for Ben Franklin's parents. Some of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence are buried here. As are the victims of the Boston Massacre.

America's School Spirit Challenge sponsored by Care2 and GreatSchools.org

http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest/
Looks interesting.

Dinner and a Movie Oct 2010

Nicole and I cheated on our Dinner and a Movie night this month. We grabbed a quick bite a Fazoli's instead of cooking. But the movie was the real deal. I am not a big love story fan but really did like this one. When that Italian rode up on that horse even my heart skipped a beat. Great chick flick!!

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part Three

The family history buff came out in me as we visited Sleepy Hollow Cemetery as indicated by the amount of pictures I took. This is not the one in New York that the legend story is written about but it has a special feeling to it when you are on author's ridge and seeing the graves of Louisa Mae Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorn. We were there at dusk and it was raining. Am I right to assume the little white dots are the flash in the rain drops and not visitors? Of course it was raining harder at the Old North Bridge and no such dots are in those pictures. Hmmm. Perhaps no one sees them except me?

http://www.concordma.gov/Pages/ConcordMA_Cemetery/sleepy

Hopefully I have the graves labeled correctly. After we left Sleepy Hollow we drove to Waldon Pond. The parking area was closed and it was getting quite dark so we did not stop. We drove back to Salem, walked from the bed and breakfast to the business area and had a great meal at Passage to India.

http://ptisalem.foodler.com/MA/Salem/Vegetarian/Passage-to-India/Menu/1023.html


This concludes our second day in the Greater Boston Area. The next post will begin day three, which was spent in Boston.

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part Two

After we left the Alcott's home we toured The Old Manse

http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse.html

and from there walked over to the Old North Bridge

http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/boston_west/concord/sights/northbridge.html


It was just a quiet moment to think we were standing where the first shots of the Revolution were fired.


There will be one more post of day two and of photos from Concord. TBC.

My End Of The Couch

Although I have the congested sinuses from hell Mark was still good enough to take me out to dinner at our favorite local haunt and I had rented a movie for later.   I kept my germs to myself but we still enjoyed both the prime rib and the food for thought provided by the movie.  We wanted to watch "Wallstreet"  from 1987 because we want to catch the sequel that is out now in the near future.   Below is a video commercial of where we like to eat best here in town and the trailer for the movie.  The third video is one of the controversial scenes from the movie.   To me it says a great deal about what is wrong in this country.   Not that there are not things that are right too.   Watching this movie is quite the spring board for discussion.

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part One

While I enjoyed every thing we saw and did on our vacation to the Boston area, I have to admit that my favorite day was the day we spent in Concord. We rented a car and drove from Salem to Concord on Tuesday morning. Well . . .late morning. We had made great plans to get an early start and be in Concord as things opened and then mid afternoon head south of Boston to Plymouth and finish with a later evening in the Plymouth area. As we all know - Enterprise picks you up. No where does it say on time. They ended up going to the wrong town to pick us up. So by the time they arrived to where we really were and carted us to the office to sign the car out I had already told Peg I now had two letters to write. While filling out the paper work I clearly explained to the Enterprise representative that now because of them I would never see Plymouth Rock in my life time. By the time we left, the $49 24 hour rental cost us $18.50 and we were under no obligation to refill the gas tank. As we drove to Concord I told Peg I was back to only one letter to write. The directions were not so clear but some how we found the Concord Museum by accident and it was delightful.

http://www.concordmuseum.org/

The Ralph Waldo Emerson home was not open but we visited the outside of it.


http://www.rwe.org/emersonhouse/

After a casual lunch down town at the Main Street Cafe we toured the home where Louisa Mae Alcott grew up.

http://www.louisamayalcott.org/

I want to take some time with rest of the day in Concord so I decided to divide it into three parts. TBC.

The Two National Park Areas in Salem Massachusetts

Located on Liberty Street.

The first thing we planned to do on Monday morning in Salem was to attend a historical walking tour put on by a Jim McAllister. We were 15 minutes late and missed that. I will provide the link so you can see how good it would have been had we made it. But undaunted we reminded ourselves that we were having a laid back day on Monday in Salem and could just as easily relax doing something else.
http://www.derbysquaretours.com/aboutjim.htm
After wandering around for awhile in the shops we had an early lunch at Reds.
http://redssandwichshop.com/
and then we headed down to the wharf to the other national park area.
http://www.nps.gov/sama/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm#CP_JUMP_80056
We had missed the morning tours there but there was one afternoon one that they would be doing so we shopped and then returned at the designated time to take that tour. It was full. I was a little miffed at the park ranger as he should have told us to secure a spot we needed to get a ticked when we were there the first time. As we left I told Peg I would have to write a letter when we got home to the National Park Service because they usually do a much better job than that. Never the less that was when we wandered over to the House of Seven Gables that I posted the pictures of already and it made up for any prior disappointments. We did some window shopping and it was after five already. By this time we were tired. We had walked all over Salem a couple of times and it had been a damp and misty day. So we headed back to our B&B and had food delivered for supper from:
http://www.thaiplace.net/
And spent some time planning our second days excursions.

The Bed and Breakfast We Stayed at in Salem Massachusetts - 9/26 - 9/30/ 2010

I took these at the last minute and of course I wish I would have taken them when we first got there and things looked nicer. For example, without the contents of my suitcase spread all over. I did not post the one of the bath tub. It was such a neat old fashioned claw foot tub but we had all our towels thrown in it and so I did not choose to post it. To learn more about the Henry Derby House follow the link.

http://www.henryderby.com/index.html

There were two houses affiliated with this B&B and we stayed at the house next door to the Henry Derby house.

The House Of Seven Gables - Salem Massachusetts.

Peg and I arrived in Salem late on Sunday evening (9/26/10) after an Amtrak ride that lasted almost 24 hours. We settled in our two bedroom suite at the bed and breakfast, showered and ordered a pizza. On Monday we wanted to take it easy since we were tired from the train ride so we did things locally in Salem. Neither of us are tourist trap types so we avoided things like "The Witch Museum" and "The Museum of the Forty Whacks". One of the things we did do was visit the house that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write "The House of Seven Gables". This tour was my favorite thing we did in Salem. Dated back to the 1600s it is the oldest home I have ever been in. Browse the pictures and follow the links provided to learn more about the house.

http://www.7gables.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/arts/design/28anti.html?_r=1


http://www.salemwomenshistory.com/Caroline_Emmerton.html