You DO meet the nicest people.

Zeke and I went to the nursing home. He was soooo good. Then we drove all the way back and across the city to a big box pet store to get him some canned food and a large box of large treats for everyone to share. He met lots of people and maybe his future owners. They were the nicest people and seem very interested in him as a buddy for Moses, their dog. I think they would have taken him right then and there. We'll see. He's darned good. I really had thought he could move to the White House. Hello Barack? It's about a dog for the girls...On the other hand, he's made friends with all the dogs here and Ed hasn't met him yet. To the people who met Zeke and Mr. President - just try and get this dog!

Speaking of the nicest people, a real surprise occurred yesterday when I took the greens orders for the library staff over to them, from APL. Since I was out at the shelter I offered to pick up and drop off the wreaths and door swags. Well, blow me away. I got inside the library office and the director presented me with a book, SAVED. It's about rescued animals, and their rescued people. I was taken aback. It was from the Library's Friends board, of which I'd been president and/or secretary for a number of years. This was totally unexpected. And, they selected something that focuses on my other passion - taking care of living creatures who've not had it too good so far.

Well, home with the crew last night I managed to cry my way through some 50 pages. It took a long time because the print is pretty blurry thru tears.

It's an amazing book. The group is amazingly thoughtful. I am amazingly fortunate.

And, we really shouldn't have anymore dogs. We help those who are homeless and then that opens a space for someone else who needs it. Yes, we did have 6 dogs. Yes, we will lose Precious soon. Yes, the dogs we have adopted are the "hard to place" ones so that complicates matters.

I keep telling myself those things.

Stuck in Traffic

Springfield, IL did NOT get the Simpson's movie. That means little to me but to some broadcasters it is the opening line for so-called news stories here in Lincoln's land.

It seems some business folks in town, who are really great people, chose to buy a home from the Lincoln era. This particular home recently ended up in the shadows of a newly constructed medical facility expansion. The property, and therefore the house, was scheduled to become - of all things - a parking lot. The couple purchased the home and had to move it within the designated time allowed by the medical facility and fortunately they had already purchased a lot in the historical area.

That's the background.

Sunday was moving day. A firm from St. Louis arrived with the equipment and talent to move the 300 ton brick structure. Streets were closed; a tree was removed and limbs from others cut off. Signs were taken down to let the house pass along the to its new destination. Nine hours and five blocks later the house arrived.

Did I mention Mr. Lincoln helped find financing for the house, something like $650 +/- a few? He did. Therein, the increased interest in the home - a Lincoln connection. The house is the Maisenbacher Home. They took really good care of it, apparently.

Back to the move, or what was clearly about to become the partial move.

Let me put you on hold momentarily and bring you up to speed on the side stories. You see I dawdled a while at the local Barnes & Noble Monday. We don't get the newspaper at our house anymore so when the house move came up in a discussion with 3 strangers I was interested. The new owners are personal friends of mine and former clients. That has no impact on the events other than I can vouch for them being good citizens and right-hearted, decent people. Anyway, I learned of a conversation one of these new acquaintances had while standing and watching the move. He was talking to the guy who was to put in the foundation.

The question presented was "How are you going to do this?" The answer was "I don't have a clue."



Are you starting to see the concern, soon to become a problem? Yes, the house is passing in front of the man who is in charge of building a foundation for it so WHERE is the house going to be placed now? The lot is small; the house is clearly large enough that it was wider than the street.

By the way, local radio media has taken to referring to this one block section of a side street as a "major thoroughfare".

The house resides in the street at this time.

Springfield's mayor thought he could slide a request for Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) into the hands of the aldermen, without them seeing it. Something along the lines of $822,000 was his idea. This was to help with the cost of the foundation and the renovation. Ouch. One alderman saw it. Now not every time one alderman sees something does he/she share it with the others; that's not the governmental way, folks. But in this case he did and the hands went up. It was a verbal brawl.

The new owners are in the middle of it all while their new prospective business is in the middle of the street.

See for yourselves.

Springfield was making great headway when President-Elect used the Old State Capitol as the backdrop for his announcements and it received a lot of attention.

This story will probably be even bigger news.
Stay tuned. More will follow undoubtedly. There's just no way around this house.

HOPE-filled

One foster dog romps with one of our dogs.
One foster dog is sequestered in the puppy pen, having had her spay surgery yesterday.
One dog stands guard outside, ready to alert me if something shows up that is undesirable. He's strong and imposing but really mild-tempered unless he's riled up.
One older dog rests comfortably in the outside pen that is located in a quiet spot.
One dog nurtures another one on the sofa, both happy to have homes and be at peace.

Somehow in my own twisted way I see this as somewhat representative of America!

First of all, what I described above is really my world today; it is what is, right now, as I write.

Does my dog population reflect our society in some ways?
-There are the young who want to play and grow and learn.
-People of all ages need medical attention and even more so medical education so prevention not pills is the key.
-The elderly need our support.
-Some need a fresh start, not a handout but a hand up.
-Some stand guard - on our soil and elsewhere, sometimes apparent, sometimes in the background.
-Others help each other, lending a hand, giving a caring gesture, the gift of prayer.

We have a new administration being built already this morning. I think GWB is ready to leave and is relieved to be counting down the weeks. Being our leader has to be unimaginably complicated and complex, thankless. As President-Elect Obama said last night, in so many words, it is going to take all of us working to fix what has happened. I do not think we should blame Bush 1 or 2, Clinton - none of them. Don't start building an "I told you so" argument about Obama. It's up to us. When we point the finger of blame towards someone else we still have more of our own fingers pointing back at ourselves!

We are either part of the problem or part of the solution. It's time we accept responsibility and also the work that needs to be done. Admitting to the problem is the fist step, isn't it? But what follows is the action.

This country is not our parents' country. We must stop looking back and moaning. When we look back we should look at what we can pull from the past, adjust and use for the future. Our world, our country, our demographics, our individual lives are changed, not by one circumstance but by all, not by one policy but by all, not by one decision but by all.

If you haven't heard/seen P-E Obama's speech last night, and McCain's also, then you need to tune in somewhere and spend the time listening AND HEARING what is being said.

Then find something YOU can do to help.

We ARE the UNITED STATES! That's not an entitlement nor is it an ego thing. History tells us we are survivors, we fix what is wrong, we innovate and create, we build, we repair, and so much more...play, guard, care for others.

Get, and stay, positive. P-E Obama cannot do this without our commitment to be part of the solution. See this for what it is: your opportunity to make a difference.

Let's not spend time barking up the wrong trees.

The Good Life

We lolly-gagged around TWICE this week. Oh, not for entire days but for hours within each of the two days. Long enough to test the puppy's ability to stay inside and be "good". She's getting the hang of it.

The first day we drove off to the local orchard, one we have watched grow from a roadside stand to a school field trip destination. We know this because we finished up just as the loaded cars and vans were pulling in, students, cameras, and enthusiasm all bundled together for the adventure. We chose to go on our own field trip, exploring southwest of where we were at that point.


We found another orchard. They keep goats. That's so much more fun than just looking over the apples and the jarred jams, jellies, and preserves, pretty as they may be. We agreed goats would be great in our yard. Less mowing required. VERY entertaining.

On we went.

We found a house for sale and drove in to check out the setting. Lovely. Lots of outbuildings. A fenced in area for goats. We wrote down the number to call. (We got the info. We love where we live.)



Our destination was Beaver Dam State Park. Non-Illinoisans need to know we run the risk of having the State Parks and other public areas closed by our governor as a political gesture. So we're going while we can. We didn't see a beaver or its dam but we saw lots more. Picked out the best campsites for our non-existent camper. Checked out the 150 yr old RR station building. Saw the cafe/bait shop.www.dnr.state.il.us



Wednesday must be mowing day. People in almost every village, and the park, were mowing. We let it slide. We thought about the goats.

------------------

Fast forward to today and its adventures. We went to the Farmers Market EARLY and at 10:00 I led members of a reading group to the Convent. I was the IS Mgr there. It's true. Anyway, the group had read BIRTH OF VENUS and wanted to see a beautiful church and there is one there, indeed. I love to talk about "...after I left the Convent..." Heads do turn. But I give myself away by not knowing enough the Catholic faith to uphold the raised eyebrows on those heads.www.springfieldfranciscans.org

Anyway, after the tour I swung by and gathered Ed up and off we went to see alpacas, their watchdogs and watch-llamas, and later,cars! What a delightful afternoon. We learned how time-consuming working with the fleece is. The alpacas are a breeze to work with though. They, too, eat grass.

Now we are thinking, goats AND alpacas? And, llamas. We've always loved llamas.
















The cars were those whose owners are in town for the Rte 66 Festival-quite the deal in this city. In fact the downtown area was totally blocked off for the fancy cars. See for yourself.










Yes, we put aside the ships of change that will sail from some port after November. We chose to believe life today, this instant is good and we are fortunate and grateful. We are thankful for blessings and trials both. We know the glass can be half empty but we do our best to see it as half full.

We don't live in Camelot but this IS what the simple folk do!

Look at these photos.


This little guy was with a Cobra!
Here's the Funny Car driven by our neighbor, on the national racing circuit. I was part of Web Services @ LRS.




How could the glass be anything but at least half full?

voter angst

Today I learned Barack Obama is part of the problem in Washington, D.C.
I learned that from John McCain.
Today I learned John McCain is part of the problem in Washington, D.C.
I learned that from Barack Obama.

Darn. Now what?

Mental Puddles

Today we have rain, easy, gentle, continuous rain. It brought with it a breeze, perhaps a tamed offering from the edges of raging Gustav. Since the rain is coming straight down most of the time, and since we have a deep enough roof, the windows can be open. This proves to be a delight.

Do you remember the rain from your childhood? Did you sit and look out the window for hours? Did you snap on your slicker and galoshes and slop through the puddles? Did you rush to the creek to see how much more water was in it and what the movement of the water brought for you to view - leaves, bugs, notes in bottles!? Did you sit in the corner of your closet with a flashlight, maybe even a makeshift indoor tent, and read? Did you make cookies with someone, play jacks or cards or dress up or indoor cowboys?

Whatever you did it probably occupied your imagination and your energy. You may recall how free you felt. Your obligations to be anywhere were few and were probably lessened by the rain. Certainly it offered excuses for tardiness! It is almost as if the rain is a gift to more than the earth; it is a gift to our human character, to our psyche, our inherent and sometimes untapped need to appreciate what this is all about and how fortunate we are.

I've had enough of the "he said, she said" so completely linked to candidates, chair people, spokespersons, talking heads, off-limits family members, pundits, analysts, observers, mavericks and organizers.

The rain has cleansed my mind of any need to dampen my own spirits with dreary recall or to make room for new spins on the same old rhetoric. It has washed away the notion that there is anything new going on with these elections beyond a couple of fresh faces (It is interesting that there is one from Hawaii and one from Alaska - our newest states.). I think we all need to take a breather. And, with that, I confess that I not add to my blog any political postings!

Rick Warren's Big Saddle/Come Back

Last night we watched the "faith" Q & A session run by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback. We missed the first few showings of it.

This DID bring us further down the decision road. The way the two candidates spoke of their own faith, or didn't speak of it, as well as their comfort levels in this environment, gave us additional information and perhaps insight.

Watching this, I realize now, is how McCain reminds me of Richard Nixon. If you're really young, Nixon ran against John F. Kennedy although he eventually did become President after that loss. Neither McCain nor Nixon is/was any good on television. Neither seems comfortable with himself let alone someone else having control over a situation in which he is participating.

McCain means well. I paid particular attention to his response about the "Cone of Silence" question when Warren was greeting him. He didn't answer the question asked but tried to make room for a clever response. He truly did not want to lie so he just didn't tell the truth. That cone thing was probably a bad location for a POW anyway. Imagine.

His sense of humor truly was activated for this event and I was pleased to see he can deliver a funny line of his own or a good writer's creation. I had not witnessed it previously. And, he was moved in stating, and we in hearing, his biggest moral failure. Many Americans relate to him right there, right now. Let's hope it is not a vote getter. We saw his human qualities more during this event than elsewhere.

But, as in his inclusion of "drill...right here, right now", he never caught on to this arrangement being an intimate conversation opportunity. He revealed very little about himself; he responded by looking briefly at RW then turning to the camera and talking and it just didn't feel right, as a viewer, to not have him look RW in the eye when he answered the question the pastor put before him.

Watching him more recently, at the intro of Sarah Palin, he looked over her shoulder repeatedly, at her papers on the podium. What, in case he needed to help her with big words? I have not doubt he's a good man, personable, thoughtful, devoted to his senatorial position and constituents. It is sad to see him being thrown in as the RNC's sacrificial lamb, a toss confirmed by pitching us an up and coming, raw not rare, VP candidate. At times he seemed to be thinking, "Now, who is this woman and what did I tell her she could do?". Gov. Palin will be someone we will see again. This is it for Senator McCain.

It's difficult for me not to be swept up by Obama; I'm still holding on to my vote and quelling my inclination to stop reading and listening because I just want to believe in America again. But I do have to say, when he was asked about America's biggest moral failure and came back with, in his lifetime, it is us not living up to Matthew 25's verses, my heart leaped and tried to take my voter registration card with it. He is right...well, he did get it from the Bible. He gets it.

I like Obama as a person. He knows our Bible better than I know it. I like what he says. I like how he says it and his choice of words. I like that he conversed with Warren. I like his VP candidate and believe Biden is a good backup. I like his family. I like that he is composed, assured, contemplative, thoughtful, prepared. I like how he puts people at ease. I think our country is falling in love with him. I am thrilled he occasionally refers to us all as friends and never insults us by claiming us as "my friends". I despise those who try to take him down by calling him "messiah". That's wrong and rude. Criticize what he wants to do; don't give him a religious toned label thinking Christians will be offended and change their minds.

These two men received the same prep material and guidelines. One appeared to take them and "go with it". The other appeared to "go along with it".

Neither candidate will ever put into play all he is saying he'll get done, especially by himself. Obama further moved me when he state the realism - we all have to cut back, give up, re-think, change, maybe call it sacrifice; we all have to understand we have to pay a price of some sort in order to better the world.

It's exciting to have strong candidates and I hope their respective "runners up" stay behind them, lifting them up in prayer and deed. I hope we continue to see the real differentiation each needs to put before us and policy meat on the campaign skeletons, rather than mudslinging or whining or negative advertising which is waiting in the wings to bully us.

Let's not disappoint them. We need to be willing to appreciate the right to choose our leader, willing to learn about all the candidates and platforms. VOTE on November 4th.

Butt Measurement

That got your attention!
Well, if I had taken such a sensitive measurement at the beginning of August and again at the end I suspect there would be a bit of a spread. I am a confessed couch potato.
Olympics - watched 'em
DNC convention - watched it
RNC convention - plan to watch it
Even the dogs are beginning to think the television is another family member. After all, we pay a lot of attention to it!

But (no pun intended), the fact is, for the first time in ages I, like so many seasoned voters who regularly went through the motions of punching holes in IBM cards or pulling levers, sense the country is breathing excitedly about the opportunity we have. This is exhilarating. I look forward to learning who will be the VP nominee for Republicans so I can start to make my Ben Franklin list.

If you don't know what that list is, you may still have used one...it's listing all the pluses/pro's on one side of a paper and the negatives/no's on the other and see how they look side by side.

Bush wasn't ALL bad. Unfortunately we have some BIG issues he faced and/or brought on during his terms. I do like that he has convictions. I also think he's been ready to go back to the ranch for a couple of years.

The two new teams - well, I'm still not sure. It's hard to look at the energy behind one and yet not fully understand how we could do all that is being touted as the plan. Looking across the row I see too much "living in the past" and no sense of what reality is.

Throw 'em in together. Make 'em divvy up the work and budget. Oh, that's what Congress dies. HA! The fact is that the country is more complex and population is so large that one person really has her/his hands full. The president is a figurehead. The candidates need to stop saying "I will..." and start admitting "We will work towards..." "We are putting together a team now to begin working on..." "The long term plan is being implemented by a team...". A leader on either side needs to admit it takes a lot of believers, volunteers, dedicated staffers - all sorts - to get the pendulum swinging, the dinosaur up and moving, the energy flowing.

Anyway I look at it - it's great to see so much involvement, interest, and appreciation of our freedom of choice!

Senator O returns to Springfield

It really seems as if it was yesterday when my husband was in DC having breakfast and doing a photo opp with Obama and shortly after that we were shivering, but front and center, at his presidential announcement at the Old State Capitol downtown-Springfield.
Now he's coming back to the same place and may be bringing his VP. I'm not certain we'll be able to go but it still quickens the pulse. We may choose to NOT deal with the crowd.

But, what does this say about Obama? He is sentimental - coming back to the place where he first served, to where he first launched his campaign. I like that in a leader.

I'm still not sure about policies - his or McCain's. That means I'm firmly rooted in the Independent column and don't do polls. So much is rhetoric these days. Each candidate repeats what he is handed with little time to review materials. Do they each go to sleep at night wondering what they said and if it makes sense?

Maybe there's too much talk, just too much. We're already spinning from the whirlwind travels and he said-he said blah blah blah.

Maybe that's why this action - this coming back to the base - is so vitally essential and key to me.

Since I struggle with both presidential candidates (and would have it were Hillary and anyone) I guess my vote will be for the VP! Anyone with me on this?

Quotes to consider:

Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
both from J.W. Goethe