Lurch, the most wonderful Senator Kerry, senior member of the democrat party says this:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

Okay so lets just accuse every member of the military today and in history of being stupid. No problem there right, after all, doesn't everyone assume that a person who actually has a sense of patriotism so profound that they feel compelled to join the military is basically just grasping at a last resort, cause they are so stupid, and so uneducated that they could not possibly find themselves a career in any other field. I guess the Pat Tilman's of this world are an anomaly, you know, just casually giving up a multi million dollar contract to join up put your butt on the line and serve your country. I guess the guy who was a stock broker in New York was just an uneducated schmuck who had nothing better to do but join the Marines and end up getting prosecuted for murder for killing some insurgents (acuitted by the way). Isn't it just priceless that an elitist son of a female dog like Kerry, who has never done a honest day's work in his life, but has spent his ENTIRE life building a political career critizizes the brave men and women who are right now putting their lives on the line for his sorry ass, married a rich bitch, gigalo butt, every single bloody day, and while he sits there living off his wife's inheritance he thinks it is appropriate to claim that our military personnel are "uneducated" well let me tell you this you ignorant mother *&#(#$(#& I joined the military because I wanted to serve my country, as did my husband, and our combined 30 years of service trumps your pathetic 4 years and then getting discharged because of shrapnel in the butt, whereupon you returned to the USA and proceeded to slander your fellow servicemen and women and called them murders and rapists. You opportunist son of a bitch, you will do anything to further your political career at the expense of the brave men and women who serve in our military (both US and UK) you are beyond reproach, you are beyond condemnation, you are the saddest, sorriest, most pathetic piece of shit that I have ever witnessed. May god have mercy on your soul, because I bet every military person both veteran and active will never have, you should dig yourself a hole, crawl in it, and stay there, until you die, because your political career is over sunshine and rightly so.

I have rarely been madder than I am today, I mean really. This twat has just about sent me over the edge, the only bright spot is that he may just have lost the election for the democrats.

This weekend my husband and I were at the lake, it was cold, I mean really cold, we went to bed and snuggled up in bed, I was very cold, I was shivering, he reached over and held me to keep me warm, all of a sudden the words crept into my mind "nothings going to harm you not while I'm around" as I felt the warmth of his body I began to stop shivering "nothing's going to harm you no sir not while I'm around"I allowed myself to drown in his arms and dissolve myself into his body.... " demons are howling everywhere nowadays, I'll send them howling,I don't care, I've got ways" I have never, in my entire life felt safer in my life than I did in that moment, in the secure harbour of my husband's arms. There is nothing much better in life than that,sorry girls, but there isn't.

Well probably not, seeing as Alpha is pretty much unique. Many moons ago around Halloween, Alpha (she is black and white) was attacked by a bunch of teenagers, she was run over by their truck (by them backing up to hit her) and then once she was hit they kicked her, broke her legs (by bending them back) and left her for dead. Knowing that her only hope was home she crawled into the house, leaving a trail of blood from the door to the bedroom. When I came home (with My Mum, she was visiting at the time) I followed the trail of blood to the bedroom where Alpha sat, blood everywhere, bubbles of blood coming from her nose. We immediately took her to the vets where they assessed and treated her. The vet said she had blood in her lungs, it did not look good, both front legs were broken, there was nerve damage, her jaw was broken (as a result of being kicked in the head) and she was basically on deaths door. I left her there that night with a heavy heart, not knowing what the morning would bring. I called the next morning and the vet told me that she had made it through the night and she was pulling through "she is one tough cat" he told me. I went to pick her up and was given specific instructions on how to care for her, including the liquid diet that the broken jaw required. Both legs were still useless and the vet told me that one was probably going to recover, the other however was probably going to be amputated, it was useless. As I fed Alpha her liquid diet I noticed that one paw was beginning to knead me, and then the other paw. On the next vet visit I told the vet and he got himself a pair of pincers and grabbed her toe, sure enough she drew her paw away from his pincers. She was going to be okay. Trouble is this, Alpha has fully working legs except that she cannot retract her claws, this is not a problem for Alpha, it is mainly a problem for those people who are the subject of Alpha's kneading. It also means that Alpha spends an inordinate amount of time scratching stuff, doesn't matter what it is Alpha will "sharpen" her claws on it. If I come home from the grocery store with a new bag of cat or dog food, within 10 nano seconds of the bag being placed on the kitchen floor Alpha is in there, sharpening her claws on it, which inevitably results in the bag having a hole in it and dog or cat food being spilled all over the kitchen floor. Her favorite scratching spot is the bottom bannister rail on the stair case, she has scratched that thing so bad that right now it is approximately the width of a toothpick and is in danger of collapsing altogether. This weekend my husband came home after a week of being by the lake and put his suitcase by the washing machine so that I could wash all his clothes. This evening I hear a strange noise, wander into the kitchen and discover Alpha merrily sharpening her claws on the suitcase, it will no doubt be toast in the morning. Of course Alpha's favorite place to sharpen her claws is on my leg, when I am stood at the cooker, juggling something very hot and dangerous where I have no hope whatsoever of brushing her off, where she can dig her claws into the flesh and drag down, while I stand there like a hostage, hot pan in hands, helpless. I know she has been through alot but come on she is taking advantage here.

was this weekend. I know you don't understand but this is a really big deal for my husband's band, a local competition, combining the Yam Festival parade with a half time show competition. To begin with we were first out of the shoot in the parade, never a good thing, the judges have nothing to go on when you are first, all they can do from that point on is mark up. The half-time show competition came next and I have to say that my husband's band played their socks off, Stairway to Heaven was so incredibly beautiful that it would have brought tears to the eyes of your average Joe, it was spectacular, and my heart just about burst with pride listening to them play it. As it turned out the other AA band beat them by 1/2 a point (wrongly in my opinion, I honestly believe that we outplayed them without a doubt), anyhoo, despite the fact that they were beat in the competition they came in 3rd in the parade (which considering they were first out of the shoot is just about unheard of) and were 2nd runners up for the grand champion trophy, beaten only by their competition in the AA race (by 1/2 a point remember) and the AAA grand champions, beating (the most important thing) thier AAA county rivals Whiteville High School.... we are still the best band in the County, yeah we can go to sleep with that one tonight.... The only problem is that during the Stallion Classic, without fail the sun is coming at you from the right, so you sit there in the stands, with the right side of your face facing toward the sun, which means, at the end of the day that the entire right side of your face is sunburned, the left side of your face looks for all the world if it has been in a nuclear winter, right now I look exactly like Richard Dryfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind... it is embarassing....

After I had put my mum on the plane I got back to the photography thing.... today I took this, I like it

Took mum to the airport today, and she is gone. The dogs are bereft, I am bereft, when I left the airport this afternoon the Carolina blue skies seemed a little greyer to me than normal, and my heart was just a little heavier. Her time here is always so brief (despite her being here a month), and I am always sad to see her and Norman leave. The dogs will no doubt sit outside their bedroom door for a week, not understanding why they do not come out, they will pine for a while, cry at the front door, wondering where Grandma and Grandpa are, why do they not come home? Eventually they, like me, will settle back into the realization of life without them. Doesn't mean I have to like it of course.

Earlier this week Mum and I were having a discussion about the state of things today. We were talking specifically about the expectations of people today as opposed to the expectations of people say, 40 years ago. 40 years ago there were two parent families, generally the man worked, the woman was a homemaker, (or the politically incorrect housewife) her job (an incredibly important one) was to keep the house and raise the children. Dinner (and not a fast food, or frozen one) was on the table when the husband got home, kids were bathed, homework was done, family time in front of the one TV was the order of the day. Once a year the family loaded up the one family station wagon and took a vacation, not Europe or a cruise but generally camping somewhere. Today on Neal Boortz I was listening as Neal was talking (with a caller) about despite the economy being so wonderful people are still having trouble making ends meet, both spouses have to work just to pay the bills. BUT as the caller pointed out the expectations of people these days are far in excess of the expectations of people even 40 years ago. Let me ask you, for instance, did you grow up in a house that was 2,500 square feet or more? No, of course you didn't, your house, like everyone elses was probably between 1,200 to 1,500 square feet (or even alot less). How many cars did your family have at the time? My guess would be one, (if that, my family until I was 14 had 0 cars.) How many TVs were in the home, my guess would be one, in the living room, and you didn't have 200 channels of cable or satellite, you had the regular channels using an aerial sticking out of your house. No-one had a computer, no-one had a cell phone, in fact how many people had a phone? There were no game boys, no dryers (people used to hang their laundry out on a line to dry - well you know I still do but then I am like that), there were no microwaves nor dishwashers. People did not spend $40,000.00 on a kitchen makeover to have a designer kitchen that they never use because they don't bloody cook, except perhaps once a year at Thanksgiving. People did not need walk in closets to accommodate all the clothes that they never wear, people did not have 50 pairs of shoes. People had their work clothes and their best clothes, which were worn on Sunday and special occasions, have you seen a wardrobe from the 50s? It wouldn't hold most people's underwear these days. Is it any wonder that both spouses have to work these days to keep up with what they believe is a "decent" standard of living, let me tell you, having a TV in every room is not a decent standard of living, it is pure unadulterated luxury, having four cars and as many cell phones is not a "decent" standard of living it is excess. It is about time we stopped whining about not being able "to make ends meet" when we keep moving the ends to accommodate our increasinly luxury lifestyle and then complaining about how we can't make them meet. I think every person in the west (both in the UK and the US) should be forced to spend a week in a village in Africa to get a handle on what the "necessities" are, that should sort out some credit card bills right there.