Today truly is a rambling sort of day...
Right now I am sitting here with the most awful headache. Once again, I am looking for the break from Children's programming. I know that this sort of programming has it's place, but it seems like the same episodes are played repeatedly. Oh well, Sophia loves them and learns a great deal while watching them, so I will shut up about that for now.
I really wanted to discuss more about the Alaska thing that I talked about yesterday, but with the headache it is may not work out. What I will say is that no matter which side you look at (for or against the drilling) you get pretty much equal amounts of info in either direction. While I am obviously entrenched on the opposed to side, I can see why others feel differently, even though I do not agree. After reading through some more stuff today, I wanted to point out that while they are saying there is 11 billion gallons of oil to be found in the refuge, that will not be enough to solve our oil issues. The United States uses 20 million barrels of oil a day, even if they were to find 15 billion gallons of oil, this would only be enough oil for just over two years at our current rate of consumption. While the US has only 5% of the world's population, we consume 25% of the oil. Also remember that this will do nothing to rid us of the current high oil prices, because the drilling will probably not occur for 7 to 10 years.
As you may or may not already know, today our Senate voted 51-49 in favor of opening up the refuge for oil drilling. This will be contingent on Congress passing a budget with the Senate provision for ANWR, something they failed to do last year, so there is still hope.
I really have nothing else to say on the subject right now.
I am still longing for spring. Even though the temperature today was over 40, I would love to see it at least in the 60's. As soon is it is a bit warmer, I am going to start gardening with Sophia. This will probably be an adventure, but she loves to be outside, so it will probably be a good time.
A friend's grandmother passed away this week. Grandparents have this special place in my heart. Since 1996, I have lost all of mine. Each one had something that made them unique. My first Grandparent to pass away was my mother's father Norman, , he was a quiet man, who always seemed old, but he is what I best remember about my summer visits. He kept chickens and grew the most wonderful garden. My second grandparent parent died in 1999, he was my father's step-father, Ed, but the only grandfather I ever knew on that side. He was a businessman at heart. He loved to look through his stocks each day and was always looking for a bargain. He wrote his own obituary and made his own funeral arrangements. In the end, he wanted the most modest funeral possible. That thought still makes me smile. His wife, my grandmother, Helen, passed away four months after him. I to this day believe she died from a broken heart. In many ways, she was the mother I never had. Apparently, my personality is just like hers. She used to say that she never met a stranger. She had a heart of gold. These grandparents (Helen & Ed) traveled the world. When they died, their ashes were spread in the Caribbean, so they will always be traveling together. My last grandparent to pass was my mother's mother, Ludelle. She died just a few days before I found out that I was pregnant with my daughter. It was a neat continuation of life. This grandmother was a party girl and loved to have a good time. We grandchildren always knew how to push her buttons and would laugh like crazy when she yelled at us in her husky smokers voice. She was a trip.
No matter what you are doing right now, stop and give your grandparents a quick thought. I miss mine dearly and wish they could have been here to meet Sophia. I think they would have had a fun time with her.
I guess this writing must be beneficial, because my headache is gone.
Have a wonderful evening!!!
I really wanted to discuss more about the Alaska thing that I talked about yesterday, but with the headache it is may not work out. What I will say is that no matter which side you look at (for or against the drilling) you get pretty much equal amounts of info in either direction. While I am obviously entrenched on the opposed to side, I can see why others feel differently, even though I do not agree. After reading through some more stuff today, I wanted to point out that while they are saying there is 11 billion gallons of oil to be found in the refuge, that will not be enough to solve our oil issues. The United States uses 20 million barrels of oil a day, even if they were to find 15 billion gallons of oil, this would only be enough oil for just over two years at our current rate of consumption. While the US has only 5% of the world's population, we consume 25% of the oil. Also remember that this will do nothing to rid us of the current high oil prices, because the drilling will probably not occur for 7 to 10 years.
As you may or may not already know, today our Senate voted 51-49 in favor of opening up the refuge for oil drilling. This will be contingent on Congress passing a budget with the Senate provision for ANWR, something they failed to do last year, so there is still hope.
I really have nothing else to say on the subject right now.
I am still longing for spring. Even though the temperature today was over 40, I would love to see it at least in the 60's. As soon is it is a bit warmer, I am going to start gardening with Sophia. This will probably be an adventure, but she loves to be outside, so it will probably be a good time.
A friend's grandmother passed away this week. Grandparents have this special place in my heart. Since 1996, I have lost all of mine. Each one had something that made them unique. My first Grandparent to pass away was my mother's father Norman, , he was a quiet man, who always seemed old, but he is what I best remember about my summer visits. He kept chickens and grew the most wonderful garden. My second grandparent parent died in 1999, he was my father's step-father, Ed, but the only grandfather I ever knew on that side. He was a businessman at heart. He loved to look through his stocks each day and was always looking for a bargain. He wrote his own obituary and made his own funeral arrangements. In the end, he wanted the most modest funeral possible. That thought still makes me smile. His wife, my grandmother, Helen, passed away four months after him. I to this day believe she died from a broken heart. In many ways, she was the mother I never had. Apparently, my personality is just like hers. She used to say that she never met a stranger. She had a heart of gold. These grandparents (Helen & Ed) traveled the world. When they died, their ashes were spread in the Caribbean, so they will always be traveling together. My last grandparent to pass was my mother's mother, Ludelle. She died just a few days before I found out that I was pregnant with my daughter. It was a neat continuation of life. This grandmother was a party girl and loved to have a good time. We grandchildren always knew how to push her buttons and would laugh like crazy when she yelled at us in her husky smokers voice. She was a trip.
No matter what you are doing right now, stop and give your grandparents a quick thought. I miss mine dearly and wish they could have been here to meet Sophia. I think they would have had a fun time with her.
I guess this writing must be beneficial, because my headache is gone.
Have a wonderful evening!!!
posted by Linda | 4:39 PM
2 Comments:
Your mention of grandparents really touched me, and not just because I remember how close you were to yours who most recently passed away.
I started thinking about my grandfathers. My paternal grandfather, Charles Oscar Tate, Jr., was known to me as Oscar, or "O." I rememeber him being kind and in the background, more like set decoration than actively involved. Although I do have, among the few baby pictures I possess, a series of photos he took when I was 5-6 months old and being bathed in my grandparents' kitchen sink. They are cute because the story goes that I was facing the window, not the kitchen, so they couldn't get any photos of me sitting in the sink but for the back of my head. "O" went outside and around the house and took pictures in the January cold, through the kitchen window, because I wouldn't comply. And that's what you get for being the only son's first daughter. I was special!
I also remember my step-father's father, Richard. Richard was exactly the opposite. Where "O" occupied so little physical space in my memory, Richard dominated. But in the wonderful grandfatherly way that one could only hope to know --- his personality sparkled as much as his eyes, and he was always up to mischief or telling terribly engaging stories. He loved that his son had married again, and she was a woman with young daughters (I was 11, my sister was 7-ish). Whenever we visited, we got to go on little errands with him that seemed like fantastic voyages to us. He always gave us money (do they teach grandparents to hand out cash?) and candy. What more could a girl want? Sadly, he died of emphysema and lung cancer shortly after my mother married my step-father. I remember the long battle with it, and how he handled it with such dignity. Close to the end, he had a near-death experience, complete with the light and visions of both his father and brother . . . for whatever that was worth. I do still smile when I think of him.
My maternal grandfather vanished from the family when my mother was a very little girl. I never knew him, my mother barely knew him, and I want to say that maybe he passed away a few years ago, now, himself? Anyway, the only maternal grandfather I ever knew was my mother's step-father, Bill. Bill was a Navy guy and something of an asshole, honestly. He was abrasive if not outright abusive, and he and my grandmother had a very strange relationship. To this day, I am not exactly sure if they had a relationship at all beyond cohabitating. I remember they had separate bedrooms from the time I was a very little girl. Moreover, when we visited for an extended period --- a week or so --- and our visit fell over a weekend, my sister and I noticed that on Friday nights, he would get all dressed up and sit and read the paper till about 8:00 PM. Those nights, he wouldn't eat with us, and he didn't want us to sit too close or mess up his hair (all slicked back with Brill Creme, is it?). He would put on his fancy duds and head out for the night. Turns out he kept a girlfriend, and my grandmother knew about it. Friday nights were his night out with the other woman.
I am just shaking my head, remembering that one . . .
It is strange you should mention that your grandparents slept in seperate rooms. My step-grandparents that I did not mention also slept in different roooms. They got left of, because they never wanted me as a grandchild.
My grandmother worked for social services and checked to see if my mother was on welface when it was announced that my mom was marrying my step-father (jerk, to be discussed much later). They always favored my sister, because she was a blood relative and I was only related through adoption. Jerks, with a capitol "J".
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