I am not intellegent enough to tie all three together, but they are the biggest highlightsof my day. Most of the morning was spent scanning old photos, the afternoon sunning on this gorgeous day, and tonight watching the documentary "Captalism" by Michael Moore. I will, of course, comment on all.
After finally getting Jo off to school after 3 days at home with an ear infection (which doesn't even really count as "school" because she was only there for 4 hours to make it a "legal" day), I decided to work on one of the projects I always said I was going to do when I have "free time". My first child was born in 1998....when 35MM cameras were king, when "advantix" film was gonna be the NEXT BIG THING (what a flop that was), and when 8MM camcorders were selling for $450.00. I have piles of photographs still in their original developing envelopes collecting dust in a bin in my basement. So I took an allergy pill, pulled out that bin, and started digging in. We have an old HP scanner that is hooked up to our aging Gateway desktop computer, so I sat down and went to work. Went through all the actual "professional" shots taken of the girls over the years. Pictures from La Petite Academy in Iowa City, and Kindercare in Davenport, and all the school photos...as well as the two family pictures we've have taken since both the kids were born. What a trip down memory lane that was. Hard to believe that little girl Alyssa swimming in the teddy bears is now 5'5" and has bigger feet than I do. And Jo through the years, every picture reflects her flair for the dramatic....even when she was two she was hamming it up for the camera. It was seriously fun. I figure if I scan 10 pictures a day, I should catch up with all the photos by the time Jordan graduates from High School in 2020.
After the dog walking me to school to pick up Jo...I decided to tan my jiggly parts in our backyard. I used to love to sunbathe, back when I was 125lbs. But I am just beastly white. I mean seriously, my Wonder Bread loaf is darker than I am. So I unfolded my old rubber tube lounger (circa 1992), and grabbed my NOOK (my e-reader, circa 2010), and headed out to the back porch/cement slab. 10 minutes in I am sweating like Robert Hays/Ted Striker trying to land the plane. Holy crap! There was even a nice breeze. I had to get up like every 15 minutes and literally hose myself off. The dogs are looking at me like I am crazy. I wonder if I stuck out my tongue and pant like they do, I would sweat less. I think if I go out again, I am going to rub myself down with Right Guard instead of tanning lotion. Anyway, now my legs look more like teeth with a little tartar build-up rather than ultra brite.
While I was cooking dinner my husband started watching a Netflix movie he got called "Capitalism". I happened by the TV on one of my many trips out to the grill, saw a snippet, and made him turn it off so that I could watch it later. Everyone I know pretty much knows that I am a Democrat. I don't throw my political opinion around unless I am asked, and even then I only jaw with those I know can handle a good debate. Now Michael Moore made this movie, so I knew that it was going to be radically left. It was kind of like watching JFK by Oliver Stone. A lot of what he said is based on fact, but I know that a lot of it was taken out of context. Sorry....we interrupt this blog for an important announcement....
THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least one Chicago team can win a title........and I don't count the Sox.
Anyhoo.....I did learn some things about the downfall of big business that I was not aware of. That's my own fault because in the big picture that was my small little world, I didn't realize that it was going to affect me....until I saw my paltry little 401-k lose 1/4 of the money I had invested in it. Then I started getting interested.....and realized that I really didn't know anything about our governement. My family is the epitome of middle class...My name is in the middle of the alphabet, my birthday is in the middle of the school year, I grew up in a state in the middle of the country, in a town in the middle of the state. My dad earned a modest wage....we never went hungry but I wore hand-me downs, and drove junk cars. I started living in apartments, duplexes, mobile homes, and was 36 before I owned my first single family home. My kids don't have big college funds, and we live paycheck to paycheck (which are a lot smaller now!). I do feel blessed because I know that a lot of people are a lot worse off than I am. Does Capitalism work...where people have the right to choose, but don't have the means to choose? Where the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer? I don't know. At the end of the movie Michael Moore shows a clip of FDR talking about a second bill of rights he proposed in 1944...it went something like this....
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industry -- our shops, our farms, our mines of the nation. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation. The right of every family to a decent home. The right to adequate medical care. The opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. The right to adequate protection from economic fear, from old age and sickness and accident and unemployment. Finally, the right to a good education.
Hmmmmm....this all sounds great!! People like Rush Limbaugh (whom by the way married his 4th wife this week....congrats), claim this was FDR's was of promoting Socialism. What he didn't say is how all this was going to be achieved, and who was going to be responsible for making sure these things happen. We never got to see what would have happened because FDR died within the year and his ideas never took off. Very interesting....
Later Taters!
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