Wonkybusker

Too Quiet

Most days, I find married life to be fantastic.  There’s always someone there to listen to you.  You have someone you can make happy, which in turn makes you happy.  There's a tax break for filing jointly.  You don’t have to go to events, parties, dinners, etc. alone.  If you aren’t feeling well, there’s someone to take care of you.  There’s always someone to play board games with, unless I choose Trivial Pursuit.

But I must admit this part of marriage sucks.  Chris is out of the country and I miss him.  It’s just me and Loki.  My thoughts get awfully loud when they just echo around in my head with no one to share them with.  I lack the motivation to have anything more complicated than a bowl of cereal for dinner.  No one is home to ask about my day.  Loki remains unimpressed by the beautiful job I did cleaning out and organizing the fridge. 

Loki is getting antsy without Chris too.  He’s the one she rough-houses with and I guess I’m a poor substitute.  She’s been very welcome company and as a result I’ve been spoiling her a bit.  She may not want to go back to sleeping on the floor when Chris gets back.

Preparing for Halloween

The jack o' lantern is carved, the candy has been purchased, our costumes are ready, and we even found a costume accessory for Loki that she won't tear apart.  I think we're all set.

Fall in Vermont

We're back home after a great trip up to Vermont to visit family and see the fall foliage.

The scenery was beautiful.

  

 

 

Loki had lots of fun.

 

Weekends

I love that it's Friday. And I'm greatly looking forward to the next two weekends. Tomorrow we have an ultimate game and then a birthday party to attend. Sunday the gourmet club is having a brunch. Next weekend we're taking some time off to head up to Vermont. It should be pretty much at the peak of the fall foliage.

Health Care

I'm so tired of this debate.

What has shocked me the most is everyone's selfishness. No one cares if their neighbor dies without health care as long as they can keep the coverage they have. The elderly don't give a damn if children have access to health care, they just want to keep their medicare. The illegal alien down the street isn't like me and wasn't born here so they don't deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But, I guess selfishness is at the heart of capitalism, so it shouldn't be so surprising. We need to take a step back and look at what's best for the most people in our communities, the most amount of the time. But we can't do that, right? It would be too socialist.

One would think, in this time of high unemployment, we would be cognisant of the fact that we might be a day away from being in the same uninsured boat. One severe medical issue, which could happen to anyone at anytime, could spell bankrupcy. It happens every day. Why are we okay with this?

sigh

Proven Guilty?

I know this is a very long article, but it is also quite good. It's an amazing and awful story about a man wrongfully killed by our justice system.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?current

Without the death penalty, he would probably be free right now. 12 years in prison for something you didn't do is still terrible, but at least he'd still be alive.

Wishing I Was at Home

Today is a fantastic day! The weather is gorgeous and cool, I’ve gotten impressive results on the work I’ve been doing lately, and over the weekend I got lots of cleaning and organization done at home, which is annoying to do but a joy once it’s over. So why can’t I enjoy this fine day? I’m so worried about the puppy…

Today is the first day we’ve left her alone. She’s never been apart from us for more than an hour or two before, so this is a big change. Is she miserable being away from her pack? Is she getting bored and destructive? Does she really have to pee and doesn’t remember that she has a spot where she can go when we’re away? I’ll be much happier when I can get home and give her a walk, give her some treats (she loves dried cranberries), and assess any damage.

Gotta Love Affiliate Programs

I got paid by Amazon this morning. :) Why? Because any time anyone clicks on the Amazon link on the left side of my blog and purchases something, I get 10%. Woot! I consider this blog to be a hobby and therefore do not have the expectation of making a profit off of it, but it's still really nice when my costs are defrayed a bit.

What else is going on? I'm looking forward to the end of summer. The gourmet club meets soon. We've been lucky enough to get together with old friends recently. We're slowly making the paving stones for what will be our patio. Oh, and I'm trying to train Loki to do some tricks, but it's proving difficult.

All Natural Convert

I read an interesting article in Slate today about shampoo and all the unnecessary chemicals we dump on our hair on a regular basis.

It wasn't exactly surprising, as everything these days seems to be full of things that turn out to be awful for us and awful for the environment. However, a girl's gotta wash her hair. And turning to dish soap, as the writer of the article does, for my hair care just isn't a step I'm currently willing to take. However, I think I've found an alternative. A friend recently introduced me to Lush, a store with all-natural cosmetics. They have a shampoo bar made from nettles which I love. It's a bit expensive, but it lasts for 80 washes, travels easily, and has no bottle or wrapper to throw out or recycle. And while the article argues that hair doesn't need to smell good to be clean, I do love the subtle scent of the shampoo bar. I'm such a convert that I'm thinking of getting the conditioner bar as well.

My Healthcare Reform Two Cents

I must admit, I'm growing tired of the healthcare reform debate.  I would welcome a discussion, which we desperately need, about what we as a people fundamentally want from health care, starting from the ground up.  If we were to take the insurance companies with their lobby money out of the equation, get rid of the lies that are flying around, and actually talk like decent human beings without burning other people in effigy, we might actually get somewhere.  It's a complicated issue that needs a well-thought-out response.  This isn't just about your health care, it's about doing what's best for everybody.

We currently have social Darwinism.  The fittest (i.e. those who have jobs, money, and health) survive and the rest, well, don't.  Or if they survive, it's not with a decent quality of life, whether they are unwell or bankrupt.  I hope we can cobble together a majority of people who agree that this is not fair. We all deserve a shot at a healthy, happy life.  Our healthcare system needs to change.  While we may disagree on what needs to happen to it, I hope we can agree on that.

So what should happen?  How do we use our limited healthcare resources?  How do we make sure that everyone gets needed care while cutting out unnecessary care and unreasonable expenses?  Personally, I do believe the Obama plan is a start.  It's a compromise, but some progress is better than no progress.

What do you think?