Petunia rambles on and on….

Today’s headlines are that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, the world’s largest retailer, has posted higher 3rd quarter profits than expected.  While the bottom is dropping out everywhere, GM and Ford Motor Company become more shaky day by day, Circuit City (2nd largest electronics store in the country) declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy, whole malls are closing, our Value City here and the local barbecue joint on the highway shut its doors, Wal-Mart’s net sales were up 7.5% over 3Q last year.  They are bragging that their latest ad campaign, designed to part the Christmas shopper and their money with the slogan “Save money, live better” is doing the job!

I don’t think this is cause to release our collectively-held financial breaths, though.  It sure doesn’t mean the crisis is over.

It’s just that as belts tighten (what a hell of a poor time for me to add a few pounds!) and folks are watching their dollars (and pennies) a whole lot closer, more and more are now going past Neiman Marcus or the big shopping malls and on down to the Wally World.  Soon we’ll be rubbing elbows in the aisles with the likes of folks we never thought we’d see there.

Hey, who’s that with the big glasses, over there in the Lingerie department?

 

 

The Highs and Lows of Life

I got a lovely e-mail from Sally this morning, and she noted that both she and her sister had commented on a recent post of mine.  This set me off hunting, as I hadn’t received the usual e-mail notification that a comment had been posted.  I finally got Tech Support involved, and he reports that there have been problems with the server.  We are hoping that my notifications will resume when they get their shit stuff together.   I expect that Tech Support will bill me a home-cooked meal next time he’s down here, for services rendered!  (That’s fine with me.  Small price to pay – and I get to look up at him, way way up, and still call him my “wee Briley”)  (He is the wee fellow I was holding while standing on the bank of the Panama Canal, several posts ago)

And we Skyped.    Sally and I.   I hadn’t used it before, other than the one test call to my daughter, who, uh, was down the hall, second door on the left, just past the loo, at the time.  I could just as quickly have walked there as called, but it did prove that all was set up correctly, regardless of distance.   Twas cute having a twin trotting up and down the hallway, looking at me sitting at my computer, then looking at me on Mommy’s monitor screen – and laughing!

Anyway, Sally and I proved that both of us are capable of speaking, even when one of us is ready for bed at the end of a long day, and the other has just gotten up, still on the first cuppa!!   The time difference does take some math skills, though.   It was early morning on my end, and I had to take care that I didn’t wake the wee fellows or the barking dog.  I’m sure we’ll do this more often.

So then, of course, I went to scurrying around quickly through the morning routine.  Apparently, for everything that I remember, I must also forget something.  Perhaps this is what keeps my brain even and balanced.  I remembered to get my lunch out of the refrigerator.  Halfway out, I realized that I forgot my purse — with my wallet, my work ID, cash.   Damn.    I always take a traveler mug of coffee with me as I rush out the door, and of course, I have my favorite one.  I was having trouble getting the lid on properly when I noticed that I had the wrong mug, some cheap one that was probably given away somewhere because they couldn’t sell it.  And the reason the lid wouldn’t seat down properly was because I had a spoon still inside.   And the damn lid didn’t have the usual closure on it – I think that was my first clue that something was wrong!  So the coffee was sloshing all over.  Then when I got out to the car, it wouldn’t fit into the cup holder.  It just sat perched way up too high.  (I’m cussing again!)   I know for sure that if I try to drive to work this way, with the cup precariously balanced, you can bet some idiot will pull out right in front of me and I’ll have to slam on my brakes, with coffee/mug going everywhere.  So I opened the console and managed to wedge the mug in there, secured upright by all the other junk.  By the way, my right and proper mug had been left in the car overnight.   With last night’s grocery shopping and twin wrestling, I guess I forgot to bring it in.

I made a pair of mittens for a small fellow.  Used the red KnitPicks Wool of the Andes that was left over from the hats I recently made them.  Nick grabbed them up and loves them – I don’t know how much of cold weather he even remembers!  Alex has already placed an order.  He does NOT want red like his brother.  He wants blue, please, and maybe some other color.  I suggested white or cream; he looked at me scornfully.  Clearly, I know nothing.  He’ll have gray with his blue, thank you.

But I’m still finishing up the red pair – actually, to prevent loss, I’m knitting a 2-stitch I-cord* to tie the two mittens together through coat sleeves.   And it’s boring work, feels like I’ve made 40 feet of it already and I typify the “I” more with each stitch.

And to continue with my tradition of pissing someone off regularly, I’ll post another picture.

The Lolly-pop Twins???

Daughter Kate and granddaugher Erica, taken about 3 years ago??   Not really sure.  Family resemblance there???    Granddaughter’s birthday was yesterday – Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day (as my mother always called it), our neighbors to the north call it Remembrance Day.   Here at home, it’s also Erica’s day.   And she was born at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month!  My first granddaughter.  My only granddaughter.  Our special one.

* I(diot)-cord

(Remind me to toss out that damn cheap coffee mug when Pop’s not looking)

Once again, I’m annoyed.

I stay out of politics, make little to no politically-oriented comments on this blog.  Ever.  Now I might mumble something under my breath at home in the kitchen while standing at the stove stirring the gravy, but I avoid much more than that.  I was taught, as a child, that you don’t bring up politics or religion in the workplace or in a taproom.  Good piece of advice.   And as I spend most of my time either at home where no one listens to my opinions or at work where I keep my political thoughts to myself, short of giving a political discourse to the greeter at the Wal-Mart, my opinions remain with me.

So…..

I finally found something in the news of a political nature that I can comment on and do have something to say.

I’ve read too many articles and heard much ado lately on television and radio about the astronomical monies that have been spent on clothing for the Palin FAMILY.   (While I may be weak in political knowledge, I know quite a bit about buying clothes for adults and kids)  This controversy has been going on for days weeks, reporting that over $150,000 worth of clothes for Herself and her husband and their kids was apparently paid for by the Republican Party.  (Oh, I bet my brother is foaming at the mouth over this!) 

(Careful thought and basic math skills indicate that I haven’t yet spent that much money on clothes for myself and my kids in the last 40 years)

Today I read an article stating that the Net Worth of the Palin family is valued at over US $1 Million – which is a hell of a lot more than I’ve got.  I also read a quote from Ms. Palin’s father stating that poor Sarah spent most of the weekend sorting through all the new clothes and is having trouble accounting for everything.  He stated, “You know how kids lose their underwear.”   Excuse me???     Her husband has a position with BP Oil and interests in a family-owned fishing business, she is an educated woman and has been steadily employed.  Twelve years ago, she herself was making $68,000 a year as mayor of Frostbite Falls Wasilla. Public knowledge has it that she’d worked herself up to the level of State Governor and between the two of them, they can’t afford to buy underwear for their kids???   

Let me repeat that, to make sure I got it right – The Republican Party had to step in and buy underwear for her family? 

It is openly acknowledged that hubby and children frequently accompanied Ms. Palin to “state business” affairs in Alaska (because they were invited).  Are we to presume that, up until the time that the Republican Party stepped in, her family has attended all these functions sans knickers, wearing nothing but mukluks and parkas, dressed so poorly that they are unfit to be seen in society outside of an igloo?   (I could even understand if a new outfit, dresses for the girls, suits for the young boys, were bought for their appearance at the RNC – TV appearances with most of the nation watching not being the norm for most any of us).   And the lady herself, who has presided as a state Governor, didn’t have anything in her closet to wear????   (We’ve all used that “I don’t have a thing to wear, dear” excuse, but it’s rarely, if ever, true – it’s just a bull shit ploy we use to get a new dress out of the occasion.  Everybody knows that!  I’ve done it myself)   Or did she, too, only have jeans, snow boots and parkas?

If she had bought a few business-appropriate suits, of good quality, there would not be all this fuss, controversy, attention.  It would now be overlooked or simply quietly written off.  But she apparently went whole-hog, buying everything in sight in the most expensive stores for the entire family (is that wee fellow shitting in diapers made of Cloth of Gold?) because someone else was footing the bill.  It has never been anyone else’s responsibility to clothe those children other than the parents.  They should have dipped into their personal Net Worth assets, which they clearly have, and dressed their children appropriately to attend a function, just like the rest of us do. 

And for all the fancy clothes that were bought, she didn’t get the job.  At a time when too damned many folks in this country have lost jobs because of the poor economy, when many more surely will in the future, where people are losing their homes, businesses are folding, working families can’t afford medical insurance or adequate medical care, people’s belts are so tight that they can’t draw a deep breath, the cost of groceries and utilities going higher each month, and Sarah Palin pissed $150,000 of other people’s money away on showy fancy clothes???  And can’t even find them 2 months later?  That’s really rubbing people’s noses into it a bit too far.

I’ve never given a penny to the Republican Party.  It wasn’t my dollars that dressed them all up and sent them to town.  I’m damned glad of that, because I would be foaming at the mouth, too, G.