picks and peeves

ok, so I made the mistake of opening up my local paper on Saturday, and instantly became aggravated at the arrogance of so called experts.

The topic this time is childhood obesity. I live in the state of WV---wild wonderful, and usually dead last or near it in most categories. Except those related to poor health, it seems.....So the headline is that almost half of all 5th graders in this state are obese. And of course as you read the story, it is all the fault of the parent. We apparently force feed them McDonald's grease and (from an earlier article) Mountain Dew. We make them sit in front of the tv and PS2 for hours on end and refuse to let them exercise.....

Now, yes, I see the merit in this....I agree that as parents we should do more to keep our kids active. And I see it in my home as well........I have to admit that I, as an overweight (to put it mildly) 40-something, do not set the best example for my kids to follow. I come home from work and crash on teh couch with the remote in hand. Yes I eat chips and things that are quick and easy. After being on my feet constantly for 9-10 hrs a day, yeah, I do.......and after 7-8 hrs a day, not including the bus ride to and from, in school, yeah my kids think they deserve the same break.

BUT.....I look at what my kids eat, overall, and they do eat pretty well....there is really not a lot of overeating, especially of the wrong stuff, which changes on a daily basis anyway, so who the heck can keep up with it? We eat, especially once the weather gets nice, a lot of grilled food (the health of which I'm sure some will debate)--chicken, pork chops (both bought boneless and skinless), steak (which my husband picks out the leanest cuts he can get---eschewing his favorite ribeyes and such since I don't like the fat content). We eat more rice than potatoes any given time of the year, and in warmer months I am more likely to make a salad than open a can of highly preserved vegetables. Our bread consumption at meals goes way down when the weather is warmer too----just less to load us down. Not that we are perfect......heck no....and I know there are ways to improve. Getting rid of the pop would be a big start.

But then again, our grocery budget takes a huge hit to eat like this. It IS cheaper to buy the fatty, quick to fix and eat meals and snacks....I shop, I know.....has any of these so called experts figured out how to do this without taking out a second mortgage? I mean really.....take a walk through your local produce dept and then walk through the snack aisle.....hmmmmm.....look at pop vs bottled water (oh yeah open up another can of worms)...

The exercise thing is a biggie too. During the winter months and on extreme weather days--excessively hot or stormy--yeah my kids play a lot of video games. They play what I consider to be a lot anyway....but once they can get outside that's where they are. Even if they are sitting there reading, at least they get the fresh air and sunshine benefits....But then too, reading what the graduation requirements are for phys ed now---where is it? Only ONE phys ed credit is required for graduation. I had to have 2 back in the dinosaur days of the '80's. Now my kids enjoy phys ed, unlike me. I don't know, maybe it's the boy vs the I don't want to ruin my hair girl mentality, but they do. Ben ran track last year, and loved it.....he'd be in it again, but with all his honors classes we felt he couldn't afford the late nights for meets and stuff...But he stays active outside. Spring break killed these kids this year with all the rain that kept them in. They were chomping at the bit to get outdoors when it finally cleared up.

Yeah we as parents need to boot the kids outside and into a more active lifestyle. Then too, you also hve parents who both, if there are indeed 2 parents in the home, have to work just to make the basic ends meet---so there are reasons why people live like they do.....as old as my kids are, unless I or my husband are home, I would rather them not be outdoors. Even out in the boondocks where we are, things still happen. And with our schedules, that doesn't always happen. So.....

On to another topic......there were a couple of letters to the editor I took picks with. One was a response to an earlier letter complaining about hospital waiting rooms having Bibles in them. The first letter writer was very offended by this blatant Christian symbol being so visible. The latest writer pretty well told the first that he didn't have to read it if it offended him so greatly. Very true. I don't know which local hospital the first writer was at, but when I was at Cabell when Mom had her surgery last month, I did not notice Bibles laying around. Maybe they were there, but not so visible. The other local hospital is Catholic run, and yes they do do Bibles visible to all. Who cares? Just like anything else, if you don't want to read it/watch it/listen to it, don't. Turn the station, turn it off, don't open the book. And check your offense meter, because apparently it is out of whack in the wrong direction if you are so easily offended by simply seeing a book on a table.....

Then we have the obvious Obama supporter who firmly believes that talk radio is egging on "domestic terrorism". Hello? Has anyone looked at the stimulus package? What is being forced onto American citizens? I beleive that is domestic terrorism. How is simply stating an opinion---which we do have the right to do---terrorism? Those who speak or even just listen to a show are not terrorists by definition. If we act wrongly and malignantly on what we hear or believe, then maybe we deserve the label......Timothy McVeigh acted wrongly and hurtfully and delieberately. Yes, I feel he was a homegrown terrorist. My opinion. I firmly believe in at least 95% of cases, abortion is morally wrong. Does that make me a terrorist? NO. Now if I blew up clinics where abortions were performed, then yes I would be. Saying I don't believe this contry is on the right course since our current President took office does not make me a terrorist. I am stating my opinion. I am not building a militia to act upon it. I am simply looking at my values and beliefs and what is going on in this country, and they do not co-exist well together. So I state my opinion. I don't grab a megaphone and shout it to the world on the White House lawn. I state it in discussions with coworkers or family and friends, when it is asked for or appropriate in the discussion. Not terrorism folks......And quite frankly shutting down "right wing" talk radio would be just as bad as shutting down "left wing" talk radio. Which by the way gathers far fewer listeners than the right wing version....maybe that is what the letter writer objects to....sorry life isn't fair.......

RIP Bea Arthur

I don't remember a lot about the show "Maude" in the '70's.....honestly, with some of the topics it dealt with, I'm sure my folks deemed it inappropriate for a grade schooler. But I remember "Golden Girls" very fondly---and I loved Bea's character...her wit and sense of timing were wonderful....and it is very sad to see yet another icon of my formative and much younger more innocent days pass away....

We have lost a lot of truly great actors/actresses and public figures in the last few years, and maybe it is because I am now in my 40's, and realizing that where my folks are--in their 60's--is not as far away as I once believed....when I was 20, 30 seemed like forever away, as did 40. Now at 41, I am keenly aware of how quickly time flies. And if I ever forget, I have only to look at my children...

10 years ago I was going through the painful but necessary process of divorcing my first husband, the father of my two sons.....my husband now was in the process of finding out information that would lead to his eventual divorce from his first wife, the mother of his two daughters......when we met, several months after both divorces were final, our children were 9,7, and 5. They are now 18 (and a high school graduate), 16 (jr and soph in HS) and 14 (freshman).
We also have a 7 yr old daughter. Yes time flies very swiftly.....

And these same children look at us when we stop for a moment or two to mourn the passing of those we remember from our childhood...."Who?" is the question we get. They don't know who these people are.....and it is sad also that there are so few now who have the talent to take their places.

Business as usual in DC

In case nobody saw the morning news....Obama signed the pork filled stimulus bill after declaring he would veto any bill like that, that it was not the time for earmarks.......

So much for change.......

But also as usual the morning news shows are trying to act like they are questioning what he did, but they are doing it so softly, apparently it is business as usual there too..

If it had been Bush, he would have been skewered, instead of gently and apologetically fileted....

Nice to know some things never CHANGE......

bad barbie......

So our lovely state has a legislator who has nothing else on his plate to deal with, and all the time in the world to plot how to screw up little girls' playtime. Not like there is an economic crisis, companies shutting down down all over the state, including a major aluminum manufacturer right here in my own part of the state. But this twit's priority is to outlaw the Barbie doll in this state.....

Oh please.

Yes Barbie is not realistically shaped anything like a real woman. Never has been. Not at any point in the last 50 years of its existence. It's a doll. Get over it. It's a toy. How many other kids toys have you seen that are completely based on reality? Anybody watch cartoons in the last 15 years and see the merchandise from them? Please.

Barbie is damaging to little girls self esteems and gives them a false body image to live up to....that's the "logic" behind this attack on an American icon. Get a grip...What is more damaging----and I speak as the parent of a 7 yr old girl who loves her barbies----is the constant barrage of super skinny people touting all kinds of diet systems because apparently unless you are a size 2 or less, you are horrible and disgusting and fat and sloppy and lazy.......

Bullshit.......

Sorry, but when I had to have a talk with my daughter at the age of 5 to talk about the fact that she is not even close to being fat.....something is wrong with this society's priorities.....I personally do not give a rat's rear end for most of the crap coming from Hollywood and Madison Avenue ad agencies......but I do care deeply about the damage their images can cause in a growing child. And Shellie did not get this from her barbie dolls, but from watching the commercials that are played in between segments of KIDS SHOWS!!!!!!! What the heck do we need a Nutrisystem commercial during Hannah Montana or Spongebob?

Not to mention the numbers of parents who place their kids on diets to keep them from getting "fat", when actually feeding them once in a while would make them look a little healthier. Now I have nothing against eating healthier---Lord knows we all could benefit from that---now if I can just bring myself to do so when I go to the store later----but when you have grade schoolers who cannot touch a french fry because Mommy said they would get fat if they did, well......do I really need to publish my thoughts?

I know the pitfalls of being overweight....I have been for years, and have a couple of health problems I could associate with it----my blood pressure and my weakening leg joints for a couple.I am working on it. And very slowly it is coming off, according to the scale, if not my clothes. But I don't walk around wishing I was shaped like Barbie, nor do I deny myself a cookie if I want one. Nor do I tell my kids they are too fat or too skinny....I try to give them a positive self image and if any fingers ever get pointed, believe me, they get pointed back at myself by me.

Parents need to quit focusing on the superficiality of the Barbie issue and the shallowness of what one looks like, and focus on keeping their kids healthy, both physically and mentally and emotionally, instead of scarring them because they do not live up to an impossible ideal.

And stupid legislators need to get off their rears and focus on what is really wrong that needs dealt with instead of finding yet another way to make themselves, and this state, look foolish...

the word for today is.....

SNAFU..........in case you are brain dead, it stands for "situation normal, all "flubbed" up."

Hey trying to be a little nice here---it attempts to be a family blog.......

So the WV legislature is tackling, again, the problem of trying to get the county school systems to adhere to the required number of instructional days. Problem number one, we get snow and ice around here in the winter. Some years not so much, but the last couple of years or so, when it has hit, it has hit. Problem number two, school, by law, cannot begin prior to August 26th, nor end later than June 8th or 9th. Problem number three is we have a bunch of dumbasses in the legislature---hey I did NOT vote for them--you know my philosophy, if in office, vote them out......

The way I see it is we can get those 180 instructional days real easy......cut out the doggone teacher in service days----that gets you about 5 or 6 days easily. Next take away the OSE---or outside school environment days----which are just basically holidays for teachers and students with no actual purpose to them ........

When my generation was in school----I graduated HS in 1985----teachers knew going into the system that they would be "underpaid" for the amount of work they had to do. Granted, then they had to actually work. They had to grade papers and manually enter them into a gradebook, not some stupid computer program which they can then blame for not running correctly, thereby not giving the student the correct grade---been there done that. If they could not get it done on their planning periods or whatever, then teacher had homework too. A teacher actually had to deal with parents face to face, as well as maintain discipline in the classroom. Ah the days of corporal punishment. Not that I want a return to paddling, but maintaining the county codes of behavior would be nice, instead of a teacher or principal deciding on a whim that such and such behavior is no longer acceptable in one group of students but perfectly permissable in another...but I digress......

Now teachers complain that they are very underpaid, but they do less work.....go figure........


This is just the start of the ranting, folks........I'm getting my groove back on....must be the smell of rancid legislators..........

fun week....

Ok so it snowed.Big whoop. Then it rained, then it iced, causing trees and power lines to snap. Ok fine. so now my complaint----it is freaking cold to not have any electric....believe me I know----it went out Tuesday night and did not come back on till Wednesday night.... very good----mom and dad did not have power until Friday, and still do not have phone service.....then it went out again here Friday night---and let's talk cold---outside it was like 10 degrees---our thermostat in the house did not even register a temp. Thank God for the fireplace and the fact that we had not put anything away from the earlier outage except for putting the mattresses back on the beds so the living room was usable again. All the blankets were still over the windows, the wood box inside still full, and the coleman stove still within reach, as well as all the flashlight--plus I had laid in an extra large supply of batteries.

It came back on last night, just as we pulled back in from BK, where we had opted to go instead of staying in this frigid house trying to cook anything. You should have heard the cries of joy from the kids alone as we pulled up our road watching the lights go on before our eyes, house after house......the house warmed up enough for the boys to sleep in their own rooms--although Shellie and I opted for the mattresses by the fireplace for one more night, and Ron opted for the couch. Next time he gets the mattress and I get the couch....my back hates me now......

The good thing is it was so cold in the rest of the house when the power was out that I don't think we lost anything in the fridge or freezer this time. Not that we had a heck of a lot, but Ron had just stopped Friday afternoon to get milk and juice to replace ours from the earlier outage when it went off again........

I have to give the power company some credit.....everyone I spoke to concerning a time frame for getting it back on was very friendly and answered what they could the best they could. And I am sure they were inundated with similiar calls and not all as friendly as mine--although I have to admit, the longer each dragged on, the less friendly I felt, but it really does no good to scream and cuss someone who is just in a call center and only has the info she/he is given. So I stayed pleasant--after all, my goal was to gain info, not piss someone else off. And I know these crews worked their butts off--and froze them off too---crews from out of state even came in to help, working double shifts and all that. Kudos to them for doing what they could to restore power as soon as they could, even if it seemed like an awful long time to those of us in the dark and cold.

But I also have to lay some blame------these same utility companies that are out working to restore service to thousands are also to blame for the situation..Ok no one can predict what the weather is actually going to do---even though our poor college degreed meteorologists attempt to do so......so who knew that the snow and ice would hit like that and do such damage? Ummmm, most of us who drive rt 10 every day and see the trees laying across the lines and have repeatedly asked these same companies to take care of them, only to be told that it is CHEAPER to wait until the lines are down to do so. That's the answer my parents got when they questioned the phone company about it over the past months, and the answer their neighbors apparently got when they made the same inquiries. Cheaper???? How so??? Hire a tree service to take care of the problem before it starts vs waiting until there is a major problem and then reacting by having to do it then, plus bring others on top of that to fix it. Hmmmm, seems to me the best way to save the company money is to be----here is the buzzword-----PROactive.....

Just my lil' ol' opinion......now I am going to take a bath and get ready to go to the store so we can eat dinner tonight.....may be taking a chance, but gotta eat......



Th

the college search begins......

And as all who know me well know, I have 3 in high school at the moment....a junior, a sophomore, and a freshman....the junior, my oldest son Chris, is ramping up his college search.....His dad, who I divorced for various reasons years ago, is being quite adamant about him not attending the local university. Why I can't fathom, for it is where he attended. And the school has greatly improved even since then.......but that's ok, as I have yet to see or hear of Dad cutting a check for the tuition anywhere......But after all, it will be Chris' choice when all is said and done---not Dad's or mine....Chris is the one who will have to shoulder the burden of whatever his decision is and the financial ones as well.......as adamant as his dad is against the local school, is also how I feel about him going out of state, or to the other well known state school at the other end of the state. So I guess we need to put our issues out of the way and let Chris make up his mind about his future, which after all is his, not ours.......

At any rate, he is quite interested in a couple of schools, most notably Waynesburg, south of Pittsburgh......He is receiving course catalogs and flyers and phone calls several times a week in various combinations......He should be able to take his talents and intelligence anywhere he wants. He has a cumulative 3.8 + GPA, and that should count for something......

Then we have Ben, the freshman, who is still thinking about what he wants to do--and still has the time to do so.....and Kate, the sophomore, who at this point is not college material, but hopefully can parlay her interests and talents into something she enjoys doing that will support her.. We have talked with her about doing VoTech next year, for commercial arts or something similar, to get her foot in the door of a career or even to help her toward college. She loves art, and is very talented at drawing and stuff, so hopefully.....